Where previous histories of Ireland in the war years have focused on high politics, That Neutral Island mines deeper layers of experience. Stories, letters, and diaries illuminate this small country as it suffered rationing, censorship, the threat of invasion, and a strange detachment from the war.
Ireland's Second World War frontline troops were the men of the Coast Watching Service. From 1939-45 they maintained a continuous watch along the Irish shoreline, reporting all incidents in the seas and skies to Military Intelligence (G2). They had a vital influence on the development of Ireland's pro-Allied neutrality and on the defence of Ireland during 'The Emergency', as through their reports G2 assessed the direction of the Battle of the Atlantic off Ireland and reported belligerent threats to the state upwards to the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, to the Cabinet and Taoiseach and Minister for External Affairs Eamon de Valera. Using unique Irish military sources and newly available British and American material, the history of the coastwatchers and G2 combines to tell the history of the Second World War as it happened locally along the coast of Ireland and at national and international levels in Dublin, London, Berlin and Washington. Of particular importance, the study reveals in the greatest detail yet available the secret relationship between Irish military and diplomats and British Admiralty Intelligence, showing how coast watching service reports were passed on to the RAF and Royal Navy Britain in the hunt for German u-boats and aircraft in the Atlantic.
Post-war Marshall Plan aid to Europe and indeed Ireland is well documented, but practically nothing is known about simultaneous Irish aid to Europe. This book provides a full record of the aid – mainly food but also clothes, blankets, medicines, etc. – that Ireland donated to continental Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Hungary, the Balkans, Italy, and zones of occupied Germany. Starting with Ireland’s neutral wartime record, often wrongly presented as pro-German when Ireland in fact unofficially favoured the western Allies, Jerome aan de Wiel explains why Éamon de Valera’s government sent humanitarian aid to the devastated continent. His book analyses the logistics of collection and distribution of supplies sent abroad as far as the Greek islands. Despite some alleged Cold-War hijacking of Irish relief – and this humanitarianism was not above the politics of that East-West confrontation – it became mostly a story of hope, generosity and European Christian solidarity. Rich archival records from Ireland and the European beneficiary countries, as well as contemporary local and national newspapers across Europe, allow the author to measure and describe not only the official but also the popular response to Irish relief schemes. This work is illustrated with contemporary photographs and some key graphs and tables that show the extent of the aid programme.
This history examines the fraternal friendships and embittered masculine conflicts among British, American, and Irish national leaders and their Dublin-based advisers during the Second World War.
Neutrality has, supposedly, long been a pillar of the Irish national identity – a policy that the country has proudly presented on the world stage. But, examining the concept reveals it to be a vague and elastic notion – one that, throughout history, various governments have been happy to stretch or, in some cases, abandon entirely. Today, warfare has expanded to include cyberattacks, environmental concerns, election interference and disinformation. If our traditional idea of warfare is changing, should our idea of neutrality change too? In this timely and thought-provoking examination of a core tenet of Irish society, Conor Gallagher explores the practical and ethical implications of choosing a side, asking: in the face of aggression, is it right to sit back and do nothing?
The full story of Winston Churchill's lifelong engagement with Ireland and the Irish. A long overdue book which at last addresses the most neglected part of Churchill's legacy, on both sides of the Irish Sea.
This book examines the effects of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the European Union (EU) on the national foreign policies of Ireland and Austria. Small and neutral EU member states provide a fascinating case-study as the CFSP entails a dilemma for them. Their size may create assumptions that they are more likely to adopt EU policy, yet the traditional position of neutrality may act contrary to Europeanization. By concentrating on this side of the reciprocal relationship between EU and national foreign policy, the book takes a new and innovative approach to investigate prospects for a common European foreign policy, and goes beyond an examination of changes in the national foreign policies of Ireland and Austria to provide an engaging explanation and understanding of Europeanization. Based on a comprehensive conceptual framework, this text investigates three dimensions of national foreign policy; the Europeanization of foreign policy-making, the Europeanization of foreign policy substance and effects on neutrality, to create an accessible and informed insight into the evolution of European cooperation in the field of foreign policy, and the impact on national foreign policy. EU Foreign Policy and the Europeanization of Neutral States will be of interest to students and scholars of European Studies, International Relations and Foreign Policy.
This essential new history of the Irish state synthesises existing research with new findings, and adopts fresh perspectives based on neglected European and American debates. It examines the evolution of Irish diplomacy from six consulate officers in the 1920s to sixty ambassadors in the 2010s, and provides an overview of a century of Ireland's diplomatic history that has previously only been examined in a piecemeal fashion. The author's original research findings are focussed particularly on Ireland's struggle for independence in a global context, and his original analysis gives an account of how the economic performance of the Irish state formed a perpetual context for its role in international relations even when this was not a priority of its diplomats. Equal attention is paid to the history of international Irish trade, the operations of bilateral Irish relations, and multilateral diplomacy. It highlights how the Irish state came to find its role in international relations mostly by means of the UN and EU, and analyses this trend in the light of international relations theory and European history.