Origins and ownership
The Leitrim Observer was founded by the Mulvey family from Ballinaglera, County Leitrim, in 1890. However, like so many other Irish provincial newspapers it came to be associated with one dominant personality. In the case of the Leitrim Observer that personality was Patrick Dunne, who took ownership of the paper in the first decade of the twentieth century. There is a slight degree of uncertainty as to Dunne’s acquisition of the Leitrim Observer. Hugh Oram states that he bought it for £5 in 1910 but the centenary issue of the Observer credits Dunne with purchasing the paper in 1904 for a sum thought to be around £150.157 Regardless of the specific date of Dunne’s assumption of ownership and the amount he paid, he remained at the helm of the paper for almost sixty years, his tenure as editor-proprietor only ceasing upon his death in 1968.
Patrick Dunne was born in Carrick-on-Shannon in 1879. Upon leaving school he became an apprentice printer at the Leitrim Observer that was then owned by Frank Mulvey, a member of the family that originally established the paper. In order to gain further experience of the printing trade Dunne left the Observer to work at both the Longford Leader and Roscommon Herald where he served under J.P. Farrell and Jasper Tully respectively. He later returned to the Leitrim Observer and purchased the paper upon the retirement of Frank Mulvey.158 Oram describes Dunne as ‘an extraordinary character’ and ‘the Jasper Tully of County Leitrim’.159 There is little available evidence to discern what would merit such a label, but a description of Dunne as a ‘colourful’ character and someone whose ‘adversaries, or those perceived as
157 Leitrim Observer: 1890-1990 – One hundred years of history in the making (28 November 1990); Oram, op. cit., pp 146-7;
158
Leitrim Observer, 30 Nov. 1968 159 Oram, op. cit., pp 146-7
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such played no part in Pat’s life or newspaper’, makes the comparison somewhat more comprehensible.160
Dunne differed from Tully though in that he was never elected to public office. Nonetheless, it was certainly not the case that he had any less interest in the national question. In fact Dunne’s nationalism was of a significantly more militant nature than the editor-proprietor of the Roscommon Herald. He joined the Irish Volunteers at an early stage and was subsequently a member of the South Leitrim Brigade of the IRA. He facilitated clandestine meetings of like-minded nationalists by making his premises available for such a purpose.161 It is not certain whether such activities, or the sentiments expressed in his paper, attracted the attention of the military authorities but in November 1920 Crown Forces paid the offices of the paper an unwelcome visit.
Closure and incarceration
On 10 November 1920 Crown Forces raided the premises of the Leitrim Observer and caused damage that was to keep the paper out of print for over two years. At the time the Irish Times reported that Patrick Dunne and his sister Eliza were held at gunpoint and within a few hours ‘the machinery and plant were a mass of wreckage’ while ‘the type and type frames were scattered about’. It was also stated that the printing office was ‘set on fire in two places’ and as a consequence a large staff was ‘thrown out of employment’.162 The Dáil Éireann newssheet, the Irish Bulletin, reported that the offices and works of the Leitrim Observer and the residence of the proprietor had been ‘wrecked and fired by constabulary’ while shop windows in Carrick-on-Shannon had also been smashed.163 Within days Patrick Dunne lodged a claim for £12,000 for the destruction of his plant and machinery but three weeks later he was arrested.164 He was interned at Ballykinlar camp in County Down where numbered among his fellow- prisoners were Seán Lemass, and Peader Kearney, composer of the Irish national anthem.165
160
Leitrim Observer: 1890-1990 – One hundred years of history in the making (28 November 1990) 161 Leitrim Observer, 30 Nov. 1968; Irish Times, 26 Nov. 1968
162 Irish Times, 11 Nov. 1920 163
Irish Bulletin, 2 Dec. 1920 164
Freeman’s Journal, 13 Nov. 1920; Irish Independent, 7 Dec. 1920;
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It is not clear why the Observer was targeted nor why Patrick Dunne was arrested. The office of the Press Censor was no longer in existence at that stage but even prior to its enforced closure there was little to indicate that the Leitrim Observer had attracted the attention of the authorities. Dunne’s obituary claimed that his paper was such a powerful ‘medium to imbue the national spirit into the people of Leitrim that the Black and Tans, on arrival in the county went first to the office, destroyed the plant and burned the premises’.166 While such obituaries can be prone to overstatement it is possible that the tone of the paper at the time may have incurred the disapproval of the authorities. Nonetheless, although the paper was highly critical of British Government policy in Ireland, its editorial tone (as outlined in the next section) was scarcely more excessive than many other nationalist titles. Whatever the reasons for targeting the Leitrim Observer, it remained out of print until January 1923. On its return it stated that ‘in the past we endeavoured to sustain the faith and courage of the people during the blackest days of the war, and accordingly we were singled out for ruthless treatment and the attempted extermination of our paper and our livelihood’.167 Although this provides no further clue as to why the paper was specifically targeted it does provoke a certain curiosity as to the editorial message being articulated in the paper.
Pars and points: editorial comment 1914-1921168
The Leitrim Observer bore the appended title of Roscommon, Longford, Cavan, and Sligo News and was usually comprised of eight pages, divided into seven columns, with the front page containing only advertisements. The number of pages dropped as low as four at certain times between 1918 and 1920. The paper contained a variety of weekly articles whose theme was self-evident from the title. Such articles included ‘Garden Gossip’, ‘Home Hints’, ‘Dress of the Day’, ‘Field and Farm’, and ‘Woman’s Corner’. An almost equally regular feature was the advertisement for the Observer’s own printing works which could supply posters, handbills, billheads, memos, circulars and programmes. In a similar vein to most other provincial titles the considerable rural readership was evidenced by the amount of farming related adverts. ‘Eckford’s’ high grade manures, ‘Richardson & Fletcher’s’ fertilisers, ‘Fordson’ tractors, and ‘Drummond’s’ seeds were just a few of the agricultural items to appear in the advertising sections.
166
Leitrim Observer, 30 Nov. 1968 167
Ibid, 6 Jan. 1923
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A broad array of other items were also advertised such as ‘Neave’s’ baby food, ‘Austin’ motor cars, ‘Savar’s’ instant toothache remedy, and the ubiquitous ‘Raleigh’ bicycles.
By far the most striking feature of the editorial columns of the Leitrim Observer between 1914 and 1921 is that quite frequently there were simply no opinion pieces. Instead they regularly only consisted of brief local announcements, sometimes no more than two or three sentences. This makes it all the more surprising as to why the paper ultimately attracted the undesired attention of the Crown Forces. Nonetheless, this rather unique characteristic of its editorial columns was as much in evidence in 1914 as it was at the height of the War of Independence in 1919 and 1920. Such an editorial trait contrasted hugely to organs such as the Tuam Herald, Enniscorthy Echo, and Kilkenny People whose leading articles were almost without exception quite lengthy and dealt with both national and international affairs. In this respect the Observer most resembled the Midland Tribune which often featured only brief local announcements in its editorial columns though not with the same frequency. Yet when its lead articles did turn their attention to national issues it did not fail to provide compelling reading.
This was most evident in the opening months of World War I. In response to the German destruction of the Belgian city of Louvain the paper asked ‘how many Louvains were destroyed in Ireland?’ In an unequivocal manner it additionally claimed that ‘the same England that is hypocritically wringing its hands in horror at German atrocities today’ was responsible for ‘destroying our priceless treasure’ and had also ‘destroyed our language and laid waste this beautiful island’.169 It was further asserted that Britain’s involvement in the war was a totally self-serving exercise. ‘The great mills and factories of England’ were, the paper editorialised, ‘taking on men daily in order to cope with the rush of trade they expect to capture from Germany’.170 Even allowing for the vehemence of such sentiments the Observer’s response to Lord Kitchener’s call for more Irish recruits was still quite remarkable:
Why does he not make an appeal to all the “swanky” tennis players, golfers, and cricketers in “ ‘appy Hengland” [sic] to join his new army? Those English “Joonies” who sing Rule Britannia in time of peace, and who read novels and play cricket in war time when Irishmen are fighting their
169
Leitrim Observer, 12 Sept. 1914 170 Ibid, 26 Sept. 1914
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battles, they should be compelled to enlist. Certainly the average Englishman is only a coward. He is good for nothing only eating beef, drinking beer and sleeping.171
Quite remarkably such open antagonism to enlistment in the British Army did not attract the attention of the authorities. However, perhaps even more remarkable was the fact that the editorials in the Leitrim Observer did not turn their attention to either national or international matters for about another eighteen months. Also, the paper did not carry any recruitment advertisements except on two occasions following the gathering of newspaper editors at the Viceregal Lodge in the Phoenix Park in October 1915 though the Observer did not send any representatives to the meeting.172 Even the 1916 Rising provoked only a minimal response from the paper. Events in Dublin were reported but the only editorial comment appeared well over a month after the rebellion when it was simply referred to as ‘a sad and regrettable affair’.173 The introduction of conscription in April 1918 similarly drew no editorial response. Such silence was highly strange considering the extreme nature of the anti-enlistment messages articulated in the opening months of the war. Nevertheless, a distinctly pro-Sinn Féin outlook was detectable, if not clearly obvious, from 1917 onwards.
The first Sinn Féin by-election success in North Roscommon in February 1917 was not greeted with the same enthusiasm expressed by the Mayo News, Enniscorthy Echo, or Meath Chronicle. Instead, Count Plunkett’s victory was simply described as ‘a timely warning to the Irish Party that they must awaken to their duty’.174 By June 1918, however, the Observer hailed Arthur Griffith’s by-election victory in East Cavan as ‘historic and a great setback to all opposed to the cause of Sinn Féin’. Significantly the paper was keen to point out that the widespread celebrations of Griffith’s victory held in County Leitrim ‘passed off quietly and without a single untoward incident occurring’.175 Support for Sinn Féin, if somewhat understated, was not all that surprising as notices for meetings of Sinn Féin clubs had begun to appear in the Observer from around September 1917. Any tentativeness in displaying pro-Sinn Féin sentiment had all but disappeared by the time of the campaign for the general election of December 1918. Prior to the poll the paper published a photograph of the Sinn Féin candidate for Leitrim, James N.
171 Ibid, 19 Sept. 1914 172 Irish Times, 29 Oct 1915 173
Leitrim Observer, 10 Jun. 1916 174
Ibid, 10 Feb. 1917 175 Ibid, 29 Jun. 1918
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Dolan (then interned) under the sub-heading ‘a well-known and popular Manorhamilton Gael’ and described him as ‘an ardent Gaelic Leaguer, highly educated and a powerful and leading orator’.176 Sinn Féin’s subsequent victory, not only in Leitrim but across the country, was described in the first editorial of 1919 as one that ‘speaks in the highest for the good men in charge of Sinn Féin, which is the respected and universal policy of the great masses of the people of Ireland’.177
In its own unique fashion the Leitrim Observer editorial columns then reverted to the more familiar terrain of local issues and announcements. This remained the case for quite some time and it was only around May 1920, when hostilities in Ireland were intensifying, that the editorial focus reverted to national issues with any degree of regularity. The paper accused the British Cabinet of attempting to choke ‘republicanism out of us’ and despite ‘the most intense period of repression in modern times’ Ireland was ‘still under the sentence of death’.178 The condemnation of the British Government during the summer of 1920 was probably as strong, if not as frequent, as many other nationalist organs. British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, was accused of implementing a strategy of ‘shooting on sight, the sacking of towns, midnight incendiarism, and the bombing of houses occupied by women and children’. The paper caustically suggested that the only tactic not yet employed was a ‘house to house slaughter’.179 Editorial indictment of the actions of Crown Forces in Ireland, however, only reached its zenith in August 1920:
The officers of the Army of Occupation are to have the power of life and death over Irish civilians. They may arrest and imprison without trial any persons whom they suspect of hostility to them in thought, word, or deed. They may impose savage sentences for offences such as the doing of acts calculated to promote the objects of the Gaelic League, an “unlawful association”. They may use the starvation blockade against every or any district in Ireland. They can shoot down Irish civilians without provocation and then hold a court of inquiry themselves and
176
Ibid, 12 Oct. 1918; The paper also promoted Dolan’s candidacy by reminding readers that his brother, Charles, had been the first ever Sinn Féin parliamentary candidate in 1908. Charles Dolan had originally been elected in 1906 as an Irish Parliamentary Party MP for North Leitrim but resigned his seat after transferring his allegiance to Sinn Féin. He contested the subsequent by-election on behalf of Sinn Féin but was defeated by UIL candidate, Francis Meehan.
177
Ibid, 4 Jan. 1919 178
Ibid, 1 May 1920 179 Ibid, 31 Jul. 1920
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pronounce themselves justified. No such terrible weapons have been used to break a peoples will since the Tsar of Russia was forced to abdicate.180
It is not really possible to surmise whether such unrestrained criticism was a factor that led Crown Forces to the offices of the Leitrim Observer less than three months later. The difficulty in identifying a reason for the actions of the military is compounded by the fact that in the two months prior to the raid on the Observer editorial comment had been largely confined to more mundane local matters. Regardless of what prompted the unwelcome visit, it unfortunately leaves it as a matter of speculation as to how Patrick Dunne and his newspaper would have reacted to the truce of July 1921 and the Anglo- Irish Treaty six months later.
Conclusion
The case of the Leitrim Observer is rather unique among the ranks of the provincial print media between 1914 and 1921. Although unquestionably pro-Sinn Féin in sympathy from around 1917 onwards, its editorials dealt predominantly with local matters both before and after this time. Even when leading articles turned their attention to national issues its tone was rather understated. This was perhaps best illustrated by the fact that the Observer did not engage in the damning criticism of the Irish Parliamentary Party that was a hallmark of papers such as the Kilkenny People and Roscommon Herald. Nonetheless, there were exceptions to the rather reserved editorial tone. This was most evident in its anti-enlistment proclamations in the early months of World War I and even more so in its castigation of Lloyd George and his government during the summer of 1920. In the latter instance the paper certainly did not hold back in its vilification of the actions of Crown Forces in Ireland but its commentary was hardly more severe than many other nationalist titles. Yet the Leitrim Observer suffered a fate far worse than most other provincial papers in having its plant and machinery destroyed and being forced out of print for over two years. While the reason that the Observer was targeted by Crown Forces is somewhat perplexing it is perhaps best to regard it as a salient example of the extremely difficult circumstances under which newspapers had to operate during these years.
180 Ibid, 28 Aug. 1920
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Leitrim Observer – Timeline 1890: founded by Mulvey family.
1904/1910: Patrick Dunne acquires paper.
1920: premises attacked and destroyed by Crown Forces in November, forcing paper out of publication until January 1923. Patrick Dunne subsequently arrested and detained.
1904/1910-1968: Patrick Dunne, editor-proprietor.