Republic to Republic: Ireland’s international sovereignty, 1919-1949

In December 1918 the republican separatists of Sinn Féin secured a resounding success in the United Kingdom general election that followed the end of the First World War. The party won 73 of Ireland’s seats at Westminster and established themselves as the dominant voice of nationalist Ireland. Rather than take their seats in the House of Commons, those Sinn Féin representatives who were at liberty assembled in Dublin’s Mansion House on 21 January 1919 as the first Dáil Éireann. They declared Ireland independent, and affirmed the existence of an Irish republic. Following the Irish War of Independence (1919-21), 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties became autonomous within the British Empire, in the form of the Irish Free State (Ireland had been partitioned in 1920, and so the six counties of Northern Ireland remained within the UK).

Typescript copy of the ‘Message to the Free Nations of the World’, issued by the first Dáil on 21 January 1919. ‘Ireland to-day reasserts her historic nationhood the more confidently before the new world emerging from the War, because she believes in freedom and justice as the fundamental principles of international law, because she believes in a frank co-operation between the peoples for equal rights against the vested privileges of ancient tyrannies, ...

Letter from the Irish republican delegation in Paris, future Irish president Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh and the English-born solicitor George Gavan Duffy, to Hugh C. Wallace, the American ambassador to France, 30 September 1919. A key objective of the first Dáil was to lobby the postwar peace conference assembled in Paris to both recognise Irish independence and secure Ireland’s admission to the League of Nations that was expected to be established. To that end, Ó Ceallaigh and Gavan Duffy led what was effectively Ireland’s first ever diplomatic mission, based in the French capital. The letter is a cover note to accompany more detailed documents outlining the Irish case for independence that Wallace was asked to forward to his government. The victorious allies, such as Britain and the United States, ultimately had little interest in the Irish cause, and such lobbying was, in the end, fruitless. (P150/1317. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

Éamon de Valera is greeted disembarking off a ferry at Newport, Rhode Island, 13 September 1919. He was subsequently granted the freedom of the city before addressing a rally at Newport’s Freebody Park. While the major urban centres of the US were a natural focus, de Valera and his colleagues visited a remarkably wide range of locations across the continent during his tour. (P150/834. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

Sketch of a bronze palm left by MacWhite at the memorial to the French revolutionary general Lazare Hoche in Versailles in June 1920, during a ceremony to commemorate his birth in 1768. In 1796 Hoche had led the abortive French expedition to Bantry Bay in support of the United Irishmen. MacWhite surreptitiously joined the military parade that formed part of the ceremony in his uniform and left the palm amidst a number of floral wreaths; a form of propaganda by deed that garnered a good deal of contemporary publicity. Upon inquiring after its whereabouts in 1957, MacWhite was informed that the palm was still held in the Musée Lambinet in Versailles; he was provided with this sketch of the artefact. (P194/680. Papers of Michael MacWhite.)

A signed copy of the credentials issued by de Valera to the delegates, or plenipotentiaries, appointed to negotiate what became the Anglo-Irish Treaty, 7 October 1921. ‘It is understood however that before decisions are finally reached on the main questions that a despatch notifying the intention of making these decisions will be sent to the Members of the Cabinet in Dublin and that a reply will be awaited by the Plenipotentiaries before the final decision is made’. The delegation was led by Arthur Griffith, who had originally founded Sinn Féin in 1907, and Michael Collins. (P150/1495. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

Copy of a memorandum from Arthur Griffith to de Valera, written from the headquarters of the Irish delegation in Hans Place, London and describing a meeting between Griffith, Collins and Tom Jones, the cabinet secretary to the British coalition government led by David Lloyd George, 8 November 1921. ‘He said that Lloyd George is going to put up to the Ulster government on Thursday its proposal that they should accept the six-county area under an Irish Parliament. If they refuse he will go down to the House of Commons and announce his resignation’. (P150/1500. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

A copy of a note from the Free State’s Minister for External Affairs (foreign affairs), Desmond FitzGerald, deals with an unnamed anti-Treaty propagandist overseas during the Irish Civil War, 17 January 1923. ‘It was decided to send a messenger across to our representative in Geneva, to see if steps can be taken have the woman representative of the Irregulars watched and arrested on her return to England or Ireland’. The ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty split the independence movement, as the British insistence on Ireland remaining within their empire ensured that the new Irish Free State was a ‘Dominion’ rather than a fully independent republic. The visceral disagreement over the constitutional status of the new state led directly to the outbreak of civil war between pro- and anti-Treaty factions in June 1922. The first government of the Free State was led from August 1923 by W.T. Cosgrave. ‘Irregular’ was a term used by the Free State for its republican opponents. (P80/384. Papers of Desmond and Mabel FitzGerald).

Walshe served as secretary of the Department of External Affairs from 1922 to 1946 and can be credited with establishing the Irish diplomatic service on a permanent basis. (P80/396. Papers of Desmond and Mabel FitzGerald.)

The Irish Free State joined the League of Nations on 10 September 1923. Pictured here attending the 1923 League Assembly are, seated (L-R) Hugh Kennedy (Attorney General), William T. Cosgrave (President of the Executive Council) and Eoin MacNeill (Minister for Education); standing (L–R) the Marquis MacSwiney of Mashanaglas (Irish representative accredited to the League of Nations) and Michael MacWhite (Irish Permanent Delegate to the League of Nations). (P285/373. Papers of W.T. Cosgrave.)

Another note, in Hugh Kennedy’s handwriting, on issues expected to arise at the 1923 Imperial Conference including the proposed Boundary Commission to be established under the terms of the 1921 Treaty to adjudicate on the border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. ...

A photograph in an unidentified location of (L-R) Diarmuid O’Hegarty (Secretary to the government, which was formally known as the ‘Executive Council’); Kevin O’Higgins (Vice President and Minister for Justice); Desmond FitzGerald (Minister for External Affairs), Joseph Walshe (Secretary, Department of External Affairs); and Michael MacWhite, (Irish Permanent Delegate to the League of Nations). Of those pictured, O’Hegarty had served as clerk of the Dáil during the independence struggle, while O’Higgins briefly served as Minister for External Affairs prior to his assassination by the IRA in 1927. (P197/188. Papers of Kevin O’Higgins.)

The great seal of the Irish Free State or, as it was known in Irish, ‘Saorstát Éireann’. This was to be used on official documents authorised by the Governor-General, the representative of the British monarch, who was officially the head of state. The design was overseen by Hugh Kennedy and the use of the Irish language and the traditional motif of the harp could be seen as at attempt to bolster the distinctively Irish identity of a state that, however reluctantly, remained within the British sphere of influence at this time. (P4/1314. Papers of Hugh Kennedy.)

The cenotaph in London’s Whitehall on Armistice Day, 11 November 1926; Kevin O’Higgins is present, second from the right in the back row to the right of the cenotaph. Commemorating the dead of the First World War was contentious in independent Ireland, which had only recently emerged from a political and military conflict with the British. Irish soldiers in the ‘Great War’ had generally served in the British or Dominion armed forces. This ensured that the subsequent commemoration of the war was politically sensitive, though Irish representatives sometimes attended First World War commemorations such as this overseas. O’Higgins’ himself had lost a brother in the war. Participation in events, and political structures, that were ultimately derived from Ireland’s status as a Dominion left Cosgrave’s government vulnerable to attack by republican opponents of the 1921 Treaty. (P197/186. Papers of Kevin O’Higgins.)

Cosgrave arrived in New York, and also travelled to Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, where he visited President Calvin Coolidge and addressed the Senate. One purpose of the visit was to counter growing support in the US for Éamon de Valera’s recently founded Fianna Fáil party, which had emerged from the defeated anti-Treaty republicans who had fought in the Civil War. This new party provided a political home to opponents of Cosgrave’s Cumann na nGaedheal. (P80/471. Papers of Desmond and Mabel FitzGerald.)

A press conference in the White House, Washington DC, celebrating the implementation of the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact (officially ‘The international treaty for the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy’) which had been signed in Paris in 1928. Originally sponsored by French foreign minister Aristide Briand and US Secretary of State Frank Kellogg, this was the first international treaty signed by the Irish Free State in its own right. Left to right seated: Katsuji Debuchi (Japanese ambassador to US); Sir Esmé Howard (British ambassador to US); Prince Albert Deligne (Belgian ambassador to the US); Calvin Coolidge (former US president); US Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson; president Herbert Hoover (standing), Senator William Borah (chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee); Frank B. Kellogg (former Secretary of State and co-author of the pact); Paul Claudel (French ambassador to the US); Nobile Giacomo de Martino, Italian ambassador to the US); Michael MacWhite (Irish Free State minister to the US); and Rudolf leitner, chargé d’affaires of the German embassy.(P194/788. Papers of Michael MacWhite.)

A copy of the Constitution (Removal of Oath) Bill, 1932, introduced by de Valera on 20 April 1932 and passed on 19 May 1932. The oath of allegiance or fidelity to the British crown that was to be taken by all members of the Free State’s Dáil, as specified in the 1921 Treaty, had long been opposed by republicans; its removal was an imperative for de Valera’s government. (P150/2219. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

Note composed in preparation for the Imperial Conference in Ottawa held in August 1932 referencing the burgeoning ‘economic war’ between Britain and Ireland that dominated the mid-1930s. ‘In view of British penal tariffs Delegation should not attend opening or any meeting of Conference pending further communication’. The Irish delegation was led by Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh and included future Taoiseach Seán Lemass. (P150/2226. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

‘The Merry-Go-Round’: A 1933 cartoon by the Hungarian caricaturists Alois Derso and Emery Kalen about the thirteenth assembly of the League of Nations retained in de Valera’s papers (he is clearly depicted in the centre of the image). Its provenance is unclear but the  English text of the caption overleaf reads: ‘Here we go round the merry-go-round – but not such a very merry-go-round. The merry-go-round is circling in an atmosphere of disappointment, lassitude and bitterness, and the world is in a bad way. Two members of the League, Paraguay and Bolivia, are at war. Japan has just left the League. The situation in central Europe is dangerous in the extreme, and Austria is on the verge of civil war. Even in the distant United States a crisis without precedent is raging. In such an atmosphere the idea of a humorous menu card was not much to our taste; but after all the caricaturist is only a moralist who has taken the wrong turning. This Assembly was attended by Herr [Joseph] Goebbels, Herr [Adolf] Hitler’s Minister for Propaganda. He took no part in the discussions, but invited the journalists to a lecture on National-Socialism. This was his only visit to Geneva. Shortly afterwards Germany left the League’. (P150/3803. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

A postcard of Danzig (Gdansk) collected by Seán Lester. Born in Antrim, Lester had a successful career as a journalist before becoming a diplomat. In 1929 he became Ireland’s permanent representative to the League of Nations, and in 1933 was the first Irish diplomat to directly serve an international institution when he was seconded to the League’s Secretariat as high commissioner to Danzig. The contested ‘Free City’ was ruled under the jurisdiction of the League of Nations from 1920 to 1939, and Lester saw at first-hand the potential implications of the ideology and actions of the Nazis as they came to power. (P203/126. Papers of Seán Lester.)

Letter dated 27 June 1935 from de Valera to British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. The letter concerns the British Government’s proposal ‘to introduce legislation providing, in certain events, for a Regency and for the performance of Royal Functions in the name and on behalf of the Sovereign…I think I should inform you at once we should be unable to agree to the enactment by the British Parliament of a law which might be thought to provide for the performance of any royal functions in respect of the internal or external affairs of Saorstát Éireann. As you are aware, the sole and exclusive right to enact any law in respect of Saorstát Éireann is vested in the Oireachtas’. (P150/2317. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

Personal note from Dominions Secretary Malcolm MacDonald to de Valera, dated 17 October 1936. ‘This is just a note to say how glad I am to hear that your eye operation is safely over’. MacDonald and de Valera had struck up an increasingly friendly working relationship throughout the 1930s. By 1936 British-Irish relations were increasingly dominated by attempts to negotiate a resolution to the trade conflict known as the ‘Economic War’.  (P150/2329. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

Draft of article three of what became Bunreacht na hÉireann, dated March 1937, drawn up by parliamentary draftsman Arthur V. Matheson with annotations by de Valera himself. The new constitution was passed following a referendum in 1937 and remains in force, with amendments, today. Article three was removed in 1998 as part of the ratification of the Good Friday Agreement. (P150/2397. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

Éamon de Valera and a number of Irish diplomats near Geneva while taking time off from attending a meeting of the League of Nations in 1938. Those pictured include (far left) John J. Hearne, Michael Rynne, the head of the department’s League of Nation’s section (second from right) and Frederick Boland (far right). Hearne was appointed High Commissioner to Canada in 1939, and later served as Ambassador to the US. Rynne succeeded Hearne as legal advisor in 1939 and was instrumental in devising the policy of neutrality adopted by de Valera during the Second World War, ending his career as Ambassador to Spain. Boland enjoyed a lengthy career, serving as Ambassador to Great Britain and Ireland's Permanent Representative to the United Nations; he also served a term as president of the UN’s General Assembly. (P150/2812. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

Statement prepared by de Valera and ‘shown to M[alcolm] McD[onald] as the type of statement that would be useful’ on the contested subject of relations between the governments in Belfast and Dublin, 12 March 1938. ‘The Gov[ernment] of the U.K. declare that it is no part of the policy or intention of the Gov. of the U.K. to oppose any arrangement which may be freely and voluntarily entered into between the Gov. of Éire [Ireland] and the Gov. of N[orthern] I[reland]’. (P150/2501. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)

Frank Aiken, Minister for coordination of Defensive Measures, inspects members of the Defence Forces at the curragh camp, in the late 1930s. While Ireland’s military forces were weak, in the early years of the Second World War the de Valera government was concerned about the prospect of a German invasion as part of plans to invade Britain, or, conversely, a British incursion to repel a German invader or to seize control of military facilities. Aiken in particular was concerned about the prospect of a British attack. (P104/3817. Papers of Frank Aiken.)

Frank Aiken being greeted in Philadelphia by a group including Sean Nunan, the Irish consul general in Washington (third from right), 19 April 1941. Aiken visited the United States in search of arms and supplies but the provision of vital supplies to a neutral country such as Ireland was simply not a priority. The resentment of Irish neutrality by both the British and US governments soured relations with them in the immediate aftermath of the war. (P104/3599. Papers of Frank Aiken.)

Seán Lester, pictured here in 1946 with cigarette in hand in the Palais de Nations, Geneva, speaking to Swiss delegate Paul Reugger. Lester became the League’s last secretary general and ultimately oversaw its dissolution in 1947, before retiring to the west of Ireland. Ireland would not join its successor, the United Nations, until 1955. Ireland did not join NATO either, and so, bar association with the Commonwealth, remained relatively isolated internationally in the decade following the end of the war. (P203/151. Papers of Seán Lester.)

Copy of a memorandum initialled by Frederick Boland (who had succeeded Joseph Walshe as secretary of the Department of External Affairs) in response to a query via Sheila Murphy (one of the very few senior female members of the department at the time) in relation to the vexing question of how to describe Ireland and its relations with the Commonwealth. The initial query is dated two days after the first meeting of the new Dáil elected in 1948; an indication, perhaps, that this was to be a live issue for the incoming government. (P104/4437. Papers of Frank Aiken.)

Unidentified public meeting during Costello’s visit to canada; he is seated second from left. There seems little basis for the story that Costello’s decision arose after he took offence at a replica of ‘Roaring Meg’—a cannon used in the 1689 siege of Derry, and therefore a symbol associated with loyalism in Northern ireland—being present on a table during an official dinner. (P291/47. Papers of John Hearne.)

A draft by Michael Rynne, dated 3 February 1948, of a proposed ‘Powers and functions of the President (External Relations) Act, 1948’, detailing the proposed future role for the president of Ireland in line with the 1937 constitution. The eventual ‘Republic of Ireland Bill’ of 1948 included the simpler, more generic formulation that ‘the President, on the authority and on the advice of the Government, may exercise the executive power or any executive function of the State in or in connection with its external relations’. Rynne noted that 'I typed this out in 5 mins, At lunch time— it just shows how long it is!'. (P104/4428. Papers of Frank Aiken.)

A note dated 29 January 1949 from John Dulanty to Frederick Boland, hinting at some of the wider implications of the decision to leave the Commonwealth. While for the Irish government the repeal of the 1936 Act was essentially a formality (Costello himself had been a critic of it), for the British and the wider Commonwealth it was of great significance in the context of decolonisation and the beginning of emigration from the Commonwealth to Britain in the postwar era. The Ireland Act of 1949 confirmed the rights of Irish citizens to travel and work in the UK. (P104/4468. Papers of Frank Aiken.)

At midnight on Easter Sunday, 17 April 1949, Ireland’s last links with the Commonwealth were severed. Celebrations took place across the state, with the main official ceremonies in Dublin corresponding with the annual commemorations of the Easter Rising. Events to mark the occasion were also hosted by Irish legations abroad. This letter from John Hearne (by then Irish ambassador to Canada) to Costello at Easter 1949 congratulated him on the imminent declaration of Ireland as a republic: ‘This note will not, I fear, reach Dublin before you inaugurate and celebrate the great day. But it will arrive, I hope, in Easter Week in the first days of the new era’. (P190/392. Papers of John A. Costello.)