First Armistice Day in Ireland marked by silence and scuffles

Belfast, 11 November 1919 - The first anniversary of the armistice that ended the great war was marked with two minutes' silence in Ireland, Britain, and around the world today.

Last week, King George V, stated that he believed the day provided the people of the British Empire an opportunity to ‘perpetuate the memory of that great deliverance and of those who laid down their lives to achieve it’.

‘It is my desire and hope that at the hour when the armistice came into force – the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month – there may for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities’.

‘During that time, except in the rare cases where this may be impracticable, all work, all sound, and all locomotion should cease, so that in perfect stillness the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead.’

In Ireland, the Lord Lieutenant, Sir John French, indicated his wish that all local authorities and government departments, would follow the king’s instruction. Preparations were also made to signal the hour at military camps around the country.

Traffic halted in College Green, Dublin for the two minutes silence. (Image: Freeman's Journal, 12 November 1919)

Events in Dublin
In Dublin, as the hour struck 11 am, work was briefly suspended on the railways, in government offices, banks and in many factories. Flags were flown from protestant churches, Trinity College and from several shops on the principal streets. On O’Connell Street, the trams stopped, private cars ground to a halt and the Guinness barges along the River Liffey shut off their steam. Some pedestrians also stopped in their tracks and uncovered their heads.

The day did not pass without disruption in the city. Students from the National University (NU) marched four deep from Grafton Street onto College Green, while singing the ‘Soldier’s Song’ and chanting support for Éamon de Valera.

There, they were met by Trinity students, who responded with ‘God Save the King’. The National University students proceeded along Dame Street before returning to Earlsfort terrace where they quietly dispersed. 

Shortly afterwards, however, the Trinity students, reinforced by students from the College of Surgeons, gathered to march on the front entrance of Earlsfort Terrace, their numbers growing to about 300 or 400 along the way.

Many NU students abandoned their lectures inside to meet the Trinity students. Scuffles ensued and sticks and bricks were hurled before the Trinity crowd retreated, to be followed by a large group of NU students, the two groups charging at each other on Grafton Street. The rival crowds dispersed when police arrived on the scene.

Crowds gathering to mark the two minutes silence at City Hall in Belfast. (Image: Irish Life, 21 November 1919)

Elsewhere in the country
In Belfast, the shipyards fell silent as workers commemorated their fallen friends. At a service at Belfast Cathedral, Charles Grierson, Anglican Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore, asked his congregation to pray that ‘sinful’ murders in Ireland might cease and that peace might once again reign.

In Derry, although the two-minute pause was observed, an appeal by the mayor of the city for ordinary business to cease was ignored.

In the Tipperary town of Clonmel, a requiem mass was held in the SS Peter and Paul’s Church for the nearly 300 local soldiers who died in the war.

The marking of the armistice was designed to be low-key. The Cork Examiner argue that anything else would have been ‘strangely out of place’. The day was to provide ‘no jubilation on the anniversary over a fallen foe – but a tribute of commemoration and honour to those who have fallen in the war.’

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]