Category Archives: Politics

Gavin’s withdrawal upends Irish presidential race

UPDATE:

It’s legally too late to remove Gavin from the ballot. This means any votes cast for Gavin will still need to be counted and redistributed to the other two candidates under Ireland’s proportional representation with a single transferrable vote system. This could prove pivotal in deciding the winner.

“There’s even a fear in government circles that disillusioned voters angry with the choices on offer could vote for Gavin in protest, ‘electing’ a figure who’s no longer willing to serve as Ireland’s next ceremonial head of state,” reported Shawn Pogatchnik at Politic.eu. “That would produce a potential constitutional crisis.”

ORIGINAL POST:

Ireland will elect its third women head of state on Oct. 24 following the surprise withdrawal of Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin.

The race is now a head-to-head contest between independent TD (Teachta Dála, or member of the Dáil Éireann, similar to member of the U.S. House of Representatives) Catherine Connolly, 68, and former Fine Gael TD and government minister Heather Humphreys, 62. Connolly is on the political left, and supported by the Irish Labour (she is a former member) and Sinn Féin parties. Humphreys is a more center-right, establishment figure.

Gavin’s Oct. 5 departure announcement shocked the Irish electorate. In the few weeks since his nomination, the Irish Aviation Authority senior executive and former Dublin GAA football manager was revealed as an uneven and inexperienced campaigner. His credibility cratered over recent questions about owing back rent to a former tenant. That’s hardly a position of strength in a country with an ongoing housing crisis and a history of testy (sometimes violent) landlord-tenant relations.

Gavin was the personal selection of Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin, who now will face questions about, and challenges to, his leadership of the Fianna Fáil party and the country.  Martin’s political chops are certainly much stronger than Gavin’s, so he might outlast this controversary, as he has others in the past.

Mary Robinson (1990-1997) and Mary McAleese (1997-2011; unopposed in 2004.) held the office of president for 21 years, followed by the two, seven-year terms of the departing Michael D. Higgins. The office is Ireland’s only national election except for occasional constitutional referendum questions.

Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish President’s House in Dublin. It was formerly known as the Viceregal Lodge, the home of the British Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Irish Embassy USA changes location; loses charm, history

The Embassy of Ireland USA in Washington, D.C. has relocated from an historic early 20th century mansion to a recently renovated 1966 office building steps from the White House. The old location was the home of the Irish republic in the American capital for 75 years.

New home of the Embassy of Ireland USA.

“We begin to write the next chapter in the great story of Ireland-U.S. relations,” Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris said during the Sept. 25 ribbon cutting at the new  embassy offices at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

Known as The Mills Building, the 11-story building was renovated in 2022. It is across the street from Lafayette Park and the two-block portion of Pennsylvania Avenue closed to vehicle traffic, between 17th and 15th streets.

Access to the White House is highly restricted to guided tour groups, though Irish dignitaries are welcomed to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue every March. The grounds were officially closed by President Woodrow Wilson during the First World War. Fencing and other security measures began to appear during the 19th century.

The Munsey Building, shown in 1919, was demolished in 1980.

As many readers will know, the White House was designed by the Irish-born architect James Hoban. Fewer readers will know the first official offices of the Irish Free State in Washington were located in the Munsey Building, 1321 E. St. NW, between 13th and 14th streets, not too far from the new embassy. Timothy A. Smiddy represented the state until 1929. The Irish National Bureau produced the Friends of Irish Freedom’s weekly News Letter in the Munsey Building from 1919 to 1922. Éamon De Valera also kept an office there during his 1919-1920 tour of the United States.[1]See my November 2020 post, “Washington, D.C.’s Irish hot spots, 1919-1921“.

“This will be an excellent base from which to grow our vital political, economic and cultural ties with the US over the years ahead,” Harris said of the new Irish Embassy, according to an official statement. He emphasized that Ireland is the fifth largest source of foreign direct investment in the US, and that Irish companies have created more than 200,000 American jobs.

Leaving Embassy Row

The Irish Embassy was previously located at 2234 Massachusetts Avenue NW, on Sheridan Circle, part of the city’s historic “Embassy Row.” The semidetached limestone residence was designed by William Penn Cresson in the Louis XVI manner. Completed in 1909, it is known as the Henrietta M. Halliday House, after the widow of a wealthy businessman. It is unclear if she ever lived in the house, which was sold in 1911.[2]”Henrietta M. Halliday House (Irish Chancery)”, HABS No. DC-261, Historic American Buildings Survey, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, National Park Service, U.S. Department … Continue reading

The former Irish Embassy in October 1924, with Irish and EU flags at right, Ukrainian flag draped from balcony.

The Irish government purchased the property for $72,000 in August 1949. At the time, Ireland’s presence in Washington was still described as legation. Three months later Irish Minister to Washington Seán Nunan welcomed Irish Minister of Agriculture James Dillon, who was visiting the city for an international conference.[3]”Society News”, (Washington) Evening Star, Nov. 30, 1949. In March 1950, John Joseph Hearne became the first Irish ambassador to Washington.

The property is assessed at $6,548,040, according to DC tax records. It is being sold by the commercial real estate firm CBRE, which says it has not set an asking price. The adjoining 2232 Massachusetts Ave. is being co-marketed by residential real estate firm Compass for $2,995,000. See their Oct. 6 press release. (This paragraph was updated from the original post.)

In December 2023, the Irish government purchased the nine-bedroom mansion at 2221 30th Street NW as its official ambassadorial residence. The $12.25 million sale price shaved more than $4 million off the $16.5 million list price. The state began renting the 15,000 square-foot mansion as it sold its former ambassadorial residence at 2244 S Street NW, known as the Frederic Delano House, after an uncle of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That property sold for $8 million in March 2024.

Exempt & delinquent taxes

The new Irish ambassador’s residence had an outstanding District of Columbia tax bill of $33,502 as of Sept. 30. A notice of $153,910 in delinquent taxes and penalties was sent by the District to the Irish government in April. More than $30,000 in late fees and interest had been assessed since the property was purchase in December 2023. The most recent statement, dated Aug. 4, shows that no new assessments or penalties have been levied against the property, which suggests an exemption is now in place. The Irish Embassy could not be reached through its general telephone number.

Irish ambassador’s residence.

The former embassy property was exempt from taxes. More than 600 properties in the District owned by foreign governments accounted for $50.2 million in foregone tax revenue in 2019.[4]Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, May 2019, citing District of Columbia Office of the Chief Financial Officer 2018. The U.S. government owns some 2,800 properties exempt from District taxes, with an estimated market value of $52 billion, or $917.7 million in foregone property tax revenue annually. And then there are religious institutions, schools, and assorted non-profits, in addition to the District government’s own property, also exempt from taxes.

The Irish government’s tax-exempt status on other properties does not mean it automatically received a discount on a commercial lease, which I assume is the arrangement at The Mills Building. The U.S. State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions regulates such matters, which are more complicated than can be addressed here. Reciprocal treatment in the foreign country–in this case, the U.S. government in Ireland–is certainly a factor.

Personal note

On a personal note, I enjoyed visiting the former Irish Embassy on several occasions since I moved to Washington nearly 12 years ago. These opportunities came through my membership in Irish Network-DC, a professional and social group. The place certainly had the elegant feel of an earlier age, when the Society pages of DC dailies regularly reported the comings-and-goings of diplomats and other special guests. I visited the new ambassador’s residence once for an IN-DC event.

I live barely a five-minute walk from the now former embassy location. I enjoyed walking Irish visitors past the exterior, then continuing a few blocks further up Embassy Row to the small park centered by a statue of Robert Emmet.

At least Irish patriot remains in place.

References

References
1 See my November 2020 post, “Washington, D.C.’s Irish hot spots, 1919-1921“.
2 ”Henrietta M. Halliday House (Irish Chancery)”, HABS No. DC-261, Historic American Buildings Survey, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1978.
3 ”Society News”, (Washington) Evening Star, Nov. 30, 1949.
4 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, May 2019, citing District of Columbia Office of the Chief Financial Officer 2018.

Irish presidential race set for Oct. 24 election

Candidate qualification has closed and the sprint to Ireland’s October 24 presidential election has begun. The field of three contenders includes:

  • Heather Humphreys, a former Fine Gael minister;
  • Jim Gavin, senior executive of Irish Aviation Authority and a former Dublin GAA football manager, was put forward by Fianna Fáil; and
  • Independent TD Catherine Connolly, backed by the Labour party she once belong to.

The winner will succeed poet and historian Michael D. Higgins, 84. He is prohibited from reelection after serving two seven-year terms. Higgins earlier this month suggested that Israel and countries that supply it with weapons (USA) should be prohibited from the United Nations.

Edward S. Walsh, left, assumed the office of U.S. Ambassador to Ireland in July after presenting his credentials to President of Ireland Michael D Higgins .

This is Ireland’s only election for national office, though voters do decide national referendum questions. The taoiseach, or prime minister, is nominated by members of Dáil Éireann, who are elected from constituencies across the 26 counties. The Irish president officially appointments the taoiseach, currently Micheál Martin of Fianna Fáil.

The president’s duties also include the appointment of judges and other officials; summoning and dissolving the Dáil, and signing legislation into law and/or referring Bills to the Supreme Court for review.

Perhaps most importantly, the president serves as the people’s representative and spokesperson, a super ambassador to the world. “If the Republic still has a soul, it hovers somewhere around the president,” Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole wrote. That’s why Higgins’s comments about the Israel/Palestine conflict have been so important, along with his leadership through Ireland’s the “Decade of Centenaries.”

It’s a shame O’Toole had to qualify “if” Ireland still has a soul, but that’s another matter. I’ll follow the campaign in future posts over the coming month.

Catching up with modern Ireland

While I’m on summer break here’s another of my occasional roundups of external stories about Irish history and contemporary issues. MH

UPDATES:

  • Abortions have soared in Ireland since a prohibition on the procedure was repealed in 2018.
  • An American diplomat’s anti-Irish slur has not generated too much blowback in Ireland. Most Irish leader appear to be ignoring “the Huckster” as they wait for Trump tariffs on the EU to be resolved. The Ancient Order of Hibernians has demanded an apology. … More interestingly, EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum has created a unique way to challenge outdated Irish stereotypes: a fake movie trailer that’s intentionally riddled with cliches.

ORIGINAL POST:

  • US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has joined a chorus of pro-Israel Americans who are publicly pressuring Ireland against passing a bill that bans the importation of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories. Huckabee has inflamed the controversy with this slur against the Irish on his X feed:

“Did the Irish fall into a vat of Guinness & propose something so stupid that it would be attributed to act of diplomatic intoxication? It will harm Arabs as much as Israelis. Sober up Ireland! Call (the Israeli foreign affairs ministry) & say you’re sorry!”

The Journal.ie provides all the necessary background. This story will be worth following because:

  • Ireland is already facing significant economic headwinds as US President Donald Trump threatens to impose 30 percent tariffs on the European Union starting Aug. 1. Passage of the Occupied Territories Bill could make Ireland a target for even higher tariffs. And there’s still more danger: Ireland’s overreliance on US foreign direct investment. Politico.eu offers a compelling analysis of how Trump is testing Ireland’s economic miracle.
  • The population of the island of Ireland has topped 7 million for the first time since before the Great Famine of the mid-nineteenth century, according to the Republic of Ireland’s Central Statistics Office and Northern Ireland’s Statistics and Research Agency. Growth in the Republic was more robust and more diverse.
  • Proposals for the commercial redevelopment of the General Post Office (GPO), site of the 1916 Easter Rising, is generating debate about the past, present and future of the O’Connell Street corridor. Irish Times historian Diarmaid Ferriter calls for an approach that not only respects history but also “improves the perception of a space widely regarded as deficient and devoid of sufficient imagination for the main thoroughfare of a capital city.”
  • A new survey from the Iona Institute for Religion and Society finds more erosion of Catholic identification in Ireland. First Things columnist John Duggan contends that progressives are trying to speed the erasure of Catholicism from Irish history.
  • Cross-border, anti-migrant mobilization among ethnonationalist groups in Ireland and Northern Irish Loyalist communities has entered a new, more organized phase. What began as scattered, localized protests in late 2022 have evolved into an increasingly structured and internationally connected movement, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a global nonprofit that monitors extremism and authoritarianism. … An effigy of a boat containing mannequins of migrants was set alight in the village of Moygashel as part of Northern Ireland’s annual 12 July bonfires. 
  • The campaign to succeed Michael D Higgins as president of Ireland is beginning to warm. The election date will be set in late autumn, with the inauguration in early November.  Higgins, 84, is concluding his second seven-year term. Fine Gael’s Mairead McGuinness and independent TD Catherine Connolly of Galway have declared to date.

This is Ireland’s only national election. The president’s duties include the appointment of the taoiseach, members of the Government, judges and other officials; summoning and dissolving the Dáil, and convening the Oireachtas; and signing legislation into law and/or referring Bills to the Supreme Court. As important, the president serves as the people’s representative and spokesperson, a super ambassador to the world.

I’ll have more on this election later this fall.

Edward S. Walsh, left, assumed the office of US Ambassador to Ireland after presenting his credentials to President of Ireland Michael D Higgins in a ceremony at Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin on July 1.

Brayden on the Irish Boundary Commission, Part 2

Irish-born journalist William H. Brayden in the summer of 1925 wrote a series of articles for US newspapers about the newly partitioned Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. This summer I am revisiting various aspects of his reporting. Read the introduction. Brayden’s coverage of the Irish Boundary Commission is divided into two posts. Part 2[1]Citation are not consecutive in the two posts. begins below the map. Read Part 1. MH

This map of the 1921 border between Northern Ireland (Ulster) and the Irish Free State also showed “probable” and “doubtful” changes proposed by the Irish Boundary Commission. It was leaked to the Morning Post, London, which published the map and narrative descriptions on Nov. 7, 1925.

After years of delay, the Irish Boundary Commission in spring 1925 was finally engaged with deciding whether to adjust the 1921 border that separated the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, then more often called Ulster.[2]One of the four provinces of Ireland, Ulster historically included nine counties. Only six were incorporated as Northern Ireland. Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan belonged to the Irish Free State, … Continue reading The three-member commission held hearings in several border towns. But the commission chairman quickly ruled out allowing these communities to decide by referendum if they wanted to remain under their present government or switch to the other side, as Free State nationalists hoped.

As the commission’s deliberations continued into summer 1925, Brayden opened his US newspaper series by explaining to American readers the differences in home rule government on each side of the border. The Free State could impose and collect taxes; levy tariffs; establish its own currency (that happened in 1928); send ambassadors to foreign states and make international agreements. Street signs and public documents now were written in Irish as well as English. A new police force, Garda Siochana, replaced the Royal Irish Constabulary. The judiciary was made over from the established British legal system and Sinn Fein courts of the revolutionary period.

US newspaper map of divided Ireland in 1925 … and today.

Dublin Castle, once the seat of the British administration in Ireland, was transformed into the home of the new court system. Leinster House, the former ducal palace and headquarters of the Royal Dublin Society, became the new legislative headquarters. The Irish tricolor waved above these and other buildings instead of the British Union Jack. On the streets below, postal pillar boxes were painted green instead of red.

The Free State’s “separation from England, apart from constitutional technicalities, is practically complete,” Brayden wrote. By contrast, Northern Ireland was “not a dominion,” like the Free State and Canada, and had “a subordinate and not a sovereign parliament.”[3]William H. Brayden, The Irish Free State: a survey of the newly constructed institutions of the self-governing Irish people, together with a report on Ulster. [Chicago: Chicago Daily News, 1925], 3.

Postal, telegraph, and telephone services remained regulated by London. The northern legislature was prohibited from taking action on trade and foreign policy matters. “Nevertheless, home rule in north Ireland is very real and can be, and is, effectively used for the development of local prosperity,” Brayden wrote.

Irish republicans at the time, and historians today, would argue the Free State’s separation was not as “practically complete” as characterized by Brayden. Others could make the case that Northern Ireland, which retained representation in London, was not as subordinate as Brayden described. But there was no argument that the island of Ireland had been divided.

Religion, and money

Most Americans would have had at least general knowledge of the history and geography of division between Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics. Brayden mostly avoided the sectarian issue in his series. In one story he sought to minimize “the once familiar catch phrase that ‘home rule must mean Rome rule’ ” by informing readers that several Free State high court justices were Protestants, while the lord chief justice of Northern Ireland was a Catholic. In another story, however, he conceded the Irish educational system was “strictly denominational” on both sides of the border.[4]Ibid., 4, 11.

But something larger than religion or politics loomed over partition and the boundary commission–money. Specifically, how much of Great Britain’s war debt and war pensions the Free State was obligated to pay. Like the boundary commission, this was another aspect of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty that remained unsettled four years later. It was complicated by whether the Free State could offset the amount, or even be entitled to a refund, by considering historic over-taxation by London.

William Brayden, undated.

“The view widely held in [Free State] Ireland is that the Irish counterclaim will wipe out, and even more than wipe out, the British claim,” Brayden reported. He revealed that the late Michael Collins, killed in 1922, “was clearly of opinion that something was due. I heard him urge that the amount, when ascertained, be paid off in a lump sum, rather than by annual payment that would wear the appearance of tribute.”[5]Ibid., 27-28.

But it was impossible to resolve such financial questions until the boundary between the Free State and Northern Ireland was finalized. “Twenty-eight counties would pay, or receive, more than the present twenty-six,” Brayden wrote.

Referring back to his early 1922 reporting (See Part 1), Brayden speculated, “real trouble may arise” if the commission awarded the “storm centers” of Derry or Newry to the Free State. Nevertheless, officials in the south no longer believed “that any possible adjustment of the boundary would ever leave the northern government so hampered that it could not continue its separate existence and would be obliged at last to come into the Free State,” Brayden wrote.[6]Ibid., 42.

“The continued existence of the northern government is now regarded as certain. Wherever the boundary line is drawn it will still divide Ireland into two parts with two separate governments.”

As regrettable as partition was, Brayden continued, many Irish citizens were more concerned about poor trade, high unemployment, and insufficient housing. “Many causes have combined to make the boundary issue less critical than it was a year ago,” he wrote. “Active feeling regarding it will not revive until the commission has reported. Meanwhile, there is little or no protest against the delay which the commission is making.”

What happened

In early November 1925, the Morning Post, a conservative daily in London, published details and a map from the Irish Boundary Commission’s deliberations. The leaked documents showed the commission recommended only small transfers of territory, and in both directions. Though Brayden and others had reported the Free State abandoned the idea of making large land gains from the north, the Post story, once confirmed, embarrassed the southern government.

Details of the Irish Boundary Commission report were leaked to the Morning Post, London, which published this story on Nov. 7, 1925. (Library of Congress bound copies of the newspaper, thus the curve to the image.)

“The result is described as a bombshell to Irish hopes, and all agree that the establishment of the boundary line indicated by  the commission would make more trouble than by maintaining the present line,” Brayden reported in a regular dispatch, now four months after his series concluded. The Free State would receive only “barren parts of [County] Fermanagh” while Northern Ireland stood to gain “rich territory in [County] Donegal.” The Free State’s representative, Eoin MacNeill, quit the commission. “In the border districts passions are high” among nationalists who hoped to join the Free State.[7]”Boundaries Cause Turmoil In Ireland”, Chicago Daily News, Nov. 23, 1925.

A series of emergency meetings between the Free State, Northern Ireland, and the British government were held in London through early December. The three parties quickly agreed the existing border should remain in place. The Free State’s obligation for war debt and pensions would be erased in exchange for dropping the taxation counterclaim. The Free State would have to assume liability for “malicious damage” during the war in Ireland since 1919.

“Maintenance of the existing Ulster boundary is welcomed as avoiding a grave danger to peace,” Brayden reported after the settlement. Northern nationalists “are advised by their newspapers in Belfast to make the best they can of their position in the northern state.” while “die-hard Ulster newspapers call the result a victory for President Cosgrave.”[8]“Irish Boundary Pact Praised, Condemned”, Chicago Daily News, Dec. 5, 1925.

The Morning Post, which detailed the leaked border proposal a month earlier, also criticized the settlement as “a surrender of a British interest with nothing to show for it but the hope of peace. … We think the British public would be appalled if they were to see arrayed in cold figures the price we have paid and are still paying for the somewhat questionable privilege of claiming our hitherto unfriendly neighbor has a Dominion when the substance and almost the pretense of allegiance have ceased to exist.”[9]”The Irish Settlement”, Morning Post, London, Dec. 5, 1925.

Cosgrave conceded that Northern nationalist Catholics would have to depend on the “goodwill” of the Belfast government and their Protestant neighbors. Similarly, Brayden quoted an unnamed unionist member of parliament as saying, “Good will should take the place of hate. North and south, though divided for parliamentary purposes, can be of assistance to each other and in the interest of both more cordial relations should exist.[10]”Boundary Pact”, Chicago Daily News, Dec. 5, 1921.

US Consul Charles Hathaway and other US officials were generally pleased by the outcome. The Americans believed the agreement stabilized the Free State financially and avoided potential irritation to US relations with Great Britain. They also realized that Éamon de Valera and Irish republican hardliners, as well as the always volatile sectarian issue, still threatened the peace in Ireland.[11]Bernadette Whelan, United States Foreign Policy and Ireland: From Empire to Independence, 1913-1929. [Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006], 530.

The “high explosives” that Hathaway had worried about in 1924 reemerged periodically throughout the twentieth century, especially during the last three decades. “Goodwill” in Northern Ireland turned out to be in short supply.

One final note: the public release of the commission’s work was suppressed by agreement of all three parties in December 1925. The documents remained under wraps until 1969, just as the Troubles began in Northern Ireland.

See all my work on American Reporting of Irish Independence, including previous installments of this series about Brayden.

References

References
1 Citation are not consecutive in the two posts.
2 One of the four provinces of Ireland, Ulster historically included nine counties. Only six were incorporated as Northern Ireland. Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan belonged to the Irish Free State, today’s Republic of Ireland.
3 William H. Brayden, The Irish Free State: a survey of the newly constructed institutions of the self-governing Irish people, together with a report on Ulster. [Chicago: Chicago Daily News, 1925], 3.
4 Ibid., 4, 11.
5 Ibid., 27-28.
6 Ibid., 42.
7 ”Boundaries Cause Turmoil In Ireland”, Chicago Daily News, Nov. 23, 1925.
8 “Irish Boundary Pact Praised, Condemned”, Chicago Daily News, Dec. 5, 1925.
9 ”The Irish Settlement”, Morning Post, London, Dec. 5, 1925.
10 ”Boundary Pact”, Chicago Daily News, Dec. 5, 1921.
11 Bernadette Whelan, United States Foreign Policy and Ireland: From Empire to Independence, 1913-1929. [Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006], 530.

Brayden on the Irish Boundary Commission, Part 1

Irish-born journalist William H. Brayden in the summer of 1925 wrote a series of articles for US newspapers about the newly partitioned Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. This summer I am revisiting various aspects of his reporting. Brayden’s coverage of the Irish Boundary Commission is divided into two posts. Part 1 begins below the map. Part 2 is linked at the bottom. MH

Map of partitioned Ireland from a 1920s US newspaper. Note the use of “Londonderry” for the county and town in Northern Ireland. Nationalists use the term “Derry.” In the Free State, vestiges of British rule remain in the names Kings County, not yet changed to County Offaly; and Queenstown, not yet renamed Cobh.

The partition of Ireland was less than five years old when Brayden’s series unfolded in US newspapers. The Irish Boundary Commission was considering whether to adjust the border separating the six-county Northern Ireland and the 26-county Irish Free State. The line emerged from the British government’s effort to mollify predominantly Protestant unionists, who wanted to remain in the United Kingdom, and majority Catholic nationalists who wanted independence.

“Now all sections of Ireland have obtained self-government in one form or another,” Brayden informed American readers.[1]William H. Brayden, The Irish Free State: a survey of the newly constructed institutions of the self-governing Irish people, together with a report on Ulster. [Chicago: Chicago Daily News, 1925], 3. He used the term “home rule,” meaning each side of the border had more domestic autonomy than under the form of government in place since 1800. Northern Ireland had some control over local issues but remained subordinate to the Parliament in London. The Free State had obtained dominion status, like Canada; it was largely independent of London but remained within the British Empire. 

Whenever decision the boundary commission reached about the border line, Brayden continued, “every Irishman, no matter in which of the thirty-two counties he dwells will have an effective voice in shaping his own destiny.” He emphasized, “Ireland has hardly yet realized the magnitude of the change” brought by the implementation of the two home rule governments. Because of US immigration and trade laws, these changes also impacted Americans with family in Ireland, on either side of the border, or who traveled there as tourists or to conduct business.

Brayden could not have foreseen the surprise conclusion of the boundary commission’s work just a few months after his series appeared in the US press and then was republished as a booklet. But the correspondent did put his finger on a key element of the unexpected outcome.

Commission delayed

The Government of Ireland Act of December 1920 separated Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland; with each to have its own home rule parliament. Irish republicans in the south refused to accept the arrangement and continued to fight for independence. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 ended the war and created the Free State. The treaty contained a provision for the boundary commission to review and potentially change the border at a future date.

Michael Collins

The inclusion of the commission was a ploy to help smooth over other negotiating difficulties between Irish nationalists and the British government. Nationalist leaders such as Michael Collins believed the commission could be used to claw back significant territory from Northern Ireland, leaving it too small to remain viable and then have to join the Free State. Irish unionists, led by Sir James Craig, insisted the border remain fixed, neither losing territory to the Free State nor adding nationalist areas that threatened their domination.

The formation of the boundary commission was delayed by the Irish Civil War, June 1922-May 1923. It made no sense to convene the commission while Irish republicans waged a guerrilla war against supporters of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which had won the support of Irish lawmakers and Irish voters. Yet even after the republican “irregulars” laid down their arms against the Free State forces, the boundary commission remained in limbo.

By early 1924 the US State Department “considered the boundary question to be the most serious issue affecting Ireland as a whole,” the historian Bernadette Whelan has written.[2]Bernadette Whelan, United States Foreign Policy and Ireland: From Empire to Independence, 1913-1929. [Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006], 460. The commission remained unconstituted more than two years after the 1921 treaty and over six months after the end of the civil war. Faction fighting riddled the Free State cabinet, inflamed by the mutiny of army officers demobilized after the civil war. US officials worried about the outbreak of cross-border violence, which could also jeopardize their relations with Great Britain.[3]Ibid., 528.

Earlier reporting

Brayden referenced the boundary commission in his work prior to writing the 1925 series. In a March 1922 dispatch from the border region between counties Donegal and Londonderry, he reported on Irish republican threats within Northern Ireland. Majorities in the northern towns of Derry and Newry were “hostile to rule from Belfast” on religious and political grounds.[4]Londonderry is the proper name of the town and county. Derry is the formation favored by Irish nationalists. Brayden used Derry in his reports. Business interests in the two towns also expected less interference from Dublin in trade matters.

“If the boundary commission provided in the treaty ever sits, both towns will make a strong case for inclusion in southern Ireland, and as the arbiters are bound to regard the wishes and economic advantage of localities, Dublin feels certain of gaining these two towns and Belfast is nervous of the prospect of losing them,” Brayden reported.[5]”Ulster Is Confronted By Real Difficulties”, Wilkes-Berra (Pa.) Record via Chicago Daily News, March 30, 1922.

A few months later he wrote nationalist areas “are expected to be handed over to the south as the result of the work of the boundary commission,” despite Craig’s “determination to resist” such recommendations. But the erupting civil war in the Free State “played into the hands of the Belfast government” and “afforded an excuse” for British intervention. “They [southern nationalists] should have stood pat on the treaty,” Brayden concluded. (“Ulster Opens War On The Sinn Fein”, May 25, 1922; “Ulster Faces Ugly Situation”, May 27, 1922; and “Dublin Confident Of Agreement At London”, June 12, 1922, all in Wilkes-Berra (Pa.) Record via Chicago Daily News.)

Sir James Craig

Prior to Free State elections in August 1923, Brayden reported on Irish President William T Cosgrave’s renewed calls to form the boundary commission as “an electoral maneuver to placate the electors who hate the division of Ireland.” But Craig still refused to nominate a Northern Ireland representative to the commission. Brayden speculated, incorrectly as it turned out, that Britain and the Free State “would settle the boundaries in Ulster’s voluntary absence.” [6]“Irish To Hold Elections For 153 Seats”, Buffalo Evening News via Chicago Daily News, July 27, 1923.

US government concerns

Charles Hathaway, US consul general in Dublin, described the situation as “in the nature of high explosive” for the Free State. He worried further hesitation on the part of the British government to establish the boundary commission could destabilize the Free State to the point of collapse. Other US officials believed that forcing Craig and the Belfast government to participate in the commission could spark warfare between Northern Ireland and the Free State. At the least, the ongoing stalemate threatened to further undermine the poor economic conditions on both sides of the border.[7]Whelan, Foreign Policy, 528-29.

Hathaway had been “perhaps the only regular attender” of the Free State’s legislature, the Dáil, Brayden reported. The US diplomat “almost from day to day follows the proceedings with intent interest.”[8]Brayden, Survey, 5.

US officials also pondered how their consular offices served the Irish public. The six counties of Northern Ireland excluded three counties that historically belonged to the Irish province of Ulster. Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan now were part of the Free State. A fourth county, Leitrim, also was part of the Free State. All four had been served by the US consular office in Belfast before partition. Now, citizens from these four counties complained about the inconvenience of having to cross the border for passport visas and other business with the US government. US officials fretted that any adjustments to their consular districts would be viewed as favoring one side or the other of the Irish partition.[9]Whelan, Foreign Policy, 460.

Commission begins

Brayden reported on opposition to the boundary commission by Craig and Irish republican leader Éamon de Valera through early October 1924.[10] “De Valera Won’t Give Up Inch Of Territory”, Buffalo Evening News via Chicago Daily News, Oct. 9, 1924. At the end of that month, however, the British government finally appointed unionist newspaper editor and lawyer Joseph R. Fisher as the Northern Ireland representative, since Craig refused to make a selection. The commission at last got to work in November 1924.

By the early spring 1925, Brayden reported that Belfast officials were “willing to consider slight rectifications of the border line,” but maintained strong opposition to relinquishing Derry or Newry, a nod back to his 1922 reporting. [11]“Craig To Be Returned As Prime Minister”, Buffalo Evening News via Chicago Daily News, March 27, 1925. He also described the “vagaries of the Ulster boundary,” such as being unable to take a train from Belfast to Derry without crossing into the Free State in a dozen places. He told the story, perhaps apocryphal, of a farmer whose land was in the north but whose home straddled the border.

“He sleeps with this head in the south and his feet in the north,” Brayden explained. “The south has no jurisdictions over his lands, and the north cannot serve him with a process because his head is over the border. … The result is the famer cannot be brought within the jurisdiction of any court.”[12]“ ’Round the World With News Correspondents”, Birmingham (Ala.) News, May 30, 1925, and other papers.

The farmer story appeared on both the news pages and the humor columns of many US newspapers over several months. Brayden’s series about partitioned Ireland debuted in June 1925 as the boundary commission continued its deliberations.

PART 2: Brayden’s 1925 descriptions of the two Irish states and the surprise conclusion of the boundary commission.

References

References
1 William H. Brayden, The Irish Free State: a survey of the newly constructed institutions of the self-governing Irish people, together with a report on Ulster. [Chicago: Chicago Daily News, 1925], 3.
2 Bernadette Whelan, United States Foreign Policy and Ireland: From Empire to Independence, 1913-1929. [Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006], 460.
3 Ibid., 528.
4 Londonderry is the proper name of the town and county. Derry is the formation favored by Irish nationalists. Brayden used Derry in his reports.
5 ”Ulster Is Confronted By Real Difficulties”, Wilkes-Berra (Pa.) Record via Chicago Daily News, March 30, 1922.
6 “Irish To Hold Elections For 153 Seats”, Buffalo Evening News via Chicago Daily News, July 27, 1923.
7 Whelan, Foreign Policy, 528-29.
8 Brayden, Survey, 5.
9 Whelan, Foreign Policy, 460.
10 “De Valera Won’t Give Up Inch Of Territory”, Buffalo Evening News via Chicago Daily News, Oct. 9, 1924.
11 “Craig To Be Returned As Prime Minister”, Buffalo Evening News via Chicago Daily News, March 27, 1925.
12 “ ’Round the World With News Correspondents”, Birmingham (Ala.) News, May 30, 1925, and other papers.

Leo XIV recalls Leo XIII’s 1888 intrigues in Ireland

Pope Leo XIII

The elevation of American-born Robert Francis Prevost as the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, and his decision to take the name Leo XIV, has prompted coverage about his namesake predecessor, Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 until his death in 1903.

And that’s reason enough to reprise two stories about the former pope’s 19th century intrigues in Ireland. Each story linked below covers the same episode from different perspectives.

Ireland Under Coercion, Revisited: Pope’s decree: American journalist William Henry Hurlbert was in Ireland when Pope Leo XIII issued a decree that condemned the “mode of warfare called the Plan of Campaign” and the associated violence of “a form of proscription … known as boycotting.”

The troubled foundation of St. Patrick’s in Rome, 1888: Construction of St. Patrick’s Church in the Eternal City began the same year as Leo XIII issued his decree, which created friction with his Irish flock.

As prior general of the Augustine order from 2001 to 2013, Prevost made numerous visits to Ireland. It will be interest to see if he returns to the country, which this century has turned radically secular, as Leo XIV.

Zoom presentation on Michael J. O’Brien

This event is concluded. I will make the recording available at a later date. MH

As historiographer of the American Irish Historical Society, County Cork-born Michael J. O’Brien focused on Irish contributions to colonial America. In 1919, as the Irish War of Independence heated up, he published A Hidden Phase of American History: Ireland’s Part in America’s Struggle for Liberty. The book was deployed to help make the case for why America should support Ireland’s struggle for liberty. When US Senator John Sharp Williams, a Mississippi Democrat, attacked the Irish in a widely reported speech, O’Brien was drafted to issue the reply.

My zoom presentation, “Michael J. O’Brien: Defending Ireland’s Record in America,” begins at 6 tonight, USA Eastern time. Thanks to the Irish American Heritage Museum, Albany, N.Y., which has stepped up to save this presentation after a new round of turmoil at AIHS. More about that in a future post.

BULLETIN: McIlroy masters the Masters

Rory McIlroy, of Holywood, Northern Ireland, has become only the sixth golfer to will all four of the sport’s major tournaments and the first from Europe to join the elite Grand Slam club. His playoff victory at the Augusta National course in Georgia was has first major tourney win in 11 years. The Journal.ie reports reactions from political leaders on both side of the Irish border.

McIlroy, 35, earns $4.2 million of the $21 million purse … plus the famous green jacket, said to be “priceless.” … The British Open, another major, returns to the Royal Portrush course in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, in July.

Arrived in Ireland as Trump imposes tariffs

UPDATE 2:

The Irish tricolor over Leinster House, seat of the Irish parliament.

The Irish show no signs of animosity toward Americans because of Trump’s tariffs, at least in two days since since I arrived in Dublin. “From Washington DC, then? Well, ye must need a hug,” smiled a friendly usher at St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral.

The Irish Times on Sunday headlined “Mass anti-Trump protests in US cities see Americans express their fear and loathing.” US correspondent Keith Duggan, described Saturday’s nationwide protests as “the first true attempt at a cohesive, national protest voice against the radical agenda of President Trump’s administration since the election.”

Cliff Taylor, one of the paper’s economics writers, warns that Trump’s April 2 tariff announce is a significant turning point. He continued:

Trump’s policies are not an outlier, but a continuation of a protectionist trend in US politics stretching back to his first term – and evident to a greater or lesser extent elsewhere in the world. The US has changed, and this is important for a country such as Ireland, which has hitched its economic wagon to it. And the old world trade order is being upended … The Irish economy is now going to slow noticeably. Uncertainty has a cost, creating a kind of economic paralysis.

And these are the early days.

UPDATE 1:

It’s too soon to fully detail how the Trump tariff’s will impact Ireland. But our Dublin airport taxi driver groaned when I mentioned our flight from Washington, D.C., was only half full. The cabbie has been watching a key economic indicator in his rear view mirror: foreign visitors to Ireland declined 12.2 percent in December 2024 compared to December 2023; fell 25 percent in January, compared to January 2024, and dropped 30 percent in February compared to the same month last year.

These post-Trump election, pre-tariff announcement figures can not yet be considered a trend. But it will be worth watching to see if the tourist decline continues as the weather warms and tariffs hit US and other travelers. The data comes from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office. March figures will not be available until late April.

The General Post Office (GPO) on O’Connell Street in Dublin, epicenter of the 1916 Easter Rising. 4 April 2025.

ORIGINAL POST:

US President Donald Trump has launched a global trade war, with a 20 percent tariff set to hit the European Union, including the Republic of Ireland, while only the 10 percent base rate applies to the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland. The 10 percent tariff difference on the island of Ireland–the only land border between the EU and the UK–is likely to add to the headaches already caused by Brexit. And I mean political as well as economic troubles.

During my November visit to Ireland, a few days after the US elections, the Irish Times headlined “Trump victory thrusts America into the unknown.” I wrote this piece saying, “Trump’s win not not only thrusts America into the unknown, but also Ireland and the rest of Europe and the world.” Now, Trump-fueled global turmoil is being supercharged.

As it turns out, I will be traveling in Ireland over the next 10 days, with stops in Dublin, Donegal, and Kerry. I will report on how the Irish view Trump’s disruption to global trade, in addition to his gutting of US government agencies and assaults on universities, cultural institutions, private business, and other organizations and aspects of American life. Email subscribers should check the website for updates to this post, or watch for new pieces delivered to your inbox. MH