Political Culture in Cork 1919-22 - an answer to abusers of the historical record

cork | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Wednesday April 06, 2005 13:39 by Jack Lane - Aubane Historical Society jacklaneaubane at hotmail dot com Millstreet, Co Cork, Ireland

Talk in the Imperial Hotel South Mall Cork on Fri April 15 8pm

Political Culture in Cork during the War of Independence

Dr Brian P Murphy osb

Friday 15th April 2005 8pm
Imperial Hotel Cork

All WELCOME

Some recent studies question the ideals of the Irish republican movement, branding it as sectarian; minimising the ideals of those involved; and categorising the IRA as murderers of policemen. These issues will be addressed in the talk.

The talk attempts to address positively the struggle of the Irish people, with particular reference to Cork, to fashion their own national identity in opposition to the dominant political culture of the British Empire, a dominant culture that was based, in the view of Edward Said, on the assumption of racial superiority.

Attention will be paid to the creation of Dail Eireann in January 1919 and the failure of Ireland's appeal for independence to be heard at the Paris Peace Conference. John J. Horgan, a Cork member of the Irish Party, quoted Erskine Childers’ on England's attitude: 'to the great majority of Irishmen, Great Britain now signifies "Prussianism" incarnate, and with good reason ... Great Britain is making war, literally, on the principle of freedom.'

An outline will be given of some of the constructive works of Dail Eireann - the Dail Loan, the National Land Bank, the Dail Courts and the renewal of industry.

A film made in August 1919 of Michael Collins launching the Dail Loan is very significant and will be shown as part of the talk.

Crown Forces opposed all of these initiatives. Again, to quote Childers (a leading figure in the Land Bank) in May 1920: 'an attempt is being made to break up a whole national organisation, a living, vital, magnificent thing, normally and democratically evolved from the intense desire of a fettered and repressed people for self reliance and self development. This attempt, if we are to give words their right meaning, is the great crime, the fundamental crime.'

Consideration will be given to the actions of the IRA in the war. The talk is taking place on the 85th anniversary year of the deaths of Lord Mayors, Thomas MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney.

April 15th is two days prior to the anniversary of the in-quest jury finding that MacCurtain 'was wilfully murdered under circumstances of the most callous brutality, and that the murder was organised and carried out by the RIC, officially directed by the British Government.'

The findings of this study suggest that recent historical studies labelling the IRA as sectarian killers are defective at source and the propagating of such studies in the popular media by such journalists as Kevin Myers and Eoghan Harris is similar to the writings of British propaganda during the war of Independence.

Myers, in particular, has become a serial verbal abuser of republicans of this period. Their writings distort the historical narrative. This talk is an attempt to put the record straight for Cork but also for Ireland as a whole.

Dr Murphy is currently researching British Propaganda during the 1919-22 period. He gave a highly acclaimed talk on the subject in Dublin recently in which he questioned the research findings of Canadian academic Peter Hart and Oxford historian Roy Foster.

Dr Murphy's talk on British propaganda was covered in The Sunday Times, La (Irish language daily) and the BBC.