From the Archives: Political unrest in Louth in early 1920

In January 1920, the Dundalk Democrat was consumed by stories relating to the upcoming Municipal Elections that same year.

More importantly, the paper addressed the peaking tensions between the opinions of the local townspeople and the regime of the British Government in relation to the division between the North and South of Ireland through the publication of a letter from a member of the general public.

The Fourth Home Rule Bill, which would be later implemented as the Government of Ireland Act 1920, was a proposition made by the British Government relating to the division of the six-county North of Ireland and the thirty-two counties in the South of Ireland into separate entities.

This was the first bill proposed by the British Government after the 1916 Rising, which had an immense impact on the political affairs of Ireland.

The consequences post-1916 tore the general public locally and nationally from leaning towards a Home Rule towards the concept of a fully independent Ireland. At this time, the Irish War of Independence had been commenced for almost an entire year which had the general public of Ireland acutely concerned about the future political state of Ireland.

The Dundalk Democrat published a vigorously opinionated letter from a citizen in relation to the new Home Rule propositions pitched by the Government of Britain.

The discussion throughout the letter addresses the tensions and high pitched emotions felt by the General Public of Ireland in relation to fear of the fourth Home Rule Bill being passed and its impacts for the future of Ireland:

“Sir- The latest Home Rule proposals have been received and discussed in an impatient temper that bodes ill for them, and for the future of Ireland. There is only one point to be argued and decided- just the question always left out- is it better for Ireland to accept those proposals than to reject them?

“It is quite impossible, of course, to treat all of the Prime Ministers proposals in one letter. Better then take the principle of the Bill, and ask ourselves is the idea of two Parliaments so fatal to Ireland’s future that it must be rejected?

“If it were a choice between two Parliaments and one, no Nationalist would hesitate for a moment about rejecting two and setting up one. Now, there is such a choice? Can any opponent of the scheme assure his countrymen that, if two Parliaments be rejected now, a single legislature will be set up for all Ireland, in ten or twenty years to come? Can any honest man pledge his word for such a result?

“In twenty years, we may expect the same objections and difficulties to obstruct the establishment of a single Parliament that prevented it from the last forty? The powers that defeated Gladstone, Butt, Parnell and Redmond, will hardly fall down affrighted at a puff of Irish passion.

“Should the Union system continue the present generation of Ulster Unionists will hand down their hate of the Home Rule to their children in an intensified form. Will any power be found to coerce them later on any more than now? Certainly not Great Britain. Nor if the impossible suggestion, sometimes were made to be carried out, and the question left to America’s decision, would America coerce “Ulster”. Would she not more likely adopt Mr. Lloyd George’s plan? That is what she did in her own case. When two States held out and refused to join the Union, America let them go on their own way, and later on, actually changed the Constitution to coax them in. Yet America will come over and coerce not only “Ulster” but Great Britain for us!

“But if Ulster could be forced into a National settlement, would it be wise to compel her? Far from it! She would then be an enemy within the gates, with a new cause to inflame her hostility and confirm her hatred for the Home Rule, and greatest enemies of Ireland may well pity her starting in her new career with a dagger near her heart. An Irish Parliament could not rule “Ulster” reluctant.

“On the other hand, if “Ulster” accepts her own Parliament, she admits the principle of Home Rule- a principle bound to lead her into a National legislature. To hasten her steps thither nothing could be better than to give a Parliament for the whole province. The equality of different religions, the identity of interests made manifest, the solution of difficulties made in friendship would breed friendships and make those far-seeing men ambition a National stage for the display of their abilities.

“The best of all ways of preventing such a blessed ending of our comities is the mad idea of boycotting Belfast trade in the West.

“The authors of such a scheme know little of what stuff the “Ulster” men are made, what they expect Belfast to capitulate to Tuam for money!

“No, no better means could be adopted to confirm them in their fear of Home Rule.”