Among the latest additions to the BritishNewspaperArchive.co.uk and FindMyPast's British Newspaper Collection is The Irish Exile, a title published in London from March 1921 to June 1922.
It was the official monthly paper of the Irish Self-Determination League, a nationalist diaspora organisation officially established in Manchester two years earlier at the request of Sinn Féin president Éamon de Valera. Within only nine months of being set up, the ISDL had more than 50 branches across England and Wales.
The ISDL's objectives were defined as follows: To band together the Irish residents of Great Britain, in order that they shall as a body support their compatriots in Ireland, and use every means in their power to secure the application of the principle of self-determination for Ireland and the recognition of the Irish Republic ... and ...to render all and every assistance to any Irish subject imprisoned in Great Britain or Ireland for political offences, and to do all other acts which will further the cause of an independent Irish Republic.
The Irish Exile paper described itself as the 'monthly organ of Irish-Ireland Movements' and it carried news and updates of nationalist activities and the raids, arrests and many deportations of ISDL members by the British authorities. It also brought announcements and reports of social activities, language, music and dancing classes, and includes many names of branch members in its monthly round up of local meetings.
FindMyPast subscribers: please note that this title is in the British, not the Irish, Newspaper Collection as its target readership was resident in Great Britain.
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