Civil War in Ulster: Dawson

Dawson Visit 1911

I am indebted to Helen Langley the Bodleian MS specialist for the suggestion that to get a handle on the 1910-11 political background to JJ's Oxford period I look at the Dawson, Harcourt and Asquith papers.

Geoffrey Dawson (1874-1944) was Editor of the Times 1912 - 1919, and subsequently 1923 - 1941. He appeared at this time to have been disposed to be friendly to Ireland and open-minded about Home Rule (1.1).

However like many others he seriously underestimated the extent and depth of the Tory influence in Ulster. In a note made on Aug 28 1911 he refers to '...the mistaken theory that the Unionist Party is going to get back to power through uncompromising opposition to Home Rule... the opposition among the Unionist members to Home Rule "in any shape or form" has largely disappeared...'. and that '...the dangers which existed in the 80s and 90s are certainly reduced already to an enormous extent - to a point, in the opinion of many Unionists, where the risk of facing them is ustified...'.

In October 1911 he visited Ireland for the first time, as the guest of Sir Horace Plunkett, who met him at Kingstown with Healy the Editor of the Irish Times. Following discussions he noted '...the attitude of the RC Church in Ireland towards the coming Home Rule Bill....the priests are almost unanimously opposed to HR as certain to weaken their influence... education in Ireland was still dominated by the religious bodies to an extent unknown in any other British country, and priest and parson were united to preserve their domination...'

He went on to note that '...Healy raised the question of the recent promulgation of the "ne temere decree"...and the McCann case....which would provide Unionists with an unimpeachable case...' and that '...Carson's "No Popery" speeches were alienating all Unionist RCs, just has his "provisional government" scheme for Ulster were alienating all non-Ulster Unionists...the RC businessmen of Dublin declined to welcome Carson on his impending visit.' The 'ne temere decree' is treated at length in Chapter 3 of my father's book, in the context of an international comparison of Church-State relationships.

On Oct 4 he came round to reckon with Ulster as an anti-Home Rule force, in the context of a conversation with Plunkett: '...did Ulster mean these threats of civil war, of marching to Cork etc, or was it bluff? He thought that Carson and co were committed first and foremost by a desire to frighten the Liberal government in advance, that it was, in fact, largely bluff.... but these speeches were taken very seriously by the grim Puritan rank-and-file to whom they were addressed. He held however that civil war was unthinkable by a large body of Ulstermen and by the central and south Irish Unionists....He was prepared too for actual bloodshed to the extent of of religious riots in Belfast, Portadown etc...'

He also noted that '...the second force against HR was the apathy of the farmers, new ...landowners ...growing indifference to politics produced by a sincere interest in development...the fruits of Horace Plunkett's work...'. Dawson was picking up the scene as perceived then by Plunkett.

He ends the day dining with Canon J A Hannay ('George Birmingham')(1.2), rector of Westport, one Hanson (a Wyndham follower) and George Russell (AE) '...editor of the Homestead, a strange dirty bearded genius....(who took the position that)...forms of government are immaterial in Ireland so long as they enable a 'social order'....direct personal interest of every individual in economic progress, as the Greeks found ...politics...'.

The next day Oct 5 with Plunkett and again with AE: '...personal interest in Government...as in a small State which he admitted however must in these days form part of a large federal body...'.

We get a picture of a benign Home Rule movement, with a strong cooperative component, emerging as part of an imperial though democratising federation, and no sense of impending Partitionist doom.

However by March 20 1912 he had begun to take a more critical view of Plunkett's perception; arising from a conversation with him he noted '...as to next week's demonstration (Plunkett was) hopeful that B(onar) L(aw) would go back to Balfour's policy of rural self-help, as opposed to the Birrell Congested Districts Board, and be entirely constructive in his speech. This hope, again, he modified on learning that BL was to speak to a vast multitude, clamouring for a 'lead', out of doors, instead of in the Ulster Hall.....P(lunkett) said he himself would as far as possible keep out of the fray...(he) was urging Londonderry and co to be strictly non-political at the Belfast IAOS meeting..'.

One gets a sense of unawareness or denial on the part of Plunkett of the danger of destruction of his life's work by the Tory-led sectarian mob, and Dawson, more clued in, trying to warn him.

Notes and References (Dawson)

1.1 I am indebted to Gary Peatling in Oxford, whose thesis deals with the intellectual climate in this period, for some comments on the above: '...Dawson was fairly ignorant of Ireland in 1911-2 (his political upbringing had been concentrated on Imperial questions, particularly South Africa), though his thought developed in the next two years when he had to steer the editorial policy of The Times through successive political crises. His August 28th memo was also written shortly after the passing of the 1911 Parliament Act, when there was depression in Tory circles and some feeling that Home Rule was inevitable.

There were other influences on Dawson besides Plunkett - G.E. Buckle and W.F. Monypenny (Times editor and leader-writer respectively, and the joint-biographers of Disraeli) tutored Dawson in The Times' tradition of staunch opposition to Irish nationalism (dating back to before the 'Parnellism and Crime' articles of 1887). This tradition heavily influenced Times policy during 1912-14. During these years, The Times made it clear that it was completely opposed to Home Rule in any shape or form; it even regarded autonomy for southern Ireland with partition as an emergency measure, acceptable only as an alternative to civil war.

Ideally, it wanted a general election to be called to defeat the Liberal government and its Home Rule Bill (see for instance the Times leaders on 17 Nov 1913, p.7, 26 Oct 1912, p.7, 14 Mar 1914, p.9, etc., also Monypenny's posthumous book The Two Irish Nations (London, 1912), which Dawson greatly admired - see Dawson papers (Bodleian Library), MS Dawson 20; diary, 6 Jan. 1914). During the first world war, Dawson's Times was fiercely critical of the Irish nationalists for failing to accept conscription. In 1919-1920, Dawson edited, The Round Table, a quarterly imperial journal which was equally unsympathetic to Irish nationalism under his editorship. Significantly, in 1921, there was a softening in the attitudes of both The Times and The Round Table to nationalist Ireland while under different editors (respectively Wickham Steed and John Dove)...'

1.2 Canon Hannay was the author of a series of humorous books about the Irish rural scene, under the pseudonym 'George Birmingham'. These has somewhat more of a critical edge than the works of Somerville and Ross, with which they might be compared, as exemplars of the process of the colonial culture becoming 'national', without accepting the need to go 'Catholic'.

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