THE FREE STATE: LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND RELIGION 1922 …



THE FREE STATE: LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND RELIGION 1922-1949

What kind of state?

Many nationalists after independence wanted to create an Ireland that was “not free merely but Gaelic as well”. The promotion of a distinct cultural identity was considered to be important for the following reasons:

• Many were influenced by Pearse's vision of an Irish-speaking Ireland.

• The cultural institutions had been created by England and the Anglo-Irish minority. “Official culture” was geared to making people good citizens of the British Empire.

• The language was dying and many nationalists believed that speaking Irish would give people an understanding of the culture and wisdom of their ancestors.

• Many nationalists were devout Catholics as were 93% of the population. The Catholic Church was almost unquestioned and religion imparted social and moral stability. The new leaders wanted to build a state which would reflect Catholic moral values.

In terms of culture the new state has been attacked as insular, dominated by literary censorship and sexual puritanism and by an uncritical attitude to the Catholic Church. Another view is that Catholicism was more intellectually sophisticated and that there was more literary and artistic vitality and a more “European” outlook than is commonly believed.

Irish language and religion

By 1920 Ireland had an educational system which met basic need. A large majority got a basic education which enabled them to be literate, while a small minority got a higher education (which largely depended on ability to pay). The Irish Free State changed very little about its inherited system until the 1960s. The new minister was Eoin MacNeill. There were some changes in the curriculum to meet the new government's aims:

• The compulsory teaching of Irish history and language was introduced into primary schools; Irish had to be taught for one hour a day. All infant classes had to be taught through Irish and it was to be used extensively in higher classes.

• The emphasis in history teaching was to show “examples of patriotism” and “British oppression”.

• Teachers had to demonstrate competence in Irish and training courses were set up to train teachers. Textbooks were produced and the language began to develop standardised forms of grammar and spelling.

• Only 10% of students went beyond primary school.

• New exams for the Intermediate and Leaving Certificate were introduced.

• Special grants were given to the schools which taught through Irish and extra marks given to those students who did their exams in Irish.

• History, particularly Irish history, was a core subject, compulsory up to Intermediate certificate.

• In the 1930s, Fianna Fáil made it compulsory to pass Irish in the secondary school exams.

• Other attempts to revive the language included: knowledge of Irish being necessary for civil service jobs and the Gardaí, Fianna Fáil, in the 1937 Constitution making Irish the “first official language” of the state, and grants were given to Irish-speaking households and schoolchildren getting grants to spend time in the Gaeltacht.

Assessment

• There was some success - by the 1940s the numbers of primary school teachers qualified to teach Irish had risen from 10% in 1922 to 70%. 10% of primary schools used only Irish in class.

• On paper, the number with a knowledge of Irish rose. The reality was that few people used Irish in their everyday lives. Even in the Gaeltacht, the number of Irish speakers fell.

• The compulsory teaching of Irish destroyed much of the goodwill generated in the early revival period.

• The time spent on Irish left little time for the basics and there was too much emphasis on written Irish in schools. Irish was not used in government departments, law, business or in the media - those who enjoyed it had little opportunity to use it.

• In practice most people continued to read and speak English, listen to English radio and sing English or American popular songs. Also, poverty forced many to emigrate to English-speaking countries and so the preference for speaking English remained.

• In 1941, INTO (Irish national Teachers' Organisation) were very critical of the teaching of so much Irish and eventually the insistence on the use of Irish eased a little and more emphasis was put on trying to publish popular books in Irish and produce magazines.

Artists and writers

At the beginning of the 20thc, there was a movement to assert an Irish identity through art and literature. This was clear in the iconography of the new state - the flag, the coinage etc. A number of painters tried to create a new image of Ireland and the Irish people. The artist Paul Henry produced Western Irish landscapes - he was inspired by Achill Island. Jack B. Yeats produced scenes of country life. He was the outstanding figure and he was a committed nationalist, but his great period came after the 1920s and was too abstract for conservative Ireland - although he had a big following abroad. The RHA style continued with painters like Sean Keating producing western landscapes etc, but painters and artists were influenced by new artistic movements in Europe, and Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone brought these ideas to Ireland. Artist like Louis le Broquy and Oisín Kelly were able to combine European modernism with a strong Irish quality.

The new writers and censorship

• Yeats was the most important wrier of the period, securing the Nobel Prize in 1923. He produced some of his best literature after 1923. He persuaded the Minister for Finance to give a grant to the Abbey theatre in 1924 - it became the fist state-subsided theatre in the English-speaking world.

• Sean O'Casey was encouraged by Lady Gregory to write and produced The Shadow of the Gunman, Juno and the Paycock & The Plough and the Stars in the early 1920s. O'Casey's play The Silver Tassie was rejected by Yeats, and he went to live in England.

• After this the Abbey became much more conservative and opted for safe plays.

• In literature a drier, more realistic and social-minded mentality was beginning to take shape. Patrick Kavanagh wrote about the poverty and loneliness of areas with small poor farms.

• Much has been written about the fact that so many writes left Ireland and went to England or the continent ad there is a myth that Ireland was too small or unappreciative for any major artist to feel at home here. There are elements of truth in the myth. There was also the issue of censorship as the Censorship Board banned books for the flimsiest of reasons and did not want work published which they felt might corrupt a pure Catholic people.

Religion in the Free State

Partition left the Free State overwhelmingly Catholic - 93% of the population was Catholic. The Catholic Church had condemned armed rebellion in 1916, but many of the rebels were devout Catholics. The bishops took the pro-treaty side in the Civil War and condemned those who fought against the state. When De Valera came to power in 1932, both he and the bishops pretended it had not happened. The Catholic bishops believed they had a duty to safeguard the morals of ordinary Catholics. The early leaders of the Free State were devout Catholics and so were a majority of the people. There was concern that the modern world - with novel forms of entertainment, women's rights and greater movement - was eroding traditional moral standards. The Cumann na nGaedhael government passed the following measures:

1. The Intoxicating Liquor Act 1924 reduced the pub opening hours.

2. An act of 1927 reduced the number of pubs.

3. Censorship of Films Act was passed in 1923.

4. Divorce was ruled out in 1925.

5. The Censorship of Publications Act of 1929 banned obscene or indecent literature and literature advocating contraception.

The de Valera government continued this pattern of enacting Catholic moral laws:

1. The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1935 banned the importation of contraceptives.

2. Under The Public Dance halls Act, a licence was required.

3. The new Constitution Bunreacht na hEireann was prepared after taking advice from Fr John Charles McQuaid and it made reference to the 'special position' of the Catholic Church as guardian of the faith of the majority, strong protection for the family and a ban on divorce. His emphasis on a woman's work in the home proved controversial.

The Catholic Church had an enormous impact on society. Religious orders ran hospitals, schools, orphanages etc. Catholic organisations and religious activities had widespread appeal. Knock attracted thousands of pilgrims and pilgrimages to Rome and Lourdes were popular. The St Vincent de Paul Society played an important role in providing assistance to the poor. Irish missionary efforts in Africa, India etc were a source of pride.

The Eucharistic Congress of 1932

The Eucharistic Congress was agreed with the Vatican by the Cosgrave government.

• It was organised in honour of the Holy Eucharist and held every three years in different cities.

• It was held to mark the coming of Christianity to Ireland in 432. Eoin O'Duffy was placed in charge.

• When de Valera was elected in 1932 he saw it as an opportunity to gain respectability for Fianna Fáil.

The Eucharistic Congress began with the arrival of the Papal legate, Cardinal Lauri, and the streets of Dublin were decorated. Pilgrims came from European countries and Irish-Americans from the U.S.

• In his speech of welcome, De Valera associated Catholicism with the Irish people, talked about the coming of Christianity and the persecution the Irish had suffered for their faith.

• A week of religious celebrations followed.

• The highlight was an open-air Mass in the Phoenix Park attended by huge numbers. John McCormack sang the “Panis Angelicus”, the Pope broadcast from Rome and the mass was followed by a procession to the city for benediction.

• The Vatican was delighted.

Though the Congress was finished in less than a week it was considered to be a most significant milestone. The Irish State had mobilised its meagre resources and presented a showcase for global Catholicism; they had successfully entertained literally thousands of churchmen who cam from every corner of the globe. There was great pride in its success and it was an important milestone in the life of the infant Irish state. Historians have found it interesting for the following reasons:

1. It demonstrated the close relationship between the Catholic hierarchy and the Irish political class; some have claimed that Ireland was dominated by the clerical class in many respects and the power of John Charles McQuaid was increased and he used it to resist as much change as possible.

2. It shows a lot about the collective loyalty of the Irish people and how that society looked at itself and the wider world. It showed that Ireland had a profoundly religious sense of identity and that identity was shared by the political class. Although the Constitution of 1922 forbade the government from giving privilege to any faith over another, the Eucharistic Congress paved the way for the acceptance of the 1937 Constitution.

3. It shows that politicians like De Valera (in spite of the fact that he was excommunicated for his part in the Civil War) were anxious to show their religious loyalty.

4. It has been estimated that over 1 million attended and it was a unifying event after the scars of the civil war and generated immense national self-confidence in Ireland's ability to harness modern technology to stage such an event.

5. The events of the Congress showed the enormous gap between North and South, and perhaps shows why partition happened in the first place. The references to “the one and only true church” and the emphasis on the Blessed Sacrament and the “community of the faithful”. Although it can be argued that Ireland had never been more united than during those six days, for many in the north it reinforced the need for a border and this is reflected in the sectarian attacks on Catholics travelling south

The Protestant minority in the Irish Free State

The Protestant population of southern Ireland had declined sharply during the period 1911-26. Some were killed in the First World War, members of the army and navy left and others fled from intimidation. When Protestant church leaders appealed to Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins for protection, although they were sympathetic, they were often unable to prevent attacks. Cosgrave’s government needed Protestant expertise and money but the number of Protestants declined. In 1911 there was 250,000 Protestants; by 1926 there were 164,000. Between 1926 and 1936 there was a 125% decline and a further 145% decline between 1936 and 1946. Why was there such a decline?

• Insistence that children of mixed marriages should be raised as Catholics.

• The Free State was less comfortable for those who cherished the association with Britain. Symbols such as flag, anthem and coinage had gone and so was the role of the King under the 1937 Constitution. Irish was a foreign language and the growing power of the Catholic Church added to the discomfort.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download