The Irish National Aid Association and the Radicalization of Public Opinion in Ireland, 1916–1918

Abstract

At the 1918 general election, Sinn Féin overtook the Irish Parliamentary Party as the dominant political force within nationalist Ireland, a process that has its origins in the aftermath of the Easter Rising of 1916. This article argues that to understand better this shift in public opinion, from an initially hostile reaction to the Dublin rebellion to a more advanced nationalist position,1it is important to recognize the decisive role played by a political welfare organization, the Irish National Aid Association and Volunteer Dependents' Fund. The activities of the INAAVDF significantly shaped the popular memory of the Rising, but also provided a focus around which the republican movement could re-organize itself. In foregrounding the contribution of the INAAVDF to the radicalization of political life in Ireland between 1916 and 1918, the article argues that this understudied but important organization offers a useful way of charting popular responses to the Rising and its aftermath, as well as laying the foundations for a reinvigorated political and military campaign after 1917.

Ethnic Fundraising in America and the Irish and Lithuanian Wars of Independence, 1918–1923

“…57 Although Ireland was far from the main field of conflict, £59,348 (c. $237,392) was raised in the United States in 1917-19 for survivors of the Easter Rising and their dependants. 58 One of the main organizations responsible for raising these funds was the Friends of Irish Freedom (FOIF), an open-membership society controlled by a secret society called Clan na Gael, successor to the Fenian Brotherhood. 59 Following the Armistice, the FOIF launched a fundraising campaign in support of the Irish delegation to Paris.…”