Witnessing War, Making Peace: Testimonies of Revolution and Restraint in Inter-War Ireland

Despite a war of independence (1919-21) and civil war (1922-23), Ireland’s experience of violence was relatively restrained compared to much of inter-war Europe and it returned to stability remarkably quickly. Eric Hobsbawm noted the Irish Free State as one of only five European states, new or old, where ‘adequately democratic institutions continued to function’ between the wars. What we still do not know is why.

Funded by a Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland Advanced Laureate Award, this project explains why Ireland was so relatively restrained in its use of violence during and after its revolution. In doing so, it will establish new paradigms for exploring the history of violence and pioneer the history of a much less considered phenomenon – restraint.

To do this it draws on the testimony of those who have been largely overlooked: the bystanders who witnessed violence in Ireland, who first put experiences of violence into words, and who fundamentally shaped what we can know about it now. By listening to the ordinary men and women who lived through Ireland’s wars, the project interrogates how they negotiated their ways from conflict to peace as follows:

Using thousands of inquests and court records this project will undertake the first qualitative analysis of violence and restraint in Ireland, placing the 1912-23 period in the context of violence before and after these years.
Court records, pension records, and compensation claims will allow the project to explore the type of post-conflict societies that emerged from violence, looking at how individuals adapted to and interacted with new institutions as they coped with legacies of violence.
Using the experience of individuals, the project will test how gender, class, economics, the politics of local power and grievances might explain how individuals navigated their ways through conflict and beyond. The aim is to understand how Ireland restrained its wars and made its peace.

Principal Investigator: Anne Dolan
Award Number: ICLA/2023/1707

For more information explore the Project Website or contact adolan@tcd.ie.