Radicals to statesmen: relations between Ireland and India, 1919-64

From the second decade of the twentieth century nationalist activists in Ireland and India engaged with one another other, exchanged ideas, and even took inspiration from one another’s struggle against British rule. The networks of Empire facilitated the radicalisation of Indians in the first half of the twentieth century, and they were increasingly drawn towards the activities and writings of Irish revolutionaries, taking inspiration from their activities and sometimes, arguably, learning from their mistakes. A network of unofficial links and revolutionary affinities that developed in the 1920s and 1930s laid the basis for the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1964.

Kate O'Malley is co-author of our forthcoming book Ireland: a voice among the nations. The book will be published in late October; however, lecture attendees will have the opportunity to purchase the book ahead of publication.

About the book:
Ireland had a foreign policy and a diplomatic service before there was an internationally recognised independent Irish state. The origins of the modern Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade lie in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs established as one of the first four government departments of the first Dáil in January 1919. This richly illustrated book is a history of Irish foreign policy, rather than an institutional history of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade itself (though the two obviously go hand in hand). It explores how a small state such as Ireland has related to the wider world, by examining how Irish diplomats and politicians responded to the challenges presented by the upheavals of the twentieth century and how this small European state engaged with the world, from the Versailles peace conference of 1919 to the globalisation of the twenty-first century.

This is a centenary project of the Royal Irish Academy, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the National Archives.

Lecture series marking 100 years of Irish foreign policy:
19 September, 1 p.m.: John Gibney, ‘Sinn Féin ‘diplomats’ and the Irish revolution, 1919-23’.
3 October, 1 p.m.: Michael Kennedy, 'Women in Irish diplomacy'.