Charles Stewart Parnell's walking stick - a literary baton

I have just written a piece about a plain walking stick that was once owned by Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891). In fact it was made by him - he cut the whitethorn stick from the wood in Avondale, Co. Wicklow where he lived some 130 years ago. Read it here.

Photo of the Parnell Monument on Parnell Street, Dublin, Ireland.

The stick has been adopted as a literary baton, handed down from generation to generation of Irish writer. Past guardians of the walking stick include poets, essayists and novelists. The Nobel Prize winner, Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), is probably the most internationally recognisable holder of the stick, but it has also passed through the hands of Conor Cruise O'Brien and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill among others. I wonder who the next recipient will be...

Avondale, Co. Wicklow (home of the Parnell family).

While researching the piece, I came across other walking sticks that were either owned by Parnell or have had some close personal connection to him. In places as far apart as Brighton-on-Hove in England, New York in the USA and Clara in Co. Offaly in Ireland, sticks have come to light that are closely linked to the man himself. In Glasnevin Museum in Dublin and in the National Museum of Ireland, there are also a couple of fancier sticks that are also believed to have been owned by him at one time or another. Perhaps we should do an inventory of all the Parnell sticks out there - we might be surprised by the result! 

One of the more elaborate Parnell walking sticks in Glasnevin Museum. Image source. 

The burning of Cork (11.12.1920) in six newspaper archives

On 11 December 1920, five acres of property was destroyed in Cork City, Ireland. In a reprisal attack, members of the British Crown forces set fire to buildings including shops on the main street, St Patrick's Street, as well as the City Hall and Carnegie Library. The toll of destruction was unprecedented. All together, 57 buildings were completely destroyed, 20 were badly damaged and a further 12 were wrecked and looted. 

The damage was estimated at around £2.5 million. 2,000 people lost their jobs and it took years to rebuild the city center. The event, which became known as the Burning of Cork, generated newspaper headlines all over the world. If you are interested in finding out more about what was said in the newspapers, below you will find a list of some of the newspaper archives that you can search for free and discover articles and images from the time. I did a quick search myself and have included some examples of the kind of articles / photographs that can be found. Try it yourself!

1. Chronicling America (American newspapers) Link. Below are a couple of example of the articles and photographs that you can find in this database of American newspapers that is run by the American Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Washington Herald, 13 December 1920, p. 1. Image source.

The Evening World, 23 December 1920, p. 9. Image source.

2. Trove (Australian newspapers) Link - Below are a couple of articles from two different Australian newspapers from December 1920. Trove is a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and other libraries in Australia. 

The Argus, 14 December 1920, p. 6. Image source.

The Armidale Express. 14 December 1920, p. 4. Image source.

3. Papers Past (New Zealand newspapers) Link - Below are a couple of newspaper articles from two different New Zealand newspapers. Papers Past contains digitised copies of newspapers, magazine, journals and much more. It is provided by the National Library of New Zealand.

Northern Advocate, 15 December 1920, p. 5. Image source.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, 14 December 1920, p. 5. Image source.

4. Delpher (Dutch newspapers) Link - below are a couple of examples of the articles and photographs that I found in this easy to use database. I don't speak Dutch, but I searched for 'brand' [fire] and 'Cork' and found a good few articles. I wonder if anyone has done any research on Dutch-Irish relations using this great resource. Delpher was developed by the Dutch National Library.

De Courant, 15 December 1920, p. 1. Image source.

Dagblad van Zuid-Holland, 31 December 1920, p. 3. Image source.

5. Gallica (French newspapers) Link - below are some of the articles and photographs on the Burning of Cork from the Gallica database. This is the database that I am most familiar with and it is relatively easy to navigate, even if you don't speak the language. Gallica is the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Le Matin, 15 December 1920, p. 1. Image source.

'Après les incendies de Cork'. Image source.

6. Hemeroteca (Spanish language newspapers) Link - below are some of the articles that appeared in the Spanish speaking press about the burning of Cork. The database is provided by the Spanish National Library. 

La Voz, 13 December 1920, p. 5. Image source.

El Liberal, 14 December 1920, p. 1. Image source.

Article on RTE's Brainstorm - Burning of Cork in the French press

The Irish War of Independence, which lasted from January 1919 to July 1921, consumed gallons of newspaper ink in newspapers all around the world. During that time, certain significant events caused the focus to be amplified. One of those events was the Burning of Cork, which happened on the night of 11 December 1920. I have just written a piece for the RTÉ Brainstorm website about French press coverage of the Burning of Cork. Read it here.

Front page of Le Matin, 15 December 1920. Source.

The newspaper that is mentioned in the article on Brainstorm is L'Œuvre. The paper ran from 1904 until 1944 and during those years the paper's ideology altered radically from being non-conformist in the early years, to being a radical republican and pacifist paper in the inter-war years, to ultimately adopting a collaborationist stance during the Second World War. It has been digitised by the French National Library (BnF) and you can search through the archives from 1915 to 1944 on their digital website, Gallica. See here for more. 

If you want to find out more about the Burning of Cork, there is a podcast available on the RTÉ 'Documentary on One' radio programme website. It was made in 1960 and includes interviews with people who witnessed the event that took place on 11 December 1920. It lasts for 29.40 mins and you can listen to it here. There is also a shorter RTÉ radio clip (4.26 mins) on the Burning of Cork available. It was made by Myles Dungan and you can listen to it here.

Bernard O'Dowd - Australia's first national poet

Bernard O'Dowd (1866-1953) was known as Australia's first national poet. He was born in Beauford, Victoria to Ulster-born Catholic parents who had emigrated to Australia. His father was Bernard Dowd, a police constable and his mother was Ann Dowell (née Mulholland). His is said to have read John Milton's 17th century epic, 'Paradise Lost', at age 8, quiet an introduction to poetry. I have just written an Irishman's Diary about O'Dowd's life and times in the Irish Times newspaper. Read it here.

Bronze bust of Bernard O'Dowd by Charles Web Gilbert. Image source.

As mentioned in the newspaper article, O'Dowd corresponded regularly with the American poet, Walt Whitman. There is a great podcast called 'Poetry Militant: Walt Whitman and Bernard O'Dowd' about their letter writing relationship, available on the ABC website. It's well worth a listen. There is even a short clip where you can hear O'Dowd's voice. To my ear, his accent sounds a bit unusual. It's not a very strong Australian accent as you would recognise from Australians today, maybe it was tempered by his parents' Ulster accents? You can listen to it or download it here and make up your own mind. 

Caricature of Bernard O'Dowd by the cartoonist David Low. Image source. 

If you want to learn more about O'Dowd, you can read his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography here. There is also an entry on him on the Australian Postal History & Social Philately available here. You can search on Trove (the National Library of Australia's digital library) for material related to O'Dowd, see here for more. Lastly, there is an article about O'Dowd's socialism in the journal 'Labour History' on JSTOR. It is from 1999 and is entitled 'Bernard O'Dowd's Socialism'. You can access it here.

French press coverage of Bloody Sunday, Dublin 21 Nov. 1920

News of the Irish War of Independence (January 1919-July 1921) was covered extensively in much of the French press. Today marks 100 years since Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920, happened. That morning, Michael Collins' 'squad' killed 15 members of the so-called 'Cairo Gang' at their places of residence in Dublin. The 'Cairo Gang' was a group of British intelligence agents operating undercover in the city. Read about it here on the RTÉ Brainstorm website.

L'Humanité, 22 November 1920. Source.

In the afternoon of 21 November 1920, 14 civilians were killed at the football match between Dublin and Tipperary in Croke Park, home of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). After each event, it took a little time for the news to filter through. Over the next couple of days, articles appeared in the French papers with news of the killings and the reaction from London. I have gathered below a small number of them from Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 

'Dublin's bloody demonstrations, English police's armored cars disperse the sinn-feiners', L'Humanité, 23 November 1920. Source.

The articles come from a range of newspapers of all political shades of opinion and they show the reporting of the IRA's killing. Note how the IRA are invariably referred to as 'Sinn-Feiners'. This was common in the French press and much of the European press at the time. However, the killings in Croke Park seem to have gotten lost in all the confusion. One article from L'Homme Libre, the paper founded by Georges Clemenceau, says that the authorities believed that the "sinn-feiners" who killed the 'Cairo Gang' had come to Dublin from various districts on the pretext of going to a match in Croke Park. 

When Crown forces went to the match to search the spectators, they were fired on with revolvers and that they returned fire into the crowd. 10 were reported to have been killed with 65 injured. The newspaper says that this is the 'official version'. Much of the news of what happened in Dublin that day was filtered through to the French press from either official sources in Dublin or the British press. Therefore, there is a focus on 'Cairo Gang' and very little mention of those killed at the football match later in the day. 

In the following days, newspapers reported on the debates that took place in the House of Commons surrounding the events of 21 November 1920, but the killing of the civilians in Croke Park seems largely forgotten with only a couple of small references to them (mostly due to Joseph Devlin's intervention in the Commons). Sadly, it seems that those who died in Croke Park were treated like collateral damage in the war between the IRA and the Crown forces. The next Irish news stories to feature in the French papers are about the arrest of Arthur Griffith, Sinn Féin's president.

'Ireland in revolution, A bloody day in Dublin, 14 officers killed by the Sinn-Feiners', L'Œuvre, 22 November 1920. Source.

'Ireland on fire and bloodied, Dublin is in a state of siege, troops moving people on on Dublin's streets', L'Œuvre, 23 November 1920. Source.

'In Ireland, Bloody Sundays in Dublin, yesterday 9 officers and 2 civilians were killed, 5 civilians were injured (1 mortally wounded)', Le Matin, 22 November 1920. Source.

Photograph of nationalist MP Joseph Devlin (1871-1934) speaking during the debate on Bloody Sunday in the Commons, Le Petit Parisien, 23 November 1920. Source.

'After the tragedy of Dublin, Ireland under the threat of new reprisals', L'Homme Libre, 23 November 1920. Source.

The following photographs are from Excelsior of 24 November 1920. It was an illustrated daily that ran from 1910 to 1943 and it was known for its coverage of international news stories. Each edition contained about 30 photos and it was printed on the best quality paper. Even though it wasn't a commercial success, it prompted other French newspapers to increase the number of photos they included in their papers. There's a short description of its history here on the RetroNews website. You can search through the Excelsior archives here for free on the Gallica website. It's well worth a look.

The photos show scenes from Dublin after the killing of the 'Cairo Gang' and the killing of civilians in Croke Park. There is a strong focus on 'Sinn-Feiners', as if they are everywhere and there is no mention of those killed in Croke Park.

'The X indicates the location of the Gresham Hotel on Sackville Street, where two officers were killed' , Excelsior, 24 November 1920. Source.

'An English patrol supported by an armored car makes it way down Grafton Street in Dublin behind a fog of smoke from special bombs', Excelsior, 24 November 1920. Source.

'Sinn-Feiner searched by an officer', Excelsior, 24 November 1920.

'The crowd cheers a Sinn-Feiner being transported in a truck', Excelsior, 24 November 1920.

Bloody Sunday 1920 as a French graphic novel

'Croke Park, dimanche sanglante à Dublin' [Croke Park, Blood Sunday in Dublin] is the title of a new French graphic novel. It tells the story of the killing by Crown forces of Gaelic football supporters who were attending a match in Croke Park on 21 November 1920. 

The scenario was written by Sylvain Gâche and the artwork is by Richard Guérineau. Gâche is a French and history teacher in the French city of Blois. It is really interesting to read about the process they went through in deciding to make a graphic novel about Bloody Sunday. Read it here (en français)

Front cover of the 'Croke Park' graphic novel. Image source.

As you can see from the images here on this post (which all come from the BDGest website), the graphic novel contains a mix of new and old with scenes from November 1920 and from February 2007. November 1920 is when the massacre took place and February 2007 was when Ireland played England in rugby at Croke Park. 

The home of rugby in Ireland, Landsdowne Road, was closed for renovation at the time and Croke Park, home of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), was used instead for soccer and rugby matches (something which had not happened before, due to the Association's ban on 'foreign games'). Naturally, on that day in February 2007, emotions ran high as England played rugby in Croke Park for the first. Ireland won 43-13. 

You can read more about the graphic novel 'Croke Park' here in English on the RTÉ Brainstorm website. Vous pouvez aussi lire des articles en français sur le roman graphique 'Croke Park' ici et ici sur les sites de BDGest et PlaneteBD.

France and Belgium have a long tradition of creating comics and to this day, bande dessinée [comics] known colloquially as BD, and roman graphique [graphic novels] remain immensely popular in those countries with young and old alike, where they are classed as le neuvième art [the ninth art]. According to this article, sales of BD (including comics, manga etc.) in French bookshops represent 13% of all sales. 78 million copies of BD are produced each year. In 2018, 60 million copies of BD were sold in France and 25% of the books borrowed from libraries in France were BD.

Find out more about the history of the bande dessinée here. To celebrate all things BD and to promote the world of comics, the French Culture ministry have launched a programme of events called BD 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been extended until June 2021. You can get more information on BD 2020 here.

'Croke Park' is not the first time that French cartoonists have created a bande dessinée or roman graphique on the subject of Ireland. Some of the others include:

'Chiens de Fusil'

'James Joyce, l'homme de Dublin'

'Giunchiglia'

'Mon Traître'

'Padraig'

'Professeur Bell'

La meurte del alcalde de Cork - Spanish language press reporting on Terence MacSwiney's hunger strike and death.

I have already written on this blog about how Terence MacSwiney's hunger strike and death were reported in the French press. See previous posts here and here.

'The Hero Mayor'. Headline from La Accion, 9 September 1920.

'The Mayor of Cork is dead'. Headling from La Voz, 25 Oct 1920.

Now, I will briefly look at the reaction in the Spanish speaking press. 

During the Irish War of Independence, the words 'Sinn Feiner' and 'Sinn Feinista' became a common sight in the foreign press as articles and photographs appeared with increased regularity following an IRA ambush on an RIC station or patrol or British army patrol, or after a reprisal by the Crown forces. 

The First Dáil was aware of the power of the press in swaying public opinion. For that reason, they formed a network of press agents in cities around the world. In Madrid, Máire O'Brien (1882-1958) was tasked with contacting the Spanish press and informing them about what was happening in Ireland. 

In her memos back to Dublin, O'Brien says that British propaganda was far superior in getting their message across to the Spanish press as they had a network of Consuls and more resources than O'Brien (who seems to have been working almost single-handedly). A very interesting individual, you can read memos sent by O'Brien to Dublin and vice versa on the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy website. You can also read about her on the Military Pensions blog and see her entry on the Dictionary of Irish Biography.

Some Spanish journalists traveled to Ireland during the War of Independence to witness what was happening for themselves. One such journalist was Ricardo Baeza (1890-1956), who wrote for the Madrid-based newspaper, El Sol. He spent time in Ireland in 1920 and 1921 and produced many sympathetic articles in favour of Irish independence. He later wrote a book about his time in the country.

Below are some of the articles telling Terence MacSwiney's story in the Spanish speaking press.

 

Neuvo Mundo, 17 September 1920.

Caras y Caretas, (Buenos Aires) 30 October 1920.

Mundo Grafico, 3 November 1920.

In relation to the general newspaper coverage in Spain, Dermot Keogh has said that "it was in the right wing separatist press of Catalonia and the Basque country, seeing in Ireland a mirror image of their own struggle for autonomy from Madrid, that Sinn Fein received most support". [1]

To understand the reaction in Spain, the following journal article might be of interest: 

Alvaro Jaspe, 'Armada? What Armada? Spanish reaction to the 1916 Easter Uprising and the path to Irish independence', International Journal of Iberian Studies, 15/2 (2002), pp. 72-83. 

The newspaper articles above seem to be largely informative and possibly supportive of MacSwiney, but the cartoons below are a little less so. 

EDITORIAL CARTOONS

MacSwiney's case was so familiar to newspaper readers in Spain that some newspapers even decided to include references to him in their editorial cartoons. 

El Imparcial, 26 September 1920.

In this cartoon, one child says - 

'Mi papá dice que voy a ser general' [My dad says that I'm going to be a general]. 

The response is - 

'Pues el mio lleva tres dias castigándome sin postre, y es porque quiere que sea alcalde de Cork' [Well, mine has been punished for three days without dessert, and it's because he wants to be Mayor of Cork].

La Voz, 4 October 1920.

With the title, 'Incrédulos' [incredulous, disbelieving, gobsmacked], this cartoon shows two men looking aghast at what they read in a newspaper. 

One man asked the other - 

'Pero usted cree que pueda ya existor el alcalde de Cork?' [do you think the Mayor of Cork exists?]

His friend replies - 

'Hombre, lo que yo creo es que no ha existido nunca' [Man, what I believe is that he never existed]. 

Caricature of MacSwiney, Neuvo Mundo, 17 September 1920.

All of the images shown above came from the Hemeroteca Digital (digital newspaper archive / library) of the Biblioteca Nacional de Espana. It is a fantastic free resource with 2,371 newspaper titles running to an amazing 67 million pages. 

[1] Dermot Keogh, 'The Irish Foreign Service in Europe', Etudes Irlandaises (7), 1982, p. 145-164 (p. 154). 

Terence MacSwiney's death makes the front page of many French newspapers.

'LE LORD-MAIRE DE CORK EST MORT'

'MORT DU LORD-MAIRE DE CORK'

'LA MORT DE MAC-SWINEY' 

These are some of the headlines from French newspapers on 26 October 1920.

Below are some of the front pages of major French newspapers that featured the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney's death on their front page. He died in Brixton prison on 25 October 1920 after 74 days on hunger strike. A photograph of a young-looking MacSwiney sits alongside many of the articles. Other French newspapers also covered his death on their front page, but not in such a prominent position and at such length. 

MacSwiney's hunger strike was followed closely by the world press. In the French press, we can see daily articles on his worsening health condition all through his hunger strike, but we can also see lengthy articles on how his case might impact on the Irish War of Independence. His death occured at the same time as the death of the King of Greece. However, newspapers found space to feature MacSwiney's death in a prominent position of their front pages. 

L'Humanité. 26 Oct 1920.

It may seem a little strange, in this day and age, how MacSwiney's story was so interesting to French newspaper readers. A follower on Twitter even commented that they found it strange that their ancestors could have read regular updates on the story. They also said that they thought that most French people would have trouble locating Cork on a map, but that's another days work!

The reasons why the story was so closely followed include an appetite for foreign news and an interest in human interest stories. Newspapers were the internet and social media of the day and readers wanted interesting / unusual stories. In MacSwiney's case that is exactly what they found. 

L'Oeuvre 26 Oct 1920. Source.

Le Journal 26 Oct 1920. Source.

Le Matin 26 Oct 1920. Source.

Le Petit Parisien 26 Oct 1920. Source.

Le Populaire 26 Oct 1920. Source.

L'Humanité 26 Oct 1920. Source.

L'Intransigeant 26 Oct 1920. Source.