During this challenging time when physical access to original archival sources has been curtailed because of Covid-19, sharing information in a digital format has never been more valued both by the repositories that hold them and the researchers who use them.
A new online exhibition entitled "Christmas 1921" by the Representative Church Body (RCB) Library in Dublin focuses on events at the end of 1921 – through the particular lens of the Church of Ireland Gazette and other complementary sources.
When peace comes, and the new Parliament shall be set up, all the old differences which have kept the Irish people divided for so long should begin to disappear
Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on December 6th, 1921, subsequent editions of the Gazette (the church’s weekly newspaper) reveal its opinion to be upbeat and optimistic, galvanising support for new political realities.
On December 16th, it declared: "Christmas this year will be a happy one for Ireland. During the last few weeks the sorrow of centuries have been buried, an age-old wound has been healed, and across the threshold the New Year, a new and glorious destiny is beckoning. Ireland has been born again."
Speaking specifically from a southern loyalist perspective, readers were reassured:
“Unionists of the new Irish Free State [would be treated] with every consideration . . . We welcome Mr Griffith’s assurance and can assure him that the loyalists of the South and the West are as good Irishmen as any, and that they will never cease to work in the future, as they always have worked in the past, for the prosperity and glory of their native land. When peace comes, and the new Parliament shall be set up, all the old differences which have kept the Irish people divided for so long should begin to disappear. ‘Politics’ as we have known them for generations should vanish . . . the loyalists of Ireland will take their rightful place among their own people”.
As the public awaited ratification of the Treaty by the London and Dublin parliaments, a full page in the same edition was devoted to the sermon preached by the Rev T W E Drury MA (1872-1960) rector of Raheny parish (Dublin) and also chaplain to the Archbishop of Dublin (John Gregg) in which he exhorted thanks for the "momentous . . . political events of last week" and the "big political step" forward:
“Far more serious than whether we were to live under a Republic or a Monarchy, or any other variety of Government, was the increasing spirit of lawlessness, contempt for human life, untruthfulness, and sectarian and class hatred.”
We are prepared to accept this Treaty lest our country, including ourselves, become involved in the fate of Humpty Dumpty
He urged people to get behind the newly-constituted government of the Irish Free State: “We can become loyal citizens of the new Irish State, and remain so as long as we have liberty to exercise life and religion according to conscience. We must be loyal as a matter of principle.”
However, not everyone agreed and several protesting letters were published including one with dismay at “indecent haste” for “paeans of joy” claiming that a “safer course of silence” meant southern loyalist opinion was not being reflected.
The December 30th edition continued with positivity: “We are prepared to accept this Treaty lest our country, including ourselves, become involved in the fate of Humpty Dumpty”:
“We pray, and we believe, that the Dáil will ratify the Treaty, which has been offered as a Christmas gift to Ireland by the British people, and in that event, Christmas will be the happiest festival our country has ever known in the course of her long and sorrowful history.”
A complementary source for the period is the "Record" of the RCB Library's founding benefactor – Rosamond Stephen (1868-1951) – being a collection of diary entries and outward correspondence which remains in typescript format in the RCB Library's manuscript collections (MS 253).
English by birth, she had made Ireland her home and became a founding member of the Irish Guild of Witness from her residence in Upper Mount Street Dublin to “encourage patriotism and discover fresh ways by which the Church could fulfil her mission to the nation”.
Stephen’s “Record” gives insight to the thoughts of one influential lay member of the church in these tumultuous times.
After recounting in some detail disturbances in Dublin which impacted her home directly as it was located beside the barracks at Beggar’s Bush, subsequent diary entries recount her attendance at the annual Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, at Christmas in 1921.
Remarkably, just two years after the worst impact of the so-called ‘Spanish’ Flu (resulting in more than 50 million deaths worldwide, 23,000 of them in Ireland) she was glad to record the cathedral to be “cram jam full”.
Free public access to all the RCB Library's digital archives and exhibitions relevant to the Decade of Centenaries programme (including the fully searchable Church of Ireland Gazette digital archive from 1856-2010) will continue here to at least the end of 2033, thanks to a generous grant by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.