Fundamentos teóricos de la comprensión lectora

Now that the composition of the republican courts and the pragmatic nature of its punishments has been clarified we can turn our attention to actual opinions of the courts. The information available for this purpose comes almost exclusively from newspapers and witness statements. While most of the newspapers were very positive about all aspects of the republican courts, the witnesses were sometimes more ambiguous about the legal procedures which were being applied. We shall first take a look at positive reports in the newspapers.

According to Michael Laffan, most national newspapers were sympathetic towards republican aspirations. Both the Irish Independent and the Freeman’s Journal were decidedly in favour of Sinn Féin. The owners and editors of provincial newspapers were generally not sympathetic towards radical nationalism. However, they published what they thought their public wanted to read, which led to an increasingly positive attitude towards republicanism.117 Both national and provincial newspapers often published accounts of republican court sessions in which they had someone who had been present commenting on the procedure. On May 22, 1920 the Irish Independent quoted a Galway parish priest in an editorial, saying: ‘the Courts had done work that could never be forgotten by Irishmen. Their judgments had been acknowledged to be fair and just by everyone, no matter what his political opinions.’118

On July 19 1920 it mentioned a ‘well-known’ solicitor from Cork who ‘paid high tribute to the fairness, impartiality, and ability with which the proceedings were conducted by the judges.’119

The Limerick Leader was more direct in its praise of the republican courts, writing an editorial on July 16 1920 on the closing of such a court: ‘the Government, it would appear, has at last become alive to the hard fact that the Sinn Féin tribunals all over the country are giving universal satisfaction to litigants, and are giving absolutely sound and fair decisions in every case coming before them.’120

Perhaps the most uncritical and at the same time amusing piece appeared in the Leitrim Observer on September 20 1920:

These Courts represent the true genius of the Gaelic people. The Courts of the Brehons (…) were just such courts as are now recommended by the Dáil…these should be all the more readily set up since they not only take the administration of justice from alien hands but actually revive a part of our ancient civilisation which once made the Irish people celebrated and admired from one end of Europe to the other.121

117

M. Laffan, The Resurrection of Ireland, 263-264.

118_{Irish Independent, May 22, 1920.} 119_{Irish Independent, July 19, 1920.} 120

Limerick Leader, July 16, 1920.

Similar though less heroic articles appeared in the Ulster Herald122, the Meath Chronicle123, the

Westmeath Examiner124 and the Kerryman.125 Besides these accounts some papers also published letters from people who had either heard of the courts or who had first-hand experience with them. One such in the Irish Independent read: ‘I had the occasion to appear in one of our newly established Arbitration Court in Co. Galway. I heard three cases tried, and saw nothing but the most honest, straightforward and fair play done for all parties (…) It does not matter one jot which religion one belongs to, justice is done to all.’126

Another in the Limerick Leader was sent by Lord Monteagle and read: ‘The Sinn Féin Courts are steadily extending their jurisdiction and dispensing justice evenhanded between man and man, Catholic and Protestant, farmer and shopkeeper, grazier and cattle driver, landlord and tenant.’127

A particularly lyrical one was sent to the Roscommon Herald and read: ‘in them [the republican courts] was seen the unique spectacle of a revolutionary party protecting property (…) Great and small landowners, Protestant and Catholic citizens of Ireland, policemen and Sinn Féiners, all found equal justice, rapid and economical, and manifestly carrying with it the consent of the people in the settlement of these problems (…)’128

Given these reports and letters there was certainly no shortage of positive opinions on republican courts in the newspapers. The same can be said for the statements given by the witnesses, which is perhaps not surprising since these were all republicans. Seamus Fitzgerald, County Cork, states that his parish court’s judgments ‘were always well received and easily enforcible.’129

Laurence Nugent, from Dublin city, makes a similar statement, saying that ‘the population were recognising the Republic and the orders from these courts were always considered fair.’130 The fairness of the procedure is also emphasised by Patrick McKenna, from County Galway: ‘Whatever feeling of suspicion, if any such feeling existed amongst the people about the ability of our Courts to dispense even-handed justice, was soon dispelled by the efficient and fair decisions which resulted from trials in our Court.’131

Thomas Treacy, from County Kilkenny, gives accounts of cases where Unionist were litigants ‘as a sample of how justice and fair play was administered under the Republic regardless of political or religious affiliations.’132

These statements are just a small sample from many more in which similar remarks about the popularity of the courts are made. Impartial justice, fairness of procedures, and a soundness of decisions are emphasised in them. However, newspapers and witness

122_{Ulster Herald, July 10, 1920.} 123

Meath Chronicle, September 18, 1920.

124_{Westmeath Examiner, July 3, 1920} 125_{Kerryman, June 12, 1920.}

126_{Irish Independent, July 31, 1920.} 127_{Limerick Leader, July 5, 1920.} 128

Roscommon Herald, August 6, 1921.

129 _{WS Seamus Fitzgerald, 42.} 130 _{WS Laurence Nugent, 192.} 131

WS Patrick McKenna, 13.

statements also contain much information that indicates that this image of the republican courts is highly exaggerated. This is less explicit than the praise for the courts, but no less compelling.