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 2011

The main task for DIFP in December 2011 was the completion of research for DIFP VIII and the distribution for selection in January 2012 of the set of potential documents for the volume. We distributed 797 documents, of which 450 to 500 or so will make it into the volume.
The month saw the 90th anniversary of the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and Michael appeared on The History Show on RTE Radio 1 to discuss the negotiations and the pressures facing the Irish delegation led by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. DIFP also worked in conjunction with the National Archives of Ireland to promote via Twitter the NAI’s online exhibition on the 1921 Treaty.
 

November 2011

The selection of documents for DIFP VIII is now almost complete. DIFP is running searches through the final collections we need for the volume. We have an initial selection of over 1,000 documents from for 1945 to 1948. The transition to the post-war world will throw up a few new areas in the study of Irish foreign policy – the loose threads of the Second World War: Nazi assets, war criminals and the legacy of neutrality.

DIFP has been working with our RIA colleagues in DHO developing a prototype electronic publication of the documents from DIFP I dealing with the Anglo-Irish Treaty. DIFP also looked over the final drafts of another RIA publication ‘The origins of the Irish Constitution: 1928-1941’ as much of the 1937 Constitution was drafted by Dept External Affairs Legal Advisor John Hearne.

Kate gave a series of outreach lectures at Queen’s University, Belfast on decolonisation, an area which is becoming a major theme for DIFP as we enter the post-war period. Michael spoke at a conference on the 150th anniversary of the UCD School of Law on Ireland’s Minister to Berlin (1929-32) Dan Binchy who was a UCD graduate and later Professor of Law at UCD and appeared on radio and television talking on areas ranging from Ireland and the Spanish Civil War to Second World War comparisons between Ireland and Iceland.
 

October 2011

DIFP Outreach Workshops

October was a busy month for DIFP outreach. Kate gave a series of workshops nationwide starting off in Kerry at the annual History Teachers Association of Ireland (HTAI) conference. DIFP online provides teachers with an excellent resource for the Leaving Certificate’s document based section. There was positive feedback as teachers engaged with the site and saw its potential for exam preparation. Later in the month Kate gave workshops to undergraduate and postgraduate students at UCD and Mary Immaculate College Limerick. As well as looking at DIFP online, students were given a virtual tour of other online resources that might be useful to the budding historian.
 

September 2011

11th International Conference of Editors of Diplomatic Documents

Michael represented DIFP at the 11th international conference of editors of diplomatic documents which was hosted by the Israel State Archives in Jerusalem from 19 to 22 September. The meeting, attended by the representatives of 21 states and institutions publishing diplomatic documents across the globe, discussed the progress made by projects since the previous meeting of the editors' group in the Hague in 2009 and focussed on future developments and directions in the field. Of particular importance were discussions on electronic publications, use of social media, in particular Twitter, and the future direction of diplomatic documents publishing projects in an age where the electronic publication is now on par with or surpassing the traditional hard copy printed volume. Michael presented a report on DIFP progress since 2009 and spoke from the conference floor in the plenary discussions on the future development of documents publishing, talking in particular about DIFP's use of Twitter and the project's outreach activities.

Delegates to the 11th international conference of editors of diplomatic documents

DIFP V (1937 to 1939) is now online

Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Volume V (1937 to 1939) is now available fully searchable and free of charge online at www.difp.ie. The volume joins the existing electronic versions of DIFP I to IV which cover Ireland’s foreign policy from 1919 to 1937. The volume shows in detail how the Irish diplomatic service briefed de Valera on the last days of peace in Europe and how the Department of External Affairs prepared for the Second War and the implementation of Ireland’s neutrality.

London launch for DIFP VII (1941-45)

DIFP VII includes much important and previously unknown material on the Churchill administration and life in wartime Britain as seen through the eyes of Irish diplomats in wartime London. It seemed fitting therefore to have a dedicated launch for the volume in London, and thanks to the initiative of Professor Eunan O'Halpin and Ambassador Bobby MacDonagh the volume was launched at the Irish Embassy on Grosvenor Place on the evening of 8 September. Professor O'Halpin and Feargal Keane spoke on the volume and the DIFP series to a large audience, highlighting in particular the diplomatic career of Irish High Commissioner in London, John Dulanty, a diplomat with personal friends, political contacts and inside knowledge that reached to the top of the British political establishment. Amongst the large number of attendees on the night we were delighted to have the company of Dulanty’s granddaughter Mrs Claire Barlow

AUGUST 2011

Dr Kate O’Malley speaking at the Global Irish Institute, UCD, Dublin on 1 September 2011 during the UCD/LSE joint conference on Ireland-Taiwan comparative studies. 

August has been a very busy month for DIFP. Kate spent most of the month working in UCD Archives on the papers of John A Costello, Eamon de Valera, Patrick McGilligan and Frank Aiken. The Aiken papers have provided a huge amount of information for DIFP VIII as well as some surprising revelations on the repeal of the External Relations Act in 1948 and the declaration of the Republic of Ireland in 1949. Michael continued working through the 305 series general registry files, in particular a large series of files on anti-partition policy which shows the close relationship that developed between Minister for External Affairs Seán MacBride and Conor Cruise O’Brien, who was then in charge of the Information Section at Iveagh House. The project has continued its active outreach programme by participating in the Parnell Summer School and Heritage Week and by appearances on RTE Radio One and Newstalk on topics ranging from Irish relations with the Vatican to the legacy of Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera.
 

JULY 2011

INSIGHTS INTO IRISH DIPLOMATIC HISTORY

Michael will be making regular appearances through late July and into August on the Saturday Marian Finucane Show on RTE Radio 1. He will be discussing with presenter Claire Byrne various episodes and stories from Irish diplomatic history that have relevance to the week’s news.
 

JUNE 2011

THE SECOND WORLD WAR OFF IRELAND’S WESTERN SHORES: NEUTRAL IRELAND’S ATLANTIC FRONTLINE

On the early afternoon of Sunday 26 June Michael spoke about the Second World War as it was seen from the Coast Watching Service Look Out Post on Loop Head, Co. Clare, at a large gathering of over 60 people of all ages at Halla Eoin, Kilbaha, Co. Clare. In a lecture which covered the local, national and international, Michael showed how the soldiers on duty on Loop Head from 1939 to 1945, all local men, were undertaking the defence of Ireland’s wartime neutrality in conformity with government policy. DIFP has outlined this policy in volumes VI and VII of the series, and the lecture showed how a project like DIFP dealing generally with high politics can also show the regional and local dimensions of national policy. The considerable attendance at the lecture also showed the high level of popular interest in Ireland’s experience of the Second World War.

John Williams introducing Michael before his talk at Halla Eoin,
Kilbaha, 26 June 2011

TALKING HISTORY LIVE BROADCAST FROM THE SHELBOURNE HOTEL, DUBLIN

On the evening of Sunday 26 June Michael joined the Newstalk 106 FM Talking History show in their first ever live broadcast which took place from the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin. The show was a two hour long discussion on Ireland’s second war neutrality and with Michael on the panel were DIFP editors Ronan Fanning and Eunan O’Halpin along with Bryce Evans of UCD and Ciaran Brady of TCD. The lively discussion engaged an invited audience of over 100 for two hours and during an energetic debate considered that the prism of moralistic present-centrism was unhelpful in analysing Ireland’s second world war and that for reasons of pure realpolitik Ireland was correct to stay neutral during world war two.

‘VERY GRIPPING READING’:- REVIEW OF DIFP VII IN THE DUBLIN REVIEW OF BOOKS SUMMER 2011 EDITION

Pádraig Murphy, who held many senior Ambassadorial postings at the Department of Foreign Affairs including Moscow, Bonn, Brussels and Tokyo, has written a long, thoughtful and positive review of DIFP VII in the Summer 2011 edition of the Dublin Review of Books (No. 18): Read the review here. Ambassador Murphy writes that the latest DIFP volume ‘makes for very gripping reading’; the documents being ‘voluminous, informative and comprehensive’ and he adds that these facets account for the ‘fascination of the publication’.

GERMAN INTERNEES IN NEUTRAL IRELAND

Michael appeared on the Tom Dunne show on 13 June explaining why it was that over 200 German military personnel were interned in Ireland during the Second World War and why it was that they were allowed socialise with local Irish people near their Curragh internment camp, make and sell cakes and toys and work as labour squads on local bogs. Listen to the show here.

MAY 2011

70TH ANNIVERSARY OF NORTH STRAND BOMBING

On the afternoon to of 31 May 2011 the North Strand community and invited guests, including Michael, attended a ceremony to remember the night 70 years ago when four Luftwaffe bombs brought widespread destruction and death to Dublin.

The commemoration was organised by Dublin City Library and Archive and was held in the memorial garden to the bombing at Marino College on the North Strand.

The German Ambassador to Ireland, Busso von Alvensleben, said that the bombing reminded the many hundreds present how ‘tremendously precious peace is’. He added that the bombing ‘brought death and suffering into this city and to its inhabitants. My deep sympathy and respect are with the survivors and families and friends of the victims.’

Michael spoke at a Dublin City Library one day conference on the bombing in May 2010 and appears on a soon to be broadcast TV3 documentary on the bombing ‘Dublin’s North Strand Bombing’.
 

Ambassador von Alvensleben at the North Strand Bombing Commemoration

The unveiling of the 70th anniversary memoria

75 years of Aer Lingus – 1936-2011

Michael and Dr Marnie Hay (TCD) discussed 75 years of Aer Lingus – Ireland’s national airline – with Myles Dungan on The History Show on RTE Radio 1 on 22 May 2011. Michael emphasised the importance of Aer Lingus as a national strategic asset and that its formation and development had a specific geopolitical aspect in ensuring that as an island Ireland had independent air communication with the outside world. He also explained that since 1919 aviation had a specific role in Irish foreign policy as successive governments were aware of the importance of Ireland’s location between Europe and North America for the development of global aviation. Listen to the Podcast here.

Visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland

Michael appeared on the Pat Kenny show on RTE Radio 1 on the morning of 17 May as Queen Elizabeth was arriving in Dublin. He spoke to Pat and Myles Dungan about meetings between the Queen’s grandfather King George V and later her father King George VI and the Irish High Commissioner in London, John Dulanty. Dulanty considered King George V: ‘rather brusque’, King Edward VIII: ‘overanxious to please’ and King George VI: ‘simple, frank, free from affectation and having neither the brusqueness of his father nor the touch of the cinema star that marked his brother… in no way brilliant [however] in point of character and sense of duty the best of the lot’. Read Dulanty’s January 1932 report of his audience with King George V here. Dulanty’s March 1937 audience with King George VI appears in DIFP V and will be available online later this year on www.difp.ie when DIFP V goes live online.

Michael also spoke about the importance for British-Irish relations of the Royal visit to Ireland on the BBC World Service and on Swedish Radio.

WINSTON CHURCHILL AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR

On 8 May, the 66th anniversary of VE Day, Michael joined a panel of distinguished historians - Anthony Beevor, Professor John Horne and Professor Richard Toye - on Newstalk 106 FM’s ‘Talking History’ show to discuss Winston Churchill’s reputation and legacy as a war leader. Listen to the podcast here.

April 2011

DIFP VIII – ONGOING RESEARCH

Searching the top secret files of the office of the Secretary General of the Department of External Affairs (then known simply as the ‘Secretary’) and confidential reports from missions abroad to Dublin for 1945 to 1951 for the next volume of DIFP was the project’s main task during April.
The fear of Communism, Soviet Russia and of a Third World War between East and West pervade these documents. So too does Ireland’s desire to involve itself in international relations after wartime neutrality. Sometimes authors have portrayed the immediate postwar years as a vacuum or wilderness years in Irish foreign policy. The ongoing research for DIFP VIII (due for publication in late 2012) shows that this was not so.

WORK UNDERWAY TO PLACE DIFP V (1937-39) ONLINE

DIFP has aimed at placing a volume of DIFP online each year in the hope of having only a short interval between a volume appearing in hard copy and online on www.difp.ie. In April we began the preparatory work to place DIFP V online. Ronan Nestor, who is with the RIA for a one year internship, has been putting together the database from which the new online volume will be constructed.

DIFP AT LOOP HEAD

During the Second World War, British and American flying boats flew from the County Limerick town of Foynes to North America and Lisbon. High ranking Allied civilian and military personnel were often incognito passengers on these commercial flights.
A Defence Forces Look Out Post (LOP) on Loop Head, County Clare, logged the passage of these aircraft from Foynes. At the post also was a large white stone marker reading ‘EIRE’ to alert Allied pilots that they were passing into neutral Irish airspace. These ‘Eire Signs’ were a visible manifestation of Ireland’s wartime neutrality. Very few remain visible today.
Michael travelled to Loop Head over the Easter Holidays to brief the Loop Head Tourism Committee on the purpose, structure and construction of their local ‘Eire sign’ and LOP and to help locate the sign on the headland. The Committee is hoping to restore both structures as a tourist attraction.

Michael with Mr John Williams of the Loop Head Tourism Committee
measuring the border of the ‘Eire Sign’ on Loop Head
 

March 2011

International Women's Day at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Kate and Mary Banotti were guest speakers at the Department of Foreign Affairs' International Women's Day event held on 8 March 2011. The lunchtime talk was hosted by Marie Cross, Assistant Secretary at the Department, and took place in the ballroom of Iveagh house. Kate spoke about the history of women in the Irish diplomatic service. Mary Banotti spoke about her experiences as a woman in Irish politics and as an MEP. After the presentations there was a lively Q&A session with the audience. The event was video conferenced across the world to our missions abroad, and questions were submitted from as far afield as Buenos Aires.

 Dr Kate O'Malley, Mary Banotti and Assistant Secretary Marie Cross, Department of Foreign Affairs

February 2011

DIFP outreach workshop

Kate was asked to give a DIFP outreach workshop on 9 February 2011 by the University of Limerick. She gave a presentation titled 'Technology and Historical Research' to the History Department's graduate seminar, hosted by Dr Bernadette Whelan. The workshop took place in Plassey House on the grounds of the University of Limerick.

January 2011

PLATO’S CAVE: IRELAND’S WARTIME NEUTRALITY REASSESSED’ HISTORY IRELAND VOL 19 NO. 1

Marking the publication of DIFP VII, this article in History Ireland by Michael questions the long-standing assumption of Ireland’s isolation during the Second World War. Neutral Ireland was far from isolated, certainly as far as its diplomatic service was concerned, and Ireland’s wartime neutrality was a policy that could flex in response to the changing international system of a world at war. The article is based on and quotes in detail from material contained in DIFP VII.

REVIEW OF DIFP VII IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT BY PROFESSOR JOHN A. MURPHY

‘This treasure trove … packed with fascinating material … is an invaluable contribution to our knowledge of the State’s historical development’

Read Professor Murphy’s review of DIFP VII, which appeared on 9 January 2011, here

DIFP AT ‘THE HISTORY OF IRISH FOREIGN POLICY AND DIPLOMACY’,
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, CORK, 7-8 JANUARY

Taking DIFP VII as his key theme, Michael spoke about the need for historians to reinvestigate the perspective taken towards the Second World War by the Department of External Affairs and the Irish Defence Forces and how the Department and Ireland’s military intelligence service (G2) co-operated during the conflict.

Kate spoke on contemporary relations between Ireland and India. Her paper focussed on inter-Commonwealth connections in the post-independence era, as well as the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries from the 1940s to the 1960s.

See the conference programme here: ‘The History of Irish Foreign Policy & Diplomacy’.

REVIEW OF DIFP VII IN THE IRISH TIMES BY DR FEARGHAL MCGARRY
‘SOVEREIGNTY IN THE BALANCE’ (IRISH TIMES, 1 JANUARY 2011)

Dr McGarry concludes of DIFP VII that ‘Notwithstanding the impecunious lot of the Irish diplomat abroad, their reports shine a fascinating, and sometimes chilling, light on the war, detailing, among other issues, the impact of the Blitz, conditions within wartime Europe, the persecution of the Jews and the chaos wrought by the collapse of fascism. Censorship ensured that the Irish people were kept ignorant of the war; the same could not be said of the Irish State.’

‘THE LATEST FASCINATING VOLUME OF IRISH DIPLOMATIC PAPERS’
REVIEW OF DIFP VII IN THE IRISH TIMES BY PATRICK SMYTH

In his New Year’s day column in the Irish Times Patrick Smyth linked DIFP VII and Wikileaks. He decided that ‘diplomats still know how to grab a reader’ and that DIFP VII ‘provides a riveting insight’ into wartime Irish diplomacy as ‘it reads like a fast paced thriller’.