When Éamon de Valera, Richard Barton and Mr. Art O’Brien arrived at Downing Street, “cheers were raised, Sinn Féin flags were displayed, and the crowd sang Irish airs”. As the meeting went on, a “large crowd of Irish sympathisers knelt in the rain at Whitehall, at the end of Downing Street, recited the rosary, and sang several hymns. Before the prayers started they sang “Ireland a Nation”. The reporter stated that the singing of Irish songs and the praying never ceased.

Three women at the front have rosary beads, there is a small picture of the Sacred heart stitched on to the tricolour.

Photo credit: National Library of Ireland collection, dated Thursday, 14 July 1921 (at approximately 17:30), outside Downing Street as de Valera met Lloyd George, at the first of four meetings held between the two in July 1921.

(The Irish Times, 15 July 1921, p5)