THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY IS IRELAND'S LEADING BODY OF EXPERTS IN THE SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

The Royal Irish Academy/Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann champions research. We identify and recognise Ireland’s world class researchers. We support scholarship and promote awareness of how science and the humanities enrich our lives and benefit society. We believe that good research needs to be promoted, sustained and communicated. The Academy is run by a Council of its members. Membership is by election and considered the highest academic honour in Ireland.

Read more about the RIA

Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: v. 10: 1951-57

by  Michael KennedyCatriona CroweRonan FanningDermot KeoghEunan O'HalpinKate O'Malley
€ 50.00

Book Details

Published by Royal Irish Academy

November 2016

Hardback

Number of pages: 936

ISBN: 9781908996862

DIFP X marks a major turning point in 20th century Irish foreign policy. It covers Ireland’s 1955 admission to the United Nations. This massive change to Irish foreign policy, revealed for the first time in the original documents of the 1950s in DIFP X, is the point from which Ireland’s global place amongst the nations in the 21st century originates. The volume covers the key themes of 1950s Irish foreign policy – UN membership, the renewed IRA campaign in Northern Ireland, the Suez Crisis, the Soviet Invasion of Hungary and the threat of a nuclear war. For the first time light is shed on the preparation of ‘the War Book’, the state manual through which Ireland would make its transition to World War Three. The high sensitive issue of the overseas adoption of Irish children is covered in detail, providing a documentary source like no other available into this difficult chapter of Irish history.

Reviews:

'Impeccably edited, [...] the texts are laced with the sort of details that constantly surprise and inform the reader'. John Bowman for the Irish Times.

'The documents in this series are a vital resource for anyone interested in Ireland’s history and the shaping of Irish foreign policy. The current volume in this impressive series covers a period of significant change in Irish foreign policy and in Ireland’s place amongst the nations'. Mr. Charles Flanagan, TD, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

About the authors

Michael Kennedy

Dr Michael Kennedy has for almost three decades written and published widely on modern Irish history, in particular on Irish military and diplomatic history and on Irish foreign policy. He has been the executive editor of the RIA's Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series and head of the DIFP series since 1997. Previously he lectured in Irish and European history at Queen's University, Belfast and received his doctorate from the NUI in 1994 on the early history of Ireland’s relationship with the League of Nations.  Michael appears regularly on television and radio discussing aspects of Irish history ranging from lighthouses to embassies to the history of curry houses in Dublin. Michael is a former member of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, a Research Associate of the Centre for Contemporary Irish History, Trinity College, Dublin and was a Visiting Professor at Liverpool Hope University from 2009 to 2018. He was also formerly an adjunct Professor of History at University College Dublin. He is the co-author (with John Gibney and Kate O'Malley) of Ireland: a voice among the nations (Royal Irish Academy, 2019), and (with Daniel Ayiotis and John Gibney) of The Emergency: A visual history of the Irish Defence Forces during the Second World War, 1939-1945 (Eastwood, 2019).

Catriona Crowe

Catriona Crowe is Head of Special Projects at the National Archives of Ireland. She is Manager of the Irish Census Online Project, which has placed the 1901 and 1911 censuses online free of charge over the last 5 years. She is an Editor of Documents on Irish Foreign Policy and of Dublin 1911, both published by the Royal Irish Academy. She is Vice-President of the Irish Labour History Society, and a former President of the Women’s History Association. She is Chairperson of the Irish Theatre Institute, which promotes and supports Irish theatre and has created an award-winning website of Irish theatre productions. She is Chairperson of the SAOL Project, a rehabilitation initiative for women with addiction problems, based in the North Inner City, and also Chairperson of the Inner Cirty Renewal Group, which delivers employment and welfare rights advice and support to the community in the North Inner City. She contributes regularly to the broadcast and print media on cultural and historical matters. She is a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

You can find more information on the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy research project here.

Ronan Fanning

Ronan Fanning MRIA was Professor of Modern History at University College Dublin. He was an editor of the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series and a founder-member of the Royal Irish Academy's National Committee for the Study of International Affairs. He was joint-editor of Irish Historical Studies from 1976 to 1987. He was the author of The Irish Department of Finance and Independent Ireland and co-editor of Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Volume I, 1919-22, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Volume II, 1923-1926 and Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Volume III, 1926 – 1932. He published scholarly articles in journals throughout Europe and North America and was a regular political columnist for the Irish Sunday Independent.

You can find more information on the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy research project here.

Dermot Keogh

Dermot Keogh MRIA is Professor of History at University College Cork and an editor of the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series. He has been a Fulbright Professor in California, Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington and Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration at University College Cork. He is the co-editor of Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Volume I, 1919-22, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Volume II, 1923-1926 and Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Volume III, 1926-1932. He is the author of numerous books on Irish diplomatic and political history, including Ireland and Europe, 1919-1989, Ireland and the Vatican: The Politics and Diplomacy of Church and State, 1922-1960, Twentieth-Century Ireland: Nation and State and Jews in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Refugees, Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.

You can find more information on the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy research project here.

Eunan O'Halpin

Eunan O'Halpin MRIA is the Professor of Contemporary Irish History at Trinity College, Dublin. He is also an editor of the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series. His most recent publications are: Head of the Civil Service: A Study of Sir Warren Fisher, Defending Ireland: The Irish State and its Enemies since 1922 and MI5 and Ireland, 1939 – 1935. He is a co-editor of Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Volume I, 1919-22, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Volume II, 1923 – 1926 and Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Volume III, 1926 – 1932. He is currently co-editing a study of Anglo-American security co-operation between 1914 and 1949. For more information about the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy research project please check https://www.ria.ie/research-projects/documents-irish-foreign-policy

Kate O'Malley

Dr Kate O’Malley is Assistant Editor with the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) series. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin (BA, PhD). Her book Ireland, India and Empire was published by Manchester University Press in 2008. She is co-author (with Michael Kennedy and John Gibney) of Ireland: a voice among the nations (Royal Irish Academy, 2019), and, with John Gibney, of The Handover: Dublin Castle and the British withdrawal from Ireland, 1922 (Royal Irish Academy, 2022). She has lectured at Trinity College, Dublin, University College Dublin and Queen's University, Belfast.