No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The lost origins of Ireland’s involvement in Europe: the Irish response to the Briand Plan, 1929–30
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
In a collected volume assessing Ireland’s involvement in European integration Gearóid Mac Niocaill and Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh wrote that
With the establishment of an Irish National State in 1922 the opportunities for expanding Irish links with Europe seemed greatly enhanced. It remained to be seen if these opportunities would be taken.
However, Patrick Keatinge reminded readers of the same volume that ‘Up to the late 1950s Ireland’s diplomatic persona was only slightly “European”.’ Most Irish diplomatic historians would agree with this interpretation, arguing that Britain, the Commonwealth and the League of Nations remained the primary focus of Irish foreign policy in the inter-war period. Supporting Keatinge’s interpretation, the existing historical literature suggests that Irish diplomats were rather slow in renewing the perceived longstanding contacts with continental Europe before the Second World War. Indeed, Roy Foster has criticised the discursive claim of Ireland’s longstanding contacts with continental Europe, made by many Irish policy-makers at the time of Ireland’s entry into the European Economic Community in 1973, as a ‘grandiose self-delusion’. Most historical accounts, therefore, suggest that Ireland’s involvement in Europe tentatively started with the involvement in the Marshall Plan and participation in the Council of Europe.
- Type
- Select documents L:
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2000
References
1 Niocaill, Gearóid Mac and Tuathaigh, M.A.G.Ó, ‘Ireland and continental Europe: the historical dimension’ in Drudy, P.J. and McAleese, Dermot (eds), Ireland and the European Community (Cambridge, 1984), p. 30Google Scholar.
2 Patrick Keatinge, ‘The Europeanisation of Irish foreign policy’, ibid., p. 35.
3 See, for example, Harkness, D.W., The restless dominion: the Irish Free State and the British Commonwealth of Nations, 1921-31 (New York, 1970)Google Scholar; McMahon, Deirdre, Republicans and imperialists: Anglo-Irish relations in the 1930s (New Haven & London, 1984)Google Scholar.
4 Foster, R.F., Paddy and Mr Punch: connections in Irish and English history (Harmondsworth, 1995), pp 31-2Google Scholar.
5 Foster, R.F., Modern Ireland, 1600-1972 (Harmondsworth, 1989), pp 577-8Google Scholar; Kennedy, Michael and O’Halpin, Eunan, Ireland and the Council of Europe: from isolation towards integration (Strasbourg, 2000)Google Scholar.
6 Department of External Affairs, Report of Irish delegates on the Tenth Session of the League of Nations, September, 1929 (Dublin, 1930), pp 7–8Google Scholar.
7 Quoted in Kennedy, Michael, Ireland and the League of Nations, 1919-1946: international relations, diplomacy and politics (Dublin, 1996), p. 113Google Scholar.
8 Draft manuscript, Seán Lemass, 1929 or 1930 (N.L.I., Gallagher papers, MS 18339). It is unclear when this document was submitted to the Fianna Fáil executive. However, the explicit reference to the Briand proposals of September 1929 suggests that John Horgan has incorrectly dated the memorandum as written in July 1929 (Horgan, John, Seán Lemass: the enigmatic patriot (Dublin, 1997), p. 51Google Scholar). On this document see also ibid., pp 51-3; Girvin, Brian, Between two worlds: politics and economy in independent Ireland (Dublin, 1989), pp 82-5Google Scholar.
9 Till Geiger, ‘Europeanisation on the periphery: Irish élite response to integration, 1929-1963’ in European Studies Yearbook (forthcoming).
10 On the internal French discussions see Navarri, Cornelia, ‘The origins of the Briand Plan’ in Bosco, Andrea (ed.), The federal union, i: The history of federalism from the Enlightenment to 1945 (London, 1991), pp 211-36Google Scholar.
11 League of Nations, Documents relating to the organisation of a system of European federal union (League of Nations Publications, Political Series, 1930, VII, 4, Geneva, 1930), p. 9Google Scholar.
12 Frederick Boland’s unpublished memoirs, edited by Dr Dennis Kennedy. The original manuscript is in private ownership, and the authors would like to thank Dr Kennedy for allowing access to his edited copy.
13 [Horgan, J.J.], ‘Ireland: events in the Free State’ in Round Table, xxi (1930), pp 147-63Google Scholar.
14 Keogh, Dermot, Ireland and Europe, 1919-1989: a diplomatic and political history (Cork, 1990)Google Scholar; Hederman, Miriam, The road to Europe: Irish attitudes, 1948-61 (Dublin, 1983)Google Scholar; see also eadem, ‘The beginnings of the discussions on European union in Ireland’ in Lipgens, Walter and Loth, Wilfred (eds), Documents on the history of European integration, iii: The struggle for European union by political parties and pressure groups in Western European countries, 1945-1950 (Berlin, 1988), pp 763–800Google Scholar; Maher, Denis J., The tortuous path: the course of Ireland’s entry into the E.E.C., 1948-73 (Dublin, 1986)Google Scholar.
15 Kennedy, Ireland & the League of Nations, p. 147. Ireland became a member of the League of Nations in 1923 and followed an increasingly activist policy at Geneva from the mid-1920s. In 1929 the Department of External Affairs launched its most ambitious démarche yet at Geneva, seeking election to Council of the League of Nations as a non-permanent member for a three-year period. It was a vindication of the independent line Ireland had followed in the League from 1926, and it resulted in the state being successfully elected to the League Council in September 1930. This activist policy was part of a wider expansion of the Irish foreign service undertaken by Patrick McGilligan, Minister for External Affairs since October 1927, which saw the Free State open legations in Paris, Berlin and the Vatican through 1929. This expansion led to the first intake of ‘career diplomats’ into the Department of External Affairs through open competition. One of those appointed was the twenty-five-year-old Frederick Boland, who, a year later, was to draft Ireland’s revealing response to Briand’s initiative. On Ireland’s policy toward the League of Nations see Kennedy, op. cit., passim.
16 Message to the free nations of the world’, 21 Jan. 1919 (Fanning, Ronanet al. (eds), Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, i: 1919-22 (Dublin, 1998), p. 2Google Scholar); memorandum by P. S. O’Hegarty on Irish membership of the League of Nations, 15 Sept. 1922 (ibid., pp 502-4).
17 Frederick Boland’s unpublished memoirs, edited by Dr Dennis Kennedy.
18 On this point see the French government’s summary of the national responses (League of Nations, Documents relating to the organisation of a system of European federal union, p. 72); but see also Lipgens, Walter, ‘Europäischen Einigungsidee, 1923-1930, und Briands Europaplan im Urteil der deutschen Akten’ in Historische Zeitschrift, cciii (1966), pp 46–89, 316-63Google Scholar.
19 On the public debate on European ideas in Britain at this time see Passerini, Luisa, Europe in love, love in Europe: imagination and politics between the wars (New York, 1999), pp 52–64Google Scholar.
20 The organisation of a system of European federal union’, unsigned memorandum, n.d., enclosed with letter from Francis Cremins to Seán Lester, 22 July 1930 (N.A.I., DFA S2/25A).
21 This rank would equate with today’s grade of Third Secretary.
22 On this point see Kennedy, Ireland & the League of Nations, pp 93-149.
23 See Kennedy, Michael, ‘“Our men in Berlin”: some thoughts on Irish diplomats in Germany, 1929-1939’ in Irish Studies in International Affairs, x (1999), pp 53–69Google Scholar.
24 This synopsis of the likely origins of the document is supposition based on the standard procedure in the Department of External Affairs. Unfortunately the original file containing the department’s drafts has not survived. The only surviving copies of the background paper and the Irish reply are those in the Geneva embassy series file attached to a letter from Cremins to Lester, 22 July 1930 (N.A.I., DFA S2/25A).
25 Walshe wrote in very emotional terms, bluntly stating issues as he saw them. There is little in the measured Irish reply to suggest that Walshe played any role in its drafting.
26 [Horgan], ‘Ireland: events in the Free State’.
27 All quotes in this section are from the select document itself.
28 Kennedy & O’Halpin, Ireland & the Council of Europe, pp 33-4.
29 See N.A.I., DFA S2/25A for details, and, more generally, Geiger, ‘Europeanisation’.
30 The authors would like to thank Frances and Bill Owen for their help in transcribing the original document, and Dr Dennis Kennedy for his assistance regarding Frederick Boland’s role in drafting the Irish response.