The Truce, 11th July 1921: A postcard collection
This collection of postcards is from the Barton Collection, Wicklow County Archives (WLAA/PP1).
Commemorating the official start of the Truce on the 11th of July 1921, the postcards feature the arrival of General Nevil Macready, Commander of British troops in Ireland to the Mansion House on the 8th of July. We see how the General was met by cheering and clapping crowds gathered at the entrance on the foot of rumours surrounding the negotiations and greeted by the Lord Mayor Laurence O’Neill.
Inside waiting for him were members of the Dáil/Sinn Féin Cabinet – Eamon de Valera, Cathal Brugha, Eamon Duggan and Wicklow’s own Robert Barton. While they negotiated, women can be seen reciting the Rosary outside in the crowd.
The postcards also depict the Irish delegation leaving Dun Laoghaire for London to meet British Prime Minister Lloyd George for talks following the Truce.
As Wicklow historian Chris Lawlor states, “the I.R.A. …. and their Republican supporters among the wider populace, might not have been as happy with the implementation of the truce had they been able to foresee the events of the following couple of years”.
Further information
- Article: Summer 1921 from Carnage to Peace by RTE
- Book: Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, Truce: Murder Myth and the Last Days of the Irish War of Independence
- Website: Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (by National Academy of Ireland, National Archives of Ireland and Dept. of Foreign Affairs)
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