Press coverage of the First Dáil

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The inaugural sitting of Dáil Éireann on 21 January 1919 marked a moment when scores of newspapers across a disunited kingdom competed to capture what often is called “the first draft of history.”

From London to Dublin, Belfast to Cork, Derry to Kerry, reporters and editors struggled to identify the true significance of an unprecedented event. They also strove to forecast, somehow, its likely tide of consequence.

From one side of the aisle, Irish nationalist periodicals hopefully declared “a new epoch”. From the other, newspapers committed to the British status quo observed “futile and unreal” rebel pretensions.

Looking back a century later, it’s insightful to read how much observers on the day, whether republican or unionist in angle, struggled to discern the significance of the first fateful day of the First Dáil.

Irish Independent, 20 January 1919

Britain and Ireland

“Dáil Éireann” first appears in newsprint on 8 January 1919, as nationalist newspapers publish the Sinn Féin statement declaring the newly elected MPs’ intention to mount a breakaway assembly later that month in the Mansion House. The Irish Independent reprints the MPs’ statement in full.

On the eve of the meeting, the Irish Independent reports:

“With regard to the Dail Eireann, the preparations have been proceeding steadily. A limited number of tickets will be available for the public in the galleries of the Round Room on application to Sinn Fein Headquarters. … Formal invitations were also sent to the MPs interned, or in prison on specific charges, but no one expects that any of these will be set free to attend.”

Evening Herald, 20 January 1919

One of Dublin’s three afternoon newspapers of the day, the Evening Herald, published a detailed report on its front page seeking to describe how the session would unfold. It, like other papers, reported that the members of the new assembly would be called FDEs (Feisire Dáil Éireann) and wondered how much Irish language they would use. “The Dail Eireann will open with the election of a Speaker,” it said. “The word Speaker, however, will not be used, but the Irish equivalent, a committee having been appointed to arrange Irish titles for the different officers afterwards.” Like other Irish papers of the time, it publishes highlights from the main London papers, such as The Daily Telegraph’s speculation:

“Unless Sinn Feiners kick up a row, there will be peace in Dublin on Tuesday. Whether Dail Eireann will enter upon its full programme at its first sitting is not certain. If it does, it will be seen Sinn Fein is going the whole hog.”

Dublin’s three late newspapers – the Evening Telegraph, Evening Mail and Evening Herald – were first with written accounts on their front pages.

“Historic Assembly in the Mansion House, INDEPENDENCE DECLARED,” blared the Evening Herald. It described how two senior police commanders watched from a window opposite the Mansion House as thousands queued in “an air of anxious expectancy.”

An accompanying sketch described the scene inside the Mansion House:

“At three o’clock the doors were thrown open and in surged the populace. The order was simply a revelation. The first signs of a rush were quickly suppressed by the stewards, and from that on the visitors took their seats and places with commendable precision. The smoothness … was really most wonderful.”

The Irish Times, January 1919

The Irish Times, then the voice of the unionist status quo, saw events differently – as both farcical and deadly dangerous. The Mansion House proceedings, it reported the following morning, were “futile and unreal,” its provisional constitution “a fantastic mixture of autocracy and artlessness,” its ceremony a procession of “cloudy performances.” The newspaper noted the killing of two policemen that evening in Tipperary and contrasted that with the Dublin Fusiliers’ welcome home ceremony, following four and a half years of captivity as prisoners of war, at the Mansion House immediately before the inaugural Dáil. “The priest who had shared their sufferings in Germany gave them this simple mandate – ‘Be true to your faith and to your country.’ It is the mandate that all Ireland needs at this time,” the Irish Times argued, “when folly walks abroad in the garb of patriotism and, in its tragic blindness, preaches the breaking up of laws.”

Nationality, 25 January 1919

At the other end of the editorial spectrum, the weekly Nationality, edited by Sinn Féin founder Arthur Griffith, observed a hope-filled generational change in the Mansion House turnout. “Standing and looking round at the sea of faces in the Round Room, one could not fail to think that here was a glimpse of the Ireland of the future,” Nationality declared on its front page that Saturday, 25 January.

“Here was the key to the puzzle which has so long baffled politicians, statesmen, historians and prophets. … It was essentially a gathering of young men and women thoroughly alert and sincere, frank and unabashed. Here and there a few grey hairs and bald heads could be seen, but the prevailing tone was young and fresh, seasoned by a well-balanced patriotism, which promises great things for the youngest democracy of the oldest of nations.”

The New York Times, 22 January 1919

The United States

While many American servicemen were in Dublin on the day, the only reporters representing the US media in the Mansion House on 21 January 1919 came from two rival American agencies: The Associated Press (AP) and the smaller United Press. Together, their reports spread through mass syndication deals to thousands of newspapers across the then 48 states. America’s evening papers, five to eight hours behind Ireland, managed to publish the news on the same day, while the morning papers carried accounts on 22 January.

Although all newspapers received the same telegraphed stories, that didn’t stop each publication’s subeditors from playing it their own way. Distinct headlines and peculiar angles reflected, in some areas, the high Irish immigrant community in their readership, and in other locations, a glaring lack of affinity for matters Irish.

The New York Times proved most diligent in covering the build-up to the debut of Dáil Éireann, publishing a half-dozen AP reports leading up to its 22 January story atop the front page: “Irish Assembly Proclaims the Irish Republic.”

The Oakland Tribune, 21 January 1919

The Oakland Tribune in California put the AP story atop the 21 January front page and pulled lines from the story for its series of headlines. “Dail Eireann, Convening Under Tacit Permission of British Government, Is Battleground of Paradoxes,” it said. “Half of Nationalists Elected to British Houses Are in Jail, but Other Half Will Participate in the Big Conclave.”

“Sons of Erin will send delegates to Paris,” was the biggest takeaway to emerge from the first Dáil sitting, according to the Jan. 22, 1919, front-page story in The Statesman of Austin, Texas.

The Boston Evening Globe, by contrast, ran AP stories on its front page on successive days, 21 and 22 January and placed Ireland’s independence call in the context of wider demands within the British Empire for dominion status. “No Disturbance, Though Veterans of Great War Are Close at Hand,” the newspaper headlined, highlighting the AP’s colour of the Dublin Fusiliers attending a welcome-home luncheon immediately before the Dáil’s inaugural sitting.

The Chicago Daily Tribune, 23 January 1919

The Chicago Daily Tribune, though relying on another AP report, on 23 January asserted on its own “the threat that a free and hostile Ireland would be to England. The principal artery of English trade runs through the Irish sea, almost within sight of the Irish coast. For this reason it is not expected that England will allow the idea of a `free Ireland’ to get much beyond the talking stage.” An accompanying map of potentially imperilled shipping lanes labelled the divided island as Ulster versus “Sinn Fein Ireland.”

Elements of the New York press, substantially pro-British in outlook, managed to get forecasts similarly wrong. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of 22 January opined:

“We do not know how far the plan of winking at what is said in Dublin will go. We assume, as the world is bound to assume, that no attention will be paid to the demand for a withdrawal of the British garrisons in Ireland. Probably any force exhibition by the Sinn Feiners will be put down.”

The Indianapolis News, 21 January 1919

The Hot Springs New Era of Arkansas adopted a positively golly-gee tone. “Probably No Country Except Ireland Could Present an Episode as Remarkable as the Assembly of ‘Dail Eireann’,” it headlined, taking its line from the accompanying AP report.

The Indianapolis News in Indiana took that same story and topped it with something completely different – an air of sardonic scepticism. “Dublin Winks While Rebel Parliament Sits,” its 21 January headlines begin. “Enemies Freely Admitted to the ‘Dail Eireann’. ‘Republic’ is being born.”

The Miami Daily Metropolis put the AP report on top of the 22 January front page – but apparently didn’t read it too closely. “Constitution of Republic is before Dail Eiream,” (sic) it reported.

Though bylines were rare in the newspapers of a century ago, one stands out: Edward Pickard in The Yerington Times of Nevada. While adopting a broadly dismissive view of the Dáil in a review of news across Europe on 1 February, Mr. Pickard came nearer the mark than many when he forecast:

“The British government apparently intends to ignore the Sinn Fein republic until it undertakes to enforce laws that are in conflict with those established by the British; then the trouble is likely to begin.”

Vancouver Daily World, 22 January 1919

Canada

Canada, like the United States, was heavily dependent on reports filed by international news agencies, particularly the Associated Press. The AP’s broadly sceptical and London-centric tone resonated with pro-British newspapers in Canada, which was not yet independent of the UK.

Typical of the time was the 22 January front-page story in the Vancouver Daily World in British Columbia. Its acid overtones – particularly over the Dáil’s use of Irish – make for lively reading today.

“Declaration of Independence is Read in ‘Parliament’ in Gaelic, But Few Can Understand It. Fire of Oratory Killed by Use of Old Tongue,” read the locally written headlines of the AP story, which concedes that the members present “evidently felt themselves men playing great parts in a solemn sacrament.”

Australia

In distant corners of the Irish diaspora, the news sometimes took weeks or months to report, arriving by ship from London or Dublin. The Sydney Freeman’s Journal, for instance, ran a full-page spread on the launch of Dáil Éireann – on 3 April 1919.

What the report lacked in timeliness it made up for in detail, offering the full official list of the 29 members present and sweeping perspective on its importance. “The New Epoch in Irish History,” the Freeman’s Journal declared. It described the scene inside the Mansion House:

“The entire waiting audience rose when the Republican members, as they are now officially styled, entered the Round Room shortly after 3.30, and prolonged cheers greeted them, women especially being particularly demonstrative in waving miniature flags and handkerchiefs.”

Australia did receive more contemporaneous reports by telegraph, but these often were short, given the need to pay for each word sent. The Newcastle Sun in New South Wales made the rise of Dáil Éireann its top story on 25 January, with a headline declaring that Ireland was poised to break “the foreign yoke” of “English arrogance.” Among its hodgepodge of cabled news snippets, the Sun observed:

“Young men, women and priests dominated the proceedings. Count Plunkett was the only grey beard.”

The first reports, as usual in those days, arrived most quickly via the international news agencies with offices in London. The Sydney Sun carried a colour-free Reuters report on its front page sandwiched between stories from India, Portugal and Russia and ads for electric fans, sauces and jams. “The roll was called, standing orders adopted, and a declaration of independence read,” said Reuters’ bone-dry summary.

L’Intransigeant, 22 January 1919

France

France’s vibrant press registered most consistent interest, placing news of Ireland’s declaration of independence in its headlines and highlighting its French version. Roman Catholic and Breton publications displayed these reports on their front pages.

L’Ouest-Éclair, a republican and Roman Catholic newspaper based in Rennes, Brittany, made “The Sinn Fein congress proclaims the Irish Republic” its top foreign story of 23 January 1919.

The Roman Catholic newspaper La Croix placed the news from Dublin below its usual front-page fixture depicting Christ on the cross and the Latin motto “Thy Kingdom Come.” Its 23 January report noted that the “so-called Congress” was likely to appoint the imprisoned “De Vakera” (sic) as its prime minister.

The panoply of rival Parisian dailies all produced their own brief reports from Dublin, sometimes cobbled together from international agencies and the Irish press.

The right-wing L’Intransigeant used reports from the French agency Havas and the Daily Chronicle of Cork to produce its 22 January report on “The Sinn Feiners proclaim the independence of Ireland” in Irish, English and French.

Le Petit Parisien noted that George Gavan Duffy read the Declaration of Independence in French.

Berliner Börsen-Zeitung, 23 January 1919

Germany

The German press, reeling amid economic chaos and barred from reporting directly from London and Dublin, relied on foreign agencies. Typical was Berliner Börsen-Zeitung, which on 23 January published a brief Reuters report, datelined Amsterdam. It reported that 30 to 40 Sinn Féin members had gathered in Dublin’s City Hall to declare English withdrawal from Ireland. That not particularly accurate description, translated into several languages, appeared widely across the European press that week.

Italy

Ireland’s independence struggle resonated in the German-speaking fringes of Europe, where wartime promises and the Versailles talks were poised to shift borders to their disadvantage.

In Tirol, suddenly removed from the collapsed Austria-Hungary and absorbed into Italy, Der Tiroler of Bozen (German for modern-day Bolzano) told its German-speaking readership on 26 January that the rise of Dáil Éireann posed an uncomfortable question for British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George. England, it wrote, had just won a war fighting for nations’ rights and independence, and now faced this “double-edged weapon” in Ireland.

El Sol, 23 January 1919

Spain

Spain’s newspapers were represented in Dublin by a reporter from the Spanish agency Fabra. However, they sidelined the Irish news in January 1919 because of turmoil in neighbouring Portugal, where royalists in the military had just launched an insurrection to aid King Manuel II’s return to the throne. Still, most papers found brief space for Fabra’s Dáil Éireann dispatches, augmented by pickups of material from British newspapers.

El Sol of Madrid on 23 January carried the dramatic headlines “The grave problem in Ireland” and “The separatists have ordered the immediate proclamation of the republic”. Its report included a summary of an opinion from the conservative Morning Post of London mocking the “pretensions” of those assembled in the Mansion House and warning that rebellion could produce “bloody events”.