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‘A transient apparition’: British policy towards the de Valera government, 1932-5

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Deirdre McMahon
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Extract

During the imperial conference of 1930 a senior British official vented his exasperation at the demands of the Irish delegation, commenting ‘surely de Valera could not be worse than this. If their opponents came into power, this might clear the air. We might get rid of this sapping by which we are losing much and gaining little goodwill.’

In retrospect, as many British ministers and officials would have ruefully admitted, this view had much to commend it. But the peculiar circumstances surrounding Eamon de Valera’s accession to power, followed so soon by a major disturbance in Anglo-Irish relations, instead of clearing the air, fogged it with tension, rumour and misunderstanding. In such an atmosphere rational assessments of the new Irish leader and his policy were at a premium.

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 88 , September 1981 , pp. 331 - 361
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1981

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References

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For permission to quote from copyright material the author would like to express her gratitude to the controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office; the keeper of the Public Records (London); the University of Birmingham Library; Kent County Council; the trustees of the Smuts Archive; and Lord Hankey. Efforts to trace the heirs of Lord Sankey, Lionel Curtis, Sir Charles Dixon and Ernest Brown have failed and the author apologises for any inadvertent breach of copyright.

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