History - Doctoral Theses
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Item As others saw us: the French grand reporter on the island of Ireland in the 20th century(University College Cork, 2023) O'Hanlon, Oliver; Hassett, Dónal; Ó Drisceoil, DonalThis thesis analyses how the political perception of Ireland evolved in France during the course of the twentieth-century. It looks at the work of a number of grand reporter journalists from five different French newspapers who reported on Ireland at times of conflict in the twentieth-century. The two seminal periods of conflict in Irish history, the War of Independence and the violent sectarian conflict which lasted for almost thirty years, known colloquially as the “Troubles”, attracted unprecedented media attention from the world’s press. In this source-driven longue durée study of newspaper articles produced by the grands reporters journalists, I show how the form of writing that they produced, grand reportage, evolved over time. It moved from an entertaining and engaging style of writing that was primarily aimed at attracting the reader’s attention and making them buy the next day’s newspaper, in much the same way that the roman-feuilleton was used in a previous generation, to more of an accurate reflection of what was happening on the ground in Ireland. During the Troubles, grands reporters did not need to add any of the Gothic style elements that their confreres would have used in the 1920s to add an air of mystery to the first-person narrative in order to make it as interesting as possible. This transformation in the form of grand reportage was driven by changes in media practise which were prompted by competition from other forms of media. Grand reportage was no longer being used to boost newspaper sales but remained a feature of the French press and was used to boost a newspaper’s credibility, as we see in the case of a new newspaper, Libération, that chose to report from Ireland and other locations around the world to show that it was willing and able to compete with more established newspapers. I show how the political perception of Ireland in France shifted from one of a peripheral land or romanticised exotic L’île verte that was locked in seemingly intractable conflict, to one of a modern outward-looking state that was a peer with France through their common membership of the European Union.Item Southern Irish Unionism during the revolutionary and post-Independence periods, 1912-1932(University College Cork, 2024) Ó Corráin, Breandán Mícheál; O'Driscoll, MervynThis research focuses on the role of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy and commercial interests from the southern 26 counties of Ireland in determining southern unionist policies and political strategies in the early 20th century. The specific time frame under examination extends from the beginning of the Home Rule Crisis in 1912, through the turmoil which resulted in the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, and also looks at the political space occupied by (ex-)unionists within the Free State legislature in the period up until 1932, when Fianna Fáil came to power and began dismantling the Free State settlement. There is a particular focus within the research on those associated with the 1st Earl of Midleton in the Unionist Anti-Partition League (APL), and this research takes advantage of the previously unexamined Anti-Partition League Papers which are held in PRONI.The thesis will argue that commercial interests became increasingly powerful within the Irish Unionist Association (IUA), leading to their pushing for a new departure in southern unionism in alliance with likeminded influential members of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy (e.g. Midleton, Desart, Oranmore, Donoughmore, inter alia). This resulted in their breaking away from the IUA and the formation of the APL in 1919 as a vehicle for articulating their interests. It will also be argued that the APL, through proactive negotiation with all sides, occupied a more important role in creating the conditions for a peace settlement between the Dáil and British Governments, and also in shaping the terms of the Free State Constitution, than is generally granted. The thesis will further examine how southern or (ex-)unionists attempted to organise politically at a national level within the new political context of the Free State. Particular reference will be made to those associated with former APL vice-chairman and negotiator, Andrew Jameson. It will be argued that the underlying economic and social interests of these individuals/groups pushed them to re-align with groups within in the Free State which matched their own interests.Item The gatekeeper: a biography of Liam Tobin(University College Cork, 2024) Rooney, Catherine Deirdre; Doherty, Gabriel; Borgonovo, John; Universities IrelandMajor General Liam Tobin was a central figure in the Irish Revolution, yet he has not received sufficient attention for the contributions that he made to the fight for independence from Britain. Operating as Deputy Director of Intelligence during the War of Independence, he ran the intelligence office located at 3 Crow Street mere yards from Dublin Castle, and worked directly under Michael Collins. Upon entering the National Forces in 1922 he was given the rank of Major General, and participated in the re-capturing of Cork City from anti-Treaty forces during the Civil War. After the death of Collins, he and fellow pre-Truce officers became disillusioned with the Free State government’s attitude towards the Anglo-Irish Treaty. They feared that it would become a permanent fixture, rather than a stepping stone to complete independence as Collins had promised. As a result, in March 1924 Tobin and his comrades organised the Army Mutiny, which saw officers refuse their demobilisation orders and remove arms from various barracks across the country. While the mutiny was short-lived and was never viewed as a significant military threat to the government, the crisis lasted three weeks and it is considered to be the last act of the Civil War. He would later become a supporter of Fianna Fáil in 1926, an interesting move considering he had previously taken the pro-Treaty side in the Civil War. Tobin is one of many figures from the Irish Revolution that has not received adequate attention in the historiography for the contributions that he made, nor is he exceptional with regards to his feelings of disillusionment after the Civil War. However, this thesis aims to highlight the key roles that he played throughout the Revolution, from intelligence officer, Major General, mutineer, comrade, enemy and executioner. Divided into five sections, the structure presents a chronological examination of his life from the Easter Rising to his eventual death in 1963, with particular focus on his intelligence activities and his role in the mutiny. He is considered controversial to some historians, and many aspects of his activities remain shrouded in mystery, from allegations that he destroyed government files, to claims that he was working as an intelligence officer for Fianna Fáil. Part of the reason that he has never been examined in detail before is because he refused to speak about his activities during this period. However, a study of Liam Tobin is necessary to fully understand how the intelligence department functioned during the War of Independence, and his motivations behind the mutiny require further investigation. Therefore, this thesis aims to examine why Tobin was such an important figure in the Revolution, and explain why he was considered to be one of Collins’ deadliest lieutenants.Item The emergence of postpartum pathology: sixteenth century discourse on postpartum depression(University College Cork, 2023) Cronin, Laura; Harris, Jason; Irish Research CouncilThis thesis constitutes the first detailed study of the learned medical engagement with postpartum mood disorders through analysis of the evolution of postpartum pathology in the Western Latin print tradition of the sixteenth century (c.1550 – 1603). Historical overviews of these phenomena have typically omitted the progress which occurred during this period, in favour of a synopsis that passes from the works of Hippocrates (c.460 BCE – c.375 BCE) straight to the scholarly advancements of the nineteenth century. This thesis emends that omission and examines the extent to which postpartum insanity was recognised, discussed, categorised, and treated by early modern learned physicians by engaging with theoretical texts in addition to clinical case studies. It therefore investigates the connection between postpartum women and their experiences of insanity as interpreted by medical professionals of the sixteenth century. This thesis finds that while the interpretation of postpartum insanity was certainly not a uniform concept, or unequivocally recognised as a distinctly puerperal phenomenon, the documenting and collating of examples of mental alienation that had an indisputable connection to the maternal body increased significantly during this period and evolved to reflect contemporary knowledge at different stages of the century.Item Presenting the future: the Irish Social Credit movement 1932-1941(University College Cork, 2023) Warren, Gordon; McCarthy, Andrew; University College CorkThis dissertation examines the monetary reform proposals tendered by the Irish Social Credit movement in the 1930s and early 1940s. The phenomenon of monetary reform constitutes an understudied aspect of Irish economic history and in focusing on the monetary reform proposals of the Financial Freedom Federation (latterly the Irish Social Credit Party, henceforth FFF/ISCP) I contend that, notwithstanding the fact that professional economists tended to give Social Credit a wide berth, aspects of the FFF/ISCP programme for reform were more forward looking than the literature gives them credit for being and are, therefore, worthy of revaluation. By monetary reform I mean alternative proposals for issuing money and financing the economy than the conventional debt-based model. Social Credit, an economic doctrine developed in the Interwar years by an obscure British engineer, Clifford Hugh Douglas, in collaboration with feted British intellectual, Alfred Richard Orage, became the preeminent monetary reform theory in circulation in Britain and Ireland after the 1929 crash when the world experienced an acute and prolonged economic depression. The Irish Social Credit movement, which numbered Maud Gonne MacBride amongst its foremost campaigners, has received scant to no attention in the literature to date. Indeed, save for a short and impressionistic treatment of the movement in Ray Douglas’ 2009 work Architects of the Resurrection, the literature is silent on this phenomenon. The objective of the monetary innovations proffered by the Irish Social Credit movement was the removal of money creation from the hands of the banking system and making it a sovereign prerogative (democracy in a substantive sense). Although not especially numerous, the movement succeeded in attracting large crowds to their rallies and in alerting the general public to the possibility of alternate methods of stimulating the economy. Herein, I detail the forward-looking aspects of the FFF/ISCP’s monetary reform proposals arguing that the FFF/ISCP was significantly ahead of future economic developments in advocating a nascent form of basic income in the form of the National Dividend and in identifying a democratic deficit in permitting democratically unaccountable institutions a near monopoly on the supply of credit. All too often, we are apt to dismiss proposals for social and economic reform that emanate from traditions we might label as ‘suspect’ or ‘other’ not comprehending the assumptions that underpin them. This dissertation will elucidate some of the assumptions underpinning the FFF/ISCP proposals in the hope that it will be of value in assisting us in assessing the viability of the proposals for economic and monetary reform propounded by this hitherto substantially neglected entity.