With De Valera in America

By Patrick McCartan

THE object of this book is to show the people of Ireland that in their struggle for independence they had the wholehearted sympathy and support of the vast majority of the great American people.

This book was written by an Irish Republican for Irish Republicans. The facts set forth are put down solely to inform Irish Republicans of the blunders we made in the past so that their disastrous repetition may be avoided. A new situation has been created, but in any advance, methods similar to those adopted outside Ireland in the past may have to be adopted again. The new conditions in Ireland, however, require plans, methods, and leadership in accordance with Ireland’s actual status today.—Patrick McCartan

• Language: English
• Publisher: Borodino Books
• Release date: Jul 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781789126914

Patrick McCartan

Patrick McCartan (1878-1963) was an Irish republican and politician. He was born on March 13, 1878 in Eskerbuoy, near Carrickmore, County Tyrone, one of five children, to Bernard McCartan, a farmer, and the former Bridget Rafferty. He emigrated to the USA as a young man and became a member of Clan na Gael in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and edited the journal Irish Freedom. He returned to Ireland some years later and qualified as a doctor. He also continued working with nationalist politics and worked closely with Bulmer Hobson and Denis McCullough with the Dungannon Clubs and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. McCartan was to take part in the 1916 Easter Rising with the Tyrone volunteers but did not, owing to Eoin MacNeill’s countermanding order. He was arrested after the Rising and interned in an open prison in England. In 1917 he took “French leave” to return to Ireland and assist Sinn Féin in the by-elections being held throughout Ireland that year. McCartan contested the by-election in South Armagh for Sinn Féin but lost out to the Irish Parliamentary Party candidate. He was later elected in a by-election in King’s County Tullamore in 1918. He was re-elected in the 1918 general election. He was re-elected for Leix-Offaly at the 1921 elections. At the meeting of the First Dáil in January 1919 McCartan was appointed Sinn Féin’s representative in the USA where he would remain until 1921. McCartan then negotiated with the Soviet Union in 1920-1921 in an attempt to have it recognise the Irish Republic, at a time when both were pariah states. He contested the 1945 presidential election as an independent candidate and secured 20% of the vote. He became a founder member of Clann na Poblachta and contested the 1948 general election without success though was nominated to Seanad Éireann that same year and remained a Senator until 1951. McCartan died on March 28, 1963, aged 85.

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Text originally published in 1932 under the same title.

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Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

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WITH DE VALERA IN AMERICA

by

PATRICK McCARTAN, F.R.C.S., I.

Envoy of the Irish Republic to the United States, 1917-1920

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

PREFACE 4

CHAPTER I.—MISSION TO RUSSIA. 7

CHAPTER II.—ARRIVAL IN UNITED STATES. 13

CHAPTER III.—PRESIDENT WILSON ATTEMPTS TO SILENCE IRISH 16

CHAPTER IV.—ARREST IN HALIFAX 21

CHAPTER V.—FIRST VICTORY IN UNITED STATES 25

CHAPTER VI.—CONDITIONS IN UNITED STATES 29

CHAPTER VII.—IRELAND’S CAUSE AMERICAN WAR AIM 37

CHAPTER VIII.—THE HOSTING OF THE CLERGY 41

CHAPTER IX.—THE GENERAL ELECTION, DECEMBER 1918 46

CHAPTER X.—CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC RECOGNITION OF REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 51

CHAPTER XI.—IRISH RACE CONVENTION 57

CHAPTER XII.—SEQUEL TO CONVENTION 63

CHAPTER XIII.—INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS 71

CHAPTER XIV.—DELEGATES FROM RACE CONVENTION TO PARIS 80

CHAPTER XV.—THE RECONQUEST OF AMERICA 85

CHAPTER XVI.—BOLAND AND DE VALERA ARRIVE IN AMERICA 93

CHAPTER XVII.—BOND DRIVE AND DE VALERA’S TOUR 98

CHAPTER XVIII.—THE ‘WESTMINSTER GAZETTE’ INTERVIEW 104

CHAPTER XIX.—DE VALERA ON TRIAL 108

CHAPTER XX.—BRITISH LEGATION PICKETED 117

CHAPTER XXI.—COHALAN-DE VALERA FEUD REVIVED 125

CHAPTER XXII.—THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 129

CHAPTER XXIII.—TREATY WITH RUSSIA 136

CHAPTER XXIV.—NEW ORGANISATION LAUNCHED BY DE VALERA 141

CHAPTER XXV.—COMMISSION ON BRITISH ATROCITIES 149

CHAPTER XXVI.—PEACE OVERTURES AND TRUCE 156

APPENDICES 163

I. 163

II. 167

III. 169

IV. 174

V. 178

VI. 180

VII. 184

VIII. 186

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 190

PREFACE

THE object of this book is to show the people of Ireland that in their struggle for independence they had the whole-hearted sympathy and support of the vast majority of the great American people.

Concerning his visit to Ireland, in 1771, Franklin wrote: I found them disposed to be friends of America in which I endeavoured to confirm them, with the expectation that our growing weight might in turn be thrown into one scale, and by joining our interests with theirs, a more equitable treatment from this nation (England) might be obtained for themselves as well as for us.

In the midst of a great war, I, in 1917, found the American people disposed to be friends of Ireland. From December 28th, 1918, until the truce between Ireland and England, America threw her grown weight—as far as a foreign nation could do—into the scale on behalf of Ireland.

Senators, Congressmen, Governors of States, Mayors of Cities, editors, philanthropists, industrial magnates, and the American Federation of Labour, publicly championed Ireland’s cause. In every class of the American people, Ireland had staunch and sincere friends.

They were all, irrespective of racial origin, Americans imbued with the ideals on which their own country was founded and determined to support these wherever they were upheld. When President Wilson formulated these ideals into war aims they were accepted by the people of America without any qualification as to race or geographical position.

Ireland afforded the first real test for the doctrine of self-determination, and liberty-loving Americans, sick of the endless procession of wars that came as plagues to the world, welcomed the practical opportunity to apply that doctrine. The great war had established a new promise of world peace. To the American people, therefore, the Irish issue was a world issue—an issue which, if universally acted upon, would remove for ever one of the great causes of war. They had fought for permanent peace, and now required it not only for themselves, but also for the whole world.

The dawn of a new world order was plain to them, and they thought they saw, in the attitude to Ireland of British labour and many English intellectuals, signs that this dawn was also manifesting itself to England. The basis of the new world order was government by the consent of the governed.

In the Parliamentary election of December, 1918, the people of Ireland had established, according to American principles, the Republic of Ireland. That Republic so established by peaceful ballot, conformed to all the conditions essential for the acceptance of it by the United States and by all nations adhering to the American doctrine of self-determination. From that election in Ireland recognition of the Republic of Ireland was, to those who fought triumphantly to establish freedom for small nations, but recognition of an existing fact.

Receptions, greater than those ever accorded to any American President, were given to President de Valera in practically every State and every city of importance in the country. These demonstrations clearly proved that the elected representatives of the people in Congress who championed the cause of Ireland expressed the will of their supporters.

To these American statesmen, open covenants openly arrived at by public election in Ireland gave the principle of the new democratic diplomacy absolute validity. They believed that Ireland, from its unique history, was the one nation in the world that would maintain a sustained effort while democratic peoples supported them in making the application of the principles of the new world order universally accepted.

William E. Mason, Congressman at large from Illinois, with his fundamental sincerity, said to me in his office in Congress:—I will introduce Bill after Bill and resolution after resolution in Congress until the Republic of Ireland is finally recognised. This determination was shared by many of his illustrious colleagues and compatriots. The many resolutions presented to both United States House of Representatives and Senate incontrovertibly establish this fact.

Certain of these resolutions, implicitly recognising the Republic of Ireland, were adopted after mature deliberation by both legislative branches of the Government of the United States. Such legislative action, according to historical precedent in the United States, was the invariable and necessary precursor of Executive recognition. There has not been witnessed in this age any such unselfish demonstration of friendship on the part of one nation for another as that then shown by the United States for Ireland.

In the days when America triumphantly achieved her complete independence, the adopted son of George Washington, voicing America’s gratitude to Ireland, declared:—Americans recall to your minds the recollection of this heroic time when Irishmen were your friends, and when, in the whole wide world, we had not a friend beside.

It was not the fault of Ireland’s American friends that she did not succeed in the same measure as America. Ireland’s gratitude to America, therefore, should not be in proportion to Ireland’s success or failure. The time has come when an Irish spokesman, voicing Ireland’s gratitude, should say: Irishmen, recall to your minds the recollection of this heroic time when Americans were your friends, and when in the whole wide world, we had not a friend beside.

This book was written by an Irish Republican for Irish Republicans. The facts set forth are put down solely to inform Irish Republicans of the blunders we made in the past so that their disastrous repetition may be avoided. A new situation has been created, but in any advance, methods similar to those adopted outside Ireland in the past may have to be adopted again. The new conditions in Ireland, however, require plans, methods, and leadership in accordance with Ireland’s actual status today.

In conclusion, I wish to thank Mr. Frank P. Walsh, Mr. Joseph McGarrity, Mr. John T. Ryan, Dr. W. J. Maloney, Major Kinkead, and Mr. Charles Rice for reading the manuscript, and for their criticism, which has helped me in my aim to make the book an accurate record of American participation in Ireland’s fight for freedom.

PATRICK McCARTAN.

New York,

May 18th, 1932.

CHAPTER I.—MISSION TO RUSSIA.

SINCE the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 the Irish people had attempted by force of arms, in 1798, in 1803, in 1848, in 1867, and once again in 1916, to establish the independent Republic of Ireland.

The custodians of the Republican tradition were the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or I.R.B., whose guiding spirit since 1911 had been Tom Clarke. He was among the first executed when the rising of 1916 was over. Other leaders shared his fate; others again were sent to penal servitude in England; while thousands of the rank and file were interned there. But the smoke had scarcely cleared from the ruins of the General Post Office, which had been the headquarters of the revolutionary army, before steps were taken to reconstitute a temporary Supreme Council of the I.R.B.

Seamus O’Doherty, having agreed to undertake this work at the request of a representative of the Clan-na-Gael of America, and having been later confirmed in this appointment by John Devoy, was the dominant member of that Council. He initiated the policy of capturing the electoral representation of Ireland for the Republic. The first victory for this policy was in North Roscommon, where Count Plunkett, whose gallant son, Joseph Mary, had been executed by the English after the Rising, was elected.

Joseph McGuinness, who was one of those sentenced to penal servitude in England, was nominated for a Parliamentary vacancy in North Longford. There the voters were urged to put McGuinness in to get him out—of prison.

Early in May, 1917, twelve deportees, including O’Doherty and myself, stole away from England. Some of us went to North Longford to help in the canvass for McGuinness and in the belief that if arrested again there we would help his candidacy. When the election was over, and McGuinness successful, more or less on the run we went back to Dublin.

The Longford victory added to O’Doherty’s prestige. His wife was one of the most active workers on the National Aid Committee. Their home, at 32 Connaught Street, was the centre not only for the Sinn Feiners of Dublin but also for those from the rest of the country.

At the O’Doherty home, one evening towards the end of May, 1917, there was a talk about the possibility of Ireland securing representation at the Peace Conference{1} which had to take place sooner or later. The chance of Irish representation was slight, but it was politic to strive for it. It gave our public organisation, Sinn Fein, an objective, and helped to turn the eyes of our people from Westminster; while it also served to put the Irish question on an international footing.

In case of a German victory, we believed that the German Government would support Ireland’s claim, as an independent Ireland would be the best and most popular means of weakening England. Germany, we believed, would also secure us the support of her Allies. The United States would not oppose, if she would not actually support us. And there was Russia.

In Russia the representatives of the workmen, soldiers, and sailors had referred to Ireland in a friendly resolution; and we believed they would soon be in power. It would be wise to press our claims directly on the Russian Government. An Irish representative should be sent to Russia for this purpose. Many of our men had reached the United States as seamen, and it seemed to us that it would be possible to reach Russia in the same way.

By the constitution of the I.R.B., the Supreme Council was declared to be in fact, as well as by right, the sole Government of the Irish Republic....with power to exercise all the functions of Government, including the power to negotiate and ratify treaties with foreign powers.

O’Doherty summoned the Supreme Council. They met in his house, approved of his plan to seek aid from Russia, and decided to send a man there as soon as possible. He informed the Council that I had volunteered for the Russian mission, and that he also was ready to go. As I could be better spared than he, I was chosen, was given plenary powers, and was ordered to start without delay.

After the meeting, O’Doherty and I talked over my mission. The Supreme Council of the I.R.B. was now the sole Government of the Irish Republic. I was setting out as its envoy. Neither O’Doherty nor I now remember which of us made the suggestion, but we decided I should sign all my communications to the Russian Government, on behalf of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic.

The election of Count Plunkett in North Roscommon had made him virtual leader of Sinn Fein, our public movement. O’Doherty and I visited him in his home next night and laid the Russian project before him. He emphatically and unhesitatingly endorsed it, gave us copies of resolutions adopted a short time previously at a representative meeting, and prepared a statement signed by himself for submission to the Russian Government. It was on this occasion that Count Plunkett agreed to discontinue the Freedom Clubs which he was then organising for the upholding of the Republic—on which definite platform he had been elected in North Roscommon. Realising the fundamental differences between his own and Griffith’s Sinn Fein policy, he had decided to organise in the new. However, he agreed with us, that apart from Griffith and a few of his personal followers, the Republicans’ ideal was now secure in the minds of the people.

Next evening I called at Arthur Griffith’s home, but he was absent. His paper, Irish Nationality, had just published an article suggesting the settlement of the Anglo-Irish question on the lines outlined in his pamphlet, The Resurrection of Hungary. If this were Griffith’s policy, it differed fundamentally from that of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. To discuss this difference, as well as to inform him of the Russian project, I sought to see him. But failing to find him at home, as I was to leave for London next evening, I wrote to Griffith, at O’Doherty’s suggestion. That letter pointed out that we must look either to England or to England’s enemies if Ireland were to benefit from the European War. For a generation under Redmond’s leadership we had vainly looked to England. As a settlement on the Austro-Hungarian basis would appear to foreigners merely consolidation of the British Empire, we could not hope for the support of England’s enemies for such a policy....O’Doherty had the letter delivered to Griffith. Neither of us ever heard his opinion of it; but nothing more was said in his paper about the "Hungarian Settlement.’

Arriving in London, I went to Gavan Duffy, whose home, advice, and co-operation were at the disposal of any Irishmen then visiting London. I took full advantage of all. Early that afternoon I presented myself to a Russian in close touch with his Government, gave him my real name, and told him my mission. The fact that both of us were doctors established mutual confidence. He fully realised my position as he himself had lived for two years under an assumed name. He received our proposal warmly, and promised the support of the Russian Government for our demand for representation at the Peace Conference. If I were able to reach Russia, he assured me, I was certain to find even stauncher supporters of our demand than he himself. He advised me to write a memorandum on the subject and promised to forward it and the other documents I then submitted to Petrograd in the Embassy pouch. Then he wrote my assumed name in his book as if I were a patient. If anything unforeseen turned up he would have known me only as a patient.

On returning to Gavan Duffy’s, elated over my good fortune in making the right connection, I began the memorandum to Russia, and discussed it with Mr. and Mrs. Gavan Duffy before writing the final draft. Gavan Duffy translated the draft into French; and W. P. Ryan, into Irish; so that it was later presented to the Russian doctor, for transmission to his Government, in all three languages, on behalf of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic.

My task being ended in London, to find a boat for Russia, I went to Liverpool. As I entered Peter Murphy’s shop there, a man was speaking with Mrs. Murphy. I kept my back turned to both of them, and picked up John Bull and some other weekly papers, as if I were about to buy them. When the man had gone out, I turned to Mrs. Murphy and introduced myself. Good heavens, she said, that man is Mooney, the detective, who came here recently from Belfast to look for Irishmen. I had met Mooney in 1914. He and the local District Inspector, with a number of policemen, then visited a Volunteer Camp at Carrickmore to serve a notice on Herbert Pim, born in Belfast, ordering him under the Aliens Restriction Act to leave Ireland. A few of us held up the police until they told us their business. As Mooney had then stared blankly at my automatic, he was not likely to remember much about my personal appearance.

Neil Kerr and a few other active members of the I.R.B. took complete charge of me while in Liverpool. A small tramp steamer which might go to Archangel was expected in about a month, but there was no hope of any other ship. I reported to O’Doherty; and orders came for me to go to the United States, to compare notes with our friends there, and if possible to sail from there to Russia.

Unkempt and ostentatiously unwashed, dressed in a navy blue gansey, and a greasy looking cap, I went with an Irishman who had been in every port of the world, and who had fought in the Rising in Easter Week, to seek work on a ship. My companion was a man who would steal a bridle off a nightmare, but he could be absolutely relied upon in Irish matters.

We had no luck at first. One evening we were in the backroom of a publichouse, with a number of seamen, among them a man seeking to escape from conscription in England, who had signed on the s.s. Andania to go to the United States. When he was told the nature of the work he would have to do, he decided not to go, and turned over his seaman’s books and papers to me, which my tough friend fixed up to suit me. Tommy O’Connor,{2} who was our courier between Ireland and America, was on board the Andania and I was delighted to be with him. T. P. O’Connor, M.P., and Richard Hazleton, M.P., delegates from Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party to the United States, were passengers on the same steamer. Tommy O’Connor and I; on the morning we were to sail, went on board together. O’Connor, who was boatswain’s mate, advised me to keep near him, but as we were about to start work the boatswain himself handed me a rope and, indicating the rigging, asked me to tie up something. Having reached the top, afraid to look down, I watched a seaman opposite me, and did what he was doing. Having finished that, I unfortunately encountered the boatswain again, who ordered me to put the gin in the locker. Ignorant of what the gin was, I had the good luck to pick it up, and O’Connor, who was near, pointed out the locker.

Apart from a few such incidents, in which luck hid my ignorance of seamanship, everything went smoothly during the day. As some repairs were necessary, and submarines were reported in the Channel, the ship did not put to sea. Work had ceased, and O’Connor and I were laughing at my début as a seaman. The sailors were anxious to go ashore for a drink, but it seemed none had money. The boatswain said he would go with anybody who would stand a drink. Nobody volunteered; and he turned sharply to me and demanded: When did you sign on, O’Brien? I answered mildly, but did not succeed in placating him, for with a threat in his voice he announced: Somebody signed on for you. An alleged German spy had been caught on board on the last trip. O’Connor, during the day, had heard the boatswain reporting my presence to the first mate. We decided it was better for me to desert at once. With some difficulty, both of us sneaked ashore; and O’Connor, on returning, put my outfit with his own. Having failed to answer muster next morning, I was searched for by two detectives throughout the ship, and O’Connor was ordered to escort them so that no corner would be missed.

My tough friend and I started out the following day to look for another ship; and finally he was signed on as a seaman on the s.s. "Baltic.’ The blue gansey, dirty hands, and a few days’ growth of beard proved useless to me. However, my tough friend was not anxious for the trip, and it was decided that I should go and answer to his name. He fixed up my papers, so that by Friday night, June 15th, all my necessary preparations were made for next Wednesday’s sailing.

On Saturday, June 16th, 1917, the newspapers announced that the Irish revolutionists, in penal servitude in England, were certain to be released on Monday. President Wilson’s communication{3} to the Russian Government had appeared on June 10th. A statement based on this communication, signed by all the released Irish prisoners, for presentation to President Wilson, might help us in America, I thought. Our Liverpool friends agreed, and I left for London in the hope of seeing the prisoners before they started for Ireland.

In London, I went straight to Gavan Duffy, who thought well of my suggestion. He had heard that all the prisoners were then in Pentonville, but he knew nothing about the hour or date of their release. Mrs. Gavan Duffy and I visited Miss Eva Gore Booth, in the hope that she might know when her sister, Countess Markievicz, would be freed. Visits to several others likewise brought us no information. Finally we called upon an official of Pentonville Prison. He politely told us that the prisoners had all secured clothing suitable for travelling, and that we should watch the trains that very evening. On leaving him, we went to Euston Station, as the Mail train to Holyhead was due to depart in half an hour. Two Irishmen and an Irish girl, who happened to be on the platform, informed us that the prisoners had gone by an earlier train; so I bought a ticket for the Mail train, and on board the Irish steamer at Holyhead I overtook the released prisoners.

Eoin MacNeill I passed and did not recognise, so greatly was he changed by the loss of his beard. Many of the others I knew, and soon we were happily exchanging greetings in the crowded saloon of the steamer. I was delighted to hear that Professor MacNeill was honoured and trusted by all, in spite of his attempt to call off the Easter Rising. They told me Mr. de Valera had ordered everyone to salute Professor MacNeill, as Chief of the Irish Volunteers, on his arrival in Lewis Prison.

Many of the prisoners were well-known to me. Diarmuid Lynch had been a colleague of mine on the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood; and I told him and Tom Ashe what we were trying to do regarding Russia, and the suggestion about the statement signed by them all which I could bring with me to the United States. They believed that the signatures of the officers would be sufficient, but said it was better to discuss the whole thing with Mr. de Valera and Professor MacNeill. Someone brought in de Valera and MacNeill. It was my first meeting with de Valera. I was struck by the esteem in which he was held by all, but especially by Professor MacNeill. I gave them the cutting containing President Wilson’s communication to the Russian Government, and both de Valera and MacNeill immediately accepted my suggestion.

Professor MacNeill started to write the statement.{4} Mr. de Valera had already been selected to contest County Clare in the Republican interest. He said he knew nothing about politics and did not like them. In prison they had decided to keep the Irish Volunteers alive at all hazards and he believed he could do the best work for Ireland by confining his attention to the organisation of the Irish Volunteers. After asking him not to make a decision until he had spent a week in Ireland and witnessed the new spirit in the land, I remarked that there would be considerable objection to Professor MacNeill among the Volunteers, but that he, de Valera, and he alone, could overcome that objection.

I pointed out that Professor MacNeill had gained prestige with the mass of the people, because of his action in Easter Week, and hence would be regarded by them as a wise and safe leader. His intimate association with the new organisation would secure popular confidence, and make certain the defeat of Redmond’s party. De Valera said he agreed entirely with me regarding MacNeill, and had made up his mind to stick to him.

When the statement for President Wilson had been finished, MacNeill read it over to us; and a word here and there was changed. He, then, handed it to me; and it was decided to submit it to a meeting of the officers of the Volunteers. This meeting, held at the offices of the National Aid Association, unanimously approved the document, and O’Doherty and I were asked to have it ready for signature, in the afternoon, when the released prisoners were to be photographed as a group.

Mrs. O’Doherty had starched a handkerchief as stiff as a board when we returned, and part of the document was copied on it by me, and the remainder by O’Doherty. We got the necessary signatures, after the officers’ photograph had been taken; and Mrs. O’Doherty removed the starch from the linen and sewed the document into the lining of my vest, where it remained till I reached the United States.

O’Doherty had received a copy of the memorandum I had given to the Russian doctor for transmission to his Government: and we agreed that a similar memorandum, signed in the same manner, should be handed to President Wilson, when the statement signed by the Volunteer Officers was presented.

On Wednesday, June 20th, 1917, I arrived in Liverpool about four o’clock in the morning. A few hours later I answered the muster on board the s.s. Baltic. When the muster was over the boatswain asked me what happened to my friend. I asserted it was I who had signed on. The boatswain was a little irritated, for he wanted good seamen, and I did not look good to him. But he met me about a quarter of an hour later, and said in a kindly tone, It will be all right, but don’t tell any of the sailors. I said I would see him again in New York. Don’t forget, said he. I didn’t.

CHAPTER II.—ARRIVAL IN UNITED STATES.

EARLY on Saturday afternoon, July 1st, 1917, the Baltic docked in New York City, and a few hours later knew me no