MICHAEL COLLINS’S FAMOUS SPEECH AND THE ADVENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
Published in Features, Issue 2 (March/April 2024), Volume 32By Saskia Vermeulen
Above Top: Michael Collins addresses the question of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in front of a huge crowd gathered outside College Green in March 1922. (IFI). Above Bottom: Crowds gather on O’Connell Street to view the military parade marking the coming into force of the Republic of Ireland Act in April 1949. (IFI)
In this issue we explore newsreels of two pivotal moments, fortunately captured on film. Ireland’s lack of indigenous film-making during the early part of the last century means that the moving image was predominantly captured by non-Irish agencies. These newsreels of Irish events were screened alongside home-grown stories in cinemas and were an important way for the public to keep up to date. Until recently, these newsreels, filmed by British agencies, were not held in an Irish archive and many had not been available to the public since their initial distribution 100 years ago. The ‘decade of centenaries’ presented the Irish Film Institute with a unique opportunity to repatriate, safeguard and share these important visual documents. The IFI worked closely with the custodians of these collections (the British Film Institute and British Pathé) to ensure that the fragile, original nitrate film prints were meticulously digitised to HD quality. The detail of the footage is remarkable, allowing even those who may be familiar with this material to see it in a whole new light. Details that were previously indistinct are now crystal-clear.
FIGHTING SPEECH
1922 / 43 seconds
Michael Collins addresses the question of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in front of a huge crowd gathered outside College Green in March 1922. Collins described the Treaty as ‘the freedom to achieve freedom’. In practice, it offered most of the symbols and powers of independence. These included a functioning, if disputed, parliamentary democracy with its own executive, judiciary and written constitution, which could be changed by the Oireachtas. Although a republic was not an option at the time, the Treaty still afforded Ireland more internal independence than it had possessed in over 400 years, and far exceeded the most optimistic goals of the Home Rule movement.
IRISH REPUBLIC PROCLAIMED
1949 / 3 minutes and 53 seconds
Twenty-seven years later, on 18 April 1949, the Republic of Ireland Act came into force. It declared that Ireland may officially be described as the Republic of Ireland and that the president of Ireland had the executive authority of the state in its external relations. This momentous event in Irish history is documented in this newsreel, when a collection of dignitaries, including President Seán T. O’Kelly, Lord Mayor of Dublin John Breen, Maud Gonne and Éamon de Valera, arrive at St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, for the ceremony. Crowds of people gather on O’Connell Street as the national flag is hoisted and a salute is fired from the top of the GPO.
For a deeper dive into the collection visit https://ifiarchiveplayer.ie.
Saskia Vermeulen is Digital Platforms Manager at the Irish Film Institute.
FIGHTING SPEECH
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IRISH REPUBLIC PROCLAIMED
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Personal Histories
On this Day
May 09
1908 Luke Livingstone Macassey (c. 65), civil engineer and barrister, died. Macassey is remembered as Belfast’s ‘water hero’, the visionary engineer who brought a reliable supply of clean water to a city whose population had risen from 22,000 in 1807 to 270,000 in 1890 and in so doing probably saved more lives—from typhoid and cholera—than the medical profession at the time. In 1874 the Belfast and District Water Commissioners appointed him as their consultant hydraulic engineer, and he proceeded to build reservoirs above Carrickfergus and Lisburn, which were sufficient for the city’s needs until 1890, when it became clear that drastic action was needed. He and his team investigated five possible sources of water supply, ruled out four (including Lough Neagh) and recommended the Mournes, where rainfall was plentiful and 30 million gallons of water were deliverable every day. Apart from a massive pipeline, a reservoir in the chosen location would be required. The Commission therefore purchased the 9,000 acres of mountain needed for the plans, and in 1905 the pipeline began to deliver water from the Kilkeel and Annalong rivers to a reservoir some 30 miles away to the south of the city, which has provided a plentiful supply ever since. Work then began on constructing a wall to mark the Commission’s catchment area. The famous ‘Mourne Wall’, standing up to 8ft high, 3ft wide and 22 miles in length, which connects the summits of no less than fifteen mountains, including Slieve Donard (850m), was completed by an army of seasonal workers in 1922. Macassey didn’t live to see his proposed reservoir. The Silent Valley reservoir was built between 1923 and 1933 and augmented by the Ben Crom reservoir in 1957.- 1918 Sir John French was sworn in as lord lieutenant and supreme commander of the British Army in Ireland.
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Above: Col. Thomas Blood—he switched sides during the English Civil War and gained a reputation for intrigue and espionage.
1671 Irishman Col. Thomas Blood stole the Crown Jewels of England from the Tower of London. Having switched sides during the English Civil War, during which he gained a reputation for intrigue and espionage, Blood lost most of his lands with the Restoration and thereafter conducted a terror campaign against the Stuart establishment. None of his operations were remotely successful. A conspiracy to take Dublin Castle and stage a coup d’état was easily foiled, forcing him to flee to the Continent with a bounty of £1,000 on his head. A year later he reappeared in a kidnap attempt on the duke of Ormond in London, which was also unsuccessful, as was an attempt to assassinate the king as he was taking a dip in the Thames. The theft of the royal regalia was similarly botched. Pursued by the guards, with the crown, globe and sceptre stuffed under their clothing, he and his accomplices were promptly arrested. Yet in terms of outcome the botched robbery was his one big success. Refusing to speak to anyone except the king himself, he admitted to all of his conspiracies and warned the king that he had many friends who would ‘expose his majesty … to the daily fear and expectation of a massacre’. On the other hand, were he free to use his experience in the spying profession as a secret agent for the royal administration, he could prevent such attacks. And his arrogance prevailed. Charles was won over and accepted his offer. Blood lived in comfort on a generous royal allowance for another decade. Whether his services were of any use is not known.