About

Despite a war of independence (1919-21) and civil war (1922-23), Ireland’s experience of violence was relatively restrained compared to much of inter-war Europe and it returned to stability remarkably quickly.  Eric Hobsbawm noted the Irish Free State as one of only five European states, new or old, where ‘adequately democratic institutions continued to function’ between the wars.  What we still do not know is why.

This project considers why Ireland was so relatively restrained in its use of violence during and after its revolution, and in doing so, it will establish new paradigms for exploring the history of violence and pioneer the history of a much less considered phenomenon – restraint. 

This means listening to previously marginalised voices; it means moving beyond established chronologies and geographies – placing experiences of conflict back into wider histories of violence before 1919 and after 1923.  It also means looking at restraint in the midst of violence, looking at what Stuart Carroll calls the ‘everyday accommodations’ that both temper conflict and allow places and communities to put themselves back together again once conflict stops. 

The project will explore Ireland’s inter-war years to see how those ‘everyday accommodations’ managed to work.