Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T00:51:19.923Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Breaking from and building on the past: Helsinki and Dublin after independence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2017

Marjaana Niemi
Marjaana Niemi*
Affiliation:
University of Tampere, Finland
*
* Faculty of Social Sciences / History, University of Tampere, Finland, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Capital cities play a significant role in interpreting a country’s past and charting its future. In the aftermath of the First World War nine new European states, Finland and Ireland among them, were confronted with the question of how to create a capital city befitting their new status and national identity. Instead of designing and constructing an entirely new capital city which would have marked a clean break from the past, all these states chose an existing city as the capital. This article will examine processes through which two capitals, Helsinki and Dublin, were renewed physically and symbolically to make the political change ‘real’ to people, but also to reinterpret the past and create a ‘teleology for the present’. The aim is to discuss the ways in which the changes, planned and implemented, both reflected and reinforced new interpretations of the history of the city and the nation, and the continuities and discontinuities the changes created between the past and the present. Some elements and versions of the past were chosen over others, preserved and reinvented in the cityscape, while others were ignored, hidden or denied.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 160: Ireland and Finland, 1860–1930: Comparative and Transnational Histories , November 2017 , pp. 238 - 255
Copyright
© Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Daum, Andreas W., ‘Capitals in modern history: inventing urban spaces for the nation’ in Andreas W. Daum and Christof Mauch (eds), Berlin – Washington, 1800–2000: capital cities, cultural representation and national identities (Cambridge, 2011), pp 3–30 Google Scholar; Vale, Lawrence J., Architecture, power, and national identity (2nd ed., Abingdon, 2008), pp 14–17 Google Scholar; Therborn, Göran, ‘Monumental Europe: the national years: on the iconography of European capital cities’ in Housing, Theory and Society, xix (2002), pp 26–47 Google Scholar.

2 Beauregard, Robert A. and Haila, Anne, ‘The unavoidable continuities of the city’ in Peter Marcuse and Ronald van Kempen (eds), Globalizing cities: a new spatial order? (Oxford, 2000), pp 22–36 Google Scholar.

3 See, for example, Brady, Joseph, Dublin 1930–1950: the emergence of the modern city (Dublin, 2014), p. 13 Google Scholar.

4 Finland in 1917, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland (reconstituted), Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia (the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes) in 1918, and Ireland in 1922.

5 A new capital city was designed and built, for example, in Australia (Canberra).

6 For discussion on capital cities and the reinterpretation of the past in newly-independent states, see, for example, Jones, Roy and Shaw, Brian J., ‘Palimpsest for progress: erasing the past and rewriting the future in developing societies – case studies of Singapore and Jakarta’ in International Journal of Heritage Studies, xii (2006), pp 122–138 Google Scholar; Powell, Robert, ‘Erasing memory, inventing tradition, rewriting history: planning as a tool of ideology’ in Brian J. Shaw and Roy Jones (eds), Contested urban heritage: voices from the periphery (Aldershot, 1997), pp 85–100 Google Scholar. For more general discussion, see Hanna, Erika, Modern Dublin: urban change and the Irish past, 1957–1973 (Oxford, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jordan, Jennifer A., Structures of memory: understanding urban change in Berlin and beyond (Stanford, 2006)Google Scholar.

7 Whelan, Yvonne, Reinventing modern Dublin: streetscape, iconography and the politics of identity (Dublin, 2003)Google Scholar; eadem, ‘The construction and deconstruction of a colonial landscape: monuments to British monarchs in Dublin before and after independence’ in Journal of Historical Geography, xxvii (2002), pp 508–533 Google Scholar. See also Dickson, David, Dublin: the making of a capital city (London, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Kincaid, Andrew, Post-colonial Dublin: imperial legacies and the built environment (Minneapolis, 2006)Google Scholar.

8 Nevanlinna, Anja Kervanto, Kadonneen kaupungin jäljillä: Teollisuusyhteiskunnan muutoksia Helsingin historiallisessa ytimessä (Helsinki, 2002)Google Scholar.

9 See, for example, Wäre, Ritva, Rakennettu suomalaisuus: Nationalismi viime vuosisadan vaihteen arkkitehtuurissa ja sitä koskevissa kirjoituksissa (Helsinki, 1991)Google Scholar; Ashby, Charlotte, ‘The Pohjola building: reconciling contradictions in Finnish architecture’ in Quek, Raymond and Deane, Darren (eds), Nationalism and architecture (Farnham, 2012), pp 135–146 Google Scholar; Niemi, Marjaana, ‘Kansallinen ja kansainvälinen Eliel Saarinen – kaupunkisuunnittelija tieteen, taiteen ja politiikan risteyksissä’ in Irma Sulkunen, Marjaana Niemi ja Sari Katajala-Peltomaa (eds), Usko, tiede ja historiankirjoitus – suomalaisia maailmankuvia keskiajalta 1900-luvulle (Helsinki, 2016), pp 237–266 Google Scholar; Fraser, Murray, John Bull’s other homes: state housing and British policy in Ireland, 1883–1922 (Liverpool, 1996), pp 7–15 Google Scholar.

10 By combining comparative and transnational approach, and by analysing differences, similarities and entanglements, it is possible to reveal dependencies that transcend territorial and political borders. For discussion, see Cohen, Deborah and O’Connor, Maura, ‘Introduction: comparative history, cross-national history, transnational history – definitions’ in Deborah Cohen and Maura O’Connor (eds), Comparison and history: Europe in cross-national perspective (New York, 2004), pp 9–24 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Caffrey, Paul, ‘Nationality and representation: the Coinage Design Committee (1926–1928) and the formation of a design identity in the Irish Free State’ in Linda King and Elaine Sisson (eds), Ireland, design and visual culture: negotiating modernity, 1922–1992 (Cork, 2011), pp 75–78 Google Scholar; Conrad, Sebastian, ‘Entangled memories: versions of the past in Germany and Japan, 1945–2001’ in Journal of Contemporary History, xxxviii, no. 1 (Jan. 2003), p. 86 Google Scholar.

11 Klinge, Matti, Pääkaupunki: Helsinki ja Suomen valtio 1808–1863 (Helsinki, 2012)Google Scholar; Hietala, Marjatta and Helminen, Martti, ‘Helsinki since 1550’ in Marjatta Hietala, Martti Helminen and Merja Lahtinen (eds), Helsinki: historic town atlas (Helsinki, 2009), pp 9–30 Google Scholar; Hall, Thomas, Planning Europe’s capital cities: aspects of nineteenth century urban development (London, 1997), pp 93–96 Google Scholar.

12 Schulman, Harry, ‘Settlement growth, structure and land use’ in Hietala, Helminen & Lahtinen (eds), Helsinki, pp 53–60 Google Scholar; Lindgren, Liisa, Monumentum: Muistomerkkien aatteita ja aikaa (Helsinki, 2000)Google Scholar.

13 Meinander, Henrik, A history of Finland (London, 2011), pp 97–123 Google Scholar; Pakarinen, Riitta, ‘“Tervasankojournalismia”: Rauhan kappelin kohtalo’ in Narinkka 1996: Helsinki City Museum Yearbook (Helsinki, 1996), pp 130–139 Google Scholar.

14 Wäre, Rakennettu suomalaisuus; Niemi, ‘Kansallinen ja kansainvälinen Eliel Saarinen’, pp 242–6.

15 Åström, Sven-Erik, ‘Kaupunkiyhteiskunta murrosvaiheessa’ in Helsingin kaupungin historia (5 vols, Helsinki, 1950–65) iv, part 2, p. 31 Google Scholar.

16 Meinander, , A history of Finland, pp 128–131 Google Scholar.

17 Daly, Mary E., Dublin: the deposed capital (Cork, 1984), pp 2–3 Google Scholar; Sheridan, Edel, ‘Designing the capital city: Dublin, c.1660–1810’ in Joseph Brady and Anngret Simms (eds), Dublin through space and time (Dublin, 2001), pp 66–135 Google Scholar. Kincaid, , Postcolonial Dublin, p. 4 Google Scholar.

18 Brady, Joseph, ‘Dublin at the turn of the century’, p. 221 Google Scholar.

19 Crinson, Mark, ‘Georgianism and the tenements, Dublin, 1908–1926’ in Art History, xxxix, no. 4 (Sept. 2006), p. 630 Google Scholar.

20 Daly, , Deposed capital, pp 1–19, 117–151 Google Scholar; Bardon, Jonathan and Keogh, Dermot, ‘Introduction: Ireland, 1921–84’ in J. R. Hill (ed.), A new history of Ireland, vii: Ireland, 1921–84 (Oxford, 2003), p. lvii Google Scholar.

21 Whelan, , Reinventing modern Dublin, p. 136 Google Scholar; Fraser, , John Bull’s other homes, pp 10–11 Google Scholar. The Dublin Corporation would, in the 1920s, become a stronghold for anti-Treaty politicians and was suppressed by the Free State government. As a result, it could not exert any real influence on urban planning in the early years of the new state.

22 Dickson, , Dublin: the making of a capital city, pp 423–4, 476–477 Google Scholar.

23 Fraser, , John Bull’s other homes, pp 132–147 Google Scholar; Kincaid, , Postcolonial Dublin, pp 5–6, 11–18, 32–34 Google Scholar; McManus, Ruth, Dublin, 1910–1940: shaping the city and suburbs (Dublin, 2002), pp 49–68 Google Scholar.

24 Lefebvre, Henri, The production of space, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (Oxford, 1991), p. 53 Google Scholar.

25 Freeman’s Journal, 12 Dec. 1922.

26 Vale, , Architecture, p. 17 Google Scholar.

27 Hall, Peter, Cities in civilization: culture, technology, and urban order (London, 1998), p. 937 Google Scholar.

28 The Dublin civic survey: report prepared by Horace T. O’Rourke & the Dublic Civic Survey Committee (Dublin, 1925); Saarinen, Eliel, Munkkiniemi-Haaga ja Suur-Helsinki: Tutkimuksia ja ehdotuksia kaupunkijärjestelyn alalta (Helsinki, 1915)Google Scholar. For discussion, see also Dehaene, Michiel, ‘Survey and the assimilation of a modernist narrative in urbanism’ in Journal of Architecture, vii (2002), pp 33–55 Google Scholar; Hebbert, Michael and Sonne, Wolfgang, ‘History builds the town: on the uses of history in twentieth-century city planning’ in Javier Monclùs and Manuel Guárdia (eds), Culture, urbanism and planning (Aldershot, 2006), pp 3–20 Google Scholar; Niemi, Marjaana, Public health and municipal policy making: Britain and Sweden, 1900–1940 (Aldershot, 2007), pp 2–3 Google Scholar.

29 Jung had worked as the first town-planning architect for the city of Helsinki from 1908 to 1916, and was therefore well acquainted with municipal policymaking and planning. Saarinen had won his spurs as an architect but also as a planner in international projects. He participated in the planning processes of Budapest and Tallinn in the years 1911–13, and won second prize in the 1912 international competition for the design of Canberra.

30 Pro-Helsingfors: ‘Suur-Helsingin’ asemakaavan ehdotus, laatineet Eliel Saarinen y.m. (Helsinki, 1918); Ginström, Egidius, Julius Tallberg och hans verk (Helsingfors, 1930), pp 102–107 Google Scholar. The plan was based on Munkkiniemi-Haaga plan which Eliel Saarinen had published in 1915. The earlier plan focused on two suburbs outside the boundaries of Helsinki but also offered general suggestions for the expansion of the city. Saarinen, Munkkiniemi-Haaga.

31 Pro-Helsingfors.

32 Åström, , ‘Kaupunkiyhteiskunta’, p. 11 Google Scholar; Brunila, , ‘Asemakaava ja rakennustaide’ in Helsingin kaupungin historia, iv, part 1, pp 35–49 Google Scholar.

33 Pro-Helsingfors; Nikula, Riitta, Focus on Finnish 20th century architecture (Helsinki, 2006), pp 177–178 Google Scholar.

34 Saarinen and his colleagues had planned the Finnish Pavilion at the Paris Exposition in 1900 and the National Museum in 1902 – both works of art which ‘left a lasting imprint on the soul of the nation’ – and therefore they, and especially Saarinen, were among the figureheads of the Finnish nationalist movement (Marika Hausen, ‘Saarinen in Finland’ in Marika Hausen, Kirmo Mikkola, Anna-Lisa Amberg and Tytti Valto, Eliel Saarinen: projects 1896–1923 (Cambridge, MA, 1990), pp 8–9).

35 See for example, Helsingin Sanomat, 22 Oct. 1918; Aminoff, Berndt, ‘Helsingin kaupungin asemakaavakysymyksiä 1915–1931’ in Helsingin kaupungin keskiosien yleisasemakaavaehdotus (Helsinki, 1932), p. 9; Ginström, , Tallberg, p. 106 Google Scholar.

36 The Committee delivered its report on the issue in 1922. Komiteanmietintö 1922/ N:o 11: Helsingin – Fredriksbergin rautatieasemain kehittämiskomitealta (Helsinki, 1922).

37 Figgis, Darrell, Planning for the future (Dublin, 1922)Google Scholar. For discussion, see Kincaid, , Postcolonial Dublin, pp 72–73 Google Scholar; Whelan, , Reinventing modern Dublin, pp 129–130 Google Scholar.

38 Abercrombie, Patrick, Kelly, Sydney A. and Kelly, Arthur J., Dublin of the future (Dublin, 1922), pp ix–xi Google Scholar; Whelan, , Reinventing modern Dublin, pp 131–139 Google Scholar; McManus, , Dublin, pp 55–68 Google Scholar. In 1916, Abercrombie was awarded the prize for the Dublin Town Planning Competition of 1914 and the plan was finally published in 1922.

39 Irish Times, 16 Sept. 1922; Greater Dublin: reconstruction scheme described and illustrated (Dublin, 1922); Whelan, Reinventing modern Dublin, pp 120–30.

40 McManus, , Dublin, pp 23–4, 76 Google Scholar.

41 Abercrombie, , Dublin of the future , pp 3–4, 9, 15, 36–38 Google Scholar, map 2 and plate xvii.

42 Ibid., pp 37–9, map 5 and plate xxxiii.

43 Greater Dublin, pp 7–8.

44 Irish Times, 16 Sept., 14 Dec. 1922; Freeman’s Journal, 12 Dec. 1922; 24 May 1923.

45 Dickson, , Dublin: the making of a capital city, p. 471 Google Scholar.

46 Garvin, Tom, 1922: the birth of Irish democracy (Dublin, 2005), pp 214–215 Google Scholar.

47 Helsingin Sanomat, 17, 22 Apr. 1918.

48 Aminoff, Berndt and Pesonen, Leo A., ‘Helsingin kadunnimistön synty ja kehitys vuoteen 1946 mennessä’ in Helsingin kadunnimet (Helsinki, 1981), pp 46–50 Google Scholar.

49 Kennedy, Brian P., ‘The Irish Free State 1922–49: a visual perspective’ in Raymond Gillespie and Brian P. Kennedy (eds), Ireland: art into history (Dublin, 1994), p. 134 Google Scholar.

50 Sundman, Mikael, Stages in the growth of a town: a study of the development of the urban and population structure of Helsinki (Helsinki, 1982)Google Scholar.

51 Klinge, , Pääkaupunki, pp 102–31, 148–153 Google Scholar.

52 The governor general was the highest representative of the Russian tsar in Finland.

53 Suomen Kuvalehti, 19 July 1919.

54 Helsingin Sanomat, 11 Nov. 1913; 5 May 1918; 13 Oct., 10 Dec 1919; Pakarinen, , ‘“Tervasankonationalismia”’, pp 130–139 Google Scholar.

55 Niemi, Marjaana, ‘1917: En reseguide till ett sargat men okuvat Finland’ in Nils Erik Villstrand and Petri Karonen (eds), Öppet fall: Finlands historia som möjligheter och alternativ, 1417–2017 (Helsinki, 2017)Google Scholar; Enqvist, Ove and Härö, Mikko, Varuskunnasta maailmanperinnöksi: Suomenlinnan itsenäisyysajan vaiheet (Helsinki, 1998), pp 139–145 Google Scholar.

56 Janson, Ture and Kivijärvi, Erkki, Hyvä Helsinkimme (Helsinki, 1929), pp 27–28 Google Scholar.

57 The original name of the fortress was Sveaborg (Swedish castle), but the Finnish-speaking Finns called it Viapori. In 1918, the fortress was renamed Suomenlinna (Castle of Finland).

58 Eerikäinen, Liisa, ‘Suomenlinna puolustuksen ja linnoitusteorioiden näkökulmasta’ in Liisa Eerikäinen (ed.), Viaporista Suomenlinnaan (Helsinki, 2006), pp 9–32 Google Scholar; Tjapugin, Gisela M., ‘Viaporin asukkaat venäläisellä kaudella 1808–1918’ in ibid., p. 135 Google Scholar.

59 Tandefelt, Heikki, ‘Ehrensvärd-Seuran toiminta 1921–1928’ in Piirteitä Suomenlinnan historiasta (Helsinki, 1929), pp 177–189 Google Scholar; Härö, Mikko, ‘Suomenlinna historiallisena muistomerkkinä: Tavoitteita, suunnitelmia ja niiden toteutuksia’ in Eerikäinen (ed.), Viaporista Suomenlinnaksi, pp 146–158 Google Scholar.

60 Quantrill, Malcolm, Finnish architecture and the modernist tradition (London, 1995); pp 29–56 Google Scholar; Nikula, Riitta, Yhtenäinen kaupunkikuva 1900–1930: Suomalaisen kaupunkirakentamisen ihanteista ja päämääristä, esimerkkeinä Helsingin Etu-Töölö ja uusi Vallila (Helsinki 1981), pp 52–86 Google Scholar.

61 Kallio, K., ‘Itsenäisyytemme muistomerkki’ in V. Hakkila, J. S. Sirén and H. J. Viherjuuri (eds), Suomen eduskuntatalo (Helsinki, 1938), pp 7–8 Google Scholar; Suomen Kuvalehti, 7 Feb. 1931; Hakala-Zilliacus, Liisa-Maija, Suomen eduskuntatalo: Kokonaistaideteos, itsenäisyysmonumentti ja kansallisen sovinnon representaatio (Helsinki, 2002), pp 85–133 Google Scholar.

62 Hakkila, V., ‘Suomen uusi eduskuntatalo’ in Hakkila, Sirén & Viherjuuri (eds), Suomen eduskuntatalo, pp 10–13 Google Scholar; Sirén, J. S., ‘Arkkitehtoninen selostus’ in ibid., pp 95–96 Google Scholar.

63 Nikula, , Yhtenäinen kaupunkikuva, 73 Google Scholar.

64 Sirén, , ‘Arkkitehtoninen selostus’ pp 95–96 Google Scholar; Suomen Kuvalehti, 7 Mar. 1931; Hakala-Zilliacus, Suomen eduskuntatalo, pp 114–18.

65 Hakala-Zilliacus, , Suomen eduskuntatalo, pp 186–9, 321–3, 482–491 Google Scholar.

66 Suomen Kuvalehti, 17 Jan. 1931.

67 Abercrombie continued to exert an influence until the 1940s. See Dickson, , Dublin: the making of a capital city, p. 479 Google Scholar.

68 Wills, Clair, Dublin 1916: the siege of the GPO (London, 2009), pp 1–21, 133–171 Google Scholar; Kincaid, , Postcolonial Dublin, pp 1–3 Google Scholar; Kennedy, , ‘The Irish Free State’, p. 133 Google Scholar.

69 See also Whelan, , Reinventing modern Dublin, pp 139–142 Google Scholar.

70 Irish Builder and Engineer, 11 Feb. 1922; 21 Oct. 1922.

71 See, for example, Irish Builder and Engineer, 21 Oct. 1922; Dáil Éireann deb., ii, 31, (7 Dec. 1922).

72 Figgis, , Planning for the future, p. 23 Google Scholar.

73 This argument was rejected by some parliamentarians from provincial Ireland and cultural revivalists who were anti-urban and anti-Dublin in outlook (Dickson, Dublin: the making of a capital city, p. 479).

74 Irish Builder and Engineer, 11 Jul 1925; Irish Independent, 8 Mar. 1922, 1 Feb. 1923, 27 Jun. 1924.

75 Irish Builder and Engineer, 20 July 1929; Willis, , Dublin 1916, pp 139–142 Google Scholar.

76 Irish Independent, 6 Sept. 1926, 27 Aug. 1927.

77 Freeman’s Journal, 13. July 1923; McParland, Edward, ‘Building the parliament house in Dublin’ in Parliamentary History, xxi (2002), pp 131–140 Google Scholar.

78 Greater Dublin, pp 7–8; Ninety-second annual report of the Commissioners of Public Works (Dublin, 1924), 4; Irish Times, 2 Feb. 1924.

79 Seanad Éireann deb., i, 1390 (11 July 1923). See also, Irish Builder 21 Oct. 1922.

80 Brown, Terence, Gibney, Arthur and O’Doherty, Michael, Building for government: the architecture of state buildings; OPW: Ireland, 1900–2000 (Dublin, 1999), p. 42 Google Scholar; Dáil Éireann deb., viii, 914–35 (10 July 1924); Irish Times, 11 July 1924; Whelan, , Reinventing modern Dublin, p. 130 Google Scholar.