The Harp and Crown: An Irish AAR

[RossN]

RGB: No, or at least not yet.

Enewald: Heh - if the Germans can brew beer in Tsingtao why not Irish whiskey in Cheju?

Ankios: Thanks and welcome.

DjMangus: Alas it proved beyond me for the moment. But Irish imperialism isn't quite finished yet.

Mishgan: It's historical. In this timeline I'm assuming Saint Petersburg is more worried about Dublin than Tokyo and so supplied the Koreans during the war.

asd21593: Thank you. I really did consider annexing Korea for a while there but with rebels springing up all over the place I decided to take what I could keep.

matt12th: Hmm, well I'll give them tech and cash but I'll probably wait a bit before civilising them - maybe ten years. I think it would take a decade at least to build up Korea into a modern state.

Lord Blekinge: Thank you. I'll try and keep them interesting!

[RGB]

That's a very high body count for a country Ireland's size.

I guess the islands are more easily defended than trying to grab bits of mainland?

[RossN]

Steam, Steel & Stout: The Royal Irish Navy
(1874 - 1904)


Postcard of protected cruiser RIS Dublin, 1904.

"We are not the English or the Dutch: the sea has never been in our blood. Well we haea choice, we can either stay locked up on our dreary Atlantic rock or we can learn to be fish ."
- John Philip Holland, Secretary of the Navy.

The modern Royal Irish Navy had been the child of one man: Thomas Francis Meagher. In 1873 the then Prime Minister had pushed through a Navy Act paving the way for Ireland's first ironclads. Of that historic first generation of warships only the elderly RIS Etain remained afloat: a creaking, rusting living fossil in the age of the modern battleship. Slated for scrapping in 1899 she had gained a second lease of life thanks to war with Russia, then a third lease thanks to war with Korea and Japan. February 1904 found Etain (and her marginally less decrepit sisters Cessair, Grainne and Morrigane) in stately tropical retirement at anchor in Zhangjiang.

Etain and other ironclads had given great service over the years but they had stayed on duty for three decades as much because of the cost of replacing them as any excellence of design. After Meagher fell from power interest in the navy waned. True, the late 1880's had seen the launch of six powerful battleships: Deirdre, Emer, Eithne, Clíona, Meabh and Mucha but these had been planned and laid down under Meagher's watch and after Mucha was launched in 1890 there would be no more big warships for almost a decade.

The long rule of Parnell had brought bad times for the Irish admirals. The great politician knew little of and cared less for warships and money for the Navy always seemed to be needed more urgently elsewhere. Funds were cut in 1888 and again in 1890. In this time of stagnation recruitment lagged. In 1888 there had been 10,000 officers and men in the Navy. By 1895 this had fallen to 6,000. There was a better life for an ambitious seaman elsewhere: indeed in 1890's half the captains in the Cork based Hibernian Line where old Navy men, including the skipper of the S.S Erin winner of the Blue Riband in 1896.

The outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War in 1896 shook the Government out of its stupor. Overnight Admiral Joseph O'Neill became a national hero when he led his fleet into the Baltic and sent the St. Petersburg response to the bottom of the sea. The action had very little impact on the course of the war but as the only major success in an otherwise gloomy list of reverses and retreats. Slowly the Government began to look at the naval question anew.

Ireland was an oceanic power. The harp and blue flag flew over a thousand sun drenched coral atolls and the teeming ports of China. Huge, coal guzzling, grey hulled battleships were too expensive and slow to patrol the vast distances of the Pacific. Enter the protected cruiser: fast, relatively inexpensive and easily capable of dealing with most threats to Irish shipping interests or enforcing gunboat diplomacy on any rebellious potentate. The Parnell Government built two - Derry and Limerick, launched in 1898.

John Philip Holland with one of his experimental submarines.

The next year (1899) Clann Éireann was swept to power and amongst the new ministers was one John Philip Holland. Holland, a former businessman and inventor was easily the most passionate advocate of Irish sea power since Thomas Meagher. His key ally in cabinet was the hawkish Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, Minister for War and together the two men were determined to greatly expand on the tentative steps of the the Parnell Government. More protected cruisers were built and when during the war with Japan Derry won numerous laurels against the enemy commerce raiders even more keels were being laid down. It was Holland who pushed for annexing Cheju as coaling station so his cruiser fleet could control the Yellow Sea.

By the start of 1904 the Irish had 9 protected cruisers in service with another 13 due to be launched by mid-1905. Holland could be justly proud, but even as his cruisers were being assembled in Dublin and Belfast another project drew his passionate attention: the submarine. As yet the technology for true combat submarines remained unreliable but Holland was convinced he was on to something.

The rest of the Cabinet shrugged and smiled at such eccentricities. As long as Holland did his job properly he could be allowed to experiment with such obvious white elephants.

[RossN]

Enewald: Bring it on!

RGB: It is indeed. Even though in this timeline Ireland has 16 million people rather than 6 million it was a brutal war and the impact will take some time to digest.

Irish imperial strategy has certainly tended towards island grabbing. In part this due to lack of opportunity: the choice parts of Africa were gobbled up early on and there is only so much land that can feasibly be carved out of China. Still it suits Irish resources and as you say is more defendable - short of picking a fight with Britain most Irish territory is safe (and a war against Britain will mean Shanghai or Tahiti will be the least of Irish concerns).

Still imperialism hasn't quite run it's course yet. Watch this space.

[RGB]

16 million - I doubt they're all in Ireland?

Although Vicky can have unrealistic populations, it's true.

It's a nice navy for a country that size, and subs don't have the coolness of cruisers.

[Enewald]

Irish Naval power is something quite strange.
Well, with Royal Navy on their side everything looks fine so far.

No potential contenders for the Commonwealth dominance of the seas?

[KanaX]

A cruiser fleet does seem to suit the Irish better than a bulky fleet of dreadnoughts.

[RossN]

The Hawaiian Question
(1904)


The Kingdom of Hawaii, 1904.

"This isn't an invasion; we have an invitation."
- From the Cabinet debate on the 'Hawaiin Question', 20 February 1904

When Clann Éireann had won power in 1899 it had done so in large because of war exhaustion. The calamitous campaign against Russia had torpedoed the NCP, a party already reeling from the disgrace and death of Charles Stewart Parnell. William Martin Murphy had led his party over a weak and divided Government under daily attack by the press, accused of throwing away the lives of brave Irish soldiers and sailors in a ramshackle war.

That had been five years ago and now William Martin Murphy was ruefully discovering what his opponents had been going through. Korea had cost of lot of lives and had left an even greater number wounded and the public was beginning to ask what had been gained. It was all very well to talk about 'encircling Russia' but to the man on the street in Dublin and Belfast it seemed that aside from winning a few specks of dirt in the East China Sea the end result had been to set up the Korean Emperor - the recent enemy! - secure on a throne of Irish bayonets.

Now the Irish were fully as enthusiastic empire builders as the French or British or Prussians but Cheju and Okinawa where shabby gains indeed for such effort. True they where hardly poorer than Tahiti or Kiribati or any of the other Pacific colonies but those islands had been won bloodlessly. The China ports had been won in battle and had paid for themselves a dozen times over through silk and tea.

In February 1904 the Government having finalised the peace with Japan stared its options in the face. With an election certain to happen by May they could hardly count on relief at the end of the war sweeping them back into power. Rather, May would coincide with the arrival in large numbers of returning veterans from Korea and Japan and the sigh so many walking wounded would not exactly help Clann Éireann at the polls. Even without that bad luck John Redmond the new leader of the National Centre Party was an increasingly plausible prime minister in waiting and even the more conservative newspapers had delivered a few favourable editorials. Defeat was not inevitable but if nothing changed it was probable.

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, the bullish Minister for War was characteristically unwilling to go down without a fight. In late 1903 even before the war with Japan was concluded he had been drawing up plans for a fresh campaign: the annexation by Ireland of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Hawaii of course was 'just another Pacific island' (or rather several islands) like the Bonin Islands. Unlike the Bonin Islands Hawaii was well internationally well known, relatively wealthy and heavily populated (almost one and a half million people in 1904). More importantly it would increase Ireland's already strong role in the Pacific to a dominating one. A squadron of protected cruisers flying the harp and based in Honolulu would safeguard trade from the Irish China ports to America, Canada and Ireland's own colony (soon to become a dominion) of Alaska.

Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii.

At that February meeting O'Donovan Rossa triumphantly waved a letter from Queen Liliuokalani herself requesting an Irish military presence to guarantee the safety of the throne. The Queen, beset by unscrupulous American and European settlers had already faced more than one attempted coup and had made an emotional appeal to the strongest Pacific power: Ireland. The Prime Minister (who had of course been aware of the letter previously) pointed out that while Hawaii could be taken over almost without a fight making it a protectorate would almost certainly arouse the anger of America with their large interests in the island. O'Donovan Rossa scorned the idea that America would go to war with Hawaii, pointing out their continuing failure to establish control over the kingdom and that (in his opinion) the United States was entering a period of political isolation after the drawn out war with Spain and France. President Eugene V. Debs - himself facing an election this year - was a pacifist unlikely to want a confrontation with another world power so soon after the last one.

Besides which Ireland could likely count on tacit diplomatic support from the other world powers: France was traditionally a friend of Ireland and had little reason to like the US, Britain was again a close friend and had a distinctly cool relationship with Washington these days. Russia and Prussia (the ugly stepsisters of Europe that seemed joined at the hip these days) were no friends of Ireland but they liked even less a Socialist American President and were in any case preoccupied with dismembering Turkey. Of course Ireland could claim the international high ground too: the Queen of Hawaii had appealed to them in their role as 'policemen of the Pacific' (an 1899 Clann Éireann election call). Making Hawaii a protectorate would be a humanitarian act. While it would be obviously very popular amongst the imperialist voters in Ireland O'Donovan Rossa stressed that even many NCP supporters would be swayed by the appeal to protecting the gallant Hawaiian monarch.

The Prime Minister revealed that he had discussed the matter with King Patrick II and that the King was fully in sympathy with Queen Liliuokalani and asked if something could not be done to aid her plight.

After a four hour debate the Cabinet decided that on balance America would at worst lodge a formal protest. The order was given to send troops and ships to Hawaii.

[RossN]

RGB: About 16 million in Ireland plus another 2.5 to 3 million Irish (and 'British' Irish) in Patagonia, Alaska, China and the Irish Pacific colonies.

I'm not sure I'd say such a population was totally unrealistic. Even in our timeline a non-industrial, poverty-stricken Ireland reached over 8 million in the 1840's and with no famine and vastly greater prosperity a population doubling in sixty years doesn't seem that unreasonable. Germany and Great Britain managed it in reality despite heavy emigration. Around the 12-14 million mark might have been more plausible but under the circustances 16 million doesn't strike me as being wildly off base.

And yes cruisers are much cooler.

Enewald: Here are the ten largest navies in February 1904:



As you can see there is no contest at all. Once my cruiser construction programme is complete I'll have leapfrogged over Austria into 4th place but still, far, far behind Britain.

A few interesting things stand out: 1) An unusually strong Canadian navy (nerves about Irish Alaska?), 2) Russia still owning a large sail fleet, 3) the universal popularity of commerce raiders (in AAR terms I have decided to count them as auxilary cruisers, unarmoured cruisers and so on) and 4) the total absence of France which seemly fared badly against the Yankee fleet.

Perversely France is a good position to build a very modern fleet, especially since the dreadnought era is only a couple of years off.

KanaX: Heh, well there are no dreadnoughts yet. Cruisers make much more sense - especially when you consider that in reality the Goverment would be most concerned at protecting Irish merchant shipping that isn't really modelled into the game - but I won't promise that there will be no dreadnoughts.

[Enewald]

Annexing Hawaii sounds quite amiable towards the locals and international peace.

[RGB]

Aaaaahhhh, Hawaii.

You know what your Empire looks like?

A Pacific Russia if the Tsars had a single adventurous bone in their collective body. Seriously. All you need is a little bite of California.

The naval-building AI is ridiculous, as always. Real-life Russia DID have sailing raiders all the way into the early 20th century - the "Razboinik" auxillary cruisers. They were clippers with guns and an engine in case things go bad. Ended up serving in the Pacific, mostly.

Re:Ireland - I don't know, I mean in theory 16 mln is possible, but the crowding must be considerable.

President Debs -

You lucked out (in story mode, at least).

[KanaX]

How is Ireland faring economically and does she have any further interests in the Americas?

[RossN]

Hawaii and the new Government
(1904)


Eugene V. Debs, President of the United States of America.

"The spirit of war pervades the breasts of all Americans."
- From the front page of the San Francisco Examiner. William Randolph Hearst was a passionate advocate of war with Ireland.


On the morning of 14 March the inhabitants of Honolulu awoke to find a sleek and powerful looking warship at anchor in the harbour. Boldly flying the gold harp on blue the cruiser whose name marked her as the RIS Derry had steamed into Hawaiian waters during the night and by ten o'clock in the morning Captain Seamus O'Neill of the Royal Irish Navy was receiving a diplomatic party from the Queen. Derry's twelve 6 inch guns had fired off a salute welcoming the Hawaiian sovereign - the rumble of which could be heard throughout the city.

The arrival three days later of the Irish steamers Blackwater, Boyne and Tolka sent the already alarmed and paranoid American community on the island into outright panic and as frantic telegrams were being sent off to Washington a group of Americans marched on the palace. Finding the Queen gone (she was still on Derry) at the time they began barricading the palace. When a boat containing officers from the Irish cruiser flying both Irish and Hawaiian approached the city the Americans refused to let it land. Told that the Irish where there 'by invitation of the Queen of Hawaii' they armed themselves. The unsurprised officers shrugged and returned to their ship. Both sides had known that fighting was inevitable, and when Irish soldiers landed a few hours later they did indeed meet armed resistance from the mostly American militia.

In Washington the reaction was one of shock, anger and confusion. Technically Hawaii was not even an American satellite but it had long been in the American sphere of influence, and half the country’s population was American born or descended. There were thunderous calls from the Hearst press and Congress for war with Ireland. The recent Irish naval build up was mentioned and there was much urging to go to war now while America still had the upper hand at sea. President Debs was faced with one of the gravest crises to hit the United States since the Civil War. A natural pacifist who had hated war with France and Spain was horrified at the prospect of fighting Ireland, and for a time at least he held firm in the face of mounting domestic demand for action.

Ironically the cause of the great American convulsion almost at once ceased to be front page news in Ireland. In early April Cyprus had revolted from Ottoman control and the Irish, honouring their alliance with the Sublime Porte had gone to war. Meanwhile the election was in full swing and with the Government fighting for re-election Hawaii was rapidly becoming forgotten.*

John Redmond, Prime Minister of Ireland.

The Clann Éireann gamble that an easy imperial adventure would work at the polls was to prove misjudged. A weary electorate was more interested in bread and butter issues and the sweeping promises of social reform by the NCP - including introducing an old age pension and increased spending on health - won the approval of the voters. When the results came in John Redmond had more than doubled the number of seats held by his party and returned the NCP to Government just five years after many had written the party off for good.

What with one thing and another it was not until nearly a week after Redmond had gone to the palace and kissed the King's hand that the new Prime Minister spoke to the American ambassador. The ambassador warned of the strength of feeling in the United States and that President Debs was coming under very strong pressure for war.

Alarmed and surprised Redmond, agreed to send a diplomatic mission to Washington under William Field. Field, a NCP deputy and successful businessman was no socialist but he was seen as sympathetic to labour and therefore likely to get on with Debs while his business background would play well with the Democrats and Republican in Congress.

Opinion in Ireland was hardening over Hawaii. While patriotism had not kept Clann Éireann in power there was no support for simply bowing out of Hawaii and even in the NCP the majority of the deputies wanted to take a hard line with Washington. If Ireland gave in now what would stop her own Pacifcic Empire being next - or Alaska for that matter?

Before the mission departed on 6 June Redmond had told Field that Irish public opinion would balk at giving up Hawaii but if necessary Ireland could consider other concessions in the Pacific. No one knew if that would be enough to prevent war.


Irish General Election Results - 6 May 1904

Total Seats: 206
Minimum Needed For Majority: 104
Outgoing Government: Clann Éireann
Winner: National Centre Party

Clann Éireann (William Martin Murphy) - 72 seats. (-38)
National Centre Party (John Redmond) - 108 seats. (+57)
Labour Party (Patrick Malone) - 20 seats. (-13)
Others - 6 seats. (-6)


* The 'war for Hawaii' eventually ended on 6 June after the last Hawaiian-American militia members had surrendered. In two months of fighting the Irish had suffered 1,876 casualties (1205 wounded, 671 dead), the Hawaiian-Americans perhaps twice as many.

[RossN]

Enewald: Yeah.

RGB: Actually in story terms the Russian focus on commerce raiders - while annoying because really wanted a battleship battle - is quite effective. Ireland has a great deal of Pacific/China Sea trade and the idea of a horde of armed Russian ships descending on Irish merchant ships is enough to give Dublin nightmares.

Ireland does indeed have a pressing need for a big navy, its just that the warships needed are cruisers rather than battleships because Russia is by far the most likely enemy and the one Irish admirals have to plan against.

Of course conflict with the US will be a serious game changer because unlike Russia they *do* have a lot of modern cruisers.

KanaX: Ireland is doing quite well. She is the 4th largest importer and 6th largest exporter in the world.

Alaska is still an Irish colony (though practically ready to be made a dominion). There is also some Irish interest in buying Cuba and Pureto Rico, though if the American reaction over Hawaii is any guide that might not be a great idea.

[Enewald]

Honolulu is His Majestys!
US navy superior to Irish navy?
They thought the Commonwealth would sit still?

[RGB]

That's still quite the fighting, 2400-odd dead.

No such thing as a little blood in this tale, is there?

[Kasakka]

"Breasts of all Americans?" Not hearts, not chests, but breasts?

[Nikolai]

Beware of waking the sleeping giant that is the USA.

[RossN]

Hawks, Doves & Eagles: William Field in America & the Navy Crisis
(1904 - 1905)


RIS Wexford, an 8,000 ton protected cruiser completed in late 1904.

“We want four, no less, no more!”
- The Patagonian Chronicle, August 1904

America was different. It was not just that she was big: Russia was even bigger and Dublin knew how to handle the empire of the Czars. It was not just that she was rich: Britain wallowed in money and Ireland had become friends with John Bull. France, Prussia, Austria... America was somehow like no other Great Power and the Irish had difficulties coping with that.

To begin with America was a republic. Ever since the restoration of the House of Orléans in Paris in the middle of the last century the only country in Europe not ruled by king, emperor, prince or czar had been Switzerland. True a ramshackle cluster of republics ran through South America (with royalist Patagonia a cuckoo in that nest) but the United States was a power. The voters of New York and San Francisco wielded awesome power over their Governments, a power incomprehensible to an autocratic Russian and still surprising to a constitutional Briton or Gael.

Arriving in New York in the third week of June Field was confronted by another aspect of American life: the Diaspora. Thousands of Irish immigrants had come to America over the years and many had done quite. In New York City alone they numbered almost a hundred dollar-millionaires and Field was quickly surrounded by Irish-Americans warning him of the depths of American anger.

Even as Field was beginning his tour of the United States events where swiftly overtaking him. On 20 June Redmond entertained a party of Alaskan business and political leaders in Dublin. Alaska, envious of the success of Patagonia had been angling for Dominion status for several years. By 1904 the Alaskan population had grown to over 1.2 million, a third of them of Chinese descent brought in from the Irish colonies in the Orient to work the mines and build the railways of the colony. Sitka was the third largest seaport on the Pacific coast of North America. Even so most Alaskan trade ran through Canada - even Redmond's guest had gone by rail to Halifax. A good relationship with Alaska's giant neighbour had been essential for colonial prosperity and stability and for the most part relations had been good.

Back in 1903 the William Martin Murphy Government had promised Patagonia that an Irish cruiser squadron would be based at Viedma as a sign of Irish commitment to defending the Dominion. The ships had not yet been commissioned in the summer of 1904 but the Alaskan leaders requested a similar provision for Sitka to safeguard Alaskan overseas trade. Which was where problems arose: as Alaskan newspaper editorials excitedly talked about the warships the American public reacted with shock followed by rising anger. Irish warships at anchor in Hawaii and Alaska would leave Ireland in a strong position to sweep down on American shipping out of San Francisco and Los Angeles. In the words of one of the Hearst papers it was like “a bayonet pointed at the Republic’s East Coast”.

Frustrated, Redmond pointed out in a letter to President Debs that even combined the Irish warships in Honolulu and Sitka would amount to perhaps five large warships (four of them still being built). Perhaps 35,000 tons overall, which was less than either the Canadian or the American Pacific fleet, even if the Irish cruisers were larger and better armed than many of their counterparts.

Playing for time the Dublin Government proposed reducing the hypothetical Alaskan Squadron from four ships to three. In August a relieved Debs told Field that this compromise might work. Unfortunately at that moment the Alaskan delegation, under pressure from back home insisted that they would only accept ‘three for four’ if Patagonia also agreed to a reduction to three warships, arguing that having less than the other Dominion would seem like a slap in the face to the Alaskan public. This in turn caused alarm and anger in Patagonia. Viedma refused point blank to contemplate ‘losing’ a warship. Redmond was humiliatingly forced to back down from his offer to Debs.

William Randolph Hearst, advocate of an Irish-American War.

Even had the reduction taken place it was unlikely the Americans would have been satisfied. In October the New York Journal American published an alarmist story about the construction of a huge Irish army and naval base in Honolulu. Debs, optimism shaken now insisted that Ireland station no warships over 2,000 tons in Hawaiian waters and a maximum of two big warships in Alaskan ports. This was beyond even the most moderate plans of the Irish Navy and the doves in Cabinet – to say nothing of the Alaskans - and Redmond rejected it forthwith.

Despairing about the seemingly inevitable march towards war the King now took action. Patrick suggested that he make a royal tour of America pointing out the great success Edward VII had enjoyed in France the previous year in winning over the hostile French public. Debs, facing an election in November grasped at this olive branch like a drowning man to a life preserver and feverently agreed to tour in February 1905. For several weeks it seemed like things had turned a corner and when Debs won a narrow re-election it seemed like peace might be maintained after all – both Democrat and Republican candidates had been known hawks. A returning Field was less optimistic, comparing the situation to a stick of dynamite left next to a live fire, awaiting only an errant spark to explode.

Less than two months later it did just that. On 3 January 1905 an American-born Hawaiian had attempted to assassinate the Queen of Hawaii as motor car passed through the streets of Honolulu. The Queen survived the attempt unscathed but Captain John Kelly, her Irish aide-de camp was fatally wounded when the assassin’s bullet struck him in the neck. Retaliation was swift and within a few hours nearly a hundred ‘suspect’ American-Hawaiians were placed under military arrest by the Irish Army. Armed resistance had left six dead and twenty wounded. Evidence was discovered that proved what had been long suspected: sympathetic Americans had been supplying anti-Irish elements in Honolulu.

Redmond, incensesed at the attempted regicide sent an ultimatum to Debs demanding the forced repatriation of three hundred American-born ‘radicals’ threatening war otherwise. The American Government refused and on 7 January 1905 Ireland declared war.

[RossN]

First of all I shoud clarify that I declared Colonial War on the US, so don't expect green uniformed troops marching on Washington DC.

Enewald: Commonwealth??

RGB: No, I'm afraid not, and I'm afraid the next one will probably get pretty bloody too.

Kasakka: See for yourself.

Nikolai: Hey, it worked out fine for Germany in the First World War... right?