Taxation and the Revolutionary Inheritance: Tax Proposals, Legitimacy, and the Irish Free State, 1922–32

Knirck, Jason

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-04309-4_11

Jason Knirck⁷

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance ((PSHF))

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Abstract

Irish revolutionary leaders were generally not original economic thinkers, but important economic assumptions underlay Irish revolutionary ideology. Central among these was a belief that British economic policy harmed Ireland by squashing its industries, reducing its population, and overtaxing its residents, and that economic success would follow from repealing the Union. This chapter analyses the ways in which politicians’ economic visions intersected with the revolutionary legacy, the quest for political legitimacy, and the attempt to create a taxation policy suitable for a postcolonial state. These debates revealed significantly different visions for the Free State, as well as disagreements over whether political legitimacy should be measured by international markets or by the standards of living and distribution of wealth within Irish society.

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Notes

1.
Dáil Éireann, 3 Jan. 1923. The Dáil debates (hereafter DD) are available at http://www.oireachtas.ie/parliament/oireachtasbusiness/parliamentarydebates/.
2.
Cormac Ó Gráda, Ireland: A New Economic History, 1780–1939 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 389.
3.
Mary Daly, Industrial Development and Irish National Identity, 1922–1939 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1992), 45, 47, 55.
4.
This is the title of Daly’s chapter covering the years 1922–27.
5.
Ronan Fanning, The Irish Department of Finance, 1922–58 (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 1978), 119.
6.
Mike Cronin, ‘Golden Dreams, Harsh Realities: Economics and Informal Empire in the Irish Free State’, in Ireland: The Politics of Independence, 1922–49, ed. Mike Cronin and John M. Regan (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), 145, 146–47.
7.
Andy Bielenberg and Raymond Ryan, An Economic History of Ireland Since Independence (London: Routledge, 2012), 9–10.
8.
T. K. Daniel, ‘Griffith on his Noble Head: The Determinants of Cumann na nGaedheal Economic Policy, 1922–32’, Irish Economic and Social History 3 (1976): 55, 58, 63, 65.
9.
Kevin Hjortshøj O’Rourke, ‘Independent Ireland in Comparative Perspective’, Irish Economic and Social History 44 (2017): 30, 20.
10.
Martin Daunton, Trusting Leviathan: The Politics of Taxation in Britain, 1799–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001); idem, Just Taxes: The Politics of Taxation in Britain, 1914–1979 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
11.
Daunton, Trusting Leviathan, 7.
12.
Roy Douglas, Taxation in Britain since 1660 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999), 75.
13.
Daunton, Trusting Leviathan, 19.
14.
Bond Certificate Campaign, 1919, Thomas Clarke Collection, Boston College Burns Library MS 2001–07 (Folder 2/13).
15.
Michael Collins to Eamon de Valera, 19 Feb. 1920, Eamon de Valera Papers, University College Dublin Archives (hereafter UCDA) P150/726.
16.
Eamon de Valera, Notes for Speech in America, c. 1919–20, de Valera Papers, UCDA P150/674.
17.
Notes by Michael Collins ‘Change of Situation and Outlook’, c. summer 1922, Richard Mulcahy Papers, UCDA P7/B/28; DD, 12 Sept. 1922.
18.
Joseph Brennan, Memorandum on General Financial Situation, 27 Apr. 1923, Mulcahy Papers, UCDA P7/B/253.
19.
Fanning, Department of Finance, 112–14.
20.
DD, 17 Apr. 1923.
21.
Ibid., 23 Mar. 1923.
22.
Ibid.
23.
Daniel, ‘Griffith on his Noble Head’, 59–60.
24.
Bryan Cooper, ‘Our Rulers—III, Mr. Ernest Blythe’, 9 Feb. 1924, Mulcahy Papers, UCDA P7/B/440.
25.
DD, 8 Feb. 1923.
26.
Ibid., 20 Apr. 1923.
27.
Fanning, Department of Finance, 91–93.
28.
Cumann na nGaedheal Appeal for Funds, c. Dec. 1924, Desmond FitzGerald Papers, UCDA P80/1103.
29.
Blythe, New Year Message from the Minister for Finance and Hogan, New Year Message from the Minister for Agriculture, Dec. 1926, Mulcahy Papers, UCDA P7b/61.
30.
DD, 28 May 1923.
31.
Ibid., 20 Oct. 1922.
32.
Minutes of National Convention, 29 Jan. 1924, Cumann na nGaedheal Papers, UCDA P39/1.
33.
Ryan McCourt, ‘Ernest Blythe as Minister for Finance in the Irish Free State, 1923–32’, Parliamentary History 33, no. 3 (2014): 485.
34.
DD, 17 Apr. 1923.
35.
Ibid.
36.
Ibid., 17 May 1923.
37.
Ibid., 17 Apr. 1923.
38.
Ibid.
39.
Ibid., 2 May 1923.
40.
Irish Farmer, 18 Dec. 1925.
41.
Ibid., 5 Mar. 1926, 28 Aug. 1925.
42.
DD, 19 Sept. 1922.
43.
Irish Farmer, 19 June 1925.
44.
Ibid., 5 Mar. 1926.
45.
Ibid., 19 June 1925.
46.
Farmers’ Gazette, 2 Apr. 1927.
47.
Co. Clare Farmers’ Association—Irish Farmers’ Union, Memo on ‘Local Taxation and Local Government’, c. 1925, George O’Callaghan-Westropp Papers, UCDA P38/4(482).
48.
Irish Farmer, 29 Oct. 1926.
49.
Ibid., 27 Nov. 1925.
50.
DD, 3 Jan. 1923, 9 Mar. 1923, 30 Nov. 1922, 7 June 1923.
51.
Ibid., 31 May 1923.
52.
Irish Farmer, 26 Mar. 1926.
53.
Farmers’ Gazette, 9 July 1927. The Geddes Axe refers to a British government committee chaired by Sir Eric Geddes in the 1920s that recommended significant cuts in state expenditure.
54.
Irish Farmer, 6 Nov. 1925.
55.
DD, 19 Nov. 1922. Labour Deputy William Davin noted that this speech caused much laughter in the Dáil.
56.
Ibid., 14 Dec. 1922.
57.
Ibid., 12 Dec. 1922.
58.
Ibid., 14 Dec. 1922.
59.
Ibid., 19 Sept. 1922.
60.
Daunton, Just Taxes, 61.
61.
DD, 20 Oct. 1922, 3 Jan. 1923.
62.
Ibid., 13 Apr. 1923.
63.
Ibid., 3 Jan. 1923.
64.
Ibid., 13 Apr. 1923, 4 May 1923.
65.
Ibid., 13 Apr. 1923.
66.
Ibid., 26 Mar. 1923.
67.
Ibid., 13 Apr. 1923.
68.
Ibid., 20 Mar. 1923.
69.
Ibid., 18 Apr. 1923.
70.
Ibid.
71.
Ibid., 28 May 1923.
72.
For the British case, see generally Daunton, Just Taxes.
73.
DD, 20 Oct. 1922.
74.
Ibid., 27 Mar. 1923.
75.
Ibid., 25 Apr. 1923. Johnson claimed that only 25 per cent of Irish revenue came from direct taxation; idem, 20 Apr. 1923.
76.
Ibid., 25 Apr. 1923.
77.
Ibid., 18 Apr. 1923.
78.
Timothy M. O’Neil, ‘Reframing the Republic: Republican Socio-Economic Thought and the Road to Fianna Fáil, 1923–26’, in A Formative Decade? Ireland in the 1920s, ed. Mel Farrell, Jason Knirck, and Ciara Meehan (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2015), 157.
79.
O’Neil, ‘Reframing the Republic’, 169.
80.
Fianna Fáil pamphlet, The Free State Government’s Secret Financial Agreement with Britain, c. summer 1926, Clarke Papers, Boston College Burns Library Archives MS 01–07 (Folder 2/29).
81.
Sinn Féin, 15 Nov. 1924, Canon Rogers Papers, Boston College Burns Library Archives Box IV, Folder 18.
82.
Sinn Féin, 20 Dec. 1924, Canon Rogers Papers, Boston College Burns Library Archives Box IV, Folder 18.
83.
Irish Press (hereafter IP), 4 Jan. 1932.
84.
Ibid., 16 Jan. 1932.
85.
Ibid., 25 Jan. 1932.
86.
See, for example, ibid., 29 Jan. 1932.
87.
Ibid., 22 Jan. 1932, 23 Jan. 1932.
88.
Ibid., 29 Jan. 1932, 22 Jan. 1932.
89.
Ibid., 2 Feb. 1932.
90.
Ibid., 18 Jan. 1932.
91.
Ibid., 11 Jan. 1932.
92.
Ibid., 4 Feb. 1932.
93.
Ibid., 4 Jan. 1932.
94.
Ibid., 3 Feb. 1932.
95.
Ibid., 18 Jan. 1923, 11 Jan. 1923.
96.
Ibid., 23 Jan. 1932.
97.
Ibid., 4 Jan. 1932.
98.
Ibid., 25 Jan. 1932.
99.
Ibid., 11 Jan. 1932.
100.
Ibid., 3 Feb. 1932.
101.
Ibid., 29 Jan. 1932.
102.
Ibid., 1 Feb. 1932.
103.
Farmers’ Gazette, 10 Sept. 1927.
104.
Minutes, Cumann na nGaedheal Ard Comhairle, 22 Feb. 1927, Cumann na nGaedheal Papers, UCDA P39/MIN/1.
105.
IP, 25 Jan. 1932.
106.
DD, 24 Apr. 1929, 30 Apr. 1930.
107.
The Star, Mar. 1931, in Mulcahy Papers, UCDA P7/D/170.
108.
J. J. McElligott, ‘Financial Position’, 9 Sept. 1931, Ernest Blythe Papers, UCDA P24/99(2).
109.
Facts for Intelligent Voters, c. Jan. 1932, Blythe Papers, UCDA P24/622(b).
110.
Fighting Points for Cumann na nGaedheal Speakers, 1932, Mulcahy Papers, UCDA P7/C/42.
111.
IP, 5 Feb. 1932.
112.
Ibid., 1 Feb. 1932.
113.
Ibid., 1 Feb. 1932.
114.
Ibid., 11 Jan. 1932.
115.
Eoin MacNeill, ‘Ten Years of the Irish Free State’, Foreign Affairs 10, no. 2 (1932): 238, 242.
116.
DD, 19 Nov. 1930.
117.
IP, 4 Jan. 1932.
118.
Ibid., 16 Jan. 1932.
119.
Ibid., 29 Jan. 1932.
120.
DD, 3 Apr. 1930.
121.
Talk Between Mulcahy and Senator Hayes about Certain Aspects of de Vere White’s biography, 22 Oct. 1964, Mulcahy Papers, UCDA P7b/183(55); Conversation between Risteard and Richard Mulcahy, 18 Sept. 1963, Mulcahy Papers, UCDA P7/D/105.

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Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA, USA
Jason Knirck

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Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
Douglas Kanter
Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Patrick Walsh

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Knirck, J. (2019). Taxation and the Revolutionary Inheritance: Tax Proposals, Legitimacy, and the Irish Free State, 1922–32. In: Kanter, D., Walsh, P. (eds) Taxation, Politics, and Protest in Ireland, 1662–2016. Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04309-4_11

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04309-4_11
Published: 11 January 2019
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04309-4
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