1931 To 1940
1930 World: Britain, U.S., Japan, France, and Italy sign a naval disarmament treaty. The Nazis gain in German elections. Haile Selassie becomes emperor of Ethiopia.1931 IRL: Lady Caroline Blackwood is born in Northern Ireland. She later married British painter Lucian Freud, American composer Israel Citkowitz, and American poet Robert Lowell. In 2001 Nancy Schoenberger authored “Dangerous Muse: The Life of Lady Caroline Blackwood.”
World: Spain becomes a republic with the overthrow of King Alfonso XIII. The Mukden Incident begins Japanese occupation of Manchuria. The planned capital of New Delhi opens in India.
1932 - 38 IRL: Economic war between Britain and Irish Free State governments.
1932 The Chapel of Holy Spirit is completed and dedicated on July 5th. William Shaw Kerr appointed dean. The death ocurs in England of Lord Carson of Duncairn on Oct 22nd. Following a state funeral, the advocate and Unionist leader is buried in the cathedral. He is the only person buried therein.
IRL: The Prince of Wales formally opens the new home of the Northern Ireland government at Stormont, in east Belfast. Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Earhart landed near Londonderry, May 20. .
World: The Nazis lead in the German elections with 230 Reichstag seats. Famine is widespread in U.S.S.R.
1932-37 IRL: Eamon de Valera is Prime Minister of Irish Free State. The Fianna Fail government changes the constitution of the Irish Free State (now renamed Eire).
In December 1937 the Constitution of Eire results in southern Ireland becoming a republic in all but name. The new constitution abolishes the Oath of Allegiance to the Crown, replaces the Governor General with a President, makes Gaelic the country’s first official language, recognizes the special position of the Roman Catholic Church in Irish society, prohibits the state from granting divorce and claims the whole island of Ireland and its surrounding water as the national territory. This process provokes hard line speeches from unionists in the north and in 1935 there are serious riots in Belfast.
1932 City: Unemployment grows dramatically in the Great Depression of the 30's. No welfare benefits exist. To combat this the Government introduces Outdoor Relief. The result of this is degrading work and means testing. In October 1932, for the first and only time, the people of the Shankill and the Falls fight together in opposition to the Stormont Government during the Hunger Riots.
1933 City: The Royal Courts of Justice are opened. In the port the Herdman Channel is dug and Pollock Dock is opened. Belfast airport is built.
IRL: Cumann na nGaedheal, Centre Party and National Guard join to form Fine Gael.
World: Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany (Jan. 30). The Reichstag in Berlin is set on fire; Nazi terror begins (Feb. 27). Germany and Japan withdraw from League of Nations.
1934 City: The grounds of the 19th-century Belfast Castle are presented to the city by Lord Shaftesbury.
World: Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria is assassinated by the Nazis. Hitler becomes Führer when chancellorship and presidency are united. U.S.S.R. is admitted to League of Nations. The Dionne sisters, the first quintuplets to survive beyond infancy, are born in Canada. Mao Zedong begins the Long March north with 100,000 soldiers.
1935 World: Nazis repudiate Versailles Treaty and introduce compulsory military service. Mussolini invades Ethiopia. The League of Nations invokes sanctions. Persia becomes Iran under Reza Shah Pahlevi. The Nazis enact Nuremberg Laws against Jews to prevent "racial pollution." Heinrich Himmler starts a breeding programme to produce an "Aryan super race.
1936 IRL: The IRA is banned in the Irish Free State. Aer Lingus, the Irish national airline, is founded.
World: Rome-Berlin Axis is proclaimed (Japan joins in 1940).
King George V dies. He is succeeded by his son, Edward VIII, who soon abdicates to marry an American-born divorcée, and in turn is succeeded by his brother, George VI. The Spanish civil war begins. Franco's fascist forces defeat the Loyalist forces by 1939, when Madrid falls. A war between China and Japan begins, and continues through World War II. Japan and Germany sign an anti-Comintern pact and are joined by Italy in 1937. Gen. Anastasio Somoza leads a coup d'etat in Nicaragua ushering in Somoza family dictatorship for more than four decades.
1937-1948 IRL: de Valera is Taoiseach.
1937 IRL: The Irish Free State becomes Eire. Douglas Hyde is the first president. Constitution of Ireland replaces initial Constitution of 1922, asserts jurisdiction over the entire island and removes all references or hints of British sovereignty.
World: Italy withdraws from the League of Nations. The U.S. gunboat “Panay” is sunk by Japan in the Yangtze River. Japan invades China and conquers most of the coastal area. Britain begins the 999 emergency telephone number system.
1938 IRL: de Valera and British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain begin talks to end the Economic War which had existed between Britain and the Irish Free State. de Valera supports Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement during his tenure as President of the 13th (and last) Assembly of the League of Nations.
World: Hitler marches into Austria. The political and geographical union of Germany and Austria ia proclaimed. In the Munich Pact, Britain, France, and Italy agree to let Germany partition Czechoslovakia. The Nazis destroy Jewish shops, homes, synagogues in Kristallnacht riots. 20,000-30,000 are sent to concentration camps. The first oil strike in Kuwait transforms the emirate's economy.
1939-45 City: During theSecond World War shipbuilding and engineering booms. These essential industries make Belfast a target for German bombing and the city suffers severely during the blitz. There are 3 raids, on 7 April 1941, 15-16 April 1941 and 4 May 1941. At total of 955 people people are killed. Some 3,200 houses are destroyed. There is also much damage to industry in Belfast.
IRL: Second World War. Eire is the only British Dominion to remain neutral. 38,000 from Northern Ireland and 43,000 from Eire join the British armed forces. 120,000 US soldiers pass through Northern Ireland en route to Europe.
1939 City: The population has risen to 438,000.
IRL: In January the IRA commence a bombing campaign in Britain and Northern Ireland. In April, de Valera declares his government’s intention to remain neutral in the event of war. He tells the Dail, "I have stated in this house and I have stated in the country, that the aim of government policy is to keep this country out of war, and nobody, either here or elsewhere, has any right to assume anything else." On May 30th the Eire government introduces the Treason Act to deal with revival of IRA militancy and on June 14th introduces the Offences Against the State Act allowing it to take further repressive measures to curb the IRA.
On September 3 Britain and France declare war on Germany. The IRA explodes three bombs in Piccadilly Circus, Nov 18. Eire remains neutral and takes extreme measures to deal with IRA insurgency and shortages caused by disruption in shipping. World War II enters into Irish history books as “The Emergency”. Eire’s "neutrality" took a decidedly Allied tilt. Irish citizens were free to join the British forces (43,000 did so from Eire) or to work in British factories. Allied airmen shot down over Eire were quietly repatriated while Axis flyers were interned. Allied overflights were ignored and British intelligence agents operated out of a flying boat base at Foynes in County Limerick. Weather reports from the west of Ireland were regularly relayed to the British.
James Joyce publishes Finnegans Wake.
World: Germany invades Poland; occupies Bohemia and Moravia; renounces pact with England and concludes 10-year non-aggression pact with U.S.S.R. Russo-Finnish War begins. Finland looses one-tenth of its territory in the 1940 peace treaty.
1940
1940 IRL: Death of Lord Craigavon, Unionist leader. He is succeeded by John Miller Andrews.
World: Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are annexed by U.S.S.R. Hitler invades Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. Lascaux caves with Cro-Magnon art are discovered by a French schoolboy.
