Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T11:30:38.516Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emigrant responses to war and revolution, 1914–21: Irish opinion in the United States and Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Malcolm Campbell
Malcolm Campbell*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Auckland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Throughout the course of the nineteenth century North America and Australasia were profoundly affected by the large-scale emigration of Irish men and women. However, by the eve of the First World War that great torrent of nineteenth-century emigration had slowed. The returns of the registrar general, though deeply and systematically flawed, suggest that in the period 1901–10 the level of decennial emigration from Ireland fell below half a million for only the second time since 1840. According to these figures, the United States continued to be the preferred destination for the new century’s Irish emigrants — 86 per cent of those who left between 1901 and 1910 journeyed to America. In contrast, Australia now attracted few Irish-born, with only 2 per cent of emigrants in this decade choosing to settle in Australasia. As the number of Irish emigrants declined from the peaks of the mid-nineteenth century, so the proportion of Irish-born in the populations of the United States and Australia also fell. By 1910 less than 1.5 per cent of the United States population were of Irish birth; in Australia in 1911 only 3 per cent of the nation’s population were Irish-born men or women. But, although the influence of the Irish-born was diminished, there remained in both societies large numbers of native-born men and women of Irish descent, New World citizens who retained strong bonds of affection for Ireland and maintained a keen level of interest in its affairs.

Concern with Irish affairs reached new levels of intensity in the United States and Australia between 1914 and 1921. In particular, from the Easter Rising of 1916 until the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 Irish immigrants and their descendants in both New World societies observed Ireland’s moves towards self-rule with keen anticipation. They publicly asserted the need for an immediate and just resolution to Ireland’s grievances and sought to obtain the support of their own governments for the attainment of that goal. However, this vocal support for Ireland was not without its own cost.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 125 , May 2000 , pp. 75 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2000

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 Commission on emigration and other population problems, 1948–1954 (Dublin, 1954), pp 314-15Google Scholar; Durand, E. Dana [Bureau of the Census], Thirteenth census of the United States taken in the year 1910: abstract of the census (Washington, 1913), pp 82, 188–9Google Scholar; Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1911 (Melbourne, 1914), iii, pt XIV, pp 2072-3Google Scholar.

2 Carroll, F.M., American opinion and the Irish question, 1910–1923 (Dublin, 1978), pp 26–54Google Scholar; Ward, Alan, Ireland and Anglo-American relations, 1899–1921 (London, 1969), pp 70–94Google Scholar; Gwynn, Denis, The life of John Redmond (London, 1932), pp 391-2Google Scholar.

3 Ward, Ireland & Anglo-American relations, p. 94; Carroll, American opinion, pp 50–52.

4 Carroll, American opinion, pp 56–7; Tansill, C. C., America and the fight for Irish freedom, 1866–1922: an old story based upon new data (New York, 1957), pp 202-4Google Scholar.

5 Carroll, American opinion, pp 63–4.

6 Irish World, 6 May 1916; Carroll, American opinion, pp 66–9; Ward, Ireland & Anglo-American relations, pp 110–25.

7 Pilot (Boston), 13 May 1916. On American reaction generally see Burk, Kathleen, Britain, America and the sinews of war, 1914–18 (Boston, Mass., 1985), p. 80Google Scholar.

8 Pilot (Boston), 20 May 1916.

9 Ibid, 5 Aug. 1916.

10 John Redmond to H. H. Asquith, 3 May 1916 (National Library of Australia, John Redmond correspondence, MS 15165, mfm G 20784).

11 Carroll, American opinion, pp 64–5; Gwynn, Redmond, pp 500–2; Funchion, Michael (ed.), Irish-American voluntary organisations (Westport, Conn., 1983), pp 272-6Google Scholar.

12 Scott, Ernest, Australia during the war: the official history of Australia in the war of 1914–1918 (Sydney, 1936; facs. ed., St Lucia, Queensland, 1989), p. 22Google Scholar.

13 Andrews, E.M., The Anzac illusion: Anglo-Australian relations during World War I (Melbourne, 1993), pp 8–41Google Scholar. On ideas of race and kinship see Cole, Douglas,’ “The crimson thread of kinship”: ethnic ideas in Australia, 1870–1914’ in Historical Studies (Australia) (henceforth cited as Hist. Studies (Aust.)), xiv, no. 56 (Apr. 1971), pp 511-25Google Scholar.

14 Sydney Morning Herald, 6 Aug. 1914.

15 Age, 7 Aug. l914.

16 Ibid.; Scott, Australia during the war, p. 24.

17 McKernan, Michael, Australian churches at war: attitudes and activities of the major churches, 1914–1918 (Sydney, 1980), pp 30, 34–5Google Scholar; O’Farrell, Patrick, The Catholic church and community: an Australian history (Kensington, N.S.W., 1985), pp 304-12Google Scholar; idem, The Irish in Australia (Kensington, N.S.W., 1993), pp 254-5Google Scholar; Boland, T. P., Thomas Carr (St Lucia, Queensland, 1997), pp. 403-5Google Scholar.

18 Gammage, Bill, The broken years: Australian soldiers and the Great War (Canberra, 1974), pp 7–11Google Scholar, 281; Andrews, Anzac illusion, pp 42–6; McKernan, Australian churches, pp 34–5; O’Farrell, Irish in Australia, pp 254–5; O’Farrell, Catholic church, pp 319–20.

19 Sydney Morning Herald, 6 Aug. 1914.

20 Catholic Press, 16 Mar. 1916.

21 Newcastle Herald, 27 Apr. 1916.

22 Argus, 1, 2 May 1916; Albert Dryer, ‘The independence of Ireland: source material for the history of the movement in Australia’ (National Library of Australia, Dryer papers, MS 6610, box 1, folder 11) (henceforth cited as Dryer, ‘Independence’); The Irish rebellion and Australian opinion (Melbourne, 1916), pp 1–30Google Scholar; O’Farrell, Irish in Australia, p. 260.

23 Catholic Press, 4, 11 May 1916. On Archbishop Kelly and Irish nationalism see O’Farrell, Patrick, ‘Archbishop Kelly and the Irish question’ in Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, iv, pt 3 (1974), pp 1–19Google Scholar.

24 Argus, 2 May 1916. On Mannix’s reaction see Kiernan, Colm, Daniel Mannix and Ireland (Morwell, Vic, 1984), pp. 93-6Google Scholar.

25 Newcastle Herald, 9 May 1916.

26 Bulletin, 18 May 1916.

27 Freeman’s Journal (Sydney), 11 May 1916.

28 Argus, 16 May 1916; Boland, T. P., James Duhig (St Lucia, Queensland, 1986), p. 134Google Scholar.

29 Dryer, ‘Independence’; O’Farrell, Irish in Australia, pp 263–73; and see generally, Fischer, Gerhard, Enemy aliens: internment and the homefront experience in Australia, 1914–1920 (St Lucia, Queensland, 1989)Google Scholar; Cain, Frank, The Wobblies at war: a history of the I.W.W. and the Great War in Australia (Melbourne, 1993)Google Scholar.

30 Devoy’s post bag, ed. O’Brien, William and Ryan, Desmond (2 vols, Dublin, 1948-53), ii, 519-20Google Scholar; Emmons, David, The Butte Irish: class and ethnicity in an American mining town, 1875–1925 (Urbana, 111., 1989), pp 355-64Google Scholar; Levenson, Leah and Natterstad, Jerry H., Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington: Irish feminist (Syracuse, N.Y., 1986), pp 101-10Google Scholar.

31 Ward, Ireland & Anglo-American relations, pp 126–40; Carroll, American opinion, pp 69–88; Golway, Terry, Irish rebel: John Devoy and America’s fight for Irish freedom (New York, 1998), p. 242Google Scholar.

32 The letters and friendships of Sir Cecil Spring Rice: a record, ed. Gwynn, Stephen (2 vols, London, 1929), ii, 392-3Google Scholar.

33 Wilson, Woodrow, Address of the president of the United States delivered at a joint session of the two houses of congress, April 2, 1917 (Washington, 1917), p. 44Google Scholar; Kennedy, David M., Over here: the First World War and American society (New York, 1980), p. 344Google Scholar; Rappaport, Armin, The British press and Wilsonian neutrality (Stanford, 1951), pp 132-43Google Scholar.

34 Irish World, 7, 14 Apr. 1917; Ward, Ireland & Anglo-American relations, pp 143–57.

35 Carroll, American opinion, pp 89–105; Tansill, America & Irish freedom, pp 230–33.

36 Kennedy, Over here, p. 77.

37 Quoted in Carroll, American opinion, pp 108–20; Ward, Ireland & Anglo-American relations, pp 157–65; Tansill, America & Irish freedom, pp 243–7.

38 Victoria, , Parliamentary debates, cxliii, 893–905 (22 Aug. 1916); Freeman’s Journal (Sydney), 31 Aug. 1916Google Scholar.

39 Scott, Australia during the war, pp 320–52; Fitzhardinge, L. F., William Morris Hughes: a political biography (2 vols, Sydney, 1979), ii, 171–215Google Scholar; Oliver, Bobbie, War and peace in Western Australia: the social and political impact of the Great War (Nedlands, W.A., 1995), pp 90–107Google Scholar; Lake, Marilyn, A divided society: Tasmania during World War I (Melbourne, 1975), pp 44, 64–83Google Scholar.

40 Scott, Australia during the war, pp 397–428; Fitzhardinge, Hughes, pp 279–306; Oliver, War & peace, pp 107–17; Smith, F. B., The conscription plebiscites in Australia, 1916–1917 (Melbourne, 1981)Google Scholar.

41 Scott, Australia during the war, pp 347, 420.

42 Ibid., pp 419–23; O’Farrell, Irish in Australia, p. 272.

43 Withers, Glenn, ‘The 1916–1917 conscription referenda: a cliometric re-appraisal’ in Hist. Studies (Aust.), xx, no. 78 (Apr. 1982), pp 36–46Google Scholar; Beaumont, Joan, ‘The politics of a divided society’ in eadem (ed.), Australia’s war, 1914–18 (Sydney, 1995), pp 54-7Google Scholar.

44 O’Farrell, Irish in Australia, pp 272–3; Smith, Conscription plebiscites, p. 19; Oliver, War & peace, pp 117–18; Lake, Divided society, p. 124; and see generally, Gilbert, Alan, ‘The conscription referenda, 1916–1917: the impact of the Irish crisis’ in Hist. Studies> (Aust.), xiv, no. 53 (Oct. 1969), pp 54–72Google Scholar; Murphy, D. J., ‘Religion, race and conscription in World War One’ in Australian Journal of Politics and History, xx (Aug. 1974), pp 155-63Google Scholar; McKernan, Michael, ‘Catholics, conscription and Archbishop Mannix’ in Hist. Studies (Aust.), xvii, no. 68 (Apr. 1977), pp 299–314Google Scholar.

45 Commonwealth of Australia, Parliamentary debates, lxxxi, 11050-61 (Session 1914–17: Senate, 7 Mar. 1917)Google Scholar.

46 O’Grady, J. P., ‘The Irish’ in idem (ed.), The immigrants’ influence on Wilson’s peace policies (Louisville, Ky, 1967), pp. 56–84Google Scholar.

47 Carroll, F. M. (ed.), The American Commission on Irish Independence, 1919: the diary, correspondence and report (Dublin, 1985)Google Scholar; idem, American opinion, pp 131–8.

48 Irish World, 4 Jan.l919.

49 Ibid., 28 June 1919; McCartan, Patrick, With de Valera in America (New York, 1932), pp 133-19Google Scholar; O’Doherty, Katherine, Assignment America: de Valera’s mission to the United States (New York, 1957), pp 12–36, 158–66Google Scholar; Sarbaugh, Timothy J., ‘Irish republicanism vs. “pure Americanism”: California’s reaction to Eamon de Valera’s visit’ in California History, lx, no. 2 (1981), pp 172-85CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Carroll, American opinion, pp 149–62; Ward, Ireland & Anglo-American relations, pp 216–22.

50 Quoted in Ward, Ireland & Anglo-American relations, p. 233.

51 Bulletin, 27 Mar. 1919.

52 Catholic Press, 27 Mar. 1919; see also O’Farrell, ‘Kelly’, pp 8–14.

53 On the Philadelphia convention see Tansill, America & Irish freedom, pp 296–303; Carroll, American opinion, pp 127–30.

54 O’Farrell, Irish in Australia, pp 279–81; Dryer, ‘Independence’.

55 O’Farrell, Catholic church, pp 340–44.

56 Freeman’s Journal (Sydney), 4 Aug. 1921; O’Farrell, Irish in Australia, pp 280–84; Kiernan, Mannix, pp 145–67.

57 Freeman’s Journal (Sydney), 18 Aug. 1921; Keogh, Dermot, ‘Mannix, de Valera and Irish nationalism, pt I’ in Australasian Catholic Record, lxv (Apr. 1988), pp 159-73Google Scholar.

58 Commonwealth of Australia, Parliamentary debates, xciv, 6283-4, 6327–8, 6382–475 (Session 1920–21: House of Representatives, 11 Nov. 1920)Google Scholar; news clippings re expulsion of Hugh Mahon from parliament (National Library of Australia, Hugh Mahon papers, MS 937, series 8); W. M. Hughes to Hugh Mahon re expulsion, 10 Nov. 1920 (ibid., MS 937/699-700, series 9); Fitzhardinge, Hughes, pp 452–6.

59 Irish World, 7 Jan. 1922.

60 Carroll, American opinion, pp 177–82; Ward, Ireland & Anglo-American relations, pp 250–55.

61 Freeman’s Journal (Sydney), 5, 12 Jan. 1922; Catholic Express, 15 Dec. 1921.

62 Irish World, July 1922.

63 Ibid., 29 July 1922.

64 Freeman’s Journal (Sydney), 31 Aug. 1922; see also MacDonagh, Oliver, The sharing of the green: a modern Irish history for Australians (Sydney, 1996), p. 160Google Scholar.

65 The completion of this article was made possible by a visiting fellowship from the Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University, and a research grant from the Auckland University Research Committee. An earlier version of the article was delivered at the Tenth Irish-Australian Conference in Melbourne in October 1998.