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Abstract
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, was committed to war. The independent Irish state, on the other hand, declared neutrality and introduced a particularly vigorous censorship regime designed to ensure that no comment or opinion emanating from its press could possibly be interpreted as contradictory to the state’s neutrality. Historically Irish newspapers had largely relied on common, syndicated news agency material to report international events. Now, for the first time, they operated under two state-backed regimes with markedly different aims for presentation and comment on war news. This article reveals how the differing state-controlled mechanisms operating in Ireland affected the presentation and interpretation of news from common sources, particularly concentrating on the London-based Press Association, of the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 and the Allied landings on D-Day in 1944.
Notes
1 News coverage by broadcast media is not the focus of this article. During the Second World War, the BBC did not transmit a separate programme from its Northern Ireland transmitter and in the independent Irish state Radio Éireann, as a state-sponsored broadcaster, was expected to effectively censor itself.
2 Silberstein-Loeb, The International Supply of News, 3, 7–8, 197.
3 Though the PA was founded in 1868, when the Press Association Ltd’s articles of association were issued, it could not begin operation as news agency until the transfer of the telegraph system from private hands to government control, through the Post Office, was achieved in February 1870 under the terms of the 1869 Electric Telegraph Act. See ‘Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Press Association Limited’, 6 November 1868, Guildhall Library Manuscripts Collection, London (GL) MS 35355; Moncrieff, Living on a Deadline, 11–15.
4 Rantanen, “The Struggle for Control of Domestic News Markets,” 35–7.
5 See, for example, Lowry, “Nationalist and Unionist Responses,” 161; McGarry, “Irish Newspapers and the Spanish Civil War,” 76; Ó Drisceoil, Censorship in Ireland, 117.
6 Barton, Northern Ireland in the Second World War, 4.
7 Blake, Northern Ireland in the Second World War, 173–8. It should be noted that, as a government sponsored publication, a certain caution must be applied to Blake’s work, see Ollerenshaw, Northern Ireland in the Second World War, 4.
8 Throughout this article, Ireland refers to all-Ireland considerations and Northern Ireland to that polity, the phrases ‘independent Irish state’ or ‘neutral Ireland’ are used to refer to the 26 county polity. For an exploration of the different names, and their political implications, used for the dominion status state Irish Free State created in 1922, renamed Ireland, or Éire in the Irish language, under the 1937 Constitution of Ireland/Bunreacht na hÉireann and declared the Republic of Ireland in 1948, see Daly, “The Irish Free State/Éire/Republic of Ireland/Ireland.”
9 Ó Drisceoil, Censorship in Ireland, 20–2, 284.
10 Wills, That Neutral Island, 47. Dáil Éireann is the lower house of the Irish parliament.
11 Gageby, “Media, 1945–70,” 125; Horgan, Irish Media, 42; Lee, Ireland, 262; Ó Drisceoil, “Censorship as Propaganda,” 151; and Ó Drisceoil, Censorship in Ireland, 6.
12 Lee and Ó Tuathaigh, The Age of de Valera, 78; Fanning, “Irish Neutrality: An Historical Review,” 28, 30.
13 Lee, Ireland, 245.
14 Ibid., 244; Keogh, Twentieth Century Ireland, 122.
15 Memorandum on the Emergency Powers (No. 5) Order 1939 from Michael Rynne to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin) (Copy) (Secret), 15 September 1939. National Archives of Ireland, Department of Foreign Affairs, Legal Advisers Papers. Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, Vol. VI, no. 24, http://www.difp.ie/docs/1939/Emergency-Powers/3024.htm.
16 Dillon had been forced to resign from his position as deputy leader of the opposition Fine Gael and the party itself in February 1942 over his criticisms of neutrality.
17 Dáil Éireann Debates, Vol. 88, No. 3, Col. 285 (9 July 1942).
18 Dáil Éireann Debates, Vol. 89, No. 6, Col. 715 (18 February 1943).
19 Gray, Mr Smyllie, Sir, 159.
20 Lee, Ireland, 242.
21 Ó Drisceoil, Censorship in Ireland, 286.
22 Ibid., 285–90.
23 Ribeiro, “Censorship and Scarcity,” 75, 77.
24 Ibid., 79.
25 Ribeiro, “BBC,” 397.
26 Gunther, Montero, and Wert, Media and Politics in Spain, 5.
27 Beevor, The Battle for Spain, xxiv; Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, 532.
28 Black, Spain since 1939, 30.
29 Payne, The Franco Regime, 286.
30 Gunther, Montero, and Wert, Media and Politics in Spain, 5.
31 Payne, The Franco Regime, 286, 337.
32 Ribeiro, “BBC,” 341.
33 Ó Drisceoil, Censorship in Ireland, 298.
34 Read, The Power of News, 250.
35 PA General Manager’s Report Book, 5 April 1944 and 11 October 1944, GL MS 35363/2.
36 Calvocoressi, Wint, and Pritchard, Penguin History of the Second World War, 136.
37 Citino, “The German Assault, 1939–1941,” 155.
38 Ó Drisceoil, Censorship in Ireland, 20.
39 Read, The Power of News, 186.
40 Edward Davies, PA general manager, to Lloyd Stratton, AP corporate secretary, 16 February 1951. Associated Press Corporate Archive, New York, AP 01.4B, Box 37, Series VII: Affiliates and Subsidiaries.
41 “Treatment of the British United Press,” Charles Peake, Foreign Office, to W.B. Woodburn, Civil Service Commission (Copy), 20 July 1939. The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew (TNA), FO 395/666.
42 Belfast News Letter, May 31, 1940.
43 Irish News, May 28, 1940.
44 Belfast Telegraph, May 28, 1940.
45 Irish News, June 5, 1940.
46 Phoenix, “The History of a Newspaper,” 31.
47 Frank Gallagher Papers, nd. National Library of Ireland, MS 18361/3.
48 Cork Examiner, May 30, 1940.
49 O’Brien, De Valera, Fianna Fáil and the Irish Press, 74.
50 Irish Press, May 28, 1940.
51 Irish Times, May 31, 1940.
52 Irish Times, May 30, 1940.
53 Ó Drisceoil, Censorship in Ireland, 117.
54 Irish News, May 29, 1940.
55 Irish Times, May 29, 1940.
56 Calvocoressi, Wint, and Pritchard, Penguin History of the Second World War, 539.
57 Ó Drisceoil, Censorship in Ireland, 21–2.
58 Ó Drisceoil, “May We Safely Refer to the Land League?” 102–3.
59 Belfast Telegraph, June 6, 1944.
60 Belfast Telegraph, June 6, 1944.
61 Read, The Power of News, 263.
62 Ibid., 265.
63 Ibid., 256.
64 PA General Manager’s Report Book, 11 March 1942. GL MS 35363/1.
65 Cullen, Eason and Son, 359–60.
66 Northern Whig, June 7, 1944.
67 Irish News, June 7, 1944.
68 Irish Times, June 7, 1944.
69 Irish News, June 7, 1944.
70 Northern Whig, June 7, 1944.
71 Irish Independent, June 12, 1944.
72 Irish Press, June 7, 1944.
73 Irish Times, June 10, 1944.
74 Read, The Power of News, 265.
75 Belfast News Letter, June 7, 1944; Cork Examiner, June 7, 1944; Irish Independent, June 7, 1944; Irish Times, June 7, 1944; Northern Whig, June 7, 1944.
76 Cork Examiner, June 12, 1944; Irish Press, June 12, 1944; Irish Times, June 12, 1944; Northern Whig, June 12, 1944.
77 Horgan, Irish Media, 51.
78 Irish Press, June 7, 1944.
79 Horgan, Irish Media, 46.
80 McLaughlin, The War Correspondents, 65.
81 Wilke, “The Struggle for Control of Domestic News Agencies (2),” 51.
82 Read, The Power of News, 256.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
James T. O’Donnell
James T. O’Donnell, Discipline of History, School of Humanities, National University of Ireland, Galway, University Road, Galway H91 TK33, Ireland. Tel: +353 (0)91 492537.