The main task of DIFP is to research and publish volumes in the DIFP series, but the project also plays its part in promoting interest in the history of Ireland and its international relations. The DIFP news pages highlight the publication of new volumes in the DIFP series and show some of the project’s outreach involvements.
December:
Lecture to Contemporary Irish History Seminar, TCD: 'Indian restuarants, curry and the development of ethnic cuisine in Dublin, 1908-2008'
On 16 December Michael spoke at the weekly seminar of the Centre for Contemporary Irish History on the development of Indian restaurants in Dublin from 1908 to 2008. The paper had a strong international relations agenda as well as a specific soci-economic focus as it looked at the widening of Irish society to international influences through the twentieth century as a result of the involvement of Irish men and women in the British colonial administration in India to 1947 and the arrival in Ireland of increasing numbers students from the sub-continent in the post-war decades. A unique diplomatic angle to the paper was its account of the career of Ireland's first 'Curry King', Mike Butt, proprietor of the internationally renowned 'Tandoori Rooms' on Dublin's Leeson Street. A Kenyan of Kashmiri descent, Butt served as Pakistan's Honorary Consul in Dublin in the late 1960s and early 1970s, seeking to promote Irish trade links with Pakistan. Butt also worked with Irish dairy and meat producers to break into the ethnic market in Britain.
Lecture to Military History Society of Ireland: '"Take prompt and vigorous action": The Chief of Staff's report on the Defence Forces during the Emergency'
Michael addressed the Military History Society of Ireland on 4 December 2009 on the Chief of Staff’s reports on the Defence Forces from 1940 to 1949. The paper examined and analysed how the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Dan McKenna built Ireland's small and under-resourced military establishment into a two division field force between 1940 and 1942 and how this was achieved in the most difficult international conditions. Used declassified Irish, British, American and Germany diplomatic and military sources along with teh reports the talk placed Ireland's difficult and complex military position during the Second World War within the geopolitical considerations of the period.
November:
Archives 2.0 and the Diplomatic historian
Last March Kate and Michael spoke at the CRESC Conference at the University of Manchester on the application of Web 2.0 technologies to Archives. Michael's paper Cautionary Tales: Archives 2.0 and the Diplomatic Historian has now been published in the online journal Ariadne and is available at http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue61/#main-articles
Conference on the Irish in Britain
On 23 November Michael spoke on the role of the Irish diaspora in the development of Irish foreign policy in the early years of the state at a one-day conference on 'The Irish in Britain: A conversation with the diaspora' organised by the John Hume Institute at UCD and attended by over 100 people at the Royal Society in London. See The Irish In Britain: UCD John Hume Institute, 23 Nov. 2009. Download Michael's paper. A podcast of the lecture will soon be available.
Diplomatic simulation game
DIFP and the School of History and Archives at UCD rolled out a refined version of the successful diplomatic simulation game first run in April 2009 with much larger teams – approximately ten per team - , a re-vamped selection of documents and a tighter scenario based around events in the Second World in the Atlantic and European theatres in November and December 1940.
The game ran smoothly, but it was not without its moments of tension as the participants were concerned that there were spies in their midst and by the possibility of illicit text communication between team members.
The game came to a tense conclusion with German forces poised to invade Ireland, the United States about to enter the war and Britain and Ireland agreeing to Irish unity in return for Dublin making the Treaty Ports available to the Royal Navy.
OCTOBER:
Tenth International Conference of Editors of Diplomatic Documents
Michael represented DIFP at the tenth international conference of editors of diplomatic documents, held at the Netherlands Foreign Ministry, the Hague, from 14 to 16 October 2009. This was the first time the editors group met since its 2007 conference held in Dublin. The Hague conference was a great success and brought together the representatives of 23 countries and the United Nations to discuss best practices and recent developments in the field of diplomatic document editing and publishing. Of greatest value to DIFP were the papers on Web 2.0 and on redesigning electronic publications - these being issues and techniques which DIFP will have to learn and encompass in the coming years. Michael presented a report on DIFP progress since 2007 as part of the traditional conference tour de table of all participants.
SEPTEMBER:
September 1939 was a critical month for Irish diplomats in the capitals of Europe. While their colleagues at the Department of External Affairs in Dublin planned to implement neutrality should war break out, they were tasked to report all news from the continent. At 0945 on 1 September 1939 William Warnock, Ireland's Chargé d'Affaires in Berlin, sent a coded telegram to Dublin stating what many had feared: Germany had invaded Poland - hostilities having begun just before 0500 that morning. This telgram, and those of Warnock's colleagues are published in DIFP V and DIFP VI.
JULY-AUGUST:
Research continues on DIFP VII and VIII
During the summer months the project tackled the changing nature of Irish foreign policy in 1945-46 as it began to look at post-war files that had their origins in the later years of the second world war. Amidst the destruction of the global war and Ireland's attempts to reposition itself in the post-war world the state's small effort to aid the rebuilding of the states of Europe - in particular France, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy became apparent.
Seán Murphy, Irish Minister to France, distributes clothing supplies in 1947 (NAI)
A young recipient of Irish food aid to Italy (1946) (NAI)
JUNE:
Sean Lemass: The Man Who Made Modern Ireland
Michael appeared on Seán Lemass and foreign policy and north-south relations on Sean Lemass: The Man Who Made Modern Ireland produced by doubleband films and which was broadcast on RTE 1 television on 30 June.
May:
DIFP interview recorded for forthcoming episode of BBC’s COAST series
The Coast team on location in Donegal
On location at St John’s Point and Carrigan Head in Donegal Michael explained to Dick Strawbridge of the BBC COAST team the importance of the secret wartime Air Corridor across neutral Ireland from Lough Erne to Donegal Bay which allowed RAF and USAAF aircraft access to Atlantic airspace during the Battle of the Atlantic in Second World War. The interview used the story of the Air Corridor to explore the secret wartime co-operation between Ireland and Britain, details of which are contained in DIFP VI. It will be broadcast in a forthcoming series of COAST in 2010. Details will be posted on the BBC Coast website in due course.
April:
Diplomatic Simulation Game organised by DIFP and the School of History and Archives at UCD.
Participants in the diplomatic simulation game
On 15 and 22 April DIFP and the School of History and Archives at UCD jointly ran a postgraduate level diplomatic simulation game which used volume VI of DIFP along with material from the Churchill papers, the Roosevelt library and the German foreign ministry archives to examine the aims and objectives of Irish, British, German and United States foreign policies/war aims in November-December 1940. Fourteen students and two Third Secretaries from the Department of Foreign Affairs took part in the simulation. The game was played over two sessions and was of four hours duration in total.
The end result of the game was a surprise German invasion of Ireland leading to a British counterattack to support the deposed de Valera government with the United States entering the war a year early as a result to support Britain and to defend Ireland. The students who participated immersed themselves thoroughly in the game that saw many moments of high tension and intrigue.
March:
Archives 2.0 conference at the University of Manchester
In March 2009 Michael and Kate both presented papers relating to DIFP online at the ‘Archives 2.0’ conference, held at the University of Manchester. The conference was organised by the Economic and Social Research Council’s Centre for Research Methods. Click here for further information.
Volumes II and III of DIFP are now online and available at www.difp.ie
The full and searchable text of volumes II and III of the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series is now available free online at www.difp.ie
The new material runs from 1923 to 1932 and joins that from 1919 to 1921 already available at www.difp.ie
Amongst the new topics covered are:
- The final months of the Irish civil war from an international and diplomatic perspective;
- The Boundary Commission;
- Ireland's admission to the League of Nations;
- League of Nations assemblies from 1923 to 1931;
- Ireland's election to the Council of the League in 1929 and Ireland's term on the Council 1930-32 (to Feb. 1932);
- The Imperial Conferences of 1923, 1926 and 1931 and Commonwealth policy to 1932;
- The Balfour Declaration (1926) and The Statute of Westminster (1931);
- Bilateral relations with the Britain, the United States, France, Germany and the Vatican City;
- The Japanese invasion of Manchuria;
- The collapse of Weimar Germany and the rise of Nazism;
- Irish views on the Briand Plan for a European Union (1930);
- The Great Depression.
February:
DIFP Online workshop at UCG
In February Kate travelled to Galway to host a DIFP online workshop at the Moore Institute at the National University of Ireland. Undergraduate and postgraduate students both attended with their laptops, and the interactive session was a great success.