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PALGRAVE STUDIES OF
PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGEMENT IN AFRICA

Public Sector Marketing

Communications, Volume II
Traditional and
Digital Perspectives
Edited by
Ogechi Adeola
Kojo Kakra Twum
Paul Katuse
Palgrave Studies of Public Sector
Management in Africa

Series Editors
Robert E. Hinson
University of Ghana Business School
Accra, Ghana

Nnamdi O. Madichie
Center for Research & Enterprise
Bloomsbury Institute
London, UK

Justice Nyigmah Bawole

University of Ghana Business School
Accra, Ghana
This series examines the business and management strategies that are
employed in the management of public services in Africa, which is cur-
rently experiencing significant change and revolution.
In the 1990s academics observed that the public is increasingly recog-
nized as a customer; since then public sector organizations have applied
marketing tools and strategic planning to sell government policies. Today,
almost every service in the public domain is given a marketing twist. The
increasing role of public services in driving the African economy makes it
essential for these services to be well managed. In the 2000s, the public
sector in African countries was expected to spearhead socioeconomic
development; however it has proved largely ineffective in this task. In fact
it could be argued that the economic and social challenges that character-
ize the continent are partly due to the systemic weaknesses and poor
performance of public sector institutions. The issues around public sector
management have become so complex that the various sub-components
deserve special conceptual and case based treatment to fully capture the
issues around public sector management in Africa.
Books in the series offer arguments and frameworks that push forward
existing knowledge about what, why and how the public sector contrib-
utes to the socio-economic development of Africa. The series will cover a
range of diverse topics including leadership, ethics, public sector procure-
ment and logistics, human capital management and public sector mar-
keting management.
All submissions will be double blind peer reviewed. For more informa-
tion on the peer review process please visit our website: https://www.
palgrave.com/gp/book-authors/your-career/early-career-researcher-hub/
peer-review-process
 Ogechi Adeola
Kojo Kakra Twum • Paul Katuse
Editors

Public Sector
Marketing
Communications,
Volume II
Traditional and Digital Perspectives
Editors
Ogechi Adeola Kojo Kakra Twum
Lagos Business School Presbyterian University College
Pan-Atlantic University Abetefi, Ghana
Lagos, Nigeria

Paul Katuse
Skyline University College
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

ISSN 2730-6119     ISSN 2730-6127 (electronic)

Palgrave Studies of Public Sector Management in Africa
ISBN 978-3-031-17862-7    ISBN 978-3-031-17863-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17863-4

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Preface

In today's world, effective communication tools are essential for public

and governmental entities to connect with citizens, initiate engage-
ment, disseminate information, encourage behavioural changes, show-
case their offerings, and build a trustworthy brand. The relationship
between the public sector and the citizens can be improved through the
adoption of appropriate communication channels, including traditional
and digital methods. This second volume of the two-volume edited book
highlights the importance of both traditional and digital marketing com-
munication tools in enhancing interactions with citizens and achieving
critical outcomes for public sector institutions in Africa.
Technological innovation has been driving institutional activities
across the globe; therefore, public sector establishments in Africa must
take advantage of opportunities in digital tools. While traditional mar-
keting communication tools, such as print, broadcast, and outdoor meth-
ods, continue to have value, public service activities are increasingly
executed effectively and efficiently through the adoption of various tech-
nological tools and platforms. This raises questions about the relevance
and contribution of traditional communication tools to public service
delivery in Africa compared to the increasing popularity of digital media
globally.
Although Africa has a growing number of young adults interested in
social media and internet applications, the continent still has a high
v
vi Preface

­ ercentage of digital exclusion due to high illiteracy level and limited

p
access to the internet. Therefore, the current focus on digital communica-
tions should not exclude those who are not digitally savvy. Despite the
clamour for the digitisation of public service operations and activities,
there must be a balance that incorporates both digital and traditional
perspectives of marketing communications. There is no one-size-fits-all
strategy. What is important is the message, the channel adopted and the
target audience. Therefore, for effective marketing communications in
the public service, it is important to consider key components such as
agency priorities, target audiences, localities, message contents, and plat-
forms and channels. Additionally, the heterogenous nature of African
communities—language, cultures and economic class—may require con-
sideration of diverse communication channels.
Authors in this book offer both practical and theory-based suggestions
for public sector institutions on the selection of traditional and digital
communication tools that will be meaningful to a citizen-oriented public
sector. This volume provides insights into Africa’s utilisation of traditional
and digital marketing tools in public sector organisations. Topics include
public service advertising, celebrity endorsements, government use of
digital technology for emergency risk communications, social media as a
public sector communication platform, determinants of social media
adoption, direct marketing in the public sector, optimising social media
for voters’ education intergovernmental collaboration, and football
administration.
This book is relevant to government institutions, stakeholders, practi-
tioners, researchers and public administration students who seek a more
informed and effective utilisation of traditional and digital marketing
communications in Africa’s public sector. It provides valuable insights
into the challenges and opportunities associated with effective communi-
cation strategies and offers practical guidance on how to enhance com-
munication and engagement with stakeholders.
 Structure of the Book

Part I: Introduction
In Chap. 1, “An Introduction to Public Sector Marketing Communica-
tions: Traditional and Digital Perspectives”, Ogechi Adeola, Paul Katuse
and Kojo Kakra Twum explore the intricacies of Africa’s traditional and
digital marketing communications in the context of public service deliv-
ery. The chapter introduces readers to the focus of the book and the core
themes that define its contributions to scholarship and practice.
Part II: Public Sector Marketing Communications in Africa: Traditional
Perspectives
In Chap. 2, Christiana Appiah-Nimo, Daniel Ofori, Gloria K.Q
Agyapong and Kojo K. Twum discuss “Public Service Advertising and
Celebrity Endorsement in Ghana.” The chapter adds to the currently
limited literature on public service advertisement (PSA) in Ghana, iden-
tifying factors, including celebrity endorsements, that influence the effect
of PSAs on the public. The authors discuss implications for government
departments and NGOs in developing information policies and appro-
priate media to reach the public.
Paul Katuse, in Chap. 3, “Direct Marketing in the Kenyan Public
Sector,” describes the Kenyan public sector’s engagement in direct mar-
keting initiatives, the role of public sector administration, the challenges
viii Structure of the Book

faced by the public sector in implementing direct marketing initiatives,

the influence of digitisation and recommendations for ways the public
sector can reach marketing objectives.
In Chap. 4, “Breaking the Silos: Role of Intergovernmental and
Interagency Collaboration in Combatting Insecurity in South Africa and
Nigeria,” Silk Ugwu Ogbu, Knowledge Shumba and Abiola Babatunde
Abimbola describe worries about the rising spate of personal insecurities
and violent crimes, especially over the last decade, and how this has
become one of the greatest concerns to citizens, governments and other
stakeholders in South Africa and Nigeria. The chapter documents the
reasons for the communication gaps and siloed approach to security pro-
visioning and proffers suggestions for fostering collaboration among gov-
ernment and security agencies.
Part III: Public Sector Marketing Communications in Africa: Digital
­Perspectives
Chapter 5, “Digital Technology and Emergency Risk Communication of
African Governments: Experiences and Lessons from Covid-19 Pandemic,”
written by Ogechi Adeola and Olaniyi Evans, explores the potential for digi-
tal technology as a medium for emergency risk communications, exempli-
fied by African governments’ responses during the Covid-19 pandemic. The
authors identified the challenges to emergency risk communications using
digital technology, including the malicious use of electronic technology, the
spread of misinformation, the digital divide, inadequate ICT skills, weak
ICT infrastructure and poor bandwidth constraints.
Chapter 6, “Drivers and Challenges of Social Media Usage in Ghana’s
Local Government Administration” by Majeed Mohammed, Prince
Gyimah and Isaiah Adisa, contributes to the literature by focusing on the
drivers and challenges of social media adoption among the Metropolitan,
Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana. The MMDAs
are equivalent of local government administration. The Technological-
Organisational-Environment (TOE) framework was used as a theoretical
orientation for the chapter.
Chapter 7, authored by Silk Ogbu, is titled “Optimising Social Media
and Marketing Communication Strategies for Voter Education: A Way
Forward for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in
Nigeria.” The author argues that digital and marketing communications
 Structure of the Book ix

strategies will enhance INEC’s voter education campaigns. The chapter

identifies the challenges and opportunities associated with INEC’s efforts
to optimise voter education in Nigeria, and it recommends steps for suc-
cessful re-engineering of INEC’s voter education infrastructure.
Technological Determinism and Social Marketing theories were adapted
in the chapter.
In Chap. 8, “Social Media Adoption in Public Sector Communication:
Practices, Opportunities and Challenges in Public Sector Organisations,”
Daniel Ofori, Christiana Appiah-Nimo and Francis O. Boachie-Mensah
review current developments in public sector marketing, focusing on the
value of social media channels as means to reach the public. The relevance
of social media adoption in public sector marketing amidst public sector
reforms is highlighted. Two main strategic implications of social media
for the marketing of public services are explored: co-production in public
service delivery and public service branding.
In Chap. 9, “Using Social Media for Competitive Advantage: The Case
of African Public Universities,” Eugene Ohu examined the unique value
proposition that African public universities have in the wealth of knowl-
edge of the local environment, which is key to educating future talents
and leaders of the continent. However, with the growing number of pri-
vate universities in Africa and the increasing student population, the
author suggests that the use of social media can be an effective and effi-
cient strategy for product placement and delivery while respecting the
identity of the institutions and their culture, and in some cases, meeting
regulatory compliance.
Nnamdi Madichie, Paul Igwe, Robert Ebo Hinson, Chris Mbah,
Kobby Mensah and Brian Wesaala, in Chap. 10, examined “Public Sector
Marketing Communications: Insights from/for the Primus National
Football League Rwanda.” The chapter explored the potential of an unex-
plored African Professional Football League to leverage its brand through
effective marketing communications. Recognising the management of
football leagues in Africa as an integral arm of government institutions,
the chapter adopted a primary documentary analysis method to elicit
sponsorship deals available to Rwanda that should advance football
league initiatives. Appropriate recommendations were made for stake-
holders involved in football administration and management in Africa.
x Structure of the Book

Part IV: Recommendations and Conclusions

In Chap. 11, “Conclusion: Towards Effective Public Sector Marketing
Communications in Africa,” Ogechi Adeola, Emmanuel Mogaji, Paul
Katuse and Kojo Kakra Twum suggest a pathway towards effective public
sector communications in Africa. The authors emphasised that focusing on
one single method of marketing communication will be counterproduc-
tive; public sectors’ efforts to reach Africa’s multicultural and demographi-
cally diverse societies can be met by incorporating both digital and
traditional marketing strategies into their communications infrastructure.
 Contents

Part I Introduction   1

1 An
 Introduction to Public Sector Marketing
Communications: Traditional and Digital Perspectives  3
Ogechi Adeola, Kojo Kakra Twum, and Paul Katuse

Part II Public Sector Marketing Communications in Africa:

Traditional Perspectives  19

2 Public
 Service Advertising and Celebrity Endorsement in
Ghana 21
Christina Appiah-Nimo, Daniel Ofori, Gloria K. Q. Agyapong,
and Kojo Kakra Twum

3 Direct
 Marketing in the Kenyan Public Sector 43
Paul Katuse

xi
xii Contents

4 Breaking
 the Silos: Role of Intergovernmental and
Interagency Collaboration in Combating Insecurity in
South Africa and Nigeria 67
Silk Ugwu Ogbu, Knowledge Shumba, and Abiola Babatunde
Abimbola

Part III Public Sector Marketing Communications in Africa:

Digital Perspectives 103

5 Digital
 Technology and Emergency Risk Communications
of African Governments: Experiences and Lessons from
Covid-19 Pandemic105
Ogechi Adeola and Olaniyi Evans

6 Drivers
 and Challenges of Social Media Usage in Ghana’s
Local Government Administration131
Majeed Mohammed, Prince Gyimah, and Isaiah Adisa

7 Optimising
 Social Media and Marketing Communication
Strategies for Voter Education: A Way Forward for
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in
Nigeria155
Silk Ugwu Ogbu

8 Social
 Media Adoption in Public Sector Communication:
Practices, Opportunities and Challenges in Public Sector
Organisations185
Daniel Ofori, Christina Appiah-Nimo, and Francis
O. Boachie-Mensah

9 Using
 Social Media for Competitive Advantage: The Case
of African Public Universities213
Eugene Ohu
 Contents xiii

10 Public
 Sector Marketing Communications: Insights from/
for the Primus National Football League Rwanda239
Nnamdi Madichie, Paul Igwe, Robert Ebo Hinson, Chris
Mbah, Kobby Mensah, and Brian Wesaala

Part IV Recommendations and Conclusions 265

11 Conclusion:
 Towards Effective Public Sector Marketing
Communications in Africa267
Ogechi Adeola, Emmanuel Mogaji, Paul Katuse, and Kojo
Kakra Twum

I ndex285
 Notes on Contributors

Ogechi Adeola is Associate Professor of Marketing and the Head of

Department of Operations, Marketing and Information Systems at the
Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University, Nigeria. Her multidimen-
sional research focuses on the advancement of knowledge across the inter-
section of marketing, strategy, tourism and gender. Her work has been
published in top peer-reviewed journals, and her co-­authored articles won
Best Paper Awards at international conferences in 2016–2019, consecu-
tively. She is a fellow of the Institute of Strategic Management, Nigeria,
and the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria. Adeola’s international
marketing consultancy experience spans Africa, Asia, the UK and the USA.
Isaiah Adisa is a management researcher and consultant based in Nigeria.
He has co-edited book(s) with several other book chapters and journal articles
in recognised outlets. He is affiliated with the Olabisi Onabanjo University,
Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, and his research interests cut across human resources
management, organisational behaviour, marketing and gender studies. Adisa’s
consultancy experience spans health and educational sectors.
Gloria Kakrabah-Quarshie Agyapong is a senior lecturer in the
Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, University of
Cape Coast, Ghana. Her research interests include service quality man-
agement, public sector marketing communications and social media
advertising.
xv
xvi Notes on Contributors

Majeed Mohammed is a lecturer (PhD) at Tamale Technical University,

Tamale-Ghana. His research interest includes branding, hospitality and
tourism, and social media in service organisations. He holds a Doctor of
Business Administration (DBA), MPhil and MBA Marketing,
Postgraduate Diploma, and HND Marketing. He lectures part-time in
many Ghanaian public universities and is a reviewer for many journals in
management, hospitality and marketing. He has also published in good
journals such as Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights and Cogent
Business & Management.
Christina Appiah-Nimo is a PhD student at Tomas Bata University in
Zlin, Czech Republic. She holds a Master of Commerce in Marketing
and Bachelor of Management Studies, all from the University of Cape
Coast, Ghana. During her master’s degree, she won a fully paid exchange
programme at Bonn Rhein Sieg University of Applied Sciences in
Germany. She has also assisted on various Deutscher Akademischer
Austauschdienst (DAAD)-funded projects involving the University of
Cape Coast, University of Nairobi and Bonn Rhein Sieg University of
Applied Sciences in Germany. She is open to research areas including
marketing and innovation, entrepreneurship development and sustain-
ability, and small and medium enterprises development.
Abiola Abimbola Babatunde is a behavioural, environmental and
developmental economist who lectures at the Graduate Center of
Management and the Cost and Management Accounting Department at
the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). He is also a fellow
of the Institute of Business Analytics of Nigeria and a life member of the
Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA), the Machine
Learning and Data Science Africa Network (MLDS-AFRICA) and the
Nigerian Economics Society (NES).
Francis O. Boachie-Mensah is an associate professor in the Department
of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, School of Business,
University of Cape Coast. He has published and authored books in strat-
egy, management, small business development and marketing.
Olaniyi Evans is a Nigerian economist and a university lecturer at Pan-­
Atlantic University, Nigeria. He is known in academia for his work on
the digital economy, financial inclusion and tourism. He earned his BSc
 Notes on Contributors xvii

first class and MSc distinctions and went on to pursue a PhD, all in eco-
nomics from the University of Lagos. He is the author of a substantial
number of scholarly articles in top academic journals. He is the editor of
BizEcons Quarterly.
Prince Gyimah is Lecturer in Accounting at Akenten Appiah-Menka
University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development and a
PhD candidate at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
His research scholarships include sustainable development goals, small
businesses, rural entrepreneurship, accounting, finance and general busi-
ness management.
Robert Ebo Hinson is Pro Vice-Chancellor at the Ghana
Communication Technology University. He holds a DPhil in Marketing
from the University of Ghana and a PhD in International Business from
the Aalborg University Business School in Denmark. He is published in
reputable international journals like the Journal of Business Research and
co-edits the Palgrave Series on Marketing in Emerging Economies as well
as Palgrave Series on Public Sector Management in Africa.
Paul Agu Igwe is Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Enterprise at the
Lincoln International Business School, University of Lincoln, UK. He is
a member of the UNESCO Chair on Responsible Foresight and
Sustainable Development, Project Lead for the “Innovation,
Entrepreneurship & Higher Education Digital Ecosystem” British
Council-funded project on Innovation for African Universities (IAU)
programme. Igwe is also a project lead for the “Capacity-Building for
Future-Proof Ecosystem,” British Council-funded project.
Paul Katuse is Associate Professor of Strategic Management and has
also been a corporate consultant and university faculty member for more
than 15 years. Katuse is a strategy and change management expert trainer.
He has been an external examiner and a visiting faculty for several univer-
sities in eastern and southern parts of Africa. He has supervised several
PhDs and DBAs and has been published in refereed journals. He belongs
to several professional bodies and associations regionally and globally.
Katuse is trained in case writing and blended learning pedagogies and has
worked with higher education accrediting bodies and agencies within
Africa and beyond.
xviii Notes on Contributors

Nnamdi O. Madichie is Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship

and Coordinator of the Centre for Economic Governance and Leadership
at the University of Kigali, Rwanda. He is also a research fellow at the
Bloomsbury Institute London. He has published extensively on the topic
of sports and especially football marketing covering the Middle East,
Nigeria and Thailand. He co-edits the Palgrave Series on Public Sector
Management in Africa.
Chris Mbah is Professor of Marketing and International Business at the
American University of Nigeria, Nigeria. His research interests are primarily
in the areas of global strategy and competitiveness, market orientation in
emerging economies, and the use of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for
business decision-making. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in
professional and academic journals, book chapters and conference papers.
Kobby Mensah is Senior Lecturer in Political Marketing at the University
of Ghana Business School, Ghana. He is the editor of Political Marketing
and Management in Ghana: A New Architecture published by Palgrave
Macmillan, UK. His teaching and research interests are in political market-
ing, political communication and advocacy and business-­government rela-
tionships. He is a leading expert on political marketing in Africa and has
been responsible for the growing interest in the field in Ghana. Among his
most recent publication is a co-authored book chapter entitled “Framing
Political Policy Communications in Developing Country Democracies.”
Emmanuel Mogaji is Senior Lecturer in Advertising and Marketing
Communications at the University of Greenwich, London, UK. His
research interests are in artificial intelligence, digital marketing and brand
management. He has previously worked as a marketing communication
executive, responsible for creative designs and managing marketing cam-
paigns, liaising and building relationships with a range of stakeholders.
He has published peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and
presented his works at many national and international conferences. His
publications have appeared in Transportation Research Part D: Transport
and Environment, Transport Policy, Travel Behaviour and Society,
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Journal of Product
and Brand Management and Australasian Marketing Journal.
 Notes on Contributors xix

Daniel Ofori is a lecturer in the Department of Marketing and Supply

Chain Management, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He is a full pro-
fessional member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply
(MCIPS, UK). His research focuses on green consumerism, green mar-
keting, reverse logistics and waste management in the supply chain, and
sustainable consumption and production.
Silk Ugwu Ogbu is a public affairs and political communication strate-
gist. He holds a PhD in Political Science (International Relations), another
PhD in Marketing (Public Relations) and yet another PhD in Public
Administration. His research interests include political communication,
conflict resolution, change management, rhetorical communication, nego-
tiation, leadership strategies, development communication, brand man-
agement and stakeholder relations. He is an associate professor at the
School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos.
Eugene Ohu is a senior lecturer in the Department of Organisational
Behaviour/Human Resource Management at the Lagos Business School.
His teaching areas include management communication, human behav-
iour in organisations and digital marketing. He researches on the psy-
chology of human-computer interactions, to promote well-being and
organisational productivity. Ohu is the director of the Virtual Human
Computer Interaction (VHCI) Lab, Lagos Business School, where he
explores the character and well-being associations of virtual reality (VR).
Knowledge Shumba PhD, is a lecturer (part-time) in the Faculty of
Economic and Management Sciences at the University of Western Cape.
He has vast experience in teaching marketing, business management and
project management and working as a project manager. His research
interests include marketing, entrepreneurship, business management,
e-learning, e-commerce and project management.
Kojo Kakra Twum is a lecturer and Head of Department of Presbyterian
University College, Ghana. He holds a PhD in Business Administration.
His research interest is in the area of public sector marketing. He has
published in reputable journals such as the International Review on Public
and Nonprofit Marketing, Journal of Marketing of Higher Education and
Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing.
xx Notes on Contributors

Brian Wesaala is an IT professional with over ten years of working

experience in various international organisations. He holds a Postgraduate
Diploma in Technology Management from the Open University (UK)
and a professional master’s degree in Football Business from the Football
Business Academy (Switzerland). In 2018, he set up the Football
Foundation for Africa to help create a sustainable business model for the
future of African football. A passionate follower of the game, he possesses
a deep understanding of the global football industry and is keen to see the
sport improve the livelihoods of youths in Africa. He is based in
Nairobi, Kenya.
 List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Public response model. (Source: Authors’ construct) 34

Fig. 4.1 Conceptual model of interagency collaboration.
(Source: Ward et al., 2018) 73
Fig. 4.2 Process model of cooperation among public agencies.
(Source: Adapted from Weiss [1987]) 77
Fig. 4.3 Deaths from terrorism by country (2018).
(Source: Institute for Economics & Peace, 2019) 85
Fig. 4.4 Increases in deaths from terrorism (2017–2018).
(Source: Institute for Economics & Peace, 2019) 86
Fig. 4.5 Decreases in deaths from terrorism (2017–2018).
(Source: Institute for Economics & Peace, 2019) 87
Fig. 6.1 TOE framework (adapted from Tornatzky & Fleischer,
1990)138
Fig. 11.1 Roadmap for effective public sector marketing
communications278

xxi
 List of Tables

Table 6.1 Demographic data of interviewees 140

Table 6.2 List of selected MMDAs and social media handles (as of
16-01-2022)141
Table 7.1 Commercial marketing versus social marketing 161
Table 7.2 Classification of social media 164
Table 7.3 Developing marketing communication strategy for INEC’s
voter education campaigns 176
Table 8.1 How social media adoption can boost service delivery in
public sector organisations 195
Table 9.1 Facts about social media platforms in Africa 227
Table 10.1 Primus National League 2021/2022 (6 March 2022) 242
Table 10.2 A selection of Rwanda stadia and capacity 243
Table 11.1 Summary of findings 269

xxiii
Part I
Introduction
 1
An Introduction to Public Sector
Marketing Communications: Traditional
and Digital Perspectives
Ogechi Adeola, Kojo Kakra Twum, and Paul Katuse

Introduction
Effective communication facilitates good governance, public administra-
tion and information dissemination. It also enhances engagement and col-
laboration between governments and citizens. Marketing communications
encompass the media, channels or tools utilised to communicate with a
target audience. The public sector in Africa is not unfamiliar with market-
ing communications. Different state-owned enterprises in African

O. Adeola (*)
Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria
e-mail: [email protected]
K. K. Twum
Presbyterian University College, Abetefi, Ghana
e-mail: [email protected]
P. Katuse
Skyline University College, Sharjah, UAE
e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 3

O. Adeola et al. (eds.), Public Sector Marketing Communications, Volume II, Palgrave
Studies of Public Sector Management in Africa,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17863-4_1
4 O. Adeola et al.

countries employ a variety of systems and strategies to communicate with

their stakeholders. However, for these organisations to succeed in crafting
effective communication strategies, they must understand the subtle differ-
ences and unique characteristics of their target markets. This is because
organisations’ cognisance of the social, technological and economic dynam-
ics of target audiences shape their marketing communications strategies
(Coffie et al., 2022).
Variations in the public sectors’ selection of marketing communication
models in African countries are notable because such choices must adapt
to the backdrop of demographics and economic systems of the target
audience in each country. Hence, context matters. Among those contex-
tual differences are factors of a lack of central data, inadequate or non-­
existent operational or logistical systems, lack of or lower customer/
consumer education, and/ or lack of capacity and capability by the state
enterprise (Schultz & Malthouse, 2016).
Salehi et al. (2012) compared both web-based and digital marketing
communications with traditional marketing communications and found
that digital marketing communications turned out to be more economi-
cal and faster in delivering their messages directly to local or global con-
sumers. Notwithstanding the outcome of their comparison, the authors
maintained that both forms of marketing communications could still
help state-owned enterprises to reach their intended target audiences.
This is largely so because each of the two forms of marketing communica-
tions has advantages and disadvantages. Traditional marketing allows
consumers to see and touch the real goods or services, but its reach is
limited; on the other hand, using internet marketing extends the com-
munication boundaries and introduces goods and services to a broader
demographic of consumers. Moreover, using the internet may be cheaper,
faster and more convenient.
In Africa, various governments are currently transitioning from a tra-
ditional economy to a digital economy. An example is Nigeria, where the
government aims to align public sector operations and processes through
its Digital Nigeria project and the National Digital Economy Policy and
Strategy (NDEPS). A core objective of NDEPS is to enable the country
to become a key player in the global digital economy. This implementa-
tion of digital transformation in the public sector is led by the Bureau of
 1 An Introduction to Public Sector Marketing Communications… 5

Public Service Reforms (BPSR), with the technical support of the

National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)
(Ibanga, 2021).
The remainder of this chapter introduces the reader first to traditional
and digital marketing communication tools in Africa and then to the
challenges inherent with the adoption of digital tools by the public sector.

Traditional and Digital

Marketing Communications
This section discusses tools of both traditional and digital marketing
communications that are available and accessible to both private and
public institutions in Africa and have significance for modern public
marketing communications.

• Traditional marketing communication practices

Advertising initiatives, in-person sales presentations, exhibitions and
sponsorships, public relations campaigns, distribution of print materi-
als, and iconic branding and packaging are traditional, offline market-
ing communications practices by private public sector organisations.
When an organisation uses traditional marketing, the aim is to create
awareness among the public that there is a product or service for sale
or of the existence of a product or service (Bhayani & Vachhani, 2014).
Traditional marketing communication tools to reach large audiences
include radio, television, and print media such as newspapers. Other
notable traditional media are billboards, trade shows, exhibitions, and
direct mail. The expected response may be influenced by time and/or
location constraints.
• Digital marketing communication tools
The traditional use of marketing communications is gradually losing
ground as the continuous, web-based multimedia techniques are tak-
ing over. This new communication era is making it easier for busi-
nesses, including state-owned enterprises, to inundate targeted
consumers with information.
6 O. Adeola et al.

Just as the business environment and consumer-based dynamism have

ushered in new ways of conducting marketing activities, marketing
communication media have also been evolving. Hollensen et al. (2017)
argue that marketing communications have been going through a dig-
ital revolution exemplified by an unprecedented diffusion of state-­
owned enterprises’ messaging via podcasting, blogging and social
networking; targeted consumers, in return, can post feedback regard-
ing a service or a product. This closes the communication circle in less
time and at a lower cost; hence, the potential for more business is
enhanced. Compared to traditional marketing communications, digi-
tal communications more effectively support organisations’ three basic
marketing objectives: (1) communicate, (2) convince, and (3) com-
pete. Organisations’ choice of digital tools should provide them an
increased sustainable advantage in their industry.
Adeola et al. (2020) aver that like any other marketing activity, organ-
isations’ digital marketing communications require extensive pre-­
launch planning led by multiple factors: the impact on society, revenue
generation, consumer attitudinal changes and even the execution of
government strategies and mandates, especially by state-owned enter-
prises. Compared to traditional marketing, where customers rarely
participate in the communication process, the authors recommend
marketing communication methodologies that promote greater and
continuous customer engagement. They argue that organisations stir
market excitement when they create different strategies for each of
their digital media channels, have the right match of personnel for
creating and broadcasting content, create virtual communities of con-
sumers with common interests, and ensure innovative products
and services.

In the public sector, innovative marketing communication practices

gained attention with the New Public Management (NPM) movement,
which began in the 1980s to replace the traditional approach of public
sector management. The NPM focuses on improving productivity,
enhancing public service efficiency and accountability, and ensuring
effective public service delivery (Hinson et al., 2021). Dunleavy et al.
(2006) identified the characteristics of a post-NPM era and advocated for
 1 An Introduction to Public Sector Marketing Communications… 7

the review of practices and ideology to accommodate governance in the

digital era, that is, Digital Era Governance (DEG). According to the
authors, DEG will involve “reintegrating functions into the governmen-
tal sphere, adopting holistic and needs-oriented structures and progress-
ing digitalisation of administrative processes” (Dunleavy et al., 2006,
p. 467).
Using the term e-government, Pasquier and Villeneuve (2018) aver
that it presents the government with the opportunity to simplify and
improve governance processes with the aid of technology. The
Organisation of American States defines electronic government (or
e-government) as “the application of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) to government functions and procedures with the
purpose of increasing efficiency, transparency, and citizen participation”
(OAS, n.d.). When the NPM goal of enhancing trust and increasing
transparency is met (Adeola, 2022), e-government will increase the avail-
ability of information online through open data, which can facilitate
stakeholders’ and citizens’ participation in governance processes through
online platforms (Pasquier & Villeneuve, 2018). Therefore, the public
sector can leverage technology to communicate government reforms and
improved services resulting from the digital transformation of govern-
ment services.
Overall, in the public sector, the communication methods adopted
will depend on the target audience, message type, level of communica-
tion, situational context and available resources. The aim is to enhance
participatory and collaborative interactions, ensure effective communica-
tion, improve service delivery, facilitate engagement, disseminate civic
information, and improve trust between government and citizens.

 raditional Marketing Communication Tools

T
for the Public Sector
The constituent elements of public sector communication—the content,
the structures and the participants—reflect the context of its mandate to
society. Traditional marketing communications by the public sector entail
8 O. Adeola et al.

a set of diverse initiatives and programmes for effective communication

with a target audience. In the case of the tools used thereof, Civelek et al.
(2021) note that communication tools include offline marketing com-
munications, offline promotions, advertising through traditional chan-
nels such as radio, television, print and newspapers (Ramasobana et al.,
2017); posters, business cards and pamphlets (Kallier, 2017); and bro-
chures, magazines and billboards (Cant & Wiid, 2016). Other channels
include personal selling, public relations, sales promotions, sponsorships
(Ramasobana et al., 2017), trade fairs, exhibitions and direct marketing
(Amirkhanpour et al., 2014).
A traditional marketing communication campaign often adopted by
the public sector is public service advertising (PSA). PSA addresses issues
of immediate concern to citizens (O’Keefe & Reid, 1990). Also, O’Barr
(2012) posits that the need to get the general public to act for the good
of society is as old as governance itself. PSA creates public awareness of
social issues and also influences public beliefs and behaviours (O’Keefe &
Reid, 1990). PSA can use marketing and communication tools to pro-
mote behavioural change (Lee et al., 2018). In the view of Ahn et al.
(2019), the effectiveness of PSA depends on the message sources and the
urgency or quality of appeals in the advertisements. Therefore, PSA must
include credible and authentic messages that appeal to the intended audi-
ence. Evidence abounds that African countries have used PSA to help
resolve societal problems (O’Barr, 2012), including the provision of basic
needs in Ghana (Foli & Ohemeng, 2022); advancing new energy para-
digms in South Africa (Andreoni et al., 2022); social protection in the
copper mines of Zambia (Wolkenhauer, 2022); alcohol consumption
and government responses in sub-Saharan Africa (Morojele et al., 2021)
and HIV/AIDS prevention or treatment campaigns in South Africa
(O’Barr, 2012).
Because Africans with limited education may disregard PSA that uses
unfamiliar vocabulary or complex ideas (Yeboah-Banin et al., 2018), it is
important to design clear and understandable messages. The challenges
presented by this and other challenges associated with PSA in Africa
demand research to identify appropriate solutions. Further studies that
examine the effectiveness of public service advertising should be
encouraged.
 1 An Introduction to Public Sector Marketing Communications… 9

Direct marketing is a common, well-established marketing communi-

cations tool that draws from many forms of marketing communications
including personal selling, telemarketing, direct response advertising,
direct mail, catalogues, direct response on TV and radio, magazines,
newspaper, telephone and personal selling (face-to-face) (Mallin &
Finkle, 2007; Broderick & Pickton, 2005). Organisations that adopt
direct marketing communication options do so to obtain an immediate
response focused on narrowly targeted customer segments, increase rev-
enue and foster long-term relationships (Arnold & Tapp, 2003; Mallin &
Finkle, 2007).
Direct marketing is acknowledged to be playing an important role in
not-for-profit organisations (Arnold & Tapp, 2003; Mallin & Finkle,
2007). A study by Sargeant et al. (2006) recommends using direct mar-
keting techniques to raise funds for not-for-profit organisations. Direct
marketing is also useful in public sector organisations. Therefore, the use
of direct marketing by education and broadcasting organisations, muse-
ums, public transportation providers and utility companies may have a
positive influence on their sales and fund-raising performance (Arnold &
Tapp, 2003).
Higher education institutions use direct marketing channels to
enhance student enrolment (Omingo & Mberia, 2019; Uchendu et al.,
2015). In Kenya, university websites, alumni interactions, social media
and media advertisements are popular direct marketing communications
activities (Omingo & Mberia, 2019). In Nigeria, Uchendu et al. (2015)
acknowledge the use of face-to-face talks with parents, newspapers and
magazines, social media, websites, bulk mailings and public address sys-
tems. The findings of the study by Uchendu et al. (2015) confirm that
school enrolment can be enhanced with the aid of direct marketing strat-
egies in developing economies. Also, higher education institutions can
make effective use of telephone marketing, direct mail marketing and
direct response television marketing.
In the health sector, direct marketing is useful in informing customers
about existing or new services, locations or staff (Ekiyor & Altan, 2020).
Government-run or institutional healthcare organisations can establish
periodic communications via direct e-mail, which can be received quickly,
10 O. Adeola et al.

and telemarketing, which can follow up with previous clients or make

connections with potential clients (Ekiyor & Altan, 2020).

 ontemporary Digital Marketing

C
Communication Tools for the Public Sector
Digital communication with stakeholders is essentially analogous to the
employment of the traditional marketing communications mix, but on a
digital platform. Digital public sector communication is not necessarily a
singular, one-off act by the state-owned organisation but a process that is
put in place to maintain a continuous interface between the citizenry and
civil servants. Digital marketing, which is based on web-enabled technol-
ogy, has been defined by Dave (2009) as the application of digital tech-
nologies to form online channels that contribute to marketing activities
targeted at acquiring profitable customers and retaining them by gaining
more knowledge about the customers and delivering specific integrated
communication through online means to meet their needs. These online
channels include the web, databases, e-mails, mobile and wireless, and
digital and smart TV. Regarding acquisition and retention of information
and knowledge of customers, it should be noted that this knowledge is
comprised of expertise on such aspects as the customer’s buying prefer-
ences, profiles, value, behaviour, loyalty drivers and the customer lifecy-
cle. The digital marketing communication mix entails elements such as
e-mail marketing (opt-in e-mail marketing), search engine optimisation
(SEO), pay per click (PPC), social media, affiliate marketing, online
advertisement, online and digital public relations, viral marketing, tex-
ting and blogging, really simple syndication (RSS) and news feed.
Minculete (2018) observes that certain specific and interconnected
features within digital marketing communication, namely the customer’s
personality, confidentiality involved, customer service to be rendered, the
overall community perception, security concerns and sales promotion
initiatives, give evidence of the distinctiveness of digital marketing.
Modern-day infrastructural innovations like the internet have
enhanced the potential of digital tools for marketing communications.
 1 An Introduction to Public Sector Marketing Communications… 11

Berthon et al. (2012) argue that social media, which is primarily driven
by access to the internet, has provided opportunities to organisations,
including state-owned entities. The dynamism in the digital world will
continue to birth critical changes not just to businesses but also to how
the state communicates and the overall consumer behaviour. Mergel
(2013) asserts that social media applications extend the communication
landscape in the public sector, increasing transparency, participation and
collaboration. Many state-owned entities have begun using analytics to
understand what makes customers behave the way they do. This is likely
to lead to appropriate decision-making in their marketing communica-
tions through understanding customer requirements and eliminating
unnecessary costs.

 he Challenges of Adopting Digital Tools

T
in Public Sector Institutions
In public sector organisations, contemporary digital marketing commu-
nication tools are needed for multitasking abilities, conversing with mul-
tiple people at once and using various devices (Kusumawati, 2019). Social
media is a way to achieving multitasking since communications can be
linked to many channels and people simultaneously. Lovari and Valentini
(2020) point out that social media aids public sector organisations in
managing media relations, branding, listening to their publics, creating
internal communications, participating in public engagement, managing
crises, providing government services and ensuring transparency in gov-
ernance. According to Pasquier and Villeneuve (2018, p. 200):

A successful adaptation of governments to the digital environment and

integration of communication technologies can help to foster citizen infor-
mation, participation, and service delivery. Government can provide infor-
mation immediately and continuously; beneficiaries can access up-to-date
information at a time of their convenience and select information based on
their own needs … Besides improved communication, the use of digital
tools also promises to enhance speed of service delivery and communica-
tion while reducing the costs.
12 O. Adeola et al.

Leeflang et al. (2014) identified three critical challenges an organisa-

tion may encounter when trying to become a digital marketer: (1) the
capability to bring out, comprehend and leverage important customer
insights, (2) managing brand equity and its imagery in a dynamic market
where change is constant and (3) measuring the impact of digital com-
munication. These challenges may be different in the African context,
given that the level of adoption of digitisation varies across countries.
Faria (2021) in Statista reports that in the year 2020, the average coverage
of 4G mobile technology in Africa was around 62%: about 87% in North
Africa, 65.1% in Southern Africa, 60% in East Africa and 59% in West
Africa. These findings suggest that different regions in Africa still face
technological challenges (OECD, 2021; Nkohkwo & Islam, 2013).
Some of the challenges found across Africa include Ghana with inade-
quate digital infrastructure (Adu et al., 2018), topographical challenges
in Lesotho and Eswatini (Sunga & Addison, 2020), legal framework
bottlenecks in Cameroon (Etoundi et al., 2017), and language barriers
and inadequate digital literacy in Kenya (Kerkhoff & Makubuya, 2021).
The literature on the use of social media in the public sector docu-
ments the misuse of technology such as the spread of fake news and xeno-
phobia in South Africa (Chenzi, 2021), and the political unrest in
Zimbabwe and North African States (Benrazek, 2022; Matsilele &
Ruhanya, 2021). Loss of privacy and theft of personal information is
perceived as a risk by social media users, even by public sector platforms
presumed to be secure (Khan et al., 2014). For instance, the utilisation of
social media to discuss information about patients may raise privacy con-
cerns for and about public sector organisations involved in healthcare
delivery (Abril et al., 2012). These privacy issues underscore the impor-
tance of data protection rules, security user surveillance and ethical codes
by public sector organisations. In order to curb any marketing communi-
cation misadventures, employees and professionals in the public sector
should be guided by a charter of conduct or sensitisation by senior col-
leagues or people more informed about the technicalities of marketing
communication (as advocated in Namibia [Staff Report 2, 2017] and
Sierra Leone [Hitchen, 2018]). The uncontrolled behaviours of employ-
ees on social media platforms may damage the image of public sector
organisations. Despite having social media as a valuable marketing and
 1 An Introduction to Public Sector Marketing Communications… 13

communication tool, inadequately defined norms pose many legal and

ethical questions about this relatively new communications phenomenon
(Abril et al., 2012).
A study by Mergel (2016) identifies three main social media challenges:

• Loss of control over the use of technology. In the public sector, social
media platforms will hold an enormous amount of data on both citi-
zens and organisations. The question of who controls that data remains
a central issue of debate.
• Behaviour of social media users. Communication with and by the
public can be difficult to control; employees can fail to meet the stan-
dards of a formal, bureaucratic system.
• Low digital literacy level and limited technology access. The move to
use social media for government communications may not reach parts
of the population that do not have access to the technology or do not
know how to use it.

Government agencies must aim to understand their target audience

and select the right tools and channels to communicate with that
audience.

Conclusion
State-owned enterprises in Africa typically adopt traditional marketing
communication tools. With the emergence of web-based technologies,
otherwise known as digital technologies, public sector entities are increas-
ingly adopting digital platforms to communicate with citizens. However,
the adoption and use of digital marketing communication tools in Africa
is not without its challenges, which include digital illiteracy, digital infra-
structure inadequacy, topographical hurdles and even language barriers.
Despite these challenges, the successful adoption of digital technologies
by government and state-owned institutions will help foster citizen
engagement and participation in this digital era. Traditional marketing
communication tools remain relevant given their importance to public
sector marketing. The utilisation of either traditional or digital marketing
14 O. Adeola et al.

communication tools or the integration of both, would depend on the

target audience and the context. The aim is effective communication
utilising the right tools and channels.

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 Part II
Public Sector Marketing
Communications in Africa:
Traditional Perspectives
 2
Public Service Advertising and Celebrity
Endorsement in Ghana
Christina Appiah-Nimo, Daniel Ofori,
Gloria K. Q. Agyapong, and Kojo Kakra Twum

Introduction
Advertising in the public sector through various media is a valuable way
of communication to create awareness among the public and elicit the
desired response. Advertising is a paid commercial, promotional tool that
involves paid communication or promotion from a source to draw atten-
tion to a product, service, idea or even the sponsor itself (Kotler, 2003).
Rosenbaum-Elliott (2021) defines advertising as communication that

C. Appiah-Nimo (*)
Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin,
Zlin, Czech Republic
e-mail: [email protected]
D. Ofori • G. K. Q. Agyapong
School of Business, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
K. K. Twum
Presbyterian University College, Abetefi, Ghana

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 21

O. Adeola et al. (eds.), Public Sector Marketing Communications, Volume II, Palgrave
Studies of Public Sector Management in Africa,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17863-4_2
22 C. Appiah-Nimo et al.

encourages consumers to “turn towards” a brand or sponsor. It is a tool

employed by businesses, NGOs and government agencies. Concerning
governments and other charitable organisations, public service advertise-
ment (PSA) is a non-commercial message typically employed to increase
the public’s awareness and information on a particular challenge, issues of
public welfare or even solutions that concern the public (O’Keefe &
Reid, 1990). The philosophy of public service advertisement stems from
Kotler and Zaltman’s (1971) work on social marketing, which identified
the role marketing could play in addressing social crises and challenges.
The U.S. government used the first identifiable PSA to raise money
through the sale of bonds during the civil war. Moreover, it was adopted
later for national campaigns, including railroad travel, due to its success.
Why PSA? The primary purpose of PSA is to raise awareness, resulting
in a voluntary but permanent change in the behaviour of the target pub-
lic. In addition, they act as promotional materials that address societal
challenges, which have a higher potential effect on the public. The aware-
ness is created not only for the problem in isolation, but in many
instances, there is awareness of possible solutions which may influence
the public attitudes or behaviours about that problem.
Additionally, it ensures consistent yet persuasive messages specifically
created for a target audience through appropriate channels to elicit the
desired response. Globally, PSAs address many social issues, including
education, discrimination, health, sustainability, wildlife conservation,
sanitation, crime, child abuse, drug abuse, safe driving, family planning,
women empowerment, racism and terrorism. Invariably, all countries
worldwide use PSAs to create awareness on particular issues that affect
their society to bring about a change in behaviour among the public.
In this modern information world, advertising remains critical for the
active social development and transformation of values, attitudes, social
norms and public awareness, especially during pandemics, social crises or
disasters (Alalwan, 2018). Thus, governmental institutions need enhanced
marketing plans and policies (Lee & Kotler, 2011) to encourage indi-
vidual and public consciousness to promote its fundamental ideas and
form the necessary public opinion and behaviours to meet the desired
response (Shareef et al., 2019). Additionally, there are numerous alterna-
tive advertising media, including radio, print, television, Instagram,
 2 Public Service Advertising and Celebrity Endorsement in Ghana 23

Facebook, blogs/vlogs, Twitter, YouTube and institutional websites.

Moreover, there is complexity and pressure on firms to make proper and
innovative marketing decisions for the public while achieving desired
responses through user-generated content. It is noteworthy that in recent
times, private broadcasters are heavily involved with PSAs, especially for
the public good.
Ghana, over the decades, has adopted and implemented reforms that
encourage a more mixed and decentralised economy which would
enhance collaboration and accountability in public service. Significant
reforms have to do with restructuring the public sector to allow for an
effective and accountable public administrative system (Hope & Chikulo,
2000). Primarily, the purpose is to engage citizens (consumers) of Ghana
at all levels of public administration to achieve the public good while
making the public service administration meaningful, relevant and
accountable to the public. One way of achieving such a purpose is public
service advertising by relevant institutions to control public behaviour,
transform values and encourage a particular desired behaviour and atti-
tude (De Mooij, 2018).
The content of PSAs reflects the interests and concerns of its sponsors.
A content analysis by Quarshie et al. (2022) of print and televised media
showed some informative and persuasive messages on cybercrime, health
issues, drug abuse and its associated crime and smuggling, sensitive issues
including sexual abuse, tribal bigotry and suicide. Others included issues
of environmental, educational, occupational and political concerns.
Institutions such as the National Petroleum Authority, Ghana Health
Service, Ghana Education Service, National lottery Authority, Bank of
Ghana, Electricity Company of Ghana, Food and Drugs Authority,
Ghana Police Service, Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana Water Company,
Ghana AIDS Commission, among others, now actively engage with the
public through PSAs. For example, under the health sector, the govern-
ment of Ghana, through the Ghana Health Service, introduced the
National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS): a policy to provide quality
healthcare and help ease the financial burden on citizens, predominantly
low-income earners. The substantial user fees and cash and carry system
caused some low-income earners to self-medicate and report late to health
facilities for medical attention (Arhinful, 2003). In 2003, the National
24 C. Appiah-Nimo et al.

Health Insurance Act (Act 650, amended to Act 852 in 2012) was passed
to ease the country’s financial burden of health service delivery and
ensure equity.
The authority organised campaigns through print, television, radio
and face-to-face interactions to create awareness of the importance of this
policy and how it would solve the enormous user fees of citizens. The
action campaign messages also provided accessibility information. A
study by Kansanga et al. (2018) confirmed that the mass media campaign
of the National Insurance greatly influenced enrolment in the scheme. In
the past years, media coverage of health issues has been of great concern
globally because there is a broad interest in information on the pandemic
by the public. As noted by Mahon (2021), the pandemic caused a lot of
news reportage, of which some were untruths and some conspiracy theo-
ries. Hence, such messages have backing from a political authority which
serves as a direction for behavioural change and a form of reassurance to
the public (Noar & Austin, 2020). The contents of a PSA entail videos,
prints and audio (radio/public address systems) to convey informative
and persuasive health messages to the public (Manganello et al., 2020).
As mentioned earlier, a lot of the government institutions are involved
in PSA and to achieve a more interactive response; they have engaged the
services of public figures to convey their messages to the public. Extant
literature (Osei-Frimpong et al., 2019) supports these celebrity endorse-
ments as the public knows who and what they represent in society.
However, there are concerns over their indiscretion in their advertising
organisation (Sng et al., 2019; Chan & Zhang, 2019). Additionally,
Literature on public service advertising is available widely in the devel-
oped world but is limited to Ghana Ghana. There are also minimal stud-
ies on celebrity endorsement of these public organisations and even how
the public perceives them. These constraints may be due to researchers
and even broadcasters’ lesser importance of PSAs.
This chapter sought to discuss and extend the discussion on what pub-
lic service advertisement is and how it came to be. It discusses the role of
advertising in the public service and further discusses what is “public
goods” and what constitutes public goods in Ghana. As more celebrities
are involved in creating social adverts, this chapter will also explain celeb-
rity endorsements in PSAs. It will examine the public response to PSAs as
 2 Public Service Advertising and Celebrity Endorsement in Ghana 25

a medium to elicit positive behaviour towards a social issue and finally

capture how Ghana responded to the Covid-19 pandemic using PSA. This
chapter contributes to the currently limited literature on public service
advertisement in Ghana and extends to celebrity endorsement as an area
of public service advertising. It will guide future research by identifying
factors that influence the effect of PSAs on the public. This chapter also
has implications for government departments in developing information
policies and appropriate mediums that affect the public.

Public Good and PSA

In every country, the government plays a vital role by providing educa-
tion, infrastructure, protection (defence and environment) and health
schemes. These common goods and services refer to public goods.
According to Adam Smith (1776), every sovereign or commonwealth
has some duties towards its public.

The third and last duty of the sovereign or commonwealth is that of erecting and
maintaining those public institutions and those public works, which, though
they may be in the highest degree advantageous to a great society, are, however,
of such a nature, that the profit could not repay the expense to any individual
or a small number of individuals, and which is, therefore, cannot be expected
that any individual or a small number of individuals should erect or maintain.
(Smith, 1776: Book V, Ch. 1)

These basic infrastructure and services are mainly public goods and ser-
vices. Public goods, according to Samuelson (1954), are goods jointly
owned (non-excludable) and consumed by all individuals in a society
without diminishing availability for others (non-rivalrous). These charac-
teristics make it impossible for the government to sell the goods to indi-
vidual consumers as all own them. Non-excludability means that one
consumer cannot exclude others from using the good. Public goods and
services include but are not limited to better access to quality education,
primary healthcare, clean and affordable water supply, and sanitation ser-
vices. Governments would generally need to increase investments in the
26 C. Appiah-Nimo et al.

production and supply of these services because their provision and access
constitute an essential aspect of socio-economic development.
Notwithstanding its importance, the World Development Report (2004)
by the World Bank identified many disparities regarding the quantity and
quality of public goods and services supplied across developing economies.
However, the provision of these public goods and services is driven
mainly by financial and other pressures from the public towards govern-
ments (Armah-Attoh, 2015). Hence, the onus lies on various govern-
ments and other stakeholders to effectively utilise national resources and
ensure equitable distribution (Fosu & Gafa, 2020). The government of
Ghana sought to allocate resources equitably by adopting decentralisa-
tion reforms programmes in 1988. This programme aims to give people
living in rural areas access to basic infrastructure and services. Furthermore,
communication of these public goods and services is through PSA. PSA’s
use helps the government engage the consumers in the purpose, provi-
sion and accessibility of these essential infrastructures and services because
advertising acts as a signal which influences a consumer’s belief of the
quality of that product (Sama, 2019).
According to the Local Government Act (Act 462) in Ghana, the fol-
lowing goods are generally considered public goods:

Education: The characteristic of education as a public good, be it formal

or informal, is unclear in the literature. Some citizens get excluded
from getting an education; hence, gaining a university degree becomes
more of a private good than a public. However, the higher the number
of the populace educated, the better it is for all. Thus, it should be non-­
excludable and non-rivalrous for every citizen to acquire. Act 462
spells out the responsibility of local government to build, equip and
maintain primary, middle, secondary and special schools. This Act is
supported by the Education Act of 1961, which recognises education
as a fundamental human right in Ghana. An educated population
reflects in strategic and sound policies being debated on, passed and
implemented because the pressures on businesses and governments
would come from a better-educated population. Businesses will bene-
fit from this through the human resources employed; hence, the econ-
omy will thrive, creating a ripple effect of education for every individual.
 2 Public Service Advertising and Celebrity Endorsement in Ghana 27

Furthermore, when an economy thrives, individual citizens cannot be

excluded from enjoying it, and if one person benefits from this thriv-
ing economy, it does not diminish another person’s benefit.
National Security/Defence: As Adam Smith explained in his “Wealth of
Nations” Book V, the first duty of a sovereign or commonwealth is the
protection of citizens from violence and invasion from other societies
(Defence). In a more general explanation, people can live freely, peace-
fully and safely in their neighbourhood or country. Moreover, it
achieves this using security personnel, the police and the armed forces.
All individuals enjoy the provision of security in a country. It will be
difficult to exclude a citizen from such protection. Again, a citizen’s
security benefits or enjoyment does not diminish others’ benefits or
enjoyment.
Justice: According to Adam Smith, the second duty of a sovereign or com-
monwealth is to protect from injustice and oppression. The third arm
of government in Ghana is the Judiciary which is responsible for inter-
preting, applying and enforcing the country’s laws. The provision of an
efficient and functioning judicial system paves the way for the smooth
running of every economy. As a public good, justice has the character-
istics of non-excludability; as an individual enjoys justice, it does not
exclude others from enjoying it too. As a non-rivalry component, jus-
tice served on an individual does not diminish it from being used
by others.

Scientific knowledge: Scientific knowledge is a definitive public good

(Chen & Song, 2017). It forms the basis for innovation and develop-
ment in every economy. While recent technological advancement has
accelerated its generation and spread, just like education, there are
some limitations on its characteristics as a public good. Powell (1886),
as cited in Dalrymple (2003), explains, “the learning of one man does
not subtract from the learning of another (non-rivalry), as if there were
to be a limited quantity to be divided into exclusive holdings; that
which one man gains by discovery is a gain to other men (non-­
excludability). Furthermore, these multiple gains become invested
capital.” This explanation links scientific knowledge as having the
characteristics of a public good. For example, the innovation or
28 C. Appiah-Nimo et al.

i­nvention of sustainable energy and improved primary health research

benefits the whole economy.
Infrastructure: According to OECD (2016), infrastructure is considered a
public good. However, there are contentions to this definition as
another infrastructure has specific use by society. For example, an
ultra-modern hospital is a public good that everyone can use, and the
use by one person of the hospital’s services does not diminish the use
for another. Again, public school buildings are a public good because
it has non-excludability and non-rivalry characteristics. However,
some researchers consider roads and motorways, necessary national
infrastructure, as not public goods because some people can be
excluded from their use. Notwithstanding, citizens without private
cars may use the roads via different transport mediums. Additionally,
the internet, though a necessary infrastructure, not all citizens have
access to the signal hence excluding some citizens.
Environment: The environment we live in (outside space) is also consid-
ered a public good. No one can be excluded from enjoying the benefits
thereof; air, sunshine and the enjoyment by an individual do not
reduce another person’s benefits. Again Act 462 clearly explains the
responsibility of local government to regularly inspect for the detec-
tion of any condition likely to be injurious to health and to construct
and maintain public lavatories.
Public health: One can derive varying benefits from a healthy population.
Act 462 addresses the promotion and safeguard of public health. For
example, during this Covid-19 pandemic, if a small population are
infected, or a higher percentage of the population is vaccinated, the
less likely the virus will continue spreading. Thus, the benefits to be
enjoyed are non-excludable and non-rivalry. Moreover, a healthy pop-
ulation will be efficient in production with positive economic growth.
 2 Public Service Advertising and Celebrity Endorsement in Ghana 29

 elebrity Endorsement in Public

C
Service Advertising
According to the Cambridge dictionary 18th edition definition, a celeb-
rity refers to a famous person, particularly in entertainment or sports.
Culture and media studies refer to the product of cultural and economic
processes, including advertisement, promotions and publicity (Turner,
2013). Celebrity endorsement thus refers to advertising by using celebri-
ties to engage the public on a particular product. McCracken (1989)
defines a celebrity endorsement as an individual generally recognised by
the public and takes advantage of this recognition to appear in adverts to
endorse a product. It may also be defined as anyone with public recogni-
tion who uses it to promote and endorse a brand or even a social issue
(Bergkvist & Zhou, 2016). As Spry et al. (2011) explained, celebrity
endorsement often results in desirable effects on the target audience.
Kumar and Pushpendra (2018) also found that celebrity-endorsed adver-
tisements were more attractive than non-celebrity-endorsed ones. They
also found that celebrity-endorsed advertisements significantly impacted
a social cause.
Besides their regular career, celebrities engage in advertising services
either for private gain or to promote or create awareness of a social cause.
In Ghana, celebrity endorsement has increased over time, and the gov-
ernment uses these individuals to create awareness or promote a needed
change in social behaviours. Celebrities in Ghana are well-loved and
respected; hence, they significantly impact citizens when used for media
communications. They are more influential as citizens consider their
appearances in these adverts more attractive (Nyarko et al., 2015). The
use of celebrity endorsements in advertisements has become a popular
and growing trend due to the perceived impacts. As the media space has
become increasingly cluttered, organisations need to stand out in com-
municating to their audience. Using celebrities has proved to have a sig-
nificant impact on creating brand awareness and prominence. The
benefits of celebrity endorsements have been proven by researchers (Osei-­
Frimpong et al., 2019; Domfeh et al., 2018), which adds to the argument
for their use even by state institutions and governments.
30 C. Appiah-Nimo et al.

Governments in most countries are the largest advertisers, and the

situation is no different in Ghana. The National Communication
Authority revised Broadcasting Bill “introduces a local content require-
ment which gives a percentage of airtime to be devoted to promoting the
Ghanaian culture and creative works”. This is in order, as stated in clause
4 (b) of the Bill “to safeguard, strengthen and enrich the cultural, politi-
cal, social and economic fabric of Ghanaian society” and clause 4 (c) (i)
“to promote national identity and the national culture and languages of
the country” (Broadcasting Bill, 2014, p. 3). This provision is for the
announcement of public information for the public interest. Social issue
announcements could vary among health and safety, legal obligations,
social welfare, public utility and other environmental obligations related
to government policies and directions. As a government ministry, the
Ministry of Health uses slogans, for example, “If it is not on, it is not in,”
to create awareness of HIV/AIDS when it became prevalent in the coun-
try as a sexually transmitted disease. They used this slogan to reduce teen-
age and unwanted pregnancies in the country. A study by Adomako et al.
(2021) posited that public education reduces adolescent pregnancies. The
government uses other communication strategies; however, celebrity
endorsement is used to communicate such announcements in the coun-
try. The Information Service Department of Ghana transformed to act as
a government information disseminating department to bridge the com-
munication gap between the government and the people (ISD website).
The department communicates to the public through its websites, news-
papers, social media platforms, television and radio, transmitting and
enhancing the public’s understanding and education of the government’s
programmes, policies and activities through effective communication
strategies.
Notwithstanding the strategies adopted by the information depart-
ment, it is equally important that the celebrity used in the transmission
and communication of the government policies and activities is credible
enough to convince the public of the relevant policies or activities adver-
tised. Literature (Spry et al., 2011; Bergkvist & Zhou, 2016) on celebrity
endorsement often focuses on celebrity persuasion. Different models
exist to evaluate the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement and how it
encourages change in public behaviour. Some studies consider the source
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
seen him indeed; but I wouldn’t know him, for he’s that quiet he
won’t look at ye, and he’s muffled up round the neck that ye can’t
say what’s his eyes and what’s his chin.”
“Well, let’s do our parts and not talk.”
“And who should I be talking to? There’s only O’Grady and Polly,
who’s sharp enough herself for a young girl, God save her, and on
Sundays I go to my sister regular, and she so full of her own troubles
that she’s no time for mine. Will you be wanting your tea now?”
“No, thank you, Mrs. O’Grady; I’ll make it myself later.”
“And what would you be doing that for at all? I’ll be wetting my own
tea when I do go down, and I’ll do yours at the same time and send
it up by Polly.”
Mrs. O’Grady was about to withdraw when she waxed enthusiastic.
“The baby, he’s a dote!” she exclaimed, “a dote, and exactly like his
father, and there are two beautiful boys away at school, real dotes.
There’s a photo of them on the mantelpiece. My legs are run off me
this minute what with the mistress upstairs and Mrs. Fitzgerald
downstairs, and it’s extra she’s after charging for the flat; but it’s no
extra she’s after giving me.”
“Well, I hope they’ll be all right.”
“Indeed, mum, and I don’t like it, not at all, at all. Only the other
morning, when the luggage was outside the door, three men passed
and looked down into the area, and Polly says they were Black-and-
Tans in civies.”
“Rubbish, Mrs. O’Grady, they couldn’t know already.”
“Couldn’t they?” She tossed her head. “Couldn’t they?” she repeated
darkly. “There’s trouble coming to this house, and don’t you forget
it.”
She gave a sniff and departed.
 CHAPTER XVII
CAPTURE OF A CABINET MINISTER

Himself was out; but I was not alone. Mrs. Slaney sat upon my sofa,
and Mrs. Slaney smoked a cigarette, and once again Mrs. Slaney
poured into my dulled ears the story of Ireland’s martyrdom.
“It’s going to be a cold night,” she said, in the middle of a fiery
sentence.
“Cold?” My voice was like the night. “I must take my bulbs in from
the window; I don’t want them frost nipped now.” I rose and went to
the window and opened it with difficulty, for the sash had never
been mended.
“I really mustn’t stay long,” said Mrs. Slaney, staying where she was.
“I have letters to write. Are those tulips? They have come on.”
“Yes.” I carefully placed the last pot on the floor, shut the window
carefully, and crawled up from my lowly position on the floor. There
was silence for a moment after that. Mrs. Slaney smoked
thoughtfully, and I returned to my seat.
Suddenly the silence was broken by a shrill whistle. It made us start.
“I wonder if Mr. Fitzgerald is in?” said Mrs. Slaney suddenly.
“I don’t know,” I said, staring from the lighted room into the dark
outside.
“You hear him come and go, I suppose?”
“I seldom hear people come and go. I don’t listen. After all, it
doesn’t interest me.”
“I always feel so uneasy when he’s in the house. Poor hunted man!
You’ve not seen him, I suppose?”
I shook my head. “Never.”
“Awful for Mrs. Fitzgerald! Those brutes might shoot him at any
moment. But I suppose she’s used to it.”
“Perhaps he gets a certain amount of fun out of the life. No man can
call it dull eluding the Black-and-Tans.”
“Fun! Being hunted to death like the vermin of the fields. Fun!
Battered from pillar to post. The military are getting more and more
audacious. I often wonder where they will stop. Women are
frightened to have a bath now in case they come in, and they raided
a convent the other day. Thank goodness, there was an outcry at
that! A convent which had never admitted a man inside it. And at
night. I heard the Mother Superior said the nuns behaved
magnificently, there was no outcry from them, and when it was all
over they went to the Chapel and tendered thanks to the Blessed
Virgin that they had come to no harm.”
“I heard it said that the raid was conducted with great civility.”
“Yes. I believe those special raiders were not a bad lot of men. But
the indignity of it! Would nuns intrigue and be interested in politics?”
“I really couldn’t say. You know best, of course. But there must have
been some reason for the raid.”
“None whatever. It was simply to show their power. The love of
terrifying people. But they didn’t terrify the nuns.”
“A Unionist told me the other day that the Irish question would be
settled only when education was taken completely out of the
Church’s hands and no religion was taught in the schools. I believe
he’s right.”
“Every man and woman worth the name in Ireland would die before
they consented to such a thing.”
“It’ll come to pass. What’s really wrong with Ireland is religion. You
can say what you like. The religion is distorted, people aren’t
balanced about it. I’d like to see a wave of agnosticism pass through
the country, and after that people might take up religion at its true
value.”
“Of course we both think so differently. But I tell you that such a
thing can never happen in this country.”
A blaze of light shone suddenly into the room. There were loud
sounds of throbbing engines. We both started to our feet when a
knock, which should have roused all the dead in Ireland, shook the
front door.
Mrs. Slaney’s hand flew to her heart.
“What’s that?” I hardly heard her voice above the noise.
She moved towards the door and then back again. Again the house
was shaken with the knocking.
Mrs. Slaney put out the light.
“Don’t do that,” I said sharply. “You’ll draw fire.”
She put it up again, and ran out of the room and halfway up the
stairs, as if she remembered something. Then she turned and came
back.
I went out on the landing. By this time Polly had opened the front
door, and figures in uniform poured into the hall. “Open that door,”
the first man ordered, pointing at the Fitzgeralds’ sitting-room.
“Wide.” Polly obeyed, and the stream poured in. Others were coming
up the stairs when a shout, “Got him!” halted them. “It’s all right,
boys!” The people on the stairs went down into the hall again, and
began to go through the pockets of the coats hanging there.
“His bicycle!” exclaimed the officer in charge. “Put her on board,
some one.”
Mrs. Slaney and I leant over the stairs. I wondered if Mrs. Fitzgerald
felt as upset as I did.
The murmur of voices mounted all the time from the flat below.
There was an occasional laugh. Through the half-opened door, which
showed us the sitting-room, we could see the baby laughing and
being handed round by the Auxiliaries. The infant Fergus created a
good atmosphere, and seemed delighted with his new friends, who
had wakened him to search the cot. Finally Mrs. Slaney gathered
herself together for the attack.
The Auxiliaries seemed delighted with their capture, and were
obviously ready to be amiable. Mrs. Slaney descended upon them,
her wooden heels tapping as she walked, and the light from the hall
lamp glinted on a tortoiseshell comb that rose from her hair.
“Who is the officer in command of the raid?” she demanded.
A youthful Auxiliary turned towards her, the baby kicking in his arms.
His revolvers rested peacefully round his waist and in holsters on his
legs.
“The officer in charge.” He beamed upon her as a friend.
A tall gaunt man, with a face like a red Indian, appeared in the
doorway.
“Who wants me?”
“Are you the officer in charge of this raid?”
“Yes, madam. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Are you the blackguard who murdered those unfortunate boys at
Drumcondra the other night?”
A cold shiver ran down my spine. Mrs. O’Grady, hovering in the
shadows in the hall, withdrew to the basement. I heard the shuffle
of her sandshoes.
“Will some one take the baby, please?”
Mrs. Fitzgerald, unconscious of the question or of the storm it raised,
came out of the sitting-room.
“He ought to be asleep. Where’s Mrs. O’Grady? She could take him
downstairs.”
I went down and took the baby, while Mrs. Slaney and the chief of
Auxiliaries eyed each other.
“What reason have you for arresting this man in my house?” Mrs.
Slaney demanded. “A perfectly innocent man.”
“Enough, madam.” Like Pharaoh, the man had hardened his heart.
“Are you the owner of this house?”
“I am.”
“Then perhaps you can explain why you let this flat to a rebel.”
“I let the rooms to Mrs. Fitzgerald,” Mrs. Slaney corrected.
“You didn’t know who she was, I suppose? Come, Mrs. Slaney, did
you know who Fitzgerald was or not?”
“I let the rooms to his wife. He only has his meals.”
“You are in a very serious position, Mrs. Slaney. Do you know the
penalty for harbouring rebels?”
I was mounting the stairs with the infant Fergus, to tuck him up on
our sofa, when I ran into the musical man who lived over our heads.
“Do you think they’ll search the house?” he said.
“If Mrs. Slaney annoys them enough they will.”
“I’ve a paper here—they don’t search women,” he suggested.
The infant Fergus whimpered at that moment, and I rolled him up
on our sofa. The man of music had followed me. He held a
newspaper cutting in his hand.
“I got this out of the paper this morning. They mightn’t like it.”
I read it. “There’s nothing in it.”
“You wouldn’t keep it?”
“Oh, I’ll keep it; but burn it if you like and get another paper to-
morrow.” As I spoke I put it in my pocket. He was very young.
Mrs. Slaney bustled into the room, her eyes flickering.
“The unfortunate man! They’ll murder him before he reaches the
Castle. She’s taken it wonderfully; but what else would you expect
from an Irish woman? Did you hear that man talking to me? The
brutality of him. But he couldn’t frighten me. Can you let me have a
scarf? It’s such a cold night, and I promised Mrs. Fitzgerald to let her
husband have mine; but it’s a long way upstairs.”
I got Himself’s own scarf, and followed after her as she bustled
downstairs with it. Preparations for departure were going forward. I
heard Mrs. O’Grady sniffing in the dark under the stairs.
“Ready?” said the man in charge.
I could just hear Mr. Fitzgerald’s answer. Mrs. Fitzgerald tucked his
neck with eager fingers. She followed him to the step.
“Good-bye.”
“Good-bye.”
The clutches grated as the lorries turned. The armoured car rolled
after them. In a minute it was all dark again outside.
I went to the basement to find what Mrs. O’Grady was doing. She
was in tears on a chair near the fire.
“I’ll never get over this night, at all, at all. And him with his lovely
hair and his beautiful smile; him that will be dead before morning.
It’s lucky you are. It’s you have your scarf round the neck of a fine
young Irishman, and O’Grady’s is there, too, for I gave it to him last
thing. Sure, but I do be glad he’s finished his dinner, it’s the last
dinner he’ll take maybe. And there’s his tea, not half drunk in his
cup, just as he left it. I hadn’t it in me heart to throw it away. It’s
black trouble has been brought on us all, and it’s blacker will come.”
She rose from her chair and produced a box of matches from some
mysterious pocket, and lighted the gas stove for me.
“God help him!” she exclaimed. “There’s his tea.”
 CHAPTER XVIII
WINTER WEARS OUT

Our road came in for a spell of peace after the departure of the
Minister of Propaganda. From time to time other houses up and
down the way had been looked up by the Crown Forces; but for a
while the neighbourhood seemed to pass out of the public eye, and
the lorries rolled down other streets.
I had been out when the Auxiliaries made their call, and I returned
to find a gaping congregation at the mouth of our street, and
outside our house the glaring headlights of an armoured car, and
two great shadowy lorries, which were filling up again with men. As
I reached the door, a neighbour, on tiptoe with excitement, called
from her top doorstep, “They’ve raided your house again, and
they’ve taken a man out of it.”
I had come as the curtain was falling. The engines of the lorries
were humming, and first one lorry moved off and then the next, and
the armoured car rolled on their heels. In a few moments the street,
which had been filled with noise, became quiet again, heads went in
from windows, and people retreated from doorsteps.
But our door remained open, and on the top step, in the hall light,
stood a little group of women: Mrs. Slaney, upright and defiant, Mrs.
Fitzgerald gazing wistfully into the dark, and my wife.
“What do you think of this?” Mrs. Slaney demanded, turning terribly
upon me as I came up the steps. “Any honest Englishman must
blush for what his Government does.”
While I was searching for a happy answer, Mrs. Fitzgerald said
something which gave me a peep into her mind.
“If it weren’t for the work,” she said, “it’s a good thing in some ways
that this has happened. There was always the chance he might be
shot in the street. He’s safer where he is. And he wanted a rest.”
“There you are, Mabel,” said a voice, and Miss Gavan Duffy, sister of
the Sinn Fein Ambassador to Rome, came up the steps.
“They’ve just taken him,” Mrs. Fitzgerald said.
“I heard,” Miss Gavan Duffy answered, making me wonder at the
speed at which news travelled among them.
Mrs. Fitzgerald had become all energy. “I shall have to go down and
let the newspapers know,” she said. “They’ll have it in to-morrow
morning like that. Once it’s in the papers the Castle people are less
likely to do anything to him.”
“I expect he’ll be all right, Mabel,” Miss Gavan Duffy suggested.
“There’s not much time for you before Curfew.”
“Are you expecting anything to happen to him?” I asked.
Mrs. Fitzgerald turned in my direction. “It will be all right if I let the
papers know he has been taken. The Castle people can’t deny things
then. It’s on the way to the Castle and during interrogation that our
people sometimes come in for a bad time. Once they are properly
lodged they are all right. Desmond will probably be interrogated to-
night. There is a captain”—I forget now what name she said—“who
was wounded in the war and seems to be a degenerate. He takes a
delight in torturing our people. Desmond may come before him to-
night. It makes a difference whom our boys go before when they are
up for interrogation.”
Before the night was much older, I believe Mrs. Fitzgerald, true to
her word, was on her way down town to hand in her news at the
newspaper offices.
We saw very little of her at first after that evening. She lived
underneath us with a nurse and the infant son, Fergus. There were
two other boys at school.
There was no more tireless worker in the Republican cause. She
worked all day, and for a while after her husband went she worked
all night—keeping his propaganda work up to date, I suppose. Mrs.
O’Grady, kneeling on a piece of newspaper before our sitting-room
fire of a morning, would sniff and say, “That woman’s light is never
out. That woman’s writing there all night. She’ll kill herself if she
doesn’t mind. She’s that pale each morning she looks like a ghost.
And what now, if the Black-and-Tans come back again and find what
she’s got there?”
“Och, Mrs. O’Grady, indade and these do be terrible times,” I would
answer.
When Mrs. Fitzgerald was not at work below she was in the streets,
hurrying, no doubt on the business of the Republic, from house to
house. She never walked, she went always at a trot. She seemed
always behind time, always at the end of her tether; always ready
for any new work that might have to be done. If all she did in a day
were well done, she would have been one of the most useful
members of the Cumann na mBan.
Yet, as was the case with numerous other prominent women, the
British Government never took steps to put an end to her activities,
though it was common knowledge that as the men were taken, the
work fell more and more upon the shoulders of women.
For days after her husband’s arrest, Mrs. Fitzgerald kept very much
to herself, partly, no doubt, because of her press of work, partly
because her work was confidential; but also, I think, because she
was sensitive and loth to intrude.
In the beginning it was “Good morning,” if we passed in the hall or
in the street; then she came up one day to get the address of some
publishers for her husband’s plays, and so the acquaintance made
headway. One evening, on some errand or other, I penetrated for
the first time into her sitting-room.
She was reading at the table in the small circle of light cast by the
lamp, and she looked immensely lonely. It was as though there was
just the circle of light where she sat reading, and outside that the
dark—the dark room with high lights here and there on the
bookcases, the dark city in a greater circle outside, and encircling
the city the darkness one felt resting over the land, over the troubled
world for that matter. I do not know if she felt as I felt about this,
she looked as lonely as any creature I have seen.
I cannot recall whether we had said “good evening”—we had said no
more than that—when furiously, wildly on the silence, a volley of
shots burst out near Stephen’s Green, abruptly as light flashing out
of darkness. The shooting continued for several seconds, seconds
which any one unused to shooting would have reckoned as minutes,
and then wore out in the customary fashion, odd shots coming from
a greater and greater distance, as if a running fight was moving
away from us.
Mrs. Fitzgerald threw up her head, not in fear, hardly with a startled
movement; but as though hearing the battle afar off, the thunders of
the captains and the shouting. I forget what we said at the end of
the shooting, remarks were fatuous in the circumstances; but in
those moments I had seen more clearly than ever before the
stupendous waste of energy caused by man not having learned to
work in harmony with man.
If ever there had been an attempt to reach the truth of the Irish
story, that effort had long ago been expended. Nobody wanted the
truth now, neither Loyalist nor Republican, and it was difficult to
remain in Ireland and be a bystander. It was necessary to take up
the cudgels for one side or the other, and to lie for the side you
chose.
That honest men were to be found holding to either opinion, and
that rogues were to be found holding to either opinion was as
absolutely a fact as that there had just been firing going on; but
neither man, woman, nor child desired such an unpalatable truth. It
suited the Republicans to label all members of the Crown Forces as
jailbirds and assassins, to state this for propaganda purposes at the
tops of their voices, to bludgeon themselves into believing it to be
the case.
It suited the Loyalists to call the Irish Volunteers a murder gang,
though the long resistance of the Republican army, and the numbers
enlisted in the ranks had long confounded this statement. It suited
Loyalists to hypnotise themselves into this belief, otherwise they
might have stopped short with their mouths open in the middle of a
shout, and demanded of one another was there not some justice in
the Republican cause.
Faugh! a man grows cynical if he contemplates too long this state of
things, and asks himself what is any controversy other than a
handful of thinking men leading a mob against a second handful of
thinking men leading a mob, and the mob some blundering animal
which can be made wild or tame as it is stroked or beaten. Never is
it fed with the truth.
Yet fundamentally all men are the same.
Those Black-and-Tans, those Auxiliary Police who had been shopping
in Grafton Street at Christmas, went shopping in armoured lorries,
and when the lorry stopped at the shop door, and the shoppers went
inside, guards with rifles were posted in the street. Such trouble and
risks did these people take that their wives, their children, and their
friends should be remembered at this time.
And no doubt the Republican Volunteers, such of them as were lying
out on the bleak hillsides, such of them as frequently had to retreat
into caves, turned in thought at Christmas to such gentle things as
mothers, lovers, wives, and children and their toys. A few months
after this struggle was done, the “murder gang” and “Hamar
Greenwood’s assassins” would be living as friends again.
Waste! Waste!
Looking at this woman who sat here so lonely, who once must have
been pretty and still was good-looking, with the light from the lamp
falling upon her fair hair, which was neither gold nor brown nor red
nor auburn, but a blend of those colours, I felt the pity of the fact
that she was using her energies against the British nation instead of
with it.
She had chosen the thorny instead of the smooth path of life, for I
understand she had been reared in easy circumstances; she had
borne three children during her difficulties, she had witnessed raid
and arrest, she had had her furniture and clothes destroyed, and she
had had to do battle for herself and her children while her husband
was in prison. She was tireless in helping on the Republic, which was
her creed, and she never complained. She was only one of others
like herself.
All day long and all night long the lorries and the armoured cars
rolled up and down the streets, and the patrols of armed men
tramped round the corners—Loyalist energy to meet this Republican
energy. What waste that the two energies should be employed
against each other!
Or is it that the gods have longer vision than mortal men, and afflict
man with an idea that, like rain upon a plant, difficulty shall water
his spirit, and it shall sprout and flourish? Is it that men live and live
again, the spirit working in matter and mastering it life by life? If this
be so there seems a plan in confusion, use in wasted effort, hope in
hopelessness.
The acquaintance with Mrs. Fitzgerald grew, though circumstance
set limits upon it. Her work kept her to herself. All sorts of people
used to call, and I do not doubt some of them were of interest to
the British authorities. Once she must have held a meeting of some
importance, because a picket, who seemed to have cross eyes,
stood outside the house and glared at me when I came home, and I
thought he was there to assassinate me.
But though we never shared the secrets of her work, the
acquaintance grew, and she gave us peeps into her life.
She was an out-and-out Republican, and contemplated nothing short
of the Republic. I was sure she was doomed to disappointment, and
hinted this once. She answered:
“If we do not get a Republic at the end of this, there will always be a
Republican party, and I shall belong to it. We will never give up the
Republic.” A minute later she said an illuminating thing. “We are not
in sympathy with England. We would sooner make an alliance with
some country like France.”
Although she held extreme views and had suffered for them, I found
her far less bitter in her statements about the enemy than the
sympathisers who gave sympathy as a sole contribution to the
movement. She spoke of the Crown Forces in a professional manner
as part of the obstacles to be got out of the way. She would have
shown them no mercy; but she bore them no more rancour than
was necessary. She was used to dealing with them, knew all the
tricks of the trade, and made use of her advantages.
This same Mrs. Fitzgerald, I came to find out, mother of three
children, woman of so many duties that she went at a jog-trot in the
streets, this Mrs. Fitzgerald was a most romantic person. Her first
hero had been Padraig Pierce, a leader of the 1916 Rising, and she
had called one of her boys after him. The man to fill his place was
Michael Collins, Mick as she called him, the Republican Minister of
Finance, who used to be spoken of as “a certain minister,” the
phrase whispered from person to person, as if his name spoken
aloud would blast the lips that uttered it.
She spoke quite simply of being battered from pillar to post, of
having her household gods damaged, of doing without them, of the
frequent difficulty of getting a roof over her head, yet I believe she
thought wistfully now and then of the fleshpots she had given up for
the Republic. She reminded me of those women who have been
drudges for the sake of their children, and who point fiercely at what
they have produced when some scented, jewelled creature passes
by.
I have spoken of her at length, because she represented a type of
Irish woman whose sincerity and generosity could not be denied.
Seldom a day went by without sound of explosion near or far,
seldom a night went through without shooting, it might be an
intermittent shot or two or a sudden volley breaking out wildly on
the quiet, followed by desultory shooting, growing fainter as the
exchange of shots passed down distant streets.
It was too early yet for the weather to be charitable, for days to
lengthen appreciably or nights to shorten; but one had the fancy
that the sun was on the way back from happier lands, and when it
returned peace might come with it, that honourable peace without
which neither side would stay a hand, that honourable peace which
seemed so impossible to conceive and to bring about.
It was a case of wish being father to the thought, for matters were
continuing to go from bad to worse. The Republican Volunteers
appeared to be adopting a bolder policy, and some of the skirmishes
which took place deserved the name. From the private citizen’s point
of view, the situation had become a great deal worse. Volunteers
had taken to ambushing the military lorries in the streets, and this
method of campaign was the last drop in the cup of woe of the
peace-loving person.
The arguments the Republicans put forward for this step were
sufficiently sound in their way. They declared the enemy used the
streets on their work of raid and arrest, and obtained special
protection. Where the Republican policy was most open to criticism
was in the fact that the Volunteers made flagrant use of the
protection afforded by the crowd.
The Volunteers could have operated in deserted places, the outlying
streets and so on; but such a course increased personal risks. There
was greater likelihood of discovery from loitering, there was more
chance of coming under the return fire from police lorries, and the
neighbouring getaways would not be good. When a busy street was
decided on, it was chosen for its escapes, for the opportunities
afforded the ambushers of mingling with the crowd until the chosen
moment, and thirdly, because, after the attack, the Volunteers could
become the crowd again, and the ambushed troops would not know
where to shoot.
In nine cases out of ten it was the inoffensive citizen who paid the
penalty of other people’s political views. In the exchange of fire
some harassed bystander was generally brought to the ground.
Finally, public nerves were so stretched that sudden explosions
brought about stampedes, and it is on record that the backfire of a
motorcycle caused women near at hand to faint.
The climax was the Grafton Street ambush, when sixteen passers
were wounded by bomb splinters. There were no casualties among
the police, and the ambushers got away unscathed.
It is possible in the beginning there were more casualties among the
Crown Forces than were acknowledged; but casualties on either side
were few. On the heels of the weapon of offence follows always the
defensive weapon. It was not long before stout wire netting, sloped
at such an angle that bombs aimed at the lorries rolled off on to the
ground, was stretched over the tops of the lorries. “Chook, chook,
chook!” cried the rebel children as the police flew by, and the
following mot went the rounds of Dublin, “The Boers put them in
khaki, the Germans put the tin hats on them; but it took the Sinn
Feiners to put them into cages.”
“Four years, five years,” Mrs. Erskine Childers said to me one day,
“our people can carry on like this, and by that time England will have
experienced a social upheaval and Ireland will have come into her
own.”
In truth, the Irish people would never be overcome by this glorified
police hunt. Though the leaders might be netted one by one, others
would spring up like wheat in their places. Where one man went
down another would rise up. Old women of seventy carried the guns
to the Volunteers in the fields. Children as high as one’s hip acted as
spies and messengers. The nation was in travail, but the nation was
exalted. The military force which the British Government saw fit to
use could only bleed, it could not kill.
 CHAPTER XIX
MRS. O’GRADY’S FOREBODINGS

Mrs. O’Grady rose from the ashes in the fender one morning, and
balancing herself so that she threw her minimum weight on her bad
leg, said:
“They do be saying that poor Mike Collins is dead.”
“Michael Collins!”
“Himself. I was after hearing it from my priest, who knows the priest
who attended him.” She sniffed.
“But, if he is dead, why should they hide it?”
“And why should they tell? Mike’s given the Government a long run
for him sure enough, and faith they’re running still. But he’s dead
and buried for all that under another name.” She sniffed and lowered
her voice. “People do be saying as how all those officers were shot
for him, and there’ll be worse to come.”
“I don’t believe he’s dead. It would surely slip out.”
“Nothing slips out in Ireland if it’s not wanted to. If it’s never to
come out that Mike’s dead it never will. And why should the Irish
people be after giving the Government the satisfaction of knowing
they killed him? But it’s a wonderful little island, Ireland is! You never
saw the like.”
“No, I never really did,” I said with all earnestness.
“And you never will.”
I watched the door close behind her. Of course, Michael Collins was
not dead. Then what did Sinn Fein mean by throwing dust in the
eyes of the public through the mouths of the priests?
The door opened and Mrs. O’Grady returned with a duster.
“There’s another thing,” she began. “We don’t know all that is going
on, nor half. Things will be worse before they’re better. God help us,
they’re bad enough now. And the mistress is mad, too, she wants
the house noticed. Sure, she’ll get all the notice she wants, and
more.” She became gloomy.
“What do you mean?”
“What I can’t say. And there’s men always after watching this house.
There’s Black-and-Tans in civies in the road this very minute.”
“How do you know they’re Black-and-Tans?”
“Polly Pluck knows them all. She lives just behind Beggars Bush
Barracks. There are spies everywhere, and you never know who
you’re talking to.”
“That’s quite true. You be very careful, Mrs. O’Grady.”
“Me? The Irish are born careful. They need to be. The best known
saying round these parts is never trust the heels of a horse, the
horns of a bull, or the smile of an Englishman. And it’s true.” She
came near, flourishing her duster and peering at me. “It’s been on
me mind to tell you, for I sez to Polly Pluck, the lady what has the
drawing-room flat has more brains than the lot of us put together,
and it’s she will know what to do.”
“Well,” I said, “go on, Mrs. O’Grady.”
She shuffled. “Bedad, I may keep me thoughts to meself, as O’Grady
was after saying only last night. The fewest knows, the least harm,
sez he, and it’s himself is mostly always right.”
“Something Mrs. Slaney has been doing, I suppose?”
She tiptoed to the door, looked out, shut it carefully and then came
back to me, looking as mysterious as an ostrich which is about to
bury its head in the sand.
“No, I don’t trust the mistress that far,” she declared, waving her
arm. “But it’s meself that I keep me thoughts to. She’s up to
something, and if you’d seen what I’ve seen in this very house,
you’d know it too. And it’s Polly Pluck who knows it. She’s a smart
little girl, is Polly; but I don’t trust her. Blowing hot first and then
cold, and first this way and then that, walking out one week with a
Black-and-Tan and the next with a Shinner. If you can’t be for one
side, I sez, for land’s sake be for the other, and don’t go chopping
and changing like a cock with no head. But do you think she’ll listen.
Not she.”
“Why do you stay here, Mrs. O’Grady, if it’s so dangerous?”
“It suits me,” she declared. “I could leave to-morrow and get a place
where you’d be proud to eat your dinner off the floors, and a
kitchen, mind you, that I wouldn’t mind living me life in; but this
suits me.”
“I think you are very stupid to stay.”
“I do be, mum, I do be. But it suits me. I’ve had me fortunes too.”
“Really?”
“Yes, mum. Real fortunes. The first I spent going to Killarney. I
stayed at the best hotel. Och, and a grand evening dress and all to
me back. I had peaches, not sixpenny peaches, but peaches worth
four or five shillings, and my sister, who hasn’t spent a penny of hers
yet, called me a fool. I may be a fool, and she may feel a lady with
her money in the bank; but she’ll never feel as I did in that evening
dress.”
“What happened to the other fortune?”
“I bought a burying ground with it. My father had a burying ground,
but there was only room for one more in it, so me brother having
the name, we thought he should have it. I was afraid O’Grady would
put me anywhere, and I wouldn’t like that. I’m come from Brian
Boru, though you wouldn’t think it to look at me now, but there was
a time when I was as particular as yourself about me boots and
gloves.” She sighed. “Well, I can rest easy, and I have my grave, and
room in it for O’Grady, too, though I’ve seen as much of him as I
want in life, and that’s the truth.”
Himself came into the room brisk for a walk.
“Well, Mrs. O’Grady,” he said cheerfully, “so O’Grady was ambushed
last night?”
“Indeed, and he was, sir.” Mrs. O’Grady stopped as she spoke, and
tweeked a chair cover straight. “It shook him.”
“Terrible times, Mrs. O’Grady.”
“They do be terrible times. Sure, but we’re used to terrible times in
Ireland. It was the same when I was a girl, and before I was a girl.
Why, my grandfather was murdered out there on the Wicklow Hills.
There was terrible times then. It’s me mother I’ve heard tell of them
over and over again. Never trust the English, she said, and I never
have, no, not the length of me arm, nor my children either. Ah, well
you don’t have to go streeling the streets for news in Ireland.” There
was a tap at the door, which made us all jump, and the next minute
Mrs. Slaney bustled into the room.
“Mrs. O’Grady, I’ve called you three times, what are you doing?”
“I’m after taking the orders for dinner.”
“You won’t mind if I take Mrs. O’Grady away, I’m sure,” she said.
“You’re going out, I see. Are you going near the Electric Light
Company’s offices? It would save me a trip. No? Grafton Street?
Now, I wonder if you would buy me a sixpenny saucepan at
Woolworth’s. Mrs. O’Grady burnt my little cocoa saucepan last night.”
She hurried from the room, Mrs. O’Grady going before her.
“Well,” said Himself, “I thought you were going to refuse any more
errands?”
“She didn’t give me time to answer.”
Mrs. Slaney bustled into the room again.
“Excuse me coming in again. Father Murphy is coming to-night. He
has just come back from Cork, and has met a priest who came from
the place where Father Griffin was murdered. I have asked him to
meet a woman who is interested in the Peace with Ireland League.
I’d like you to come to-night, too, you might find it interesting. The
Peace with Ireland League is going to do wonderful work. Lady
Bange brought out a splendid pamphlet. Just plain facts; but the
Government suppressed it. That’s freedom and justice. That’s
England’s way of protecting small nations. Monstrous! Now, I’ll not
keep you any longer. You won’t forget the saucepan?”
She trotted out of the room.
 CHAPTER XX
TO DUBLIN CASTLE

Mrs. O’Grady’s forebodings were to prove themselves only too true.

The fatal evening came at the end of an April day when the Crown
Forces made a great haul of propaganda in Molesworth Street.
Rumour had it they had penetrated into a basement and found there
the temporary offices of the Irish Bulletin, the official organ of Sinn
Fein. Six typewriters and two tons of literature to do with
propaganda were borne off in triumph to the Castle. Rumour also
had it that Darrel Figgis had incriminated himself to his beard. A
neighbour received word over the telephone that Figgis’s flat had
been raided, his typewriter smashed, the bindings of some of his
books destroyed. Figgis had gone on the run, and warning came to
us to get anything seditious out of the house, as it was likely to be
raided for him at any time. By five in the evening Mrs. Desmond
Fitzgerald had got all her stuff away, a man carrying it off in a sack
through the streets.
There was more of winter than spring these days, as one knew as
soon as it got dark. We were sitting after dinner as close up to the
fire as we could get when at our sitting-room door came the knock
which we knew better than Poe ever knew the knock of his raven.
“Come in,” I said, and stood bowing by the sofa.
The door opened, and Mrs. Slaney entered. “I thought you might
like this morning’s paper,” she said, smiling from one to the other of
us.
She joined us on the sofa, and took one of my cigarettes. Silence
reigned until she had had a puff or two, and then she broke it.
“It is perfectly monstrous what those brutes did this morning to Mr.
Figgis. They have raided his flat four times to-day. They wantonly
destroyed his typewriter, and I hear they have damaged the backs of
a number of his books. He has such a choice library. A most
cultured, refined man.”
“I suppose they smashed his typewriter because he used it for
seditious work, and they probably pulled the backs off his books to
see if he had anything hidden behind. They often get information
that way,” I suggested.
“Nonsense, they take a pleasure in wanton destruction.”
“What’s that?”
There came into the street the noise of powerful engines. In two or
three seconds the sound had risen to a loudness which filled every
empty space. We threw up our heads, and Mrs. Slaney flushed.
I went to the window, drew the blind aside, and peered into the
dark. Under the window there were blinding shafts of light from
acetylene lamps, and pitch dark everywhere else. Two lorries had
drawn up to the door, and men were leaping out.
“They’ve come again,” Mrs. Slaney exclaimed, her hand on her
heart. “They’re after Mr. Figgis.”
There were two lorries, one a bomb-proof affair like a chicken coop,
and the other unlike a chicken coop. Before Mrs. Slaney had stopped
there came a thunderous knock on the door.
I held the door open for her, and she bustled out of the room and
down the stairs. For a moment her voice dominated everything in
the hall, and then it was lost in the noise of many men tramping into
the hall and bounding up the ancient stairs. I made a dive for my
MS.
“They’ll be coming in here,” I said. “It’ll be a beastly nuisance if they
disarrange things. I wouldn’t be surprised if they found Figgis
upstairs, only he’d be a fool to come.”
I had got the MS. in a bundle when the door was thrown open, and
men covered with guns poured in. This was only a tributary of the
main river, which continued to flow into the upper reaches of the
house.
“What’s your name?”
I gave my name. “This lady is my wife.”
“Where’s Figgis?”
“Haven’t seen him for months.”
“He was here last night.”
“Was he?”
“Are you a friend of Michael Collins?”
“Haven’t met him yet.”
Suddenly the tributary left off questioning and joined the main
stream, in which, through the open door, I caught sight of several
acquaintances who had visited the house on other occasions. We
finished tidying the valuable things, so that if the rooms were
searched we could show what was there. Then a terrible man in
khaki, the man in khaki who was always in charge of the job,
climbed the stairs. He looked redder, fiercer, and more morose than
ever. He stalked in and looked us up and down.
“What’s your name?”
I gave my name. “This is my wife.”
“Are you Irish?”
“No.”
“What are you doing in Ireland?”
“We came over on business.”
“What business?”
“I had a scheme of child adoption I hoped to get going,” said my
wife.
“Where is it?” he demanded, as if we would pull it out of our
pockets.
“It was a frail plant,” I answered, “and is now no more. First the
Catholics came, and said to me, will you please be giving up that
work for its after converting our children to Protestantism you are.
Then the Protestants came and said they to me, will you be after
giving that up, please, for it’s converting our children to Rome you
have in mind. The plant was frail and it died.”
“Why didn’t you go home?”
“We stopped to write a book.”
He grunted and said, “What do you write?”
I showed him the MS. on the table. “This is some of our stuff.”
He came across and took up some of it, and looked through it as if
he thought very little of it. He flopped it down on the table and
stalked out on to the landing, and called down the stairs in a great
voice—
“Hi, two more of you fellows come up here. There seems to be the
only man in the house in this room, and not a damn one of you
looking after him.”
A good-looking, refined and most dapper little man answered this
request. He came into the room and, finding a woman there,
seemed considerably embarrassed. He began a perfunctory search
of our belongings; but when the man in khaki went to the top of the
house, he looked behind a picture or two and sank into a chair.
The door had been shut. A depressing silence fell. The little man in
the chair was the neatest Auxiliary I ever saw, and in spite of the
rake of his Balmoral bonnet might have appeared in any drawing-
room. By his voice he was quite well bred.
“I’m fed up with this job,” he announced, breaking the strained
silence, and giving my wife the benefit of most of his attention, “but
I’ve had no say in it. I’m a major in the Regular Army in India and
came home on leave, and then they bunged me over here, and
made me join up in the Auxiliaries. I sent for my wife then, and we
were among the people called on by the Shinners on the November
Sunday. I was out, and they insulted and intimidated my wife, who
was going to have a child. She has been semi-paralysed since, and
I’m waiting to do in one or two Shinners before returning home.”
“There’s a catch in that story somewhere,” I thought, and the result
of my scepticism was that we all sank into another silence, hearing
only the movement of many people trampling overhead. There
seemed a great deal of talking below, and occasionally the high,
quick voice of Mrs. Fitzgerald. I knew they would find it a case of
Mother Hubbard with her, unless some brilliant searcher of seditious
papers had discovered the secret of the infant Fergus. But let that
secret rest!
Presently the trampling seemed to be getting louder, and coming
down from the top of the house. Was Mrs. Slaney coming down in
chains? The door was thrown open, it was the habit of these people
to throw a door wide open so that nobody could shoot from behind
it, and in stalked our morose acquaintance in khaki. Behind him I
saw two men staggering downstairs with a portmanteau, and
thought, “Begad, they’ve captured something.” But there was no
Mrs. Slaney in chains.
Our friend stuck his legs apart, balanced on them, and said, after
looking round the room, “You had better put a coat on. It’s a cold
night.”
This made me look up. “Eh?” I said.
“You’re coming with us,” he answered.
“Coming with you?”
“We’ve found ammunition in the house,” he announced, “and we’re
taking every man in the house.”
“Ammunition?”
“Oh yes, you know nothing about it, of course. It was in Mrs.
Slaney’s bedroom.”
“But I’m a married man,” I expostulated. “How am I likely to know
what’s in Mrs. Slaney’s bedroom?”
A brief three-handed conversation, in which my wife joined, took
place, and at the end of it I submitted to fate, and wrapped myself
in my oldest overcoat. The last of the party had tramped down the
stairs. The raid was over.
Mrs. Slaney came in looking double her size with indignation.
“You’ve got me into trouble now, Mrs. Slaney,” I said, or something
to that effect. “They’ve found your ammunition, and they’re taking
me to the Castle.”
“Monstrous!” she exclaimed. “Iniquitous! Just a few war trophies.”
She turned on our morose friend. “I swear to you I did not know
what those things were.”
“You mean to tell me you don’t know bullets?”
“No.”
He turned away from her and grunted at me, “Come along.” Mrs.
Slaney marched out of the room.
Finishing my toilet with a scarf, I followed in the descent, the man in
khaki, our dapper guard, and my wife making up the rear. The front
door was open, and all the cold and dark in the world were coming
in through it. The black of outside was blacker because of the lorry
lights, and the said lorries were now cranked up and humming to be
off. Men were climbing into them by the back.
The hall had emptied of raiders. At the bottom of the stairs we found
Mrs. Fitzgerald, Mrs. Slaney, and a tearful Mrs. O’Grady standing in a
circle like chickens come round a trough, and in the middle of them,
miserable as a whippet in the wind, O’Grady in a bowler and a
threadbare overcoat. They had plunged into the bowels of the house
and captured him. There was no check in the tide and I seemed to
be passing through the hall and down the steps like a boat passing
an island. There were upraised women’s voices. Mrs. Fitzgerald was
quite collected and giving advice. My wife was ordering me to wrap
up. Mrs. O’Grady was calling upon the saints to help her poor man.
Mrs. Slaney had the last word. “Iniquitous!” she exclaimed in my ear,
as I was looking for the top step. “But now you will be able to see
for yourself what our splendid young men are experiencing every
day.”
As I have said there were two lorries, one like a chicken coop and
the other unlike a chicken coop. We were told to get into the chicken
coop. This I at least was most agreeable to do, as I had no desire to
be a target of homeless Sinn Feiners. Then with a flourish we were
away under the eyes of many interested people hanging from upper
windows. We raced through the deserted streets. It had been
raining, and the roads shone wherever the lamps fell upon them.
We were the second car. There seemed in our lorry two sorts of
seats, a bad sort, and a worse sort, wooden planks resting on boxes,
and rolls of wire. We sat, about a dozen all told, on these things,
and except for O’Grady and myself, every man had a rifle and about
three guns apiece. At the end of a minute we were about to fly
down Grafton Street, when the front car came to a halt and began
to run round. This time it took the lead down Kildare Street, and we
after it, and we all came to a stop this side of the ruined Maples
Hotel, at No 29, which was Darrel Figgis’s flat.
“They’re after him,” I thought. “They are very optimistic people.”
Figgis’s flat was under the roof, and there was no light burning. Half
the Auxiliaries left the lorries, filed up the steps, and a great banging
began at the door. The sound echoed down the streets. Then a light
appeared at the top of the house, the window opened, and a woman
in a nightgown leaned out. I thought it was Mrs. Figgis; but it turned
out to be Mrs. Coneray, president of the Woman’s Franchise League.
The knocking never ceased, the figure above disappeared, and
presently the door opened, and the Auxiliaries were swallowed up in
the dark of the passage.
There followed a long wait in the cold.
Suddenly a man at my side leapt round like a cat spotting a mouse.
Everybody waked up. “A man ran across the road just then,” he
called out. “At the mouth of Molesworth Street. I swear he did.”
One or two Auxiliaries mooched backwards and forwards across the
road with their rifles under their arms. One of these, with his rifle at
the ready, went as far as the corner of Molesworth Street; but he
came back saying there was nothing to see. There was another wait,
which was shortened by a small chatty individual who came up to
our lorry and began to talk to me through the wire netting. He
chatted like an old acquaintance.
“We took Desmond Fitzgerald,” he said, in the pleasantest fashion.
“A bad house that.”
“Is it?” I answered.
“Figgis was there lately,” he went on.
“So I am told. I never saw him.”
“Why are you there?”
“I don’t appear to be there just now.”
“Why don’t you move?”
“No need to. You’ve done it for me.”
The door opened, and the Auxiliaries came filing out. Never a word
was said. They climbed into the lorries, and we began to tear round
the corners at the previous breakneck speed. Soon we were racing
past Trinity and the Bank of Ireland. In the middle of College Green
an armoured car was at work with a searchlight, turning the beam
slowly across the face of Trinity, lighting up the windows one after
another. Not a fly could have crawled unnoticed upon that surface.
We took no notice of them, nor they of us. For a minute we were
racing along Dame Street, and then with a sweep we were turning in
to the Castle Gate, the great doors were pulled apart, and we were
at a standstill within the Castle Yard.
 CHAPTER XXI
INSIDE THE CASTLE

In a few seconds the lorries were empty and everybody was

disappearing into the dark. A voice had cried out, “Come along,
boys, the bar’s open for another half-hour.”
Not everybody succumbed to the magic of those words, for O’Grady
and I were led away to the left to a place which must have been a
guardroom. The spell of the army was upon everything. There were
endless unbrushed passages as a start, and everybody we came
upon seemed to come to life suddenly, and to wave us on to
somebody else.
In the guardroom we were delivered over to new people.
The room was of no special size, shape or description, and had only
one attraction, which was a fire. The windows were sandbagged.
There was a table at which a strenuous Auxiliary sat writing; two
other Auxiliaries nodded over the fire; and to one side of the room
were three baths, and in each bath slumbered an Auxiliary. On some
biscuits, not the edible kind, on the floor slept two young prisoners.
The strenuous Auxiliary reluctantly put down his pen. The two men
nodding at the fire watched out of an eye each.
As a start we were prodded all over for arms and seditious
documents, and I was told to give up my pocket-book.
“Any money in it?” demanded the strenuous Auxiliary, as I was
passing it over.
“Thirty bob, I think,” I answered.
“Well, count it and see,” he ordered, “or you’ll say we pinched it.”
I counted it and handed him the pocket-book, which he went
through page by page, asking me to explain every likely-looking
sentence. Finally he slapped it back at me on the table. He waved a
hand at some dirty biscuits and dirtier blankets, which were stacked
in a corner.
“You can take some of those,” he said, “and doss on the floor.”
I nodded to show I was grateful for the favour, and O’Grady and I
explored these biscuits. I wondered if O’Grady had ever been in as
bad straits before. I had had to put up with all sorts of beds in my
life, beds on the bare earth, beds on the rolling sea, most bitter
barren beds; but they had not taught me to be friendly to the colour
of these blankets. However, O’Grady seemed to find what he
wanted, took off his boots, put his hard hat on top of them, rolled
up just as he had been standing, and was asleep before I had made
a first choice. Before long the men nodding by the fire came across.
“The old un’s got down to it quickly,” one of them said with
admiration. “The old dog for the hard road.”
“You can doss by the fire there,” the other one said to me, jerking
his hand to a place by the side of the fire.
I took him at his word and emigrated with two blankets which
seemed to have known fewer generations of Sinn Feiners than any
of the others. I grew more friendly with them as gradually I became
warm and sleepy.
But I never quite fell asleep, and though it was late when I lay
down, what remained of the night was ages long.
It was a very restless place. People came in and out, cheery people,
people in evening dress who had dined well, people in uniform who
seemed to have nothing to do and no desire for bed. Now one
Auxiliary arose out of his bath like Lazarus come out of his tomb;
now a second sprang up like a jack-in-the-box and the first sank
back again. All the while the strenuous Auxiliary continued to write,
and to this day I believe he was at work upon his reminiscences.
Finally, an Auxiliary, who had arisen from his bath and not gone back
again, started an argument with the strenuous Auxiliary about who
burned Cork. He was serious and anxious to get at the truth. They
produced paper and worked at the answer with a will.
The Auxiliary from the bath proved there were only a small number
of his fraternity in Cork at the time, and that most of them, including
himself, were in hospital having pieces of bomb taken out of them.
He said there were over four thousand soldiers in Cork, and God
knew how many Shinners, and it was either the military or the
I.R.A.; but the Auxiliaries were blameless. This argument lasted a
very long time, and caused books to be tossed about, and feet to be
shuffled, and other things to happen unconducive to sleep, and it
must have worn out the Auxiliary from the bath, for at the end of it
he sank into his bath again like a corpse sinking into a grave. The
strenuous Auxiliary returned to his writing.
The Auxiliaries who lived in the baths were thin Auxiliaries; there
was a stout Auxiliary dozing on a chair on the farther side of the fire.
He was middle-aged, and had something of the look of a father of a
family; but there was never a moment when he was not picturesque,
with his rifle at his hand and his Balmoral bonnet on his head.
Whatever might be one’s feelings towards these men, there was no
denying they were a fine type—active, young, for the most part in
splendid physical condition, and most romantically dressed. I kept on
dozing and coming to again, coming to and dozing, for I would
suddenly be aware of everything—of the room full of miscellaneous
and dreary things, of the sandbagged window with the Lewis gun in
position, of the men nodding on their arms, of the two young
prisoners rolled up in one blanket, of O’Grady dreaming of Mrs.
Slaney’s basement, and of the kindly fire next door to me leaping up
the chimney—and then all would pass away again.
About breakfast time everybody awakened. I sat up blinking with my
tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth, O’Grady felt himself all over
and put on his boots, the youthful prisoners came to, and the
Auxiliaries emerged from their baths and stayed out.
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