Publications
Ireland: a voice among the nations
Ireland had a foreign policy and a diplomatic service before there was an internationally recognised independent Irish state. The origins of the modern Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade lie in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs established as one of the first four government departments of the first Dáil in January 1919. This richly illustrated book is a history of Irish foreign policy, rather than an institutional history of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade itself (though the two …obviously go hand in hand). It explores how a small state such as Ireland has related to the wider world, by examining how Irish diplomats and politicians responded to the challenges presented by the upheavals of the twentieth century and how this small European state engaged with the world, from the Versailles peace conference of 1919 to the globalisation of the twenty-first century.
Volume XI 1957-1961
DIFP XI covers five critical years in Irish foreign policy when, at the height of the Cold War, Ireland played a central role between East and West at the United Nations General Assembly on issues ranging from nuclear disarmament to apartheid to the admission of Communist China. Significantly, it also covers the years that Irish Defence Forces personnel first participated in peacekeeping missions with the United Nations. The volume pays particular attention to the reaction of Iveagh House to UN operations in Congo’s Katanga province and includes documents on the Niemba Ambush (November 1960), and the fighting at Jadotville and …Elisabethville (September 1961). A constant theme through the volume is European integration and the volume includes the high-level diplomacy surrounding Ireland first application for membership of the European Economic Community in 1961. Using original declassified documents from the Department of Foreign Affairs‘ archive, the volume pieces together as no other source can, the secret top-level decision making by Minister for External Affairs Frank Aiken, Taoiseach Seán Lemass and Irish diplomats, including household names Conor Cruise O’Brien and Ireland’s Ambassador to the UN Frederick Boland that saw 1960s Ireland play a central role on the world stage.
Volume X 1951 – 1957
DIFP X marks a major turning point in 20th century Irish foreign policy. It covers Ireland’s 1955 admission to the United Nations. This massive change to Irish foreign policy, revealed for the first time in the original documents of the 1950s in DIFP X, is the point from which Ireland’s global place amongst the nations in the 21st century originates. The volume covers the key themes of 1950s Irish foreign policy – UN membership, the renewed IRA campaign in Northern Ireland, the Suez Crisis, the Soviet Invasion of Hungary and the threat of a nuclear war. …For the first time light is shed on the preparation of ‘the War Book’, the state manual through which Ireland would make its transition to World War Three. The high sensitive issue of the overseas adoption of Irish children is covered in detail, providing a documentary source like no other available into this difficult chapter of Irish history.
Volume IX 1948 – 1951
‘Volume IX’ of ‘Documents on Irish Foreign Policy’ brings together for the first time the entire spectrum of Ireland’s foreign relations between 1948 and 1951. It covers Ireland’s role as a founder member of the Council of Europe in 1949 and the state’s response to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1950 – the origins of today’s EU. It details Ireland’s refusal to join NATO. The Korean War (1950-53) forms a large component of the volume which sees Ireland’s foreign relations take a wider perspective and its network of overseas missions grow …This is despite the paradox that outside the UN, NATO and the Commonwealth, the avenues for multilateral action by Ireland in the international system were more limited in 1951 than they had been in 1948.
Volume VIII 1945 – 1948
Nazi gold, fugitive war criminals, the threat of nuclear war and the growing dominance of Communism are central themes in the latest volume of Documents on Irish Foreign Policy. Now in its 15th year, the in-depth documentary history series continues to open up the secret archives of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Volume VIII spans 1945 to 1948 and shows that during the immediate post-war years Ireland had to redefine its global position as a result of wartime neutrality and the developing Cold War. Previously thought to be a time of vacuum and …isolation, as it is revealed here the post-war years saw Ireland engage with a wide range of multilateral organisations, open new diplomatic missions and repair relations with states..
Irish Foreign Policy
An authoritative textbook presenting major themes and analysis of Irish foreign policy in a contextual framework of history, political science, economics and international relations. The first contemporary and authoritative textbook presenting major themes and analysis of Irish foreign policy within a contextual framework of history, political science, economics and international relations. …
Structured along the traditional lines of comparative foreign policy.
Introduces the historical context and presents the policy-making processes and actors.
Themed chapters address context, contemporary policy issues and future challenges in relation to Ireland’s foreign policy across a number of critical areas.
Discusses the challenges posed to Ireland’s foreign policy in the international system and through its membership of the European Union.
Case studies that focus on a specific period or issue are used throughout the text and are illustrating the larger themes within Irish foreign policy.
Written in an open and accessible style by leading academic analysts and practitioners of Irish foreign policy.
Structured along the traditional lines of comparative foreign policy.
Introduces the historical context and presents the policy-making processes and actors.
Themed chapters address context, contemporary policy issues and future challenges in relation to Ireland’s foreign policy across a number of critical areas.
Discusses the challenges posed to Ireland’s foreign policy in the international system and through its membership of the European Union.
Case studies that focus on a specific period or issue are used throughout the text and are illustrating the larger themes within Irish foreign policy.
Written in an open and accessible style by leading academic analysts and practitioners of Irish foreign policy.
Volume VII 1941 – 1945
Volume VII struggle to remain neutral and sovereign during the ‘Emergency’ years. The volume provides the clearest and most accessible explanation to date, through original sources, of the rational underpinning of Ireland’s wartime neutrality. The taoiseach and minister for external affairs Eamon de Valera believed that Ireland’s independence would suffer if the country took part in great power quarrels. The volume gives evidence for a very real fear that …participation in the war would lead to renewed civil war, given the wide public support neutrality had. The sources presented reflect British-Irish, Irish-American and Irish-German relations during the government’s drive to maintain neutrality. As the likelihood of Allied victory rose, Dublin had also to ensure Ireland’s independence and freedom among the great powers of the post war world. In 1945 the rise of the Soviet Union and the United States’ looming replacement of Germany, Britain and France as the western superpower led to concerns that Ireland’s image abroad might shrink to insignificance. Volume VII marks the beginning of this period of fundamental change in the nature and scope of Irish foreign policy
Volume VI 1939 – 1941
The sixth volume of Documents on Irish Foreign Policy delivers a fascinating account of neutral Ireland during the war years. Volume VI demonstrates in gripping detail how Irish diplomats maintained neutrality despite Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s attempt to lure Ireland to join the war in winter 1939. It sheds light on the security crisis of 1940, when both a Nazi and a British invasion were feared. Volume VI publishes, for …the first time, complete transcripts of the British-Irish defence co-operation talks that took place in late May 1940. It includes full reports from Irish diplomats abroad on the progress of the war in Europe and deals with areas as vast as the Russo-Finnish Winter War, the invasion and fall of France, the invasion of Norway, Churchill’s rise to power, the Blitz, daily life in Berlin during war and the Luftwaffe attacks on Ireland. It reveals, in material hitherto unseen, the increasingly complex and highly charged nature of wartime British-Irish relations. The volume is the most comprehensive account ever published of Ireland’s foreign policy during the first years of the so-called ‘Emergency’.
Volume V 1937 – 1939
Volume V chronicles the development of Irish foreign policy during the lead up to World War Two. Irish-British relations take centre stage in this record, which explains in unrivalled detail the 1938 Anglo-Irish Agreement which allowed Ireland to remain neutral in World War Two. The editors have pieced together a picture of Irish-German relations despite the destruction, in 1940 and 1943, of official documents, when …a German invasion was anticipated in Ireland. It provides a comprehensive picture of Irish relations with Hitler’s Germany in the late 1930s, offering a precise listing of material known to have been destroyed. The volume deals in detail with Ireland’s policy during the Spanish Civil War, including its effort to safeguard the life of the shadowy Irish Republian, Frank Ryan, who was captured, jailed and sentenced to death in Spain by the Nationalists while fighting with the International Brigade. Sources unearthed include confidential reports, deciphered code telegrams and declassified material recently discovered in the Irish embassy in London. Volume V is essential for historians of Irish foreign policy. It offers a new angle on the clash between democracy and fascism that led to the Second World War.
Volume IV 1932 – 1936
Volume IV covers an eventful period of Irish foreign policy, from 10 March 1932 to 31 December 1936. It saw the first Fianna Fáil administration led by a wilful Eamon de Valera, who was both President and Minister for External Affairs. The records show how de Valera and his officials set about restructuring the framework of British-Irish relations and dismantling the 1921 Treaty. Legislation facilitating the abolition of the Oath of Allegiance was introduced, land annuity … payments due to Britain were withheld, and the office of Governor General was downgraded. A breakthrough in trade relations occurred when Britain imposed prohibitive tariffs following Ireland’s retention of annuities, and Irish officials had to look abroad in search of alternative markets. De Valera expanded in size and influence of the Department of External Affairs, and politicians such as Joseph P. Walshe (Secretary of the DEA) and John W. Dulanty (Irish High Commissioner in London) were given unprecedented latitude in the tactical execution of policy. The volume reveals a personal dimension to Walshe’s close professional relationship with de Valera. It offers a picture of Ireland in the 1930s enjoying unparalleled involvement on the wider international stage. Through the League of Nations diplomatic links with Europe and the USA strengthened and, on the eve of the Spanish Civil War, an Irish legation opened in Madrid. Documents charting the run up to the Second World War appear at the close of this exciting volume.
Volume III 1926 – 1932
The third volume of Documents on Irish Foreign Policy explores Ireland’s move to secure its standing amongst the nations. Confidential telegrams, secret despatches and personal letters reveal how Ireland protected its interests in an increasingly unstable world system. The Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s lead to fears for Ireland’s future as a small state, tensions which are built on in this choice documentation.… Volume III charts Ireland’s admission in 1930 to the Council of the League of Nations. It presents new dimensions to Anglo-Irish relations, showing how Irish foreign policy developed beyond British interests, which had long dominated Ireland’s external affairs.The volume examines the visit of W.T. Cosgrave to the United States and Canada in January 1928, the first overseas visit by an Irish taoiseach (prime minister). It looks at the run-up to the 1932 Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, the views of Irish diplomats on the collapse of Weimar Germany and challenges such as selling Ireland as a tourist destination and the development of trade with Europe. Political debates are uncovered, such as the question of state expenditure on visiting dignitaries and the use by Irish diplomats of new technologies like cinema newsreels and talkie films. The picture that emerges in Volume III is of a small nation seeking peace and prosperity across the international system.
Volume II 1923 – 1926
Volume II series concerns the establishment of the Irish Free State as a sovereign, independent state on the international stage. The opening date of the volume, 6 December 1922, marks the establishment of the Irish Free State under the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. The closing date, 19 March 1926, is that of the Ultimate Financial Agreement between the Irish Free State and Britain …This volume presents the first exclusive account of the Irish government’s policy towards the Boundary Commission, the relationship which was to define the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. The first steps in the creation of the state are chronicled, including Ireland’s admission to the League of Nations and the appointment of Ireland’s first overseas envoy, Professor T.A. Smiddy, as Minister Plenipotentiary to the US. Volume II offers close insight into the development of Irish-American relations and the fraught negotiations surrounding the Boundary Commission and its collapse. It is indispensable to historians of Irish foreign policy and the most authoritive record compiled of Ireland’s fledgling diplomatic relations.
Volume I 1919 – 1922
Volume I is a documentary history of the forging of Irish foreign policy and the Irish diplomatic service amid the backdrop of a bloody civil war. It begins on 21 January 1919 with the opening of the First Dáil (parliament) in Dublin and the publication of the Irish Declaration of Independence. It closes on 6 December 1922, the date of the founding of the Irish Free State, one year after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed …The intervening years covered in this volume were turbulent: a bitter political and military clash in Ireland, the British partition of the island into Northern and Southern Ireland in 1920, a negotiated settlement giving Southern Ireland dominion status through the December 1921 Treaty, and the emergence of the Irish Free State amid the violence of a civil war which began in June 1922 and ended in May 1923. These years also saw the birth, near death and re-birth of the Irish Department of External (now Foreign) Affairs, where these foundational documents were written into history. The volume includes previously unseen letters from Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, Eamon de Valera; confidential despatches and political reports from Irish diplomats, including accounts of the fundraising activities of Eamon de Valera and Harry Boland in America. It is indispensable to historians of modern Ireland.
