Truce in Irish War of Independence (Jul. 1921) - what the Irish in Paris said.

On this day 100 years ago, 8 July 1921, negotiations to agree a truce in the Irish War of Independence concluded at Dublin's Mansion House. The terms had been agreed upon by delegates including Eamon de Valera and General Nevil Macready and it was announced that the truce would take effect from 11 July 1921. The war had been raging since January 1919, find out more about the background of the war here.

Below is an article by Marcel Pays from the French newspaper, Excelsior of 11 July 1921. It records the reactions of some of the Irish community in Paris to the news of the truce (well two priests actually). It includes two small portrait photographs of de Valera and Macready. Check out a digitized copy of the article here on Gallica. 

Excelsior, 11 July 1921.   

This Excelsior article is fairly unusual because it is rare to find first-hand accounts of what the Irish expat community in France thought about what was happening in Ireland at this time. The first to be interviewed was Fr Logan from the English language church on Avenue Hoche, who said that he was pleased to hear about the Truce, but that 'peace would only come if the talks in London lead to practical and just solutions to the Irish problem'. 

'It is difficult to predict what would or would not come from the talks, but I would like to see a solution that guarantees Irish independence and autonomy, without bringing into question Britain's legitimate security fears', Logan said. 

The second interviewee was Fr Flynn, a French priest of Irish extraction, who said that 'French public opinion was wrong to see Sinn Feiners as rebels'. 'Ireland has a President, a government, a parliament and an army, who want to be Irish', he said. 'We forget in France that Ireland's population has halved in the last seventy years, having gone from 8 to 4 million. Ireland's youth have emigrated to the Unites States, where she is rising today in a plea for Irish freedom', he said.   

Fr Flynn is an interesting person. I came across him when I learned about his visit to Ireland in 1916 as part of a French Catholic church mission to try to get Irishmen to volunteer for the British army to fight in the war. I wrote a short article about him in the Irish Times and also wrote about the French bishop's 1916 mission to Ireland in History Ireland.

Arthur Griffith arriving at the Mansion House in Dublin, 8 July 1921. Image source.

Le Petit Journal and the phantom submarine!

As you know I have been tweeting front pages from Le Petit Journal Illustré every Monday for the last few years. Stories related to Ireland have cropped up on a couple of occasions, usually surrounding events from the War of Independence. 

Entitled 'Le Sous-Marin Fantôme' [The Phantom Submarine], this image from the front page of 3 July 1921 is a little unusual to say the least. The caption says that Sinn Feiners (the foreign press usually referred to armed republicans as 'Sinn Feiners' as opposed to IRA or Irish Volunteers at this time) take great risks in the rocky bays of the Irish coast as they try to land on a submarine that will take them to America where they can complete their mission. Yes, I said it was a bit bizzare...

Front page of Le Petit Journal Illustré 3 July 1921. Image source

Page 2.

The second page of the newspaper carries a short article about the image. It says that submarines cross the Atlantic transporting people and merchandise. These submarines also allow officials of the Republic to travel to America to gather support. It adds that the image shows Sinn Feiners receiving arms and munition from the submarine.