The Emergancy Flashcards
Why was Cumann na nGaedhal increasingly unpopular?
xxxxx
~Country still reliant on agriculture
~No progress in dismantling the Treaty
What was the Electoral Amendment Act and what happened because of it?
xxxxxxx
Introduced by W.T. Cosgrave, stated that all elected TD’s had to take the oath of allegiance or give up their seats in the Dáil.
De Valera and Fianna Fáil decided to take the oath of allegiance
How many seats did Fianna Fáil get in the 1932 General Election?
xxxxxxxx
72
By 1939, what had Fianna Fáil achieved?
~Dismantled most of the Irish Treaty
~Introduced Welfare payments for widows and orphans
~10,000 more houses were built than during the Cumann na nGaedheal’s government
~IRA was banned in 1936
How had Fianna Fáil dismantled the Treaty?
~Removed oath of allegiance in 1933 (simply by not doing it)
~Side-lined position of governer-general
~Introduced a new constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann, in 1937 and made Douglas Hyde the new president
~Economic War resulted in the land annuities being abolished (government only paying a once-off fee of £10 million), reduced tariffs and treaty ports returned to Ireland
What was the Economic War?
When de Valera decided to stop paying land annuities, resulting in Britain placing a tax on all Irish agricultural goods. This damaged Irish farmers as most of their exports went to Britain so De Valera retaliated and placed a tax on all British goods imported.
It lasted from 1932 to 1938 and was ended by the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement
What did Bunreacht na hÉireann state?
~the country was now to be called Éire or Ireland
~Irish was the official language
~the head of a country was to be a President
~the prime minister was called the Taoiseach
~Claimed the right to assert control over the island of Ireland
When did WWII begin and end?
What did Ireland declare itself?
September 1939 - 1945
Neutral
What is neutrality?
Not fighting in a war and not supporting either side
Why did Ireland declare itself neutral?
~Wanted to show independence from Britain
~Not prepared to fight
~Economy was weak and fighting in a war would further damage it
What countries did Ireland favour during WWI and how can this be shown?
Allies- Britain, France, US
~IRL allowed Allied planes to fly over Donegal in Northern Ireland
~German airmen were imprisoned if caught but British and Americans were allowed to ‘escape’ over the border
~Around 50,000 Irishmen joined the British Army
What was the Emergency Powers Act?
It was a law passed in 1939 that stated the government could go to great lengths to ensure Ireland stayed neutral.
e.g. Newspapers, plays and books were censored and monitored, People’s post could be opened and examined if the government felt the need to do so
Who was Minister of Supplies? What did he do?
Sean Lemass
He had to make sure Ireland had enough essentials to keep functioning in wartime
What did Sean Lemass introduce during the Emergency?
~Irish Shipping Company: transported goods to Ireland in 15 cargo ships
~Compulsory Tillage scheme: all farmers had to till a certain
amount of land and sow a certain acreage of wheat
~Rationing: limiting goods like tea, sugar, butter and flour people could buy to a fixed amount to make supplies last
~Glimmermen: Government inspectors that called to houses to check that people were not overusing their gas supplies
Describe Northern Ireland during WWI
~Industries boomed as they produced arms and ammunition for Britain
~Unemployment levels dropped by 15%
~Agriculture boomed as they supplied food for Britain, whilst it was in food shortages
~Major targets for Germany due to the amount of industry in Belfast.
~Not well defended as govt. thought it was too far away for the Luftwaffe to reach
