On This Day / February 22, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19210222
Reference Date
19210222
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 22nd February 1921, Joseph Devlin and Captain Wedgwood Benn denounced British repression in Ireland, accusing the Government of terror, reprisals and frustrating prospects for peaceful settlement. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Devlin Calls for Peace | On This Day – 22nd February 1921
IN THE House of Commons yesterday, the debate on the Address was resumed by Captain Wedgwood Benn [Liberal] who moved an amendment stating: ‘That the policy in practice pursued by the Executive in Ireland had failed to secure the repression of organised outrage; had involved the officers and servants of the Crown in a competition in crime with the offenders against the law …and had frustrated the prospects of an agreed settlement of the problem of Irish self-government.’
Captain Benn maintained that the policy of the Government was condemned by all moderate opinion and, if persisted in, it would disrupt the whole Empire.
The Prime Minister had recently said we had ‘murder by the throat’, but outrage and crime had increased since then. Captain Benn charged the servants of the Chief Secretary with being guilty of pillage, looting and terrorism.
The [Chief Secretary] used systematic terrorisation of the population in his attempts to restore order. The Hague Convention was being violated by the Government in Ireland.
Sir Hamar Greenwood [Chief Secretary] denied that the Government were condemned by foreign countries. Captain Benn was the friend of Mr Erskine Childers who was an extreme friend of Sinn Fein.
Mr Joseph Devlin [Nat.] said the Chief Secretary asked whether he denounced the origin and authors of all the trouble in Ireland. ‘Most gladly do I denounce the authors – who sit there’, he replied, pointing to the Treasury bench.
The Chief Secretary had attacked Mr Erskine Childers who took a gallant part in the war. It was a strong commentary on the policy of the Government that when Mr Childers went to Ireland he should have developed a detestation and a loathing for the Government’s policy.
As ‘Mr Lloyd George”’, the P had denounced the burning of farms as ‘foolish and iniquitous’. Was that fine moral philosophy to be changed now that he was the PM?
What [Mr Lloyd George] said of the reprisals in South Africa in 1901 he (Mr Devlin) repeated now in his impeachment of the Government. Judge Wakely had at Sligo charged the uniformed officers of the Crown with deliberately burning property of citizens.
It would be better that there should be an honest and peaceful arrangement between the two nations in order to end the present horrible condition of things.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: As the war in Ireland entered it third year and the Coalition intensified its use of repression, Devlin and his Liberal and Labour allies piled the pressure on Lloyd George who was now inching towards negotiations.
Captain William Benn, then a Liberal MP, was father of Tony Benn, the later Labour Minister.)
On This Day – 22nd February 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210222
Reference Date
19210222
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 22nd February 1921, Joseph Devlin and Captain Wedgwood Benn denounced British repression in Ireland, accusing the Government of terror, reprisals and frustrating prospects for peaceful settlement. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Devlin Calls for Peace | On This Day – 22nd February 1921
IN THE House of Commons yesterday, the debate on the Address was resumed by Captain Wedgwood Benn [Liberal] who moved an amendment stating: ‘That the policy in practice pursued by the Executive in Ireland had failed to secure the repression of organised outrage; had involved the officers and servants of the Crown in a competition in crime with the offenders against the law …and had frustrated the prospects of an agreed settlement of the problem of Irish self-government.’
Captain Benn maintained that the policy of the Government was condemned by all moderate opinion and, if persisted in, it would disrupt the whole Empire.
The Prime Minister had recently said we had ‘murder by the throat’, but outrage and crime had increased since then. Captain Benn charged the servants of the Chief Secretary with being guilty of pillage, looting and terrorism.
The [Chief Secretary] used systematic terrorisation of the population in his attempts to restore order. The Hague Convention was being violated by the Government in Ireland.
Sir Hamar Greenwood [Chief Secretary] denied that the Government were condemned by foreign countries. Captain Benn was the friend of Mr Erskine Childers who was an extreme friend of Sinn Fein.
Mr Joseph Devlin [Nat.] said the Chief Secretary asked whether he denounced the origin and authors of all the trouble in Ireland. ‘Most gladly do I denounce the authors – who sit there’, he replied, pointing to the Treasury bench.
The Chief Secretary had attacked Mr Erskine Childers who took a gallant part in the war. It was a strong commentary on the policy of the Government that when Mr Childers went to Ireland he should have developed a detestation and a loathing for the Government’s policy.
As ‘Mr Lloyd George”’, the P had denounced the burning of farms as ‘foolish and iniquitous’. Was that fine moral philosophy to be changed now that he was the PM?
What [Mr Lloyd George] said of the reprisals in South Africa in 1901 he (Mr Devlin) repeated now in his impeachment of the Government. Judge Wakely had at Sligo charged the uniformed officers of the Crown with deliberately burning property of citizens.
It would be better that there should be an honest and peaceful arrangement between the two nations in order to end the present horrible condition of things.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: As the war in Ireland entered it third year and the Coalition intensified its use of repression, Devlin and his Liberal and Labour allies piled the pressure on Lloyd George who was now inching towards negotiations.
Captain William Benn, then a Liberal MP, was father of Tony Benn, the later Labour Minister.)
On This Day – 22nd February 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210222
Reference Date
February 22, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 22nd February 1921, Joseph Devlin and Captain Wedgwood Benn denounced British repression in Ireland, accusing the Government of terror, reprisals and frustrating prospects for peaceful settlement. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Devlin Calls for Peace | On This Day – 22nd February 1921
IN THE House of Commons yesterday, the debate on the Address was resumed by Captain Wedgwood Benn [Liberal] who moved an amendment stating: ‘That the policy in practice pursued by the Executive in Ireland had failed to secure the repression of organised outrage; had involved the officers and servants of the Crown in a competition in crime with the offenders against the law …and had frustrated the prospects of an agreed settlement of the problem of Irish self-government.’
Captain Benn maintained that the policy of the Government was condemned by all moderate opinion and, if persisted in, it would disrupt the whole Empire.
The Prime Minister had recently said we had ‘murder by the throat’, but outrage and crime had increased since then. Captain Benn charged the servants of the Chief Secretary with being guilty of pillage, looting and terrorism.
The [Chief Secretary] used systematic terrorisation of the population in his attempts to restore order. The Hague Convention was being violated by the Government in Ireland.
Sir Hamar Greenwood [Chief Secretary] denied that the Government were condemned by foreign countries. Captain Benn was the friend of Mr Erskine Childers who was an extreme friend of Sinn Fein.
Mr Joseph Devlin [Nat.] said the Chief Secretary asked whether he denounced the origin and authors of all the trouble in Ireland. ‘Most gladly do I denounce the authors – who sit there’, he replied, pointing to the Treasury bench.
The Chief Secretary had attacked Mr Erskine Childers who took a gallant part in the war. It was a strong commentary on the policy of the Government that when Mr Childers went to Ireland he should have developed a detestation and a loathing for the Government’s policy.
As ‘Mr Lloyd George”’, the P had denounced the burning of farms as ‘foolish and iniquitous’. Was that fine moral philosophy to be changed now that he was the PM?
What [Mr Lloyd George] said of the reprisals in South Africa in 1901 he (Mr Devlin) repeated now in his impeachment of the Government. Judge Wakely had at Sligo charged the uniformed officers of the Crown with deliberately burning property of citizens.
It would be better that there should be an honest and peaceful arrangement between the two nations in order to end the present horrible condition of things.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: As the war in Ireland entered it third year and the Coalition intensified its use of repression, Devlin and his Liberal and Labour allies piled the pressure on Lloyd George who was now inching towards negotiations.
Captain William Benn, then a Liberal MP, was father of Tony Benn, the later Labour Minister.)
On This Day – 22nd February 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.