The Irish Factor 1899 1919

This book examines strategic and diplomatic issues concerning Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century, together with espionage, sabotage, and propaganda operations of foreign powers trying to manipulate Ireland. Focussing on continental European powers such as Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, and to a lesser extent Russia, the book is based on research in diplomatic and military archives, notably in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, and Vienna. The research unearthed many unknown documents which in turn produced some unexpected revelations. During the Boer War, the French envisaged a landing in Ireland to strike at Britain. They had also financed the activities of certain Irish nationalists. The Germans and the French battled in the United States in order to control the influential Irish-American community. The comparison of documents found in archives in London and Berlin shows that some British officials let the Easter Rising of 1916 deliberately happen, the aim being the decapitation of the Irish republican movement. The book also reveals the existence of hitherto relatively unknown characters which played their part in the course of Irish history. The correspondence between George Freeman in New York and Professor Theodor Schiemann in Berlin sheds light on Germany's interest in Irish and Irish-American republican movements. France's diplomatic icons, Paul and Jules Cambon, became increasingly aware of the Irish world's threat after the signing of the Entente Cordiale in 1904.

In the aftermath of the First World War, a political revolution took place in what was then the United Kingdom. Such upheavals were common in postwar Europe, as new states came into being and new borders were forged. What made the revolution in the UK distinctive is that it took place within one of the victor powers, rather than any of their defeated enemies. In the years after the Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland, a new independence movement had emerged, and in 1918-19 the political party Sinn Féin and its paramilitary partner, the Irish Republican Army, began a political struggle and an armed uprising against British rule. By 1922 the United Kingdom has lost a very substantial portion of its territory, as the Irish Free State came into being amidst a brutal Civil War. At the same time Ireland was partitioned and a new, unionist government was established in what was now Northern Ireland. These were outcomes that nobody could have predicted before 1914. In The Irish War of Independence and Civil War, experts on the subject explore the experience and consequences of the latter phases of the Irish revolution from a wide range of perspectives.

Rebellion, Resistance and the Irish Working Class: The Case of the ‘Limerick Soviet’ explores the background and history of a major strike which occurred in Limerick city, Ireland, in 1919. This industrial dispute made headlines worldwide given that many central aspects of the dispute impacted on controversies as relating to workers’ rights in both Ireland European at this juncture. In this volume the “Limerick Soviet,” as it was known, is considered as a seminal element within Ireland’s local and regional history. This volume is an important addition to the historical literature, one which illuminates Ireland’s symbolic role within more large-scale European events of this historical period—the Russian Revolution and the mass protests by striking workers in both Germany and Scotland being just two examples.

Offering a unique account of identity formation in Ireland and Central Europe, this book explores and contextualises transfers and comparisons between Ireland and the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It reveals how Irish perceptions of borders and identities changed after the (re)birth of the small states of Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia and the creation of the Irish Free State. Adopting a transnational approach, the book documents the outward-looking attitude of Irish nationalists and provides original insights into the significance of personal encounters that transcended the borders of nation-states. Drawing on a wide range of official records, private papers, contemporary press accounts and journal articles, Imagining Ireland Abroad, 1904-1945 bridges the gap between historiographies of the East and West by opening up a new perspective on Irish national identity.

All places undergo change, but in few has this change been quite as sweeping as Ireland – both the independent Republic of Ireland and dependent Northern Ireland – so it is good to see where it is heading at present. Obviously, that has to be judged on the background of where it is coming from, not only over the past decade or so but over centuries and, indeed, millennia. This new edition of Historical Dictionary of Ireland is an excellent resource for discovering the history of Ireland. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The cross-referenced dictionary section has over 600 entries on significant persons, places and events, political parties and institutions (including the Catholic church) with period forays into literature, music and the arts. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Ireland.

First of the Small Nations traces the ideas and aspirations of the revolutionary generation in Ireland from the 1890s to 1918 who dreamt of an independent Irish state and imagined how an Irish foreign policy might look. It follows attempts to put these ideas into practice during the campaign for independence and how they evolved into the first Irish foreign policy in the decade after independence. During these years, efforts were focused on asserting the young Irish state's independence as it pushed out the boundaries of Commonwealth membership, made a contribution at the League of Nations, and forged ties in Europe and America. Many of the ideas that continue to shape Irish foreign policy - small state and European country; honest broker and international good citizen; mother-country with a diaspora and bridge between Europe and America - have their roots in this period. There is a strong modern and internationalist vein running through Irish nationalism, including outside ideas on how the international order should be arranged - from the desire to pursue a policy based on values, to attempts to create an international rationale for independence, and an understanding of the influence of public opinion. First of the Small Nations also shines a light on interwar European relations and how small states managed their affairs in a world system dominated by their larger neighbours. Drawing on a rich vein of archival sources and private papers, this study charts the beginnings of Irish foreign policy and the aspiration to be 'first of the small nations'.

This book analyses the relationship between the Irish home rule crisis, the Easter Rising of 1916 and the conscription crisis of 1918, providing a broad and comparative study of war and revolution in Ireland at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Destenay skilfully looks at international and diplomatic perspectives, as well as social and cultural history, to demonstrate how American and British, foreign and domestic policies either thwarted or fed, directly or indirectly, the Irish Revolution. He readdresses-and at times redresses-the well established, but somewhat inaccurate, conclusion that Easter Week 1916 was the major factor in radicalizing nationalist Ireland. This book provides a more nuanced and gradualist account of a transfer of allegiance: how fears of conscription aroused the bitterness and mistrust of civilian populations from August 1914 onwards. By re-situating the Irish Revolution in a global history of empire and anti-colonialism, this book contributes new evidence and new concepts. Destenay convincingly argues that the fears of conscription have been neglected by Irish historiography and this book offers a fresh appraisal of this important period of history.

The year 1916 has recently been identified as "a tipping point for the intensification of protests, riots, uprisings and even revolutions." Many of these constituted a challenge to the international pre-war order of empires, and thus collectively represent a global anti-imperial moment, which was the revolutionary counterpart to the later diplomatic attempt to construct a new world order in the so-called Wilsonian moment. Chief among such events was the Easter Rising in Ireland, an occurrence that took on worldwide significance as a challenge to the established order. This is the first collection of specialist studies that aims at interpreting the global significance of the year 1916 in the decline of empires.