Le Petit Journal Illustré - 100 YEARS AGO

For the last number of years, I have been tweeting front pages from Le Petit Journal Illustré from Gallica (the digital library of the National Library of France) every Monday. Check out my Twitter account here. In all that time, I think this is the first Irish story that has appeared on the front page. 

The front page from Sunday, 19 September 1920 shows the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, lying on his bed in a jail cell in Brixton Prison. MacSwiney was arrested in Cork on 12 August 1920 and charged with sedition. He went on hunger strike in protest at his imprisonment and the fact that he had been tried by a military court. He died at age 41 years on 25 October 1920. His story was the subject of countless newspaper articles around the world and according to historian, Diamaid Ferriter, MacSwiney became "a temporary international icon". Photographs of MacSwiney and editorial cartoons about his fate also filled the newspapers.

Le Petit Journal Illustré, 19 September 1920. Image source. (The image is also available on the website of the National Library of Ireland, link here).

The front page of this illustrated periodical was usually focused on the major French and international news stories of the day. During the First World War, the front page became dominated by images of war, as well as portraits of French and allied soldiers and generals. After the war, images of devastated towns and cities around France featured on the front page. 

It would be interesting to dig a little deeper into the history of this kind of publication and see how it changed over the years, especially during the First World War. Newspapers and periodicals were drastically reduced in size due to paper shortages. The French press was heavily censored at that time and what became known as 'bourrage de crane' [brainwashing] was said to be widespread in the press. That's another days work!

The Sack of Balbriggan - 20 September 1920

The coastal town of Balbriggan lies about 31 kilometers (19 miles) north of Dublin city. On 20 September 1920, the town was sacked by Black and Tans. Over fifty houses and businesses were destroyed, leaving many of the town's inhabitants without a home or a job. The sacking of the town was carried out in reprisal for the killing of an RIC officer (Head Constable Peter Burke) by members of the IRA in the town on the evening of 20 September 1920.

Photograph of the charred remains of a house in Balbriggan after the Black and Tan attack. Image source.

Sinn Féin saw the potential publicity for the cause that could be generated from the incident. Two French newspaper reporters were in Dublin at the time to write about life in Ireland during the War of Independence. They were contacted by Desmond FitzGerald, the Dáil's Director of Publicity, and told to go to Balbriggan immediately. 

The journalists were Henri Béraud (1885-1958) of Le Petit Parisien and Joseph Kessel (1898-1979) of La Liberté. Their newspaper articles tell of the chaos and destruction that was caused by the Black and Tan attack. Béraud's article from 28 September 1920 was accompanied by a photograph showing a family being transported on the back of a horse and cart carrying their belongings. "Ce que j'ai vu est affreux. C'est une ville foudroyée" [What I saw was terrible. The town is devastated], said Béraud, who described seeing bullet holes in windows. Read Béraud's article here. 

Kessel's article from 28 September 1920 was accompanied by photographs showing the ruined buildings left behind after the fire and an inset of a woman carrying her possessions. The caption says that this is all she could rescue from her burning house. Read Kessel's article here.

Images similar to the ones that appeared alongside Béraud and Kessel's articles of burned houses and factories and of people carrying their meagre possessions as they tried to find new accommodation, appeared on newspapers around the world. This caused public attention to be directed on Ireland and led many (in Britain and America) to question just what was happening in this corner of the British Empire. This is an interesting newspaper article about how international reporting of reprisals caused deep unease in Britain, see it here.

Front page of Excelsior from 1 October 1920. Image source.

The headline on this front page from Excelsior says: 'Les attentats et les represailles se multiplient en Irlande' [Attacks and reprisals multiply in Ireland]. The top two images show the charred remains of a house and factory in Balbriggan. The middle images show a soldier being carried by civilians in the streets of Dublin and people playing music outside the prison where the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, was held in London. The bottom images show tense street scenes in Dublin. The accompanying caption also mentions rising tensions in other towns and cities, such as the burning of an RIC barracks in Trim, Co. Meath.

Close ups of the first two images showing the destruction in Balbriggan.

Ireland's Own article on science pioneer Kathleen Lonsdale

Snapshot of my short article in Ireland's Own.

The Irish-born scientist, Kathleen Lonsdale, was a trailblazer in many respects and a true pioneer of science. I have just written a short article about her in the long-running magazine Ireland's Own. 

This is the second piece I have written for Ireland's Own. The first one entitled, 'Carl Marstrander: Viking of the Blaskets', appeared in the magazine on 13 July 2018 (p. 31).

Photograph of Kathleen Lonsdale in the laboratory. Image source.

Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971) (née Yardley) was born in Newbridge, Co. Kildare and the family moved to England while she was still in primary school. She spent almost all of her life in England where she studied chemistry and devoted herself to researching x-ray crystallography. 

She achieved many firsts in her lifetime, not just being one of the first women to be a fellow of the Royal Society, but also in the fact that she pursued a high flying career after having her children, something which would have been quite rare in those days. 

Several university buildings in Ireland and England have been named in her honour and 'Lonsdale' prizes are also awarded to students of chemistry at the RIA in Dublin and students of mathematical and physical sciences at UCL in London. You can read more about her life here on the RTE Herstory website. 

Volunteer transcriber - Smithsonian Institute.

I recently volunteered as a transcriber on a project with the Smithsonian Institute. I came across the Smithsonian Digital Volunteers: Transcription Centre on Twitter and was interested immediately. The name of the project that initially caught my eye was 'Letters from Paris: American Artists in Paris, 1860-1930'. Find out more about the project here.

Screenshot of the Smithsonian Transcription Center interface. Image source.

Since I started volunteering on the 'Letters from Paris' project, I have worked on several other projects with the center. The transcription work can be slow (depending on the age of the material and the handwriting that you are trying to decipher), but it is very rewarding when you consider that you are helping to bring to life all of this valuable material for the benefit of everyone.

Why do it? Well, as well as helping others, I feel that I can get something from it for myself. We are always learning and you never know what nuggets of information you will come across, or what connections you can make when you start transcribing a letter or a note in one of these projects. 

I also feel that I can use the experience and knowledge that I have built up through my research to help others. For example, having lived in France, studied the French language and knowing the geography of the country (and of Paris more specifically), I was able to use these skills to their full advantage on the 'Letters from Paris' project.

Many libraries and archives around the world run programmes like the one that I volunteered for at the Smithsonian Institute and volunteer transcribers are always needed. Here are just some examples:

• (Denmark) National Archives, Volunteer transcriber

• (Canada) Royal BC Museum Archives, Transcribe

• (US) Library of Congress, By the People

• (US) National Archives, Citizen Archivist

• (US) Smithsonian Transcription Center, Smithsonian Digital Volunteers

• (US) Stanford University Archives, From the Page

• (US) University of Iowa Libraries, DIY History

• (US) University of the Pacific, Gold Rush Life

• (Ireland) Maynooth University, Letters 1916-1923

• (Australia) National Library of Australia, Trove

• (UK) The National Archives, Volunteering 

As if that wasn't enough to get your teeth into, here is a list of other transcription projects from the Bentley University Library and here is another list from the Scottish Council on Archives.

100 years ago in Ireland - An Irishman's Diary

100 years ago, Ireland was the subject of many newspaper articles around the world. The Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) catapulted the country on to front pages. I have just written an Irishman's Diary in the Irish Times newspaper about how Ireland was seen by a French journalist who spent four weeks in the country in the summer of 1920. Read it here.

Front page of L'Echo de Paris 23 June 1920. Image souce.

The journalist, Monsieur H. Regne, worked for L'Echo de Paris, a daily broadsheet based in Paris. He arrived in Dublin by boat and traveled around the country meeting various politicians and Church leaders on his way. His lengthy articles appeared on the front page of the newspaper and follow the conventions of the French journalism genre known as grand reportage. 

In the Catholic seminary in Maynooth, Co. Kildare, he met Cardinal Logue and in Trinity College Dublin, he met the Provost, Dr Bernard. On the political scene, he met Sir Horace Plunkett at his Dublin home in Foxrock, 'Kilteragh', and also met Arthur Griffith, founder of the Sinn Féin party and Vice President of the Dáil. 

You may have noticed that his interviewees were all men. That's right, not a single woman is mentioned in any of his articles. Even though there were several high profile women in leadership positions in the republican movement at the time, particularly in Cumann na mBan (Constance Markievicz, Jenny Wyse Power and Louise Gavan Duffy), the journalist does not refer to any of them. It is sad that we do not get to hear about the concerns of Irish women in 1920, but this would obviously reflect the thinking at the time.