Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: v. 3: 1926-1932

Description

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.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Diplomacy
• International relations
• Diplomatie (homonymie)

Informations

• Publié par: Royal Irish Academy
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2002
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781908997456
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

Acadamh R oga na h ireann
An Roinn Gn tha Eachtracha

C ip is ar Pholasa Eachtrach na h ireann
Imleabhar III
1926 ~ 1932
E AGARTH IR Ronan Fanning Michael Kennedy Dermot Keogh Eunan O Halpin
Royal Irish Academy
Department of Foreign Affairs

Documents on Irish Foreign Policy
Volume III
1926 ~ 1932
E DITORS Ronan Fanning Michael Kennedy Dermot Keogh Eunan O Halpin
First e-published in 2017 by the Royal Irish Academy 19 Dawson Street Dublin, Ireland
All rights reserved
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-908997-45-6
Publishing consultants Institute of Public Administration, Dublin
Design by Jan de Fouw Typeset by Carole Lynch Printed by ColourBooks, Dublin
Contents
Editorial advisory board
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
List of archival sources
Biographical notes
List of documents reproduced
Documents
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
Appendices
1 Months of the year in Irish and English
2 Glossary of Irish words and phrases
3 Text of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (6 December 1921)
4 List of Irish missions abroad 1926-1932
5 Calendars for years 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932
Editors

Professor Ronan Fanning MRIA (Professor of Modern History, University College Dublin)
Dr Michael Kennedy (Executive Editor, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Series, Royal Irish Academy)
Professor Dermot Keogh MRIA (Professor of History, University College Cork)
Professor Eunan O Halpin (Professor of Contemporary Irish History, Trinity College Dublin)
Editorial Assistant
Ms Sanchia O Connor
(Royal Irish Academy)
Editorial Advisory Board

(In addition to the Editors)
Mr Patrick Buckley (Royal Irish Academy)
Ms Susan Conlon (Department of Foreign Affairs) (from December 2000)
Ms Catriona Crowe (National Archives of Ireland)
Mr Noel Kilkenny (Department of Foreign Affairs) (May 1999-September 2001)
Mr Liam MacGabhann (Department of Foreign Affairs) (from September 2001)
Ms Miriam Tiernan (Department of Foreign Affairs) (from November 2001)
Abbreviations

The following is a list of the most commonly used abbreviated terms and phrases in the volume, covering both documents and editorial matter. Other abbreviations have been spelt out in the text. DFA Department of Foreign Affairs collection, National Archives, Dublin DTS Department of the Taoiseach, S series files, National Archives, Dublin ES Early Series files, Department of Foreign Affairs collection, National Archives, Dublin NAI National Archives, Dublin TD Teachta D la (Member of D il ireann) UCDA University College Dublin, Archives Department
Preface

The National Archives Act, 1986, provides for the transfer of departmental records more than thirty years old to the National Archives of Ireland for inspection by the public, unless they are certified to be in regular use by a Department for administrative purposes, or unless they are certified as withheld from public inspection on one of the grounds specified in the Act. The bulk of the material consulted for this volume comes from the records of the Department of Foreign Affairs (previously the Department of External Affairs) and the Department of the Taoiseach, all of which are available for inspection at the National Archives of Ireland at Bishop Street in Dublin. Other material from personal collections comes from the holdings of the University College Dublin Archives Department. The Department of Foreign Affairs documents in the National Archives of Ireland have been made available to researchers since January 1991. 1
The concept of a multi-volume series of documents on Irish foreign policy was put forward in 1994 by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Mr Ted Barrington, then the Political Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, brought the proposal to a meeting of the Royal Irish Academy s National Committee for the Study of International Affairs of which he was then a member. The then T naiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dick Spring, sanctioned the proposal, which was also welcomed by the Director of the National Archives of Ireland, Dr David Craig, whose permission was necessary for the publication of material in his care. The Royal Irish Academy agreed to become a partner in the project when Council approved its foundation document on 3 April 1995.
The main provisions of that document are:
that the project s basic aim is to make available, in an organised and accessible way, to people who may not be in a position easily to consult the National Archives, documents from the files of the Department which are considered important or useful for an understanding of Irish foreign policy ;
that an Editorial Advisory Board, comprising representatives of the Department, of the Academy and of the National Archives, in addition to senior Irish academics working in the fields of modern history and international relations, would oversee decisions on publication;
that the series would begin at the foundation of the State and publish volumes in chronological order and that the basic criterion for the selection of documents would be their use or importance in understanding the evolution of policies and decisions .
These arrangements found public expression in the 1996 White Paper on foreign policy, Challenges and Opportunities Abroad (16.48), which provided that-

As part of the Government s desire to encourage a greater interest in Irish foreign policy, it has been agreed that the Department of Foreign Affairs, in association with the Royal Irish Academy, will publish a series of foreign policy documents of historic interest. It is hoped that this initiative will encourage and assist greater academic interest in the study of Irish foreign policy.
Provision for the project was first included in the Department s Estimates for 1997 and a preliminary meeting of what became the Editorial Advisory Board, in Iveagh House on 10 April 1997, agreed that an assistant editor should be appointed in addition to the editors nominated by the National Committee for the Study of International Affairs: Professors Ronan Fanning, MRIA, Dermot Keogh MRIA and Eunan O Halpin. Dr Michael Kennedy was appointed in June 1997 when work began on the selection of documents. Dr Kennedy has since been designated as executive editor, and is responsible for the direction and day-to-day running of the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Project.
The first volume, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Volume I , covering the period 1919 to 1922, was published in November 1998 in the run-up to the eightieth anniversary of the founding of the Department of Foreign Affairs in January 1919. Subsequent volumes have been published at two-yearly intervals, with Volume II appearing in November 2000, Volume III, covering the period from March 1926 to March 1932, appearing in October 2002 and Volume IV, covering the early to mid-1930s, planned for publication in the autumn of 2004.
1 The Department of Foreign Affairs was known at the Department of External Affairs from December 1922 to 1971. From January 1919 to December 1922 the Department was known as the Department of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (see DIFP Volume I for further details).
Introduction

This volume of selected documents, the third in the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series, covers the development of Irish foreign policy and the Irish diplomatic service from 5 February 1926 to 9 March 1932.
The volume opens with the Irish government s preparations for the September 1926 Assembly of the League of Nations and the October-November 1926 Imperial Conference, both of which had a defining influence on the themes and conduct of Irish foreign policy into the early 1930s.
The closing date of the volume marks the first change of government in the Irish Free State. In the general election on 16 February 1932, Fianna F il, led by amon de Valera, defeated the Cumann na nGaedheal government of William T. Cosgrave, which had held power since September 1923. The new government came into office on 9 March 1932, the date on which this volume closes. The next volume in the series will run from March 1932 to December 1936.
* * *
The development of the Irish Free State s multilateral relations through the League of Nations and the Commonwealth, the strengthening of bilateral relations with the opening of three new missions in 1929 and the placing of the Department of External Affairs on a firm footing are the major themes of the volume. The leading role of Irish diplomats and officials at the Imperial Conferences of 1926 and 1930 and the state s election for a three-year term to the Council of the League of Nations in 1930 are among the most significant developments in Irish diplomacy in the years under review. These developments strengthened the international sovereignty of the Irish Free State, widened the horizons of Irish foreign policy and led to a greater sophistication in the operation of the Department of External Affairs.
Following the active stance taken at the Seventh Assembly of the League of Nations in 1926 when the Irish Free State failed in a last minute attempt to be elected to a temporary seat on the League s Council, the selected documents show that ministers and officials produced memoranda arguing for a more coherent and active League policy. The Irish Free State thereafter adopted a higher profile at the yearly meeting of the League Assembly. Its support of Canada s candidature for election to the Council in 1927 undermined the British assertion that only they could represent the dominions on the League Council and blazed the trail for the Irish candidature of 1930.
The Irish Free State s election to the Council in September 1930 brought with it international responsibilities that Irish diplomats had never before experienced. The quality and completeness of the documents relating to the election provide a detailed account of this