Propaganda I: Advanced Nationalist Propaganda and Moralistic Revolution, 1914–18

Abstract

Advanced nationalist propaganda, whether it was newspaper columns, ballad sheets, election material, or speeches and performances, drove the engine of the Irish revolution. In the early years of the revolution (1914–18), propagandists harnessed a growing popular frustration with the war to create anti-British sentiment. This chapter will focus on one particular area of propaganda that intensified during the war: moralistic propaganda that appealed directly to the nationalism of both men and women. The importance of ‘moral tone’ to Irish revolutionary discourse did not come about as a result of the war, but for advanced nationalist propagandists, the socio-cultural dislocations of war, and the support of the IPP for the British war effort gave new impetus to their campaigns. The highlighting of moral dichotomies between Britain and Ireland was central to the construction of a new revolutionary Irish identity.