1916 (33 page)

He also identified the complex command relationships that existed at April 1916 and the manner in which members of both the Supreme and Military Councils of the IRB were able to operate unhindered within the Volunteer command structure. This effectively gave rise to parallel chains
of command which in turn caused widespread confusion and ultimately made the positions of the brigade commanders on the ground untenable.

For MacCurtain parallel chains of command were an absurdity and he vowed never to be trapped between them again. At Easter 1916 he was the brigade commander of the Cork Brigade of Irish Volunteers and took his orders in that context directly from the Volunteer Chief of Staff, Eoin MacNeill. However, he was also a member of the IRB, subject to the authority of the Supreme Council, and he found himself taking different instructions from the Military Council. This was never going to work, and on Good Friday Terence MacSwiney described the situation as one of ‘order, counterorder and disorder’.
⁵⁴
Not surprisingly then, MacCurtain resigned from the IRB in 1917, determined instead to regenerate the Cork
Brigade and develop it into a credible military force operating within the parameters of a clearly defined chain of command. Internment did not rid him of his military and political aspirations – it served only to intensify both.

C
ONCLUSION

As the process of reorganisation got underway in 1917 not all members of the Cork Brigade had come to the same conclusions as MacCurtain. Some remained convinced of the efficacy and relevance of the IRB, others continued to question his decision to hand over arms to the lord mayor, and a minority were determined to conduct their own operations in the future irrespective of what the brigade commander had to say.

In fact none of the brigade commander’s problems had actually disappeared and many of them had in fact become more critical. The difference this time, however, was that he had learned from his experience; he was acutely aware of the difference of opinion within his ranks; and he fully understood the complexity of commanding such a diverse group of individuals.

As the Cork Brigade of Volunteers embarked on the next phase of Ireland’s struggle for independence the challenges facing Tomás Mac-Curtain as the brigade commander were immense. It would take a leader of extraordinary talent and huge personal integrity to maintain cohesion within a military unit which was still reeling from the perception of failure at Easter 1916, with many of the more militant Volunteers now intent on amending that situation any way they could. That MacCurtain actually managed to continue operating within the Volunteer chain of command while also keeping his unit intact speaks volumes, and leads to the evaluation that the Volunteers of the Cork Brigade were fortunate to have him as their commanding officer until his murder on 20 March 1920.

Equally it is clear that they were in fact more than fortunate to have had his leadership available to them at Easter 1916, because had any other course of action been taken the outcome would in all probability have been devastating, and the impact unquantifiable. Commandant Tomás Mac-Curtain made the correct military decisions at Easter 1916 – of that there is no doubt whatsoever.

In 1913 Constance Markievicz told a Dublin meeting that there were three great movements going on in Ireland – the national movement, the women’s movement, and the industrial movement, ‘all fighting the same fight, for the extension of human liberty’.
¹
This article examines the role of Irish women in these movements in the years prior to and following the 1916 Rising. While the equality provisions of the 1916 Proclamation can be seen as reflecting the aspirations of women’s groups, what became of those aspirations in the wake of the Rising? In this regard, the implications of legislation passed in the 1920s and 1930s regarding women’s employment and public role in the Irish Free State merit examination.

From the early 1900s onwards, Ireland was alive with movements and causes, which included home rule, Sinn Féin, Labour, the Gaelic League, and an active women’s movement. Many young women were involved in one or more of these causes. From about 1903 a new generation of Irishwomen became involved in the suffrage campaign. These younger women had benefited from the educational advances obtained during the late nineteenth century by the work of earlier campaigners such as Anna Haslam and Isabella Tod, and many were influenced by contemporary developments in Ireland. In addition, growing awareness of suffrage demands internationally, and the aggressive tactics of Emmeline Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in England from 1903, particularly influenced many such Irish women. The first in a series of new Irish suffrage societies was the Irish Women’s Franchise League (IWFL) formed in 1908 by Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and Margaret Cousins. Implicit in its formation was recognition of the quite different political scenario facing suffrage campaigners in Ireland, and their conviction of the need for an independent Irish suffrage society, distinctly separate from any English connection.
²

From the outset a militant and non-party organisation, the IWFL aimed to obtain votes for women on the same terms as men and decided to work towards having a ‘votes for women’ clause included in the home rule bill then under consideration. Over the next three to four years a number of other suffrage societies were formed throughout the country, both militant and non-militant, catering for particular regional, religious or political groups. To co-ordinate the work of the emerging smaller associations, the Irish Women’s Suffrage Federation (IWSF) was formed in Dublin in August 1911 with Louie Bennett and Helen Chenevix as joint honorary secretaries.
³
By linking together the scattered suffrage groups throughout the country, the IWSF aimed to carry out more effective propaganda and educative work, and form the basis of an organisation to continue after suffrage was attained. The new organisation grew rapidly. By 1913 fifteen groups were affiliated to the IWSF, rising to twenty four by 1916.
⁴
The diversity of groups within the new federation can be judged by its inclusion of members from a unionist background, including authors Edith Somerville and Violet Martin (Somerville and Ross), and nationalists such as Mary MacSwiney.

Helen Chenevix later wrote that the suffrage movement ‘brought women from sheltered homes face to face with the realities of sweated wages and the wretched conditions imposed on women who had to earn their living’.
⁵
The formation of the Irish Women’s Reform League (IWRL) later in 1911, as a Dublin branch of the IWSF by Louie Bennett, was particularly significant in this context. Reflecting her own growing social awareness, Bennett used it to draw attention to the social and economic position of women workers and their families.
⁶
The IWRL investigated working conditions in Dublin factories, organising public debates and seminars to discuss its findings. Publication of these findings in the
Irish Citizen
ensured that such information was brought to the attention of a broad spectrum of women’s groups. The IWRL also initiated a committee to watch legislation affecting women, and established a ‘watching the courts committee’ to observe and report on cases involving injustice to women and girls. Most of the cases reported concerned marital violence, indecent assault on children, and the seduction of young girls, often by employers. Details of such cases were reported quite frankly; lenient sentencing, early release of those convicted and judicial attitudes were all challenged and criticised. Irish women from quite disparate backgrounds could now choose between the long-established Irish Women’s Suffrage and Local Government Association (IWSLGA), the militant IWFL and the middle ground of the IWSF. Activists of the time would have agreed with the comment of Margaret Cousins that ‘the era of dumb self-effacing women was over’.
⁷

Crucial to the dissemination of information on suffrage activities at home and abroad was the establishment in 1912 of the
Irish Citizen
.
This suffrage paper provided feminist activists with an important means of communication, education and propaganda. Circulated throughout the thirty two counties, it acted as an important link between the various societies. The paper continued to be published weekly by Francis Sheehy Skeffington until his murder in 1916. Thereafter, it was published monthly until 1920 with Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and Louie Bennett its main editors. Designed to cater for both militant and non-militant societies, its columns kept women throughout the country informed of suffrage developments. Through its editorials and articles readers were informed of current national developments regarding women’s suffrage, as well as being kept up to date on broader aspects of feminism and the struggle for women’s rights internationally. By May 1913 there were eighteen suffrage societies in Ireland with an additional eleven affiliated branches nationwide.
⁸

P
OLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
1910-14

Due to heightened activity on the suffrage issue, a number of attempts were made from 1910 to introduce a women’s suffrage bill in the House of Commons. While many individual MPs favoured the principle of female suffrage, party considerations usually determined their attitude if a bill showed any sign of success. Only Labour consistently supported women’s suffrage proposals whilst also working towards its goal of full adult suffrage for all citizens regardless of property qualifications.

After the general election of 1910 the Liberals no longer held a majority. An all-party ‘Conciliation Committee’ was established to promote an agreed suffrage bill amenable to all. Six Irish MPs were on the committee, a number that rose to ten by 1912. The first ‘conciliation bill’ failed in 1910, but by 1911 the second such bill seemed more likely to succeed. Over 400 MPs had pledged to vote for women’s suffrage, and in May 1911 the lord mayor of Dublin presented a petition in favour of the bill at the House of Commons.
⁹
Although the bill received a majority vote of 167 at its first reading in May 1911, it was defeated on its second reading in March 1912 by fourteen votes. The voting of Irish members was crucial to its defeat. Whereas ten months earlier thirty one Irish members had voted for the bill, in 1912 forty one voted against the bill with ten abstaining. In addition to the known anti-suffrage view of Asquith, John Redmond (also hostile to women’s suffrage) was most anxious to avoid any issue that might adversely affect the granting of home rule to Ireland. Indeed, some Irish MPs would have agreed with the sentiments of John Dillon to a suffrage deputation that: ‘Women’s suffrage will I believe, be the ruin of our western civilisation. It will destroy the home, challenging the headship of man, laid down by God. It may come in your time – I hope not in mine.’
¹⁰

Yet other Irish MPs, like William Redmond (brother of the Irish party leader) and Tom Kettle (married to Mary, a sister of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington), actively supported the cause in parliament. But when home rule manoeuvrings demanded, they stepped into line under their party leader. Fears of endangering home rule, either by precipitating a general election or by triggering the resignation of cabinet ministers, were sufficiently strong to ensure that all women’s suffrage measures from this point on would be opposed by all Irish MPs. Feminist reaction to government and Irish party intransigence on the issue of female suffrage resulted in a campaign of militant action from June 1912 to the outbreak of war in 1914. During this time, thirty five women were convicted for militancy in Ireland, twelve of whom went on hunger strike.
¹¹

W
OMEN AND LABOUR

Initial links between the two groups began with the broadening concerns of the new suffrage groups that emerged in the early 1900s, in particular the IWFL and the IWSF. the
Irish Citizen
also regularly published data on women’s employment, highlighting problems within particular regional or sectional industries. The paper maintained its active support of Labour throughout the 1913 strike and lockout in Dublin, suffragists from various societies helping strikers in varying ways. Some, like Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and members of the IWFL, worked in the soup kitchens in Liberty Hall organised by Constance Markievicz, pointedly wearing their suffrage badges. Labour journals also increasingly reflected the new alliance, with reports of suffrage meetings and advertisements for suffrage events. That such bonds endured is clear from a note in the
Workers’ Republic
in 1915 to the effect that: ‘Several well known and experienced suffragists have kindly consented to undertake organising work in connection with the union. They are women who showed us their sympathy two years ago.’
¹²
However not all trade unionists were over-anxious to enfranchise – or indeed unionise – women of their own class, fearing job losses and wage cuts. Craft unions, in particular, still opposed the admission of women. Rather than admit women and guarantee equal pay, many workers preferred to exclude women altogether.
Bean na hÉireann
(the nationalist/feminist paper) reported in 1910 that: