Analysis: The Irish Government found themselves in a delicate position when the civil rights activist and newly elected MP toured the US in 1969
By Melissa Baird, Royal Irish Academy
When Bernadette Devlin toured the United States at the end of August 1969, the Irish Government found themselves in a delicate position. While supportive of the civil rights campaign in Northern Ireland, the Government had a complicated relationship with Devlin. She had emerged as a prominent figure in the movement with a radically different vision than more moderate leaders like John Hume or Conn and Patricia McCluskey of the Campaign for Social Justice.
Devlin’s radical, anti-establishment politics unnerved the Irish Government, especially in an American context where Devlin often seemed to find more in common with marginalised groups, like Black Americans and Puerto Ricans, than with many of the Irish diaspora there. It was the latter demographic that were particularly important to the Irish Government’s political, cultural, and economic influence in the US.
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From RTÉ Archives, Martin Wallace reports on Bernadette Devlin's return from the United States to Shannon Airport in September 1969
As we see in reports published in the latest volume of the Royal Irish Academy's Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) series, Devlin was seen to present a challenge to the Irish Government’s relationships and reputation, both at home and abroad, from the moment she landed at New York's JFK airport on August 22nd 1969.
She was scheduled to visit the US later in the year to garner international support for the civil rights campaign. However, the 'Battle of the Bogside' – three days of intense rioting following a loyalist march from August 12th to 15th in Derry – hastened the need for her trip. In part this was to maximise publicity following the disturbances, but Devlin has also indicated that it was also to evade arrest for her part in the rioting.
Devlin had made her mark on Irish politics in earlier in 1969 when she became the then youngest MP elected to Westminster at 21 years old. She had been a founding member of the student civil rights group, People's Democracy, which was formed in October 1968 following a heavy-handed police response to a peaceful civil rights march in Derry.
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From RTÉ Archives, footage of Bernadette Devlin at a victory rally in Carrickmore, Co. Tyrone in 1969 after her election to the House of Commons in 1969
People’s Democracy broke from the moderation and conservatism of the wider movement, and advocated a more secular, socialist approach to the issues in Northern Ireland, and indeed, even south of the border. Devlin herself was critical of the Irish Government, stating in her 1969 memoir The Price of My Soul: ‘there are no free counties, anywhere in Ireland. The Irish had replaced the British in twenty-six of the counties, but they had done nothing to change the system’.
It was this kind of rhetoric that the Irish Government sought to curtail during Devlin’s US tour. Her visit was coordinated by the National Association of Irish Justice, a left-wing Irish American group headed by Brian Heron, James Connolly's grandson. In a two-week whirlwind tour, Devlin met with leaders across the US, including U Thant, the UN Secretary General, and New York mayor John Lindsay. Indeed, Lindsay gave her the keys to the city, something he would come to regret the following St Patrick’s Day, for reasons detailed below.
From AP Archive, Bernadette Devlin at the United Nations in New York in 1969
Documents in the latest DIFP volume, covering the years 1969 to 1973, demonstrate how closely her trip was monitored by Irish diplomats across the US. Anxious to mitigate any criticism Devlin might extend to the Government in Dublin, they also sought to influence the flow of donations, which surged during her visit, towards their preferred destination, the Irish Red Cross.
Despite attempts from Irish diplomats to work in unison with Devlin in publicising the civil rights campaign, she did not confine her criticisms to the governments in London or Belfast. The Irish consulates in New York and San Francisco reported that at various rallies and demonstrations Devlin took aim at the Irish Government for remaining ‘aloof’ regarding Northern Ireland since partition, ‘exploiting its own people’ in the west of Ireland and failing to address the overall ‘economic weakness’ in the south.
To make matters worse, Devlin did not modify her rhetoric to accommodate the political sensitives of conservative Irish Americans either. At an event in Philadelphia, Devlin sang We Shall Overcome with John Russell, a Black American tenor player. In Detroit, she refused to speak until the crowds of Black Americans and Puerto Ricans, who had been denied entry, were allowed in. In Chicago, the Irish Consulate reported that Devlin 'caused some consternation' within Irish American circles, including mayor Richard Daley, when she visited an Operation Breadbasket meeting run by Rev Jesse Jackson.
Similar events occurred in almost every city she visited across the US. Devlin unapologetically made clear her affinity with marginalised American groups, comprised mostly of people of colour, and called out the racism extant within the Irish diaspora. Her presence intensified conflicts within Irish America, particularly longstanding divisions towards race that can be traced back to Daniel O’Connell’s visit in the mid-19th century.
Bernadette Devlin on Meet the Press in August 1969
While the Irish American response to the civil rights movement in the US was diverse, Irish diplomats had noted that many stood in staunch opposition to it, and particularly to comparisons between the plight of Black Americans and that of Catholics in Northern Ireland. However, as the Irish Government relied on the conservative Irish American community for their political and cultural capital in the US, they worked hard to mitigate alienating them where possible. In the fall-out of Devlin’s visit to Chicago for instance, Irish diplomat Brian Ó Ceallaigh tried to placate affronted Irish Americans and minimise divisions by stressing ‘that now was a time for unity in presenting and pushing our case’.
Soon after, Devlin cut her tour short and flew back home early, allegedly due to her suspicions that the money raised during her tour was going to be used to fund the IRA. In the background during and after Devlin’s tour, the Irish Government sought to encourage Irish Americans to send donations to the Irish Red Cross, as opposed to any other fund set up by individuals or organisations in the north.
The drama did not end when Devlin left the US. Some seven months later, on St Patrick’s Day 1970 in New York, Devlin's good friend and fellow People’s Democracy member Eamonn McCann gave the same keys to the city that had been given to Devlin to Robert Bay, a member of the Black Panther Party. This move ignited a new diplomatic storm for the Irish Government, further reports of which can be found in the latest DIFP Volume.
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Dr Melissa Baird is Assistant Editor with the Royal Irish Academy’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy programme and is one of the editors of Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Vol. XIV: 1969-1973.
Documents on Irish Foreign Policy is a partnership between the Royal Irish Academy, the National Archives of Ireland and the Department of Foreign Affairs
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
