by Bob Seery

Created on: December 19, 2010

It is often argued that Irish people going to the polls in 1918 hadn’t yet seen the methods that would later be employed by the Irish Republican Army (formerly the Irish Volunteers) to gain independence and that had they known beforehand they would have voted alternatively for the pacifist methods of the Irish Parliamentary led by John Redmond. However, I think people knew exactly what they were voting for. They wanted a party who would deliver independence; by peaceful means if possible and by violence if necessary. Sinn Fein's electoral campaign for 1918 had a clearly defined four point programme;

(1) withdrawal from Westminster
(2) establishment of a constituent assembly that would have 'supreme national authority'
(3) an appeal to the (Paris) Peace Conference 'for the establishment of Ireland as an independent nation'

and

(4) 'making use of any and every means available to render impotent the power of England to hold Ireland in subjection by military force or otherwise'

It's pretty hard not to interpret this as a mandate to prosecute a war if necessary and I don't think that anything like the eventually secured dominion status (Free State) could have been achieved in any way other than through the tactics adopted. DeValera for instance was completely divorced from this reality while in America and many of the other Sinn Fein notables clearly kept their head down and their mouth shut when it came to them. It was a nasty business, no mistake about it, and some were so good at it you may ask whether some disposition in their nature was being satisfied by the exigencies of the times. My grandfather's brother was, by my own father's account, 'a vicious bastard' who had to be pulled screaming and roaring from the Four Courts after Collins had it pulverised. Before the Anglo-Irish Treaty, his gang, in order to spare their bullets, used to take out RIC, Tans, Auxies (and anyone else who happened to get in their way I suppose) by cracking their heads between door posts and railings. Clearly, some of this stuff wasn't for the faint-hearted and most people I'd imagine would sooner elect to keep their heads under the blankets and just wish it would all go away. Then again, you had others who were for the most part not naturally disposed to violence - I would count Ernie O' Malley and Tom Barry in this bracket - who held fast to certain principles of engagement and had their own (generally, very clearly evolved) ideas of the purpose and tactics of guerrilla war.

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