Before there was an internationally recognised independent Irish state, Ireland had a foreign policy and diplomatic service. Taken from a new book, these photos and images show how Irish diplomats and politicians met the challenges of the 20th century.
Future Irish president Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh’s application for an identity card as a foreigner in France. He was sent to Paris in 1919 by the first Dáil Éireann to seek recognition for Irish independence from the peace conference convened in the aftermath of the First World War.
The Irish Free State joined the League of Nations in September 1923. Here, members of the Irish delegation to the League are pictured at their offices on Geneva’s Quai Wilson.
Taoiseach Éamon de Valera and a number of Irish diplomats taking time off from a meeting of the League of Nations in 1938.
This telegram from the Irish legation in Berlin on September 1st 1939 is how the Department of External Affairs in Dublin learned of the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe.
This map shows where Irish emergency relief aid to Italy was distributed in the post-war years. Supplies were also distributed in Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, France, Germany, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia.
An anti-partition pamphlet, one of a series produced by the Department of External Affairs and distributed to Irish missions around the world.
Éamon de Valera and Frank Aiken meet Irish actress and singer Maureen O’Hara in 1948.
A photographic display at the offices of the Courier Mail newspaper in Brisbane, circa 1950 to promote Ireland and its history and culture.
Máire MacEntee (Mhac an tSaoi), the first woman appointed to the rank of third secretary by open competition, walks in procession with Ireland’s ambassador to Spain Leo T. McCauley as he presents his credentials to Generalissimo Francisco Franco in Madrid in 1949.
Sean Nunan, secretary of the Department of External Affairs, informs Ambassador Frederick Boland in London of some of Winston Churchill’s attitudes towards Irish unity, as reported in Washington, DC in 1952.
A map indicates the potential impact of a 10-megaton nuclear device on Dublin and its hinterland.
Taoiseach John A. Costello arrives at the United Nations in New York in March 1956. After a nine-year wait due to a Soviet veto of its original 1946 application, Ireland was admitted to the UN in December 1955.
President Éamon de Valera at Áras an Uachtaráin with Ghanaian prime minister Kwame Nkrumah in June 1960.
Minister for Industry and Commerce Seán Lemass in Milan in April 1959 to visit industrial facilities in northern Italy.
A model wears an outfit by Rose Slowey at the 1966 Irish Export Fashion Fair. From the files of Ireland’s embassy in Rome, the photo shows how Ireland’s diplomatic missions were promoting a wide range of domestic industries across Europe.
The map for the route taken by US president John F. Kennedy after his arrival on Airforce One at Dublin Airport for his official visit to Ireland in June 1963.
All images and text in this photo essay from Ireland: A voice among the nations by John Gibney, Michael Kennedy and Kate O’Malley (published by Royal Irish Academy).