The Friends of Irish Freedom in America

 

The Friends of Irish Freedom            Gerry OShea

According to the 1900 American census more than five million people identified themselves as born or first-generation Irish, a higher number than actually lived on the island of Ireland at that time.

 Many of these immigrants joined their county associations in the cities where most of the Irish congregated, and they also affirmed their roots by supporting other fraternal organizations like the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Clan na Gael - often referred to simply as the Clan - was an oath-bound society where members used passwords and special handshakes to protect their secrecy. They were an elite group with a relatively small membership. However, led by John Devoy, a crusty, determined Fenian,  they played a central role in the Irish community. They maintained a close partnership with the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), another Fenian offshoot headquartered in Dublin, and it was mostly Clan money that funded the Rising in 1916.

Devoy started the Gaelic American newspaper in New York in 1903 which covered a wide range of events of interest to the local Irish community. He adopted a clear line of support for Irish nationalist causes, but his paper did not openly advocate for the Fenian, revolutionary tradition which the Clan espoused.

 Daniel Cohalan, appointed a New York Supreme Court Judge in 1911, - widely known in the Irish community as simply the Judge - was Devoy’s main advisor. With Joe McGarrity, another solid Clan leader in Philadelphia, they decided that for maximum impact they needed to mobilize the Irish in the United States in a large umbrella grouping, speaking with one voice to the wider American community.

In pursuit of that goal they organized the first American Irish Race Convention which was held in the Hotel Astor in Manhattan on March 4^th 1916. An impressive 2300 delegates arrived from all over the United States to deliberate on how the authentic Irish voice could be heard in the country. Their goals centered around achieving independence for Ireland and promoting the sale of Irish goods in the United States.

Most significantly, the Friends of Irish Freedom (FOIF) was formed to advance the goals of the Convention. To add prestige to the new organization, Victor Herbert, a renowned composer with a strong commitment to Irish causes, was appointed president, but the Judge provided the real leadership of the 17-member executive, fifteen of whom were members of the Clan.

Most Irish people in New York replicated the feelings of their families at home, acclaiming the policies of the Irish Parliamentary Party which, under the leadership of Charles Parnell and, after him, John Redmond, won major concessions in the crucial area of land ownership by tenants, and in 1912 finally got Prime Minister Asquith and his ruling Liberal Party to pass a Home Rule Bill which granted substantial governing powers for the whole island to a parliament in Dublin.

Home Rule led to a major constitutional crisis in Ireland. Loyalists in the North organized a large militia and, led by Edward Carson, they asserted that they would fight rather than accept the decision of the Westminster Parliament on this issue. Nobody doubted their serious intent.

The First World War intervened and large numbers of Irishmen from all corners of the country volunteered their services supporting the British confrontation with Germany. Some of the leaders in Westminster predicted that the conflict, which started on July 28^th, 1914, would be over by Christmas. In fact, it lasted until November 1918.

 The British postponed the implementation of Home Rule until after the war, and they yielded to Carson, who was the Attorney General in their war cabinet, by agreeing to support a second parliament in Belfast, seriously undercutting the Home Rule Bill and undermining a core nationalist principle that partitioning the island was unacceptable.

Clan na Gael led strong Irish opposition to American involvement in what was widely spoken of as the Great War. There was widespread support for this position among the broader American population, many of whom felt that the country should avoid what seemed like another interminable European war. However, President Wilson, who ran as an isolationist in the presidential election in 1916, did an about-turn and brought the United States into the conflict in April 1917.

The Clan worked with their German counterparts in the United States and arranged transportation and financing for Roger Casement, who purchased a large consignment of arms in Germany for use by the IRB in their secret plans – known only in America to John Devoy and Judge Cohalan – for a rebellion planned for Easter 1916.

America’s involvement in the European war changed the political dynamics in Washington and beyond. All the ethnic communities, including the Irish, felt that they had to support the national drive for victory against the Germans. The political establishment frowned on what they called hyphenated Americans, questioning whether people who identified themselves with a foreign country prefix to their Americanism could be trusted as fully loyal and patriotic.

Membership and support for FOIF dwindled as the war effort escalated. President Wilson and others looked askance at repeated public criticism from some Irish leaders of England, now an ally in the conflagration engulfing Europe. A second Race Convention was held, again in New York, to re-assess policy, but the organization was weakened greatly by the ongoing fighting in Europe. Some FOIF branches did not even meet while patriotic war feelings dominated the country.

The Great War ended in November 1918, and in December the FOIF directed all its attention under new president, Fr. Peter Magennis, to persuading President Wilson to include Ireland’s claim to independence as part of the American agenda at the Paris Peace Conference.

The organization rallied around this singular demand and membership expanded to over 100,000 with 175,000 associates, mostly coming from the AOH. Wilson refused to confront his British allies on this important issue partly because he resented the Judge’s harsh criticism of his policies in a variety of areas.

There was another major factor that stirred the Irish community in those years. After the 1916 Rising, the British Government chose to execute the leaders of the revolt. These killings were carried out over weeks in the Stonebreaker’s Yard in Kilmainham Jail. Most Irish people at home and abroad were upset by the executions of idealistic Irishmen who were brave enough to take on the might of the Empire.

The British general election held in December 1918 had a vastly-expanded franchise and Sinn Fein swept the board in Ireland, outside of Ulster, winning 73 of a possible101 seats. Following the 1916 rebels’ revolutionary proclamation, the newly-elected MPs claimed a mandate for an Irish Republic, refusing to take their seats in Westminster and instead meeting in the Mansion House in Dublin where Eamon De Valera - better-known as Dev - was elected as president.

The War of Independence started the same day as the new Dail or assembly met in Dublin on January 21^st 1919. It was a guerilla war between the Irish Republican Army and the forces of the Crown.

A month after these momentous events in Ireland, the third Irish Race Convention took place in Philadelphia. Among the close to 50,000 attendees were thirty Catholic bishops and the intrepid Cardinal Gibbons from Baltimore. The delegates were united in demanding that the principle of self-determination enunciated by President Wilson in his 15-point peace plan should be applied to Ireland. To this end they sent a commission of three people to Paris to make the case for Irish independence, but they failed to get a hearing at the conference.

Diarmuid Lynch, a veteran of the 1916 Rebellion, was appointed secretary of the organization and he proved to be an accomplished organizer. After Philadelphia the FOIF had the wind at its back with the clear goal of promoting self-determination for Ireland and a dynamic new leader with proven nationalist credentials. There were 6000 members at the time of the Philadelphia Convention; by the end of the year the number exceeded 70,000.

During the height of the Anglo-Irish War in 1920 and until the truce in July 1921, the FOIF, led by Lynch, published a weekly newsletter about the happenings in Ireland and they circulated a widely-read pamphlet titled English Atrocities in Ireland.

In June of 1919 De Valera arrived in New York on a publicity and fund-raising tour. He was president of the nascent republic at home, so he felt that his leadership and priorities should prevail in America. Devoy and Cohalan argued that they understood the realities of local politics and that De Valera should fall in line with their program. The old saying that when two elephants fight only the ground suffers applies here.

Commenting on the situation later De Valera was quoted as saying: “Big and all as the country is, it isn’t big enough for the Judge and myself.” Relations were so bad around the middle of 1920 that Cohalan proposed at a meeting that Dev should return to Ireland and leave them to their own devices. It would probably have passed but McGarrity intervened and the motion was dropped.

By November 1920 relations were so bad that Harry Boland, Dev’s right-hand man, announced that Sinn Fein and the IRB were severing all ties with the FOIF, and setting up a new organization, The American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic (AARIR).

This rupture led to a serious leakage of membership from the FOIF. Also, understandably, the Irish Civil War caused real disillusionment among Irish Americans. By 1928 the membership had dropped to a mere 654 and the FOIF ceased to have any impact in the Irish community in America.

Gerry OShea blogs at wemustbetalking.com