Government formation talks have always been fraught affairs, but none were so burdened by the past as those that led to the first inter-party government in 1948.
Fine Gael, Clann na Poblachta, Labour, the National Labour Party (the party had split) and Clann na Talmhan were united only by a desire to see the back of Fianna Fáil that had been in power for 16 years.
The two largest parties were Fine Gael (30 seats) and the newly formed Clann na Poblachta (10 seats). Fine Gael leader Richard Mulcahy’s expectations that he would become taoiseach were thwarted by Clann leader Seán MacBride who refused to serve under him because of Mulcahy’s role in the execution of 77 Republicans during the Civil War.
Though the Civil War had been over for 25 years by that stage, MacBride, who took the anti-Treaty side, refused to forgive or forget and Mulcahy stepped aside in favour of the then attorney-general John A Costello.
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Mulcahy’s spidery writing is in a handwritten note on December 8th, 1922, in which he writes that four Republican prisoners, Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Joseph McKelvey and Richard Barrett, had been summarily executed in Mountjoy Prison as a “solemn warning” to those who would take up arms against the government. His signature is also on the execution warrant.
Another was a telegram, chilling in its succinctness, to Mulcahy on August 23rd, 1922, from Emmet Dalton. “Commander-in-chief shot dead at Béal na Bláth on Tuesday evening with me (Emmet Dalton).”
These three documents are among 95,006 to be precise in the Mulcahy archive that have now been digitised by UCD. The mammoth project took six months to complete and it is planned that all the images will be put online for scholars.
The archive was given by Mulcahy to UCD in December 1970 shortly before he died. It contains letters, telegrams, battalion reports, newspaper clippings, memoranda, cabinet minutes and photographs spanning Mulcahy’s career from his involvement in the Easter Rising to his retirement as a TD in 1960.
Speaking at the launch, UCD professor of history Diarmaid Ferriter said the parties involved in present government formation talks owe a debt of gratitude to Mulcahy who pushed for the 1948 inter-party government even after conceding that he would not become taoiseach.
“It was Mulcahy who pushed for the idea of an alternative to Fianna Fáil – ultimately enhancing our democracy. There was a dignity about the way he responded to what could have been considered a humiliation,” Prof Ferriter said.
Though best known for his role as commander-in-chief of the IRA during the War of Independence and in succeeding Michael Collins as commander-in-chief of the National Army during the Civil War, there was more to Mulcahy than his involvement in the Irish Revolution. Mulcahy went on to be a minister in successive Free State governments before becoming Fine Gael leader in 1944.
UCD principal archivist Kate Manning said Mulcahy’s papers are “easily” the most popular archive in UCD because of his meticulous chronicling of the War of Independence and Civil War. It has been a valuable resource for historians for decades. The plan is now to upload the whole archive to the internet and make it universally available.
Mulcahy’s foresight in donating his papers to UCD encouraged others to do likewise, she said.
UCD also houses the papers of former taoisigh WT Cosgrave, Éamon de Valera, Garret FitzGerald and Albert Reynolds, among many others.
The university is working on a major renovation of the James Joyce Main Library building on the Belfield campus which contains the archives.
A new Cultural Heritage Centre will bring together the archives, its special collections and the National Folklore Collection.
The National Folklore Collection is one of the largest of its kind in the world, containing thousands of tape recordings of traditional tales, legends, songs and music, and is part of the Unesco Memory of the World Register.
University librarian Sandra Collins said: “The digitisation of the Mulcahy papers reflects our mission to make UCD’s cultural heritage collections more accessible, fostering deeper engagement and inspiring new audiences to explore Ireland’s past.”
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