The IRA’s military campaign continued unabated in June 1920 and by the end of the month moral amongst the RIC was low.

  The courts system had virtually collapsed and there was growing uncertainty about the long term governance of the country. It was also the month of the County Council Elections where Sinn Fein swept the board nationwide, winning control in all but four county councils. The support for Sinn Fein was helped in no small way by the coverage provided by a host of Republican newspapers, pamphlets and other material. This month we focus on the Radical Irish Newspapers, the latest addition to the Irish Newspaper Archive. Throughout Ireland in June 1920 people anxiously waited for the latest edition of a host of radical newspapers including, for example, The Watchword of Labour, The Irish Bulletin and Young Ireland amongst others which carried news from a republic viewpoint of what was happening across Ireland. The publication of these newspapers would probably not have been possible but for the advertising they contained, advertising a host of ‘Irish made’ products, goods and services. The advertisements are interesting on a number of levels, not least because they suggest the businesses and people who openly supported the republican causes despite the pressure and intimidation they would have faced from several quarters for doing so. In June 1920 the Young Ireland newspaper for example carried adverts from M. Ryan of Cork and Cove who embroidered hats with ‘Gaelic mottoes’; Whelan & Son of Upper Ormond Quay, Dublin the ‘progressive Irish firm’ who sold ‘Irish music’, and the Fountain Book Shop on the Grand Parade, Cork who were selling the famous picture of the GPO and Easter 1916. Those like Francis Casey & Sons of the Moy in the County Tyrone did not beat about the bush in asserting where their loyalties lay asking why would you ‘support the foreigner’? Instead, Casey called on them to ‘support home industries and stop emigration’.    

Download Source: Young Ireland, Saturday, June 05, 1920, pages 4, 7, 8

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