Paul G Methven

This in-depth study explores in detail four of Wilfred Owen’s most moving First World War poems, each selected for their variations in emphasis and viewpoint.                Dulce Et Decorum Est was selected for its contempt for jingoistic recruitment verses; The Send-off was chosen for its portrayal of the dispatch of newly-conscripted soldiers; The Disabled for its depiction of life-changing, war-induced infirmity; Anthem for Doomed Youth for its disdain for death conventions and rituals. Each poem is investigated for:- Background to its composition; Stanza by stanza synopsis and meaning; Prosody and poetics; Owen’s choice of vocabulary; Conclusions and critical opinions.

This new (2022) examination of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's introspective, enigmatic poem endeavours to determine its meaning and to provide an analysis of the poetics used in its creation. Hitherto, perhaps resulting from errors in dating the poem's creation, Constancy to an Ideal Object has perhaps not been classified as one of Coleridge's major poems (e.g. Frost at Midnight, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Dejection: An Ode etc.) However, Coleridge's short, brilliant composition investigates and distinguishes the poet's distress, his concerns in respect of his lack of domestic sanctuary and a loving partner and, in the brilliant closing section, his recognition of the likelihood that all his sorrowful mental anguish might be entirely self-inflicted.

"And death shall have no dominion" A new (June 2022) in-depth examination of one of Dylan Thomas's most popular, captivating, but strangely bewildering poems.

A new (June 2022) in depth analysis of this brief, much-admired, absorbing, but mystifying poem. This study identifies the poem's essential viewpoints and tries to answer the question: "What, precisely, is it about?" It also examines the poetics employed by Thomas. Stanza by stanza, the review puts forward the writer's personal interpretation and explores the poem's various, and sometimes contradictory, 'meanings' that have been proposed over the years. The essay also studies, in detail, the poem's origins, syntax and overall prosody together with examining Thomas's 'sound' techniques and his distinctive choices of vocabulary. It closes by assessing some published, critical reviews of this truly remarkable poem.

"In my craft or sullen art" by Dylan Thomas. A new examination of this short, introspective poem that reveals, defends and endeavours to explain Thomas's overall poetic purpose and approach. Composed in 1945 and published in the following year in his Deaths and Entrances collection, the poem explores his poetic motivation, together with identifying his ideal readership ('the lovers') and, in contrast, the categories of readers that he chooses not to write for and why.

A E Housman’s 1896 assembly of sixty-three poems, A Shropshire Lad, over time, has delighted many readers and listeners. The enigmatic poem, "Into my heart an air that kills", has proved especially captivating; its theme of the poet’s nostalgic recollection of a happy childhood, coincides with many people’s own memories of their youth. An unusually short, two-stanza work, this stunning poem comprises just eight lines, and forty-six words. This paper analyses the poem – its meaning, its structure, its vocabulary, its perplexities – and some critical reactions. It also determines what the purpose of the poem isn’t as well as establishing its rationale and intent.

This paper is a comprehensive analysis of Dylan Thomas's outstanding 'process' poem: "The force that through the green fuse." – one of Thomas’s most acclaimed poetic efforts. This impressive 1933 verse was composed and published when the poet was just nineteen years of age. As the principal work within the seven verses grouped as 'process' poems, “The force …” explores and brilliantly contrasts the birth, growth and death' connections between the natural world and himself, the poet, as an eloquent, self-examining representative of mankind.

Section 2 of the paper opens by responding to the question:- ‘what is this poem about?’ It is an undeniable fact that every entity deemed to possess what humanity might call ‘life’ in the natural world, will pass through a five-fold sequence of:- (1) birth or origination; (2) growth or juvenile development; (3) increase or procreation; (4) withering or declining; and (5) eventual death. This arrangement is obviously not a revelation – merely a simplistic way of describing anything connected with the various chronological episodes associated with the word ‘living.’ Within the animal world, mankind as a genus is blatantly evident - together with categories of creatures of all sizes from the ‘enormous’ to the ‘minute’ and similarly within the plant world from giant redwoods to the tiniest of fungal spores. As we shall see, Dylan Thomas was fascinated by this cohesion of process so that the poem endeavours to equate, or at least to parallel, the inevitable stages in his own life with the various ‘forces’ and influences that affect diverse worldly entities.

Section 3 then examines the overall structure of the poem followed by an in-depth examination of the meaning of each of the first three straightforward stanzas, together with their accompanying “And I am dumb …” couplets. Stanza four, the enigmatic, perhaps perplexing, summary of the work, merits particularly thorough attention. Alternative published critical interpretations of the stanza’s meaning are discussed and this writer’s clarification and understanding of the stanza is advocated.

Section 4 identifies and explains the poetics of this simply-structured poem. It explores Thomas’s choices of vocabulary within each stanza, followed by his use of phonemic patterns (i.e. alliteration, assonance, consonance) and reviews the poem’s rhythm and metre (i.e. syllables and stresses), grammatical structure (i.e. punctuation and enjambment) and Thomas’s use of repetition and its effects.

Section 5 reviews and evaluates the observations made by a variety of published Thomas critics – some supportive, some less so in respect of this truly unique poem.

This is a new (2021) study of Dylan Thomas's engagingly cryptic poem "The Conversation of Prayer". The essay particularly explores the poet's singular use of short, everyday words to present his images and the enigmatic nature of the 'conversation' and its absorbing outcome. The distinctive rhyme scheme is examined in some depth together with various aspects of the poetics, specifically:- the use of phonemic patterns, syntax and enjambment, repetition, alliteration and the poems tone and mood. The essay is directed towards both students of poetry and fellow Dylan Thomas enthusiasts.

A new (2020) comprehensive, in-depth analysis of Dylan Thomas’s 1934 poem “Especially when the October Wind” - a brilliant early work much admired by poetry students and Thomas aficionados. The poem reflects and explains Thomas's unique relationship and personal connection with individual words and their function within his poetry. For example, why does he open the poem with the word  'Especially''? 

This essay assesses what the poem  is about, its overall purpose, and seeks to define what  Dylan Thomas was trying to convey to his readers and listeners. As within my other Thomas-centred reviews, the core of the essay is focused upon detailed explication. A stanza by stanza, line by line construal which, noting imagery, vocabulary and syntax, endeavours to elicit meaning, poetic intention and, where appropriate, identifies alternative interpretations. In addition, "Especially when the October Wind" , created at a time when Thomas was yet to be widely recognised as a serious poet, is examined from a ‘craftsmanship’ viewpoint - thus, the essay explores the poet’s utilisation of various techniques of symbolism, prosody and construction. So that  use of:-  structure and metre, onomatopoeia, themes and tone, alliteration and assonance, consonance and rhyme, refrain and repetition, enjambment are identified and the poet’s underlying rationale for their employment is suggested. Finally, as is the case with many of Thomas’s works, critical assessments of "Especially when the October Wind" are plentiful - as an early prototypical poem within the Thomas oeuvre, it has attracted a significant degree of analysis, interpretation and criticism. This essay notes some of the views expressed and challenges or applauds them as appropriate.

The dissertation explores T.S.Eliot’s portrayals of human unhappiness and urban dreariness within his early poetry – specifically his published and unpublished work written during the period 1909-1915.

The essay notes that Eliot’s early portrayals of ‘unhappiness’ were mostly founded upon dysfunctional relationships and that, moreover, any resulting sadness was brought about by the frailties of the partners (most often the man), irrespective of whether the association was in the process of being imagined, sought, developed or abandoned. Using Prufrock and March Hare poems that exemplify his observational methods for depicting such ‘affairs’, the dissertation examines a number of factors within this approach; it thus determines how Eliot creates the feelings of, at worst ‘despair’ and at best ‘embarrassment’, so that reader recognition of such discomposure is accomplished. The dissertation also notes and illustrates other writers that significantly influenced the young Eliot during this formative stage of his career.

Complementary to his depictions of personal misery, are Eliot’s images of city dreariness and degradation that, as a young man, he found distasteful but fascinating. The dissertation explores the different methods used to connote city seediness or debauchery – attributes which, in some poems represent the dominant purpose of the work but, in others, act as a supportive environment for the individual ‘relationship’ cheerlessness depicted.

Throughout, the dissertation explores and illustrates Eliot’s methodology, in particular his use of: language; personification; synecdoche and his own ‘objective correlative’ theories of imagery. However, the predominant objective of the dissertation is to determine how the two major themes of individual unhappiness and urban shabbiness are suggested, portrayed and then cemented into the reader’s mind. It takes the position that the Eliot approach of showing (in contrast to telling), how a character feels, by letting the reader ‘intrude’ upon the narrative mental observations contained within a dramatic monologue, is fundamental.

The aim of this paper is to identify those factors which caused the later (post-1875) poems of the Jesuit priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins to be considered so original.

The uniqueness of Hopkins’ work is due to a radical approach to theme, rhythm and aural effect. Several poems are closely examined under these headings in order to demonstrate Hopkins’ poetic theories and to contrast them with other contemporary poets’ approaches where appropriate. Where possible, the dissertation evaluates the effectiveness of Hopkins’ prosody as well as his technique. Biographical, critical and psychological considerations are documented only inasmuch as these factors help explain elements of the Hopkins’ canon.

Various thematic influences upon Hopkins are examined and his lifelong quest for individuality and ‘thisness’ is positioned against the background of his intense religious beliefs. Hopkins’ letters, journals and sermons are drawn upon in order to better understand the context of each poem evaluated.

The dissertation concludes by noting and reviewing examples of successive poets that have been influenced by Hopkins’ work.

In this writer’s opinion, Dylan Thomas was one of the greatest English language poets of the twentieth-century. This essay conducts a close reading of Thomas’s superb poem ‘A Winter’s Tale’ in order to establish yet another view as to the factors that combine to form what we understand as being poetry. These reflections upon the question ‘what is poetry?’ are focused upon two primary strands referred to as: reception (how the poem sounds) and perception (what the poem says). ‘Reception’, ideally obtained through the ears rather than the eyes, relies upon qualities of sound; through sound-based choices of word selection, stress, metre, rhythm, rhyme - and the structural techniques and effects that can be grouped under the heading: ‘phonemic patterns’; while ‘perception’ depends, in addition, upon the poet’s manipulation of reader emotions and comprehension through language choices, narrative movements, the use of imagery, metaphor, allegory, rhetoric, syntax and the degree and quality of meaning intended. Structure and poetic mechanisms represent the contrivances and processes used to twine and interlace these two strands so as to create whatever effects are intended or suggested by the poet - and can thus be thought of as features which will distinguish a piece as a poem in contrast to other forms of written or oral communication.

All somewhat prolix; so here’s a more summative determination. A successful poem is a method of patterned, concise, memorable and rewarding expression that satisfies a recipient’s desire for enthusiastic understanding by involving his or her emotions. How? Initially, and above all, by striving to achieve a degree of combined insight and aural appreciation that provokes those emotional or considered reactions that trigger an emphatic admiring ‘yes’. Next, by poetically addressing those issues and reflections within the boundless panoply of human experience so that at least some people will be captivated by the handling of and response to the subject matter. Then, there is language and musicality; the selection of each word so that how it sounds (resonates, echoes, jangles, chimes, rhymes, whispers, rings et al), alone and with its surrounding cohorts, is deemed to be equally as vital as what it may mean. And the language choices themselves: to be as perfect a selection as possible in order to convey successfully the emotions and imagery intended by the poet - so that the word-choice qualities of suggestion, description, undertone, inference and nuance are faultless. Finally, there are the techniques and devices peculiar to poetry: rhythm, metre, phonemic patterns and an array of mechanisms calculated to convey mood and meaning.

While the focus of most poetry of childhood recollection can either be allocated within a ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ pairing, such broad dualism can be overly simplistic. Yet the principle of thematic binary distinction is valid so that three resulting contrasts invite meaningful analysis and are addressed within this paper. These are: delight versus anguish, family affection against family resentment, ‘adult’ voice vis-à-vis ‘child’ voice. Different attitudes to personal youthful situations are noticeable in the works of three twentieth century poets: Dylan Thomas, Seamus Heaney and Sylvia Plath. Thomas recalls blissful childhood sojourns in rhapsodic terms while Heaney, more explicitly, remembers a vigorous boyhood of warmth and family affection. Plath recalls her early years fondly but, following her bereavement, represents her later childhood as laden with anxiety and parental tension. Unsurprisingly, poetic ‘voice’ contrasts are less immediately obvious than substance-centred divisions; however, as will be explored within the selected works, a poem’s emotional disposition often varies according to whether present-day adult retrospective perceptions predominate or whether recalled childhood feelings are summoned and thus prevail.

The overall intention of this new (2019) study is to provide an analysis of the poem “Lament” that, hopefully, will be beneficial to both students and interested Dylan Thomas readers. The essay first addresses the background to “Lament”:- its position as a ‘late’ poem within the twenty-year (approximately) calendar of the Thomas oeuvre; the possible influences of the poet’s domestic and productive life at the time of writing; its synchronicity with Thomas’s other creative endeavours. Then the poem’s raunchy theme and its objective are examined: what is the poem about and what is its overall purpose? What is the poem’s thematic structure, its mood and its tone? What is Dylan Thomas trying to communicate to his readers and listeners? But the core of this essay centres upon detailed explication:- a stanza by stanza, line by line construal which, noting imagery, vocabulary and syntax, endeavours to elicit meaning, poetic intention and, where appropriate, identifies alternative interpretations. Then there’s an examination of the poetics:- “Lament”, written just thirty months before Thomas’s untimely death, exemplifies a wide range of poetic techniques and the art of versification. The abundant metaphors and symbols are reviewed; the prosody and Thomas’s craftsmanship are also examined by highlighting and suggesting the poet’s rationale behind instances and usages of (e.g.):-  structure and metre, themes and tone, alliteration and assonance, consonance and rhyme, refrain and repetition, enjambment. Next, the essay  reviews how the poem sounds in recital. Almost all of Thomas’s poetry was primarily designed for the ear - it was for ‘listening to’ as well as for ‘looking at’. “Lament” in particular, is a poem noted for its powerful auditory impact. Thomas’s own remarkable recorded recitation of the poem is examined and his tonal, volume and vocal variations are recognised and the effects explored. Finally, within the range of works which evaluate and critique Dylan Thomas’s poetry, assessments of “Lament” are conspicuous - probably due to its erotic themes, its reputed bawdiness and suggestive imagery. The essay notes some of the views expressed and challenges or applauds them as appropriate.

This essay examines Ted Hughes’s controversial actions as editor of the 1965 version of Ariel and explores the distortion of overall meaning that resulted. Using Plath’s poem, “The Rabbit Catcher” (which had been omitted by Hughes), the essay reviews this single exemplary element within his editorship and his eventual response to targeted complaints from feminists. The work determines that Hughes’s editorship of Ariel had significant adverse consequences in respect of misinformed critical responses and serious damage to his and Plath’s (albeit posthumous) reputations.

This essay argues the case for Edward Thomas to be considered a WW1 'War Poet'. Using his poem 'As the team's head brass' as an example, the juxtaposition of the poet's rural descriptions of England vis-à-vis the horrors of the Great War are explored.

In 1915, a few months after war had been declared, George Bernard Shaw wrote that: “men flock to the colours by instinct, by romantic desire for adventure […] by simple destitution through unemployment, by rancour and pugnacity excited by the inventions of the Press, by a sense of duty inculcated in platform orations which would not stand half an hour’s discussion, by the incitement and taunts of elderly non-combatants and maidens with a taste for mischief, and by the verses of poets.” This essay explores some of the early World War One poems that accord with Shaw’s view and notes some of the poetic responses that challenge or complicate it.

This essay examines Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 1843 campaigning poem, ‘The Cry of the Children’. In so doing, it considers Browning’s poetic form and reviews the ideas and methods that she used to maximise the work’s effectiveness within her quest to encourage fundamental reform. As well as reviewing aspects of poetic structure and voice, the poem is studied within a context of Browning’s deliberately provocative major themes:- the hitherto unvoiced intense distress of the children, the jeopardy and debilitating effects of mandatory child labour, the distortion of maternal and other family values, the forced sacrifice of youthful innocence, the children’s deliberations upon their own death, the consequential challenges to elementary Christian beliefs, a blunt appeal for attitude modification and change. The scarcity of major poetic works that addressed nineteenth century child labour and working-class poverty is also discussed. So that, in addition, Browning’s singular approach to making her persuasive arguments is contrasted against the handling of connected themes within the works of other leading Victorian poets - Matthew Arnold, Alfred Tennyson, Arthur Hugh Clough and Robert Browning.

This paper examines the range of formative influences, within their educational experience, that helped to propel public schoolboys towards volunteering for military service upon the outbreak of the First World War. (Note that in the UK, “public schools” are, confusingly, institutions that are fee-paying and are thus frequented by students born into the upper and upper middle-classes). Based upon research conducted at second-tier English public schools, the work examines the scholastic factors and teaching methods that moulded boys’ characters and attitudes to the extent that responses to a strident call to arms in 1914 were almost universally positive. The areas explored in depth include: the influence of the schools as austere total institutions in the furtherance of manliness and muscular Christianity values; the classroom curriculum – specifically, the indoctrination of national supremacist values and the socialization of positive feelings as to war and ‘glorious death in battle’; the ubiquitous focus upon character development through competitive sports; the effects of religious teaching upon boys’ attitudes to subsequent volunteering; the militaristic impact of the 1908 Officers’ Training Corps scheme.

Throughout, the thesis forms connections between deliberately embedded public school character and attitude traits with the requirement, by military recruiters, for similar attributes within their intake of junior officers during the early months of the First World War. Several broad questions are dealt with: for example, how appropriate were sports-embedded qualities to practical subaltern officering? What made the recruitment campaign so successful in securing ex-public school volunteers? How did key elements within the public school environment (e.g. authoritative hierarchy, rules and discipline, monasticism, indoctrinated beliefs) result in volunteering enthusiasm? To help address these (and other) relevant questions, the thesis draws upon the works of specialists within related fields - notably sociologists, linguists and educational experts.

In conclusion, the thesis confirms the fact that, and determines how, thousands of ex-public schoolboys were  engineered, from an early age,towards serving their country in wartime.

Keywords: WW1, "First World War", "Great War", volunteering, recruitment, education, "public schools", OTC, history, geography, classics, athleticism, manliness, "elective reading", Edwardian

This dissertation reviews the Profumo scandal of 1963 in order to ascertain the factors that turned the affair into a damaging crisis which helped cause the premature resignation of the Prime Minister and contributed towards the Government’s defeat in the 1964 General Election.

Abundant source material is available yet, given the nature of the subject, much has been sensationalised and is clearly inaccurate. The work uses several source categories in order for conclusions to be drawn; these are: biographies and memoirs of contemporary observers of the affair; public records from the National Archives – notably 1963 Cabinet and Prime Ministerial papers; contemporary newspapers and periodicals; published official documents (particularly Lord Denning’s Report and Hansard); public opinion research data retrieved from the Conservative Party Archive. In addition, several early-1960s published reactions to the Profumo scandal have been used – their value lying in the freshness of their observation at a time of turmoil.

The dissertation tries to determine why a personal Ministerial lapse and resignation evolved into a major crisis for the Government and concludes that the accepted general themes of ‘immorality’, ‘deceit’, ‘incompetence’ and ‘security risk’ embraced wider failings of leadership, administration and class-induced complacency – such Government shortcomings being subjected to merciless exposure and criticism. Thus, the work also examines the crucial roles played by the official opposition, the press and the judiciary and contextualises the affair within the volatile political mood of 1963.

The purpose of this essay, written from the viewpoint of a moderately supportive viewer of 'history on film', is to explore and assess what it is about the topic that provokes such expressions of hostility and defensive  enthusiasm. The strengths of film, in an historical context, are examined within the broad category of public consumption and impact. Weaknesses are considered under the headings of firstly: accuracy, authenticity and invention and secondly: interpretation. While the essay concentrates on historically-themed feature films (using Titanic and Zulu as examples) since these provoke the most discussion, the theoretical ‘reality’ genre of newsreels, propaganda films and documentaries is also evaluated.

This paper examines the value, as a historical source, of George Orwell’s chapter on the Home Guard within his ‘London Letter’ to Partisan Review (published in late 1941) since this passage provides lucid insight into Orwell’s views as to the ‘class’ and ‘revolution’ implications of a home army in wartime. The paper concludes that the Home Guard article will benefit those historians who are engaged in assessing the effects of class discord and ideological upheaval inside a democratic society seeking to defend itself in a climate of total war. And his views on a potential British class revolution will also be of interest to students of Orwell’s work and politics.

This paper explores the nature and degree of racial discrimination against Irish settlers in mainland Britain within the period 1830-1860. In so doing, it also assesses to what extent Irish people became victims of such prejudice and examines what contribution, if any, the Irish people themselves made to the fuelling of some of the intolerance that arose. It also compares and contrasts the forces provoking such hostility with those evidenced by the EU referendum a century and a half later.

By re-examining primary source material (in particular: contemporary investigation evidence and reports, Acts of Parliament, Hansard extracts), this essay reviews efforts towards child employment reform in the Victorian era pottery industry. Advocacy, investigations and regulations directed towards a resolution of moral concerns, are contrasted with moves to alleviate the physical effects of lead exposure; as a consequence the essay determines that moral preoccupations dominated the reform agenda to the detriment of urgent health hazard alleviation - at least in the early Victorian years. However, the essay also decides that Governmental laissez-faire non-interventionism and pottery-owner acquisitive callousness were not wholly culpable; as will be shown, exploitative working potters were responsible for much juvenile abuse and some unscrupulous parents (unwittingly lending weight to moral ‘temperance' arguments) actually sought to gain financially from the toxic risks faced by their offspring.

The congratulatory poem  by John Evelyn junior (1655-1699) was written soon after King James II acceded to the throne upon the sudden death of his brother, King Charles II. This essay investigates and contextualises the work historically and poetically; it also examines Evelyn’s personal situation and the persuasive manipulation that might have provoked the poem’s creation and influenced its content.

This essay records the principal measures taken by the state to address phosphorus-induced necrosis within the match industry. The work also evaluates the context surrounding and the thinking behind, the regulations that were imposed and tracks the effectiveness (or otherwise) of their enforcement. Following the lead within the sub-heading, attention will be paid to the governmental 'balancing' of the interests of employers and workers.

This paper examines the historiography surrounding early wartime evacuation, notably, the most significant of the ‘people’ issues in order to assess those factors that were sufficiently detrimental so as to cause an original decision to escape from jeopardy to be reversed. The essay examines the themes of planning; transport and billeting; complaints and prejudice; hostility to accompanying mothers; vermin and health concerns; the early return home.

The decline of the governing Liberal Party from a 400-seat position of electoral dominance in 1906 to a 40-seat political also-ran, eighteen years later, has emerged as a topic rich in historical controversy. Published throughout several decades, copious historical literature has presented a variety of plausible conflicting interpretations many of which have been based upon sound empirical evidence. Geoffrey Searle’s work  is positioned as a guide through various historical texts that address the issue as he examines and critiques the main disintegration theories presented and puts forward his own explanation as a conclusion. Within this review of his work, Searle’s methodological techniques are appraised - in particular: his selection and handling of sources, the validity of his decisions for inclusion or omission, the cogency of his concluding argument and the strength of his historiography.

In 1936, George Orwell wrote that he ‘had got to escape not merely from imperialism but from every form of man’s dominion over man’ – strong words indeed. This research reviews those early works that reflect his Empire experiences and notes how his anti-imperialism developed. Orwell’s time as a policeman in Burma in the 1920s caused him to rethink many of the principles that had resulted from his colonial family background, class, education and Englishness. His eventual hatred of imperialism stimulated Orwell to absorb himself in a lifetime’s literary campaign on behalf of victims of oppression whether that stemmed from the exploitation of subject races by imperialist Britain, the inhumane treatment of the working-classes by capitalist industrialists or the cruel and corrupt wielding of absolute power by despotic extremist regimes.

Appeals which emphasise newness and modernisation have served as mainstay arguments for product advertisers and politicians alike - in the field of politics, rarely more so than in the British general election campaign of 1964, a contest which the Labour Party won by a tiny overall majority of just four seats.  The Labour manifesto, entitled The New Britain, defiantly contrasted their plans for innovative economic, industrial and social change against a tired Tory appeal which seemed, even within their own election proposal, Prosperity with a Purpose, to epitomise a call for ‘more of the same’.

This paper examines Labour’s successes and failures during their two administrations in the 1960s. In the event, their economic rejuvenation record was disappointing, yet historical opinion varies as to the degree of Labour culpability for their failure to achieve many of the goals that had been so confidently set out in 1964. By most standards, the economic crises which hampered the Government were not, in the main, of their own making. The lack of Labour’s Governmental achievement during the 1960s, much of it due to unforeseen, serious, inherited economic problems, was cruelly highlighted since the failure had occurred against a campaigning background of stridently promised modernisation. Labour’s difficulties therefore became intensified by unfulfilled public expectations that had been cultivated and reinforced by months of focused party political campaigning. As time passed, and economic revitalization objectives became evidently less achievable, a sense of political, indeed electoral, insecurity began to affect the Government’s ability to cope.

Although nowadays less remarked upon than ‘Bloody Sunday’ in January 1972 or the riots that formed the ‘Battle of the Bogside’ in the summer of 1969, the disturbances that took place in the Divis Street/Falls Road area of West Belfast over four nights in September/October 1964 were notable in that they were the worst in the province for 30 years. These incidents therefore could be said to have been the first of several serious confrontations that would occur in Northern Ireland over the next decade. This research paper investigates the context of the Divis Street troubles and addresses some relevant issues highlighted by those events. It explores the amalgam of religion and sectarian politics, eloquently considered by Dervla Murphy (‘clergymen are the officers in Northern Ireland’s mental and emotional war’) as a factor which, when exploited by extremists, proved to be so acrimonious and alarming.  The paper also reviews the concept of ‘identity’ made visible by the battles and, since the whole affair started with a nationalist banner, notes the great significance of flags within Northern Ireland politics. The paper draws upon historiography as well as several primary sources – contemporary newspapers, eyewitness reports and personal memoirs. Since, aside from TV, newspapers were the principal vehicles for communicating information about the riot, reportage from papers having differing traditional loyalties are compared and contrasted. In addition, the vox populi in the form of ‘letters to the editor’ are examined so as to reflect some of the immediate reactions of people who felt themselves sufficiently concerned to express an opinion in writing.

‘Doomed to fail’ implies a degree of unavoidable predestination and there is a powerful argument which suggests that any politician attempting a liberal reform program in Northern Ireland during the 1960s would have inevitably failed. Evidence indicates that Terence O’Neill, in spite of some errors, was doomed to failure by the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland sectarianism and history. But to O’Neill’s  credit, his focus on the future and his attempts to reconcile the enmity that had always impeded progress within the province, position him as a politician who at least seemed to try before failing. But many of his initiatives were imperfectly applied, many of his public utterances seemed crass, many of his actions achieved little more than a further increase in the growing contempt that each side of the community had for him. This paper assesses O’Neill’s policies and actions as Prime Minister between 1963 and 1969, charts the progress (or non-success) of their implementation and determines those factors which made O’Neill’s individual mission an inevitable failure together with the personal blemishes that accelerated his downfall.