Revolutionary Ireland Through a Lens

The period from 1913 to 1923 in Ireland's history of rebellion, is undoubtedly the most significant. The period takes in the revival of interest in all things Irish around 1913, the heroic Easter Rising of 1916, the bloody War of Independence 1919-1921 and the bitter Civil War of 1922-1923. Padraig Og O Ruairc's new book Revolution brings images of these two episodes, the people, the places, city and country, with insightful commentary describing the context of each photograph. Revolution includes previously unpublished photos sourced from private collections, the Irish Military Archives, Kilmainham Gaol and a variety of British military museums.

Barbara Scully met with Padraig for writing.ie to find out more...

Can we start Padraig by you telling me a little about yourself and your interest in this period of Irish History

I’m originally from Meelick in Clare a small rural parish just over the border from Limerick city. I’ve been living in Cork for the past six years, about three of which I spent on Cape Clear Island learning Irish. I currently work for the Irish Heritage Service / O.P.W. at Charles Fort in Kinsale.

As a boy my interest in history was fired by family trips to Milltown Malbay in West Clare to visit my parent’s relatives. My father was born and reared in the shadow of Drommin Hill, Rineen - the site of a famous ambush during the War of Independence. An elderly relative of my mothers, Micko Hayes, was a local seanachai. On visits to his farm he would lead me across fields to show me ancient ruins, all the time regaling me with local history and folklore. Miko had lived through the War of Independence and Civil war and it was his personal recollections and stories of that period in particular which took the strongest hold of my imagination. 

‘Revolution’ is a beautiful and very compelling read.  Were you aware that there were a lot of photos relating to this period that had not been published before?  They seem to have been sourced from a wide variety of archives, including the British Military.  Were they reasonably easy to get hold of?

There are literally thousands of photos surviving from the period of the Irish revolution – in terms of both written source material and photographs it is probably one of the best documented revolutions in world history. A huge amount of photographs from the period are available from online catalogues and in museums. For example Kilmainham Jail Museum in Dublin has a collection of about two thousand photographs. The staff there were hugely helpful to me in providing images, information and assistance. In other cases I discovered photographs that were very interesting, dramatic or compelling but had great difficulty in trying to uncover who owned the copyright ninety years after the photograph was taken.

I specifically tried to use as many unusual or previously unseen photographs as possible to narrate the events of 1913 -1923. Many of these came from private collections or British Army museums and these can give us a different perspective of the conflict.

Photography was a relatively new technology at this time.  Were you surprised at the quantity and quality of the pictures?  Did you have to leave a lot out? 

The problem was that so many brilliant, gripping and dramatic period photographs available I had to make some very tough decisions in choosing the final four hundred photographs for the book. I think there is still great potential there for other historians to compile local photographic histories of the period that could give people in each town or county a better idea of what happened in their area around the time of the 1916 Rising.

Some of the photographs are very graphic.  Did these photos change your perception of the War of Independence and the Civil War?  I think that many of us were given a very sanitised version of events in school.

Many Irish people have been presented with an over simplified and sanitised version of the 1916 Rising, War of Independence and Civil War – that is just how it has traditionally been portrayed in the education system and the media. I suppose I would have had that very simple black and white view of the period too before I wrote my first books about the War of Independence and Civil War.

For a long time people seemed to have been afraid to discuss the period in detail because they believed it might fuel more modern conflicts but I hope we are starting to shake that off. I think that a new, younger generation of historians are on the rise, that aren’t burdened by as much political baggage and Civil War politics, and who are ready to examine and tackle this period of our history in a more honest and open way.

A lot of the pictures are remarkable but I was particularly struck by the set on page 151 of the two IRA volunteers photographed shortly before their execution in Mountjoy Jail.  They are very jolly photographs.   Can you comment?

The photographs of Paddy Moran and Thomas Whelan taken in Mountjoy Jail are really remarkable. Both men were sentenced to death for the assassination of British Intelligence officers in Dublin on Bloody Sunday. They were both hung at Mountjoy on 14 March 1921. Four photographs were taken of them posing with their British prison guards a few days before their execution. The men show now ill will towards their captors and appear to be quite happy to pose with them for photographs. Whelan even has his arm around an R.I.C. Auxiliary in one photograph. I suppose the men were resigned to their fate. They knew there was no chance of a reprieve and adopted a jovial air in the photographs because that’s the sort of men they were in life and its how they wanted to be remembered by their friends, family and comrades.

The photos in the Truce section show very clearly how quickly the IRA transformed themselves into the embryonic Free State Army.  In their smart uniforms they look as smart as the British.  The poverty depicted especially in Dublin is also very striking.  Just how important do you think photographs are in giving us a clearer picture of historical events? 

I think there is a lot of detail that we can get from period photographs that isn’t always apparent in historical documents. If you look at photographs of military raids in Dublin the panic and shock is all too obvious on the faces of the fleeing civilians. You can often see the confusion and uncertainty of the soldiers many of whom haven’t yet reached their twenties. Sometimes a good photographer could capture the pathos and drama of an event that a talented writer would have great difficulty in conveying.

The photos in the Civil War section portray it as almost an orgy of violence and destruction – seeming to cause far more damage than the War of Independence.  Is this a correct view?

That’s a tough question to answer. The casualties of the War of Independence both military and civilian were much higher than those of the Civil War. There are a few different reasons why we tend to assume that the Civil war was more brutal. 

Firstly, in terms of photography, there were a lot more press photographers in Dublin to record the death and destruction caused by the outbreak of the civil war, than would have been in the city at the time of the 1916 Rising – so there are many more Civil War images available and they are far more real and graphic.

Secondly, in terms of history and public consciousness, there was always a taboo about discussing the events of the Civil War which never extended to the 1916 Rising or War of Independence so people usually know a lot less about it.

Finally, because of the nature of the Civil War - Irishman against Irishman, father against son, and brother against brother we tend to be much more repulsed by its detail. I think the name of the Civil War in Irish - “Cogadh n gCarad” (War of The Friends) is very telling in that regard.

I was surprised at the staging of many photographs for propaganda purposes – by both sides.  Spin and PR in action.  Can you comment? 

It is often said that history repeats itself. Well it doesn’t, but it does tend to rhyme a lot! I think photographers and politicians realised the political power of the photograph as soon as the camera was invented.

There is a photograph in the book purporting to show British troops searching a captured I.R.A. member after an ambush in Kerry. However it was staged for propaganda purposes during the War Of Independence by the film makers Gennell and Starmer who had been commissioned by the British Government in 1920 to produce images to convince the British public that their forces were winning an increasing unpopular war.

Other photographs were deliberately altered afterwards to reflect the bitter political divisions following the Civil War. One photograph of a group of veterans of the 1916 Rising was ‘airbrushed’ two remove two figures who had taken the ‘wrong’ side during the Civil War. We would tend to associate this kind or trickery more with Stalinist Russia than early twentieth century Ireland but clearly similar practices were not unknown here.

So – what’s next for you?  Have you uncovered more photos that you think we should see? 

There’s certainly dozens more photographs out there that could be brought to light, I couldn’t fit them all into the book – but right now I think there are still a lot more fascinating stories from the Irish Revolution of 1913 -1923 that need to be told. I’m working on a Ph D at the University of Limerick with the Truce of 11^th July 1921, which ended the War of Independence, as the topic of my thesis. I am also working on a project to transcribe the handwritten interviews that the I.R.A. veteran, writer and historian Ernie O’ Malley conducted with other I.R.A. veterans in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

(c) Barbara Scully, November 2011. 

For those of you with an interest in Irish History we recommend that you read Fearghal McGarry - Rebels: Voices From The Easter Rising