A look at events dealt with in the thirteenth volume of documents on Irish foreign policy that featured in RTÉ television reports in the 1960s.
The Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) series is a partnership between the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Royal Irish Academy and the National Archives, and since 1998 it has published archival material on Ireland's foreign relations since 1919. Volume XIII covers the tumultuous era from April 1965 to June 1969. Like its predecessors, it contains a mixture of high-level correspondence, eyewitness reportage, and memoranda on a wide range of subjects. The documents published in the series cover a period that was being captured on RTÉ Television as well. In partnership with DIFP we have linked some documents that appear in the volume to stories broadcast on Irish television, as retained by RTÉ Archives.
Free Trade with Britain, 1965
Throughout the 1960s the Irish government hoped to join the European Economic Community – the EEC, as the EU was then known – but the unwillingness of French president Charles de Gaulle to countenance British membership of the EEC effectively kept Ireland out, as it realistically could not join the EEC if Britain, its biggest trading partner, did not join as well. Concluding a new trade agreement with Britain was seen as necessary to stimulate Irish economic growth in the meantime.
'Now that we are so close to the end of the negotiations and have been able to get a picture from our officials of what the end of the official level negotiations is likely to be, I think we have come to the stage when a hard cold look should be taken. I gathered from your answer at the meeting that you will be asking Mr. [T.K.] Whitaker to have an analysis of the balance prepared so that the Government can take this hard cold look before we go over to London next month.
I know it has always been recognised that, whatever about the long-term results, free trade in industrial products was bound to have a very disturbing effect on our industries and on employment in these industries and I think you have, yourself, stated in public from time to time that we recognised that some of our industries would not survive.’
Patrick Hillery, the Minister for Industry and Commerce, expresses some reservations about the new trade agreement to Taoiseach Seán Lemass, 28 October 1965.
‘When making our assessment of the overall balance of a possible agreement with Britain, it will be necessary to put into the reckoning the consequences of not going ahead with it. We should not delude ourselves with the idea that this would simply be a matter of maintaining the status quo’.
Minister for Finance Jack Lynch writes to Hillery with his own view on the matter, 3 November 1965
‘I have received your letter of December 30th regarding an approach to EFTA [European Free Trade Agreement]. I do not think we should relate our consideration of this question to the idea of delaying action for five years. While we must certainly wait to see if there are any signs of developments in the E.E.C. which could reopen the prospect of our membership, the situation could change in a way which could make EFTA membership a matter of some urgency, and if we wait too long it may not be feasible. We must therefore continue to display active interest in it, and to be ready to move when it seems wise…I agree that, before any approach is made to the other EFTA countries, we must carry out the exercise of bringing out all the points of difference between the EFTA agreement and our British agreement and consider their implications. This would not preclude, however, an earlier approach to Britain to test their attitude’.
Lemass writes to Lynch about how the new agreement with Britain could affect future prospects of Irish membership of the European Free Trade Agreement and the EEC, 31 December 1965
'Newsbeat' 16 November 1965 - A Stepping Stone To Europe
Charles de Gaulle visits Ireland, 1969
Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France in April 1969 and subsequently visited Ireland for the first and only time. But his stance on EEC matters had ensured that he was the European leader with whom Irish policymakers were most concerned with throughout the 1960s.
‘The Ambassador remarked that President de Gaulle is having no ladies at the luncheon he is giving for the Taoiseach and this is further evidence that he is anxious to treat the visit in a serious vein’.
Hugh McCann discusses a forthcoming visit to Paris by Taoiseach Jack Lynch , 25 September 1967.
‘At the tête-à-tête between the Taoiseach and General de Gaulle, there was only an interpreter in attendance. The interview lasted an hour and the Taoiseach said afterwards that it related entirely to Common Market matters. The Taoiseach dealt with the history of our application for membership and stressed the sincerity of Ireland’s desire to join the EEC; we were ready to undertake all the obligations of membership subject only to a suitable transitional arrangement for industry and a few minor temporary easements; we were committed to the principles of the Treaty of Rome and anxious to play our part in realising the objectives of the Treaty.
President de Gaulle said that France had no objection whatever in principle to Ireland becoming a member of the Community. Indeed, he looked forward to the day when this would be possible. There were few problems involved as far as Ireland specifically was concerned but, as we knew, the candidature of Great Britain posed very grave problems, indeed. France’s attitude was that these would have to be overcome before Britain’s admission to the Community could be considered…The President inquired whether we had ever thought of association as a step towards Ireland’s membership of the Community. He asked this because he realised the extent and closeness of our economic ties with Britain and the extreme difficulty for Ireland of accepting the obligations of membership of the Community as long as Britain was not a member’.
T.K. Whitaker’s account of the meeting between Lynch and de Gaulle, 7 November 1967.
Irrespective of who is elected President it would be highly unwise and imprudent to assume that now that General de Gaulle is gone there will be a reversal of French foreign policy and especially as affecting the prospects for early British membership of the Common Market or the early greater enlargement of the latter…I would say that, as long as de Gaulle remains physically part of the scene, any President elected under the aegis of or with the support of the party he created i.e. the U.D.R. will per force have to remain under his influence and stamp’
Thomas V. Commins, the Irish ambassador to Paris, reports on the likely impact of de Gaulle’s resignation, 9 May 1969.
‘Late on Friday afternoon, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Debré, summoned me to go and see him the following morning at 11.45 a.m. When I did so, he told me that the only reason he had asked me to come and see him was to express, not only on his own behalf but also on behalf of all his colleagues in the Government and the members of the Assembly – whether Gaullist or not, he added – their sincere and deep thanks and appreciation for the sincerity and warmth of the welcome which had been extended at every level to General and Mme. de Gaulle throughout their stay. He was writing a letter himself, personally, to the Tánaiste but he felt he should tell me personally how appreciative and grateful they were and ask me also to convey this expression of their gratitude to President and Mrs. de Valera, the Taoiseach and Mrs. Lynch and the Government. I thanked him warmly and assured him that I would not fail to do so.
Thomas V. Commins records French gratitude to the hospitality shown to de Gaulle and his wife in Ireland, 23 June 1969.
RTÉ News 18 June 1969 - De Gaulle Meets De Valera
The documents quoted above are retained in the National Archives, and are published in Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Vol. XIII, 1965-1969, published in November 2022. The documents published in the DIFP series for the period 1919-48 are freely accessible at www.difp.ie. Document images reproduced by permission of the Director of the National Archives.
