While government ministers in Ireland operated with the constant threat of arrest hanging over them, Éamon de Valera continued his grand tour of the United States, speaking to massive crowds from Philadelphia to San Francisco. However, the arrival of this foreign agitator wasn’t always welcomed and the first opposition to his mission in America began to appear. The American Legion condemned those who supported him and the media ran articles denouncing the Irish for betraying their ally during the First World War.
In Westminster Lloyd George, after months of silence, has finally put forward the British Government’s plan for handling the situation in Ireland, setting in motion the century long partition of the island and the bitter conflicts associated with it.
The discontent between the Irish delegation and the Friends of Irish Freedom continued to build, with each distrusting the other and believing that only they knew what was best for Ireland. The next episode will deal with the breakdown in their relationship and the eruption of outright war between the groups in early 1920.
References:
Dave Hannigan - “De Valera in America”
Ronan Fanning - “Éamon de Valera: A Will to Power”
David McCullagh - “De Valera: Rise”
David Fitzpatrick - “Harry Boland’s Irish Revolution”
Eileen McGough - “Diarmuid Lynch: A Forgotten Irish Patriot”
Social Media:
Twitter: / theirishnation
Facebook: / theirishnationlives
Instagram: / theirishnationlives
Soundcloud: / theirishnationlives
iTunes: itunes.apple.com/ie/podcast/t...
Main Sources:
Military Archives - www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie
Century Ireland - www.rte.ie/centuryireland
Diarmuid Lynch, Irish Revolutionary - diarmuidlynch.weebly.com/
Atlas of the Irish Revolution
Maurice Walsh - “Bitter Freedom”
Charles Townshend - "The Republic"
Michael Hopkinson - ”The Irish War of Independence”
Diarmuid Ferriter - “A Nation and not a Rabble”
Photos:
Military Archives
NLI Flickr account
Wiki Commons