The 1920s saw the government of the Irish Free State do its best to flex its muscles on the world stage, to demonstrate its independence from Britain, and to assert its sovereignty.
As David McCullagh recounts in this extract from his new book, From Crown to Harp, these efforts were resisted by Britain - sometimes with diplomacy, sometimes with brute force - read an extract below.
On assignment abroad, members of Ireland's fledgling diplomatic service had to be constantly on guard against slights on the new state. Vigilance, tenacity and attention to detail were required – and so were, on occasion, sharp elbows and a readiness to literally push through British obstruction.
In April 1931 the Irish minister to the Vatican, Charles Bewley, went to the train station in Rome to greet the Australian prime minister, James Scullin, coming for an audience with the pope. D’Arcy Osborne of the British embassy got there first and pretended not to notice Bewley’s arrival, doing his best to keep him out of the conversation, 'even by force of elbow’. As Bewley proudly reported to Dublin, ‘it required an actual physical effort on my part to welcome the Prime Minister’.
This rather undignified scuffle was part of a pattern. Bewley thought the British officials ‘intensely’ disliked his presence but couldn’t admit this; they therefore patronised him, treating him like a junior member of their own staff. Bewley got his own back by introducing Scullin to the pope, an act he was certain had offended his British ‘colleagues’.
While Bewley wasn’t an entirely reliable witness, the incident illustrated a pattern of Irish attempts to assert an independent diplomatic profile – and British efforts to keep them in check.
The Irish delegation to the League of Nations Assembly in September 1926 featured a new face: Ernest Blythe, minister for finance. The epitome of the flinty Northerner, Blythe was impressed by the 'large numbers of Indian ladies, rather good- looking Chinese girls, Americans in their horn- rimmed glasses and other curiosities' in Geneva. The weather was ‘frightfully hot’, but delegates were able to swim in the lake. Joseph Walshe, Secretary of the Department of External Affairs, advised Blythe to get a new bathing suit, as the old- fashioned one he used in Malahide would lead to ridicule in the local papers ‘on the subject of manly modesty’. His less austere new costume, while more in keeping with Swiss social customs, left Blythe with severe sunburn. He seemed more bothered by what was going on beside the lake: ‘The bathing is the mixedest possible … None of the women wear dresses with skirts and most of them have no backs.’ The more worldly Minister for External Affairs, Desmond FitzGerald, was also struck by social behaviour in Geneva, telling his wife that ‘shyness is not a feature of diplomatic women – on the first meeting one may easily learn how often their husbands perform with them or how they like it done’.
Given the distractions, it is a wonder any work was done. But this was a significant Assembly for the Irish, as they came into direct conflict with Britain. The issue was the election to the League Council, for which Dominions were not regarded, by others or themselves, as eligible, because they were seen as part of a "British group". But at a meeting of Commonwealth delegates, FitzGerald argued for a Dominion candidacy. He was opposed by the British foreign secretary, Austen Chamberlain. With none of the other Dominions prepared to go forward, FitzGerald told Chamberlain that Ireland would do so. ‘We hope … you will at least extend to us your good will, if you cannot do more.’
FitzGerald told Dublin the candidacy was ‘to assert equal status more than to seek election’. Blythe thought they had no chance but felt it was worth running to overcome the view that the Dominions were subordinate and that Britain represented them on the Council. He also thought it would show that Ireland – which had so far been ‘absolutely negligible at the League, neither saying nor doing anything whatever’ – was worthy of membership. Blythe’s criticism was only slightly exaggerated: FitzGerald had addressed the Assembly, briefly, in 1924, but that was it. The Irish simply didn’t have the resources to make an impact in Geneva.
Chamberlain accepted that the Dominions had a right to seek election to the Council, but suggested the issue was whether it was expedient to contest this particular election. The Irish candidacy, he claimed, could ‘set back rather than advance the position of the Dominions’, and he would not be voting for the Free State. Neither would the other Dominions, except South Africa. Leo Amery, then colonial secretary, recalled that the British were concerned that other nations would think ‘we were trying to pack the Council’.
Despite a late start and British opposition, the Free State received 10 votes, coming 13th in the race for 9 seats. FitzGerald thought it was a good result in the circumstances, while Blythe considered it ‘quite satisfactory’, given British predictions that they would get only 2 votes. In any event, a marker had been put down, and the election of a Dominion the following year was seen as certain. The Free State’s representative to the League, Michael MacWhite, was delighted with developments, commenting on the ‘very good impression’ made by the delegation, due to ‘the independent attitude it invariably adopted both in the Assembly and the Commission’.
The Free State was prepared to go forward again in 1927 but withdrew in favour of Canada. Canada was elected, and the Free State was in an excellent position to succeed it after its three-year term.
From Crown to Harp: How the Anglo-Irish treaty was undone is published by Gill
