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ABSTRACT
At the time of the Easter Rising of 1916 Britain had been engaged in the Great War against Germany for almost two years and on a scale and intensity previously unprecedented. This broader Great War backdrop is significant when analysing the 1916 Easter Rising, as it not only influenced the events which occurred in Dublin, but also the interpretation and presentation of the political violence. Despite the Easter Rising being well-documented in secondary literature, with a resurgence accounted for by its recent centenary, the British press and its portrayals of the events of 1916 has been one aspect which has not received as much scholarly attention. By analysing key stages in the uprising’s portrayal, it can be determined that the Manchester Guardian’s utilisation of the German connection had a two-fold implication. Utilising historical precedents of German-Irish “friendship”, such as the gun-running episodes of pre-War 1914, the newspaper justified its portrayal of Germany provoking violence in Ireland to disrupt British war efforts. Additionally, for the Manchester Guardian, the Irish rebels were depicted negatively in its articles as it attempted to halt the growth of republicanism, thereby ensuring the promotion of a more “moderate” form of nationalism.
Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the support of the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, especially Prof Diane Urquhart and Dr Kevin Bean, for providing academic assistance as well as spaces to discuss and debate aspects of Irish studies. I would also like to thank my friends and family for their ceaseless emotional backing which has enabled this article’s fruition.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. de Nie, “Comic Press, Ireland, and Empire”, 234–5.
2. O’Hegarty, The Victory of Sinn Féin, 1.
3. Bell, Hesitant Comrades, 11 and 31–2. Further sympathetic support of Lansbury towards Irish independence can be found in Shepherd, George Lansbury, 152 and 172. In 1917, concurrent with the events which were happening in Russia, Lansbury wrote in the Herald (at the time a weekly newspaper due to wartime increases in production cost) that: “For more than seven centuries Britain has attempted to rule Ireland against the will of the Irish people … the same is true of India. That great nation of 350 million of human souls is awakening as Russia awakened … the British people … must understand that our approval of revolution in Russia makes it unthinkable that we should perpetuate the domination of India by Europeans”. Anti-imperialist sentiment of the left-wing politician demonstrates the sympathetic undertones to Ireland’s, amongst other imperialist countries’, struggle for independence from Britain.
4. Galazzi, “‘Dublin Traitors’ or ‘Gallants of Dublin’”; Rowland, “The American Catholic Press”; McKeane, “Evolving Perceptions of Ireland”, and Ward, “Reception of the Easter Rising.” Included in Ward’s article is the analysis of The New Age, The Egoist and The Spectator which are magazines of British origin.
5. Schmuhl, “Peering Through the Fog,” 38–9.
6. Ibid, 41.
7. Ayerst, Guardian, 204–5.
8. Ibid, 388.
9. Williams, Read All About It!, 137.
10. Putnis, “Share 999,” 158.
11. Defence of the Realm Act, 1914. (4&5 Geo. 5), Chapter 29.
12. Walsh, The News from Ireland, 181.
13. Scott (ed.), Political Diaries, 100.
14. Herman and Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent, 1.
15. Ibid, 2.
16. Herman, “The Propaganda Model,” 105.
17. Foster, Vivid Faces, 204–6.
18. Fanning, Fatal Path, 71–4.
19. See above 17, 6.
20. Foy and Barton, The Easter Rising, 19–32.
21. Foster, Vivid Faces, xvi.
22. Hammond, C. P. Scott, 66–7.
23. Boyce, Englishmen and Irish Troubles, 88–90. See: Manchester Guardian, 20 May 2023, 25, 1918.
24. Rowland, “The American Catholic Press,” 69.
25. Doerries, “Introduction,” 7.
26. Sawyer, Casement, 125.
27. Manchester Guardian, 19 May 1916.
28. Manchester Guardian, 25 April 1916.
29. Wilkinson, Depictions and Images of War, 11.
30. See above 28, 1916.
31. Ibid.
32. Sawyer, Casement, 96–7.
33. McKeane, “Evolving Perceptions of Ireland,” 158–9.
34. See above 28, 1916.
35. McKeane, “Evolving Perceptions of Ireland,” 170–1.
36. “Private Papers of Roy Bright”, Imperial War Museum, London (09/60/1).
37. Schmuhl, “Peering Through the Fog,” 38.
38. Ibid, 38–9. Description of the disruption to communication networks during the Rising can be found in: Bohan, “1916 and the Battle of the Airwaves,” 6–7.
39. Manchester Guardian, 26 April 1916.
40. Ibid.
41. de Nie, The Eternal Paddy, 25. Similar connotations are drawn upon in the American newspapers regarding this: Schmuhl, “Peering Through the Fog”, 41.
42. de Nie, The Eternal Paddy, 269–71.
43. Manchester Guardian, 28 April 1916.
44. Manchester Guardian, 6 May 1916.
45. Manchester Guardian, 29 April 1916.
46. Manchester Guardian, 1 May 1916.
47. Manchester Guardian, 17 May 1916.
48. McGarry, Rebels, 319.
49. See above 45. 1916.
50. Manchester Guardian, 9 May 1916.
51. Ibid.
52. Forker, “Use of the ‘Cartoonist Armoury’,” 59.
53. Scott (ed.), Political Diaries, 205–6.
54. Ibid, 217–8.
55. Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, 138–9 and Bourdieu, On Television, 1. Further commentary on the idea of self-censorship can be found in Bunn’s article, “Reimagining Repression.”
56. Manchester Guardian, 15 May 1916.
57. Manchester Guardian, 11 May 1916.
58. Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, 170.
59. Manchester Guardian, 25 May 1918.
60. Foster, Vivid Faces, 262.
61. McKeane, “Evolving Perceptions of Ireland”, 153. McKeane articulates how the French press, because of the impacts of censorship and the war, was greatly reliant upon utilising British newspapers and House of Commons speeches for their presentation of the Easter Rising (pages 154–63).
62. Manchester Guardian, 3 May 1916.
63. Ibid.
64. Corporate opposition to left-wing politics is documented in the lack of support, most importantly financial, which the socialist newspaper the Daily Herald received from advertisements and businesses: Richards, “Construction, Conformity and Control,” 24.
65. Manchester Guardian, 6 January 1918.
66. Herman and Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent, 30–1.
67. Collins (ed.), The Path to Freedom, 57.