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.