Butter & Beautiful Eyes

Welcome to the History of Ireland There was an article recently in the Irish Times Written by the playwright Colin Murphy In it, he discusses his latest play One he argued felt very much like it was about Brexit It featured, quote A small Ireland nation attempting to remove itself From one of the world’s most influential trading blocs A British government hemmed in by Tory diehards Debate over customs areas And even a Canada Plus option The gag though is that it’s not a play about Brexit It’s called The Treaty And it’s about the Anglo-Irish negotiations of 1921 But Murphy is right The parallels are startling and oh so interesting I won’t get to go see it But if anyone else is there Do let me know what it’s like It sounds fantastic

Today and over the next few episodes We’re going to dive into those negotiations And see how a hundred years on We’re still dealing with the same thorny problems That the Irish and English delegates were faced with in 1921 This is the end game people Let’s see what happens Now we’ve covered the Irish delegation i.e. the plenipotentiaries In quite a bit of depth Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, Robert Barton Eamon Duggan and George Gavin Duffy But before we go any further I want to look at who the British were bringing to the table A few of them will be familiar to us But there are some new faces in there as well

Of course, first off was David Lloyd George The Welsh wizard As we know, Lloyd George was a master negotiator He negotiated the Treaty of Versailles, for God’s sake He was Prime Minister of an uneasy liberal-led coalition Propped up by the Conservatives Otherwise known as the Tories Second, you had our old friend Hamer Greenwood Greenwood was the last Chief Secretary for Ireland Born in Canada, Greenwood started as pro-Home Rule and anti-Republican But had come around to the idea of Dominion status Similar to where he was from in Canada You get the sense that Greenwood was not all that well liked The historian Charles Townsend seems to think he was fairly dim-witted And he has been called, quote Nothing but a blaspheming, hearty, vulgar, brave, knockabout, colonial

Next, you had Winston Churchill Churchill was Secretary for the Colonies at this point And had been fairly hardline in his approach to Ireland Remember, the Auxiliaries were basically his idea A new but maybe familiar name is that of Lord Birkenhead Birkenhead was a pro-Unionist Conservative He was an experienced litigator And had actually prosecuted the case against Roger Casement He would go on to handle much of the gritty details of the treaty Then you had Laming Worthington Evans A close confidant of Lloyd George, even though he was a Tory And Gordon Hewitt, a Liberal MP who had a seat on Lloyd George’s cabinet

Finally, we have to introduce Austin Chamberlain Not to be mistaken for Neville Chamberlain, who would go on to be Prime Minister Chamberlain was the leader of the Conservatives And he’s critical in all of this The Conservatives were a party that was distinctly fractured over the Irish problem Chamberlain had only just taken control from Andrew Bonar-Law in March 1921 And Bonar-Law was a staunch, die-hard Unionist And if he had still been in control of the party It’s very unlikely that these talks would be going ahead at all

This is vital context, as it shaped a lot of the British’s stance during the negotiations Anything Lloyd George agreed to, Chamberlain would then have to sell into Bonar-Law And the other hardline Conservatives Chamberlain was the man who had to balance his party’s Conservative Unionist ideals With Lloyd George’s willingness to negotiate with the Republicans If Lloyd George and Chamberlain conceded too much to the Irish They would lose support of the Conservatives And then their whole government would collapse The comparison to Theresa May and then Boris Johnson And their relationship with the DUP is striking In both cases, a small minority of hardline Unionists Were propping up a relatively weak government And therefore had a huge impact on what the British were willing to offer Ireland We’ll come back to this in detail later But it is important to remember

So that’s the British delegation and its political context Now, let me make this clear These were the political heavyweights of the biggest empire in the world As Colm Kenny, Arthur Griffith’s biographer writes The Irish found themselves struggling in imperial surroundings As they tried to outsmart ministers Whose social class and educational privileges were all too evident And of course, there was just sheer experience to deal with The average age of the British delegation was 10 years older than that of the Irish And they had just come out of the Treaty of Versailles One of the most complicated things that had ever been put together at this point in history

It kind of blows my mind Collins was 30 when the negotiations started And turned 31 while over in London Think of your friends in their early 30s And imagine them negotiating with the upper echelons of the British establishment Collins was only just older than I am now And I can barely negotiate with the know-it-all customer service guy Who tells me the cost of my internet’s going up While Collins had the Welsh wizard to deal with Basically my point is, the British were not messing around And compared to the Irish delegation Well… Have you seen Space Jam? Because that’s kind of what it reminds me of The British were those big scary alien monster things And the Irish, well… They were the Looney Tunes And look, I’m sure that joke pretty much offends everyone Not least of all my Leaving Cert History teacher So sorry Mr Duggan and sorry everyone else But I saw a Space Jam reference and I went for it

And look, I’m not saying this to disparage the Irish delegation at all Merely to point out that they were the underdogs Underdogs who, as you’ll see and as most historians agree Rose to the occasion in an incredibly difficult scenario But that’s getting ahead of ourselves Everyone had chosen their teams And the games were about to begin

The plenipotentiaries left for London on Saturday October 8th With crowds of people waving them off Though remember, Collins wouldn’t go until the next day It was about an 11 hour trip from Dublin to London The plenipotentiaries first took a ship across the English Channel to Wales And then from there the delegates were given their own carriage On an express train to London Now that’s a fair old slog And one the plenipotentiaries would have to make several times Over the course of the negotiations And you can never underestimate how these little details make a difference It was a tiring trek And it further shows how separated they were from Dev and the rest of the Dáil You know, it’s not like today when you can take a quick half hour Ryanair flight Again, it’s another area in which they were placed at a disadvantage The British were on home turf And these things matter It’s not for nothing that when it came to end the American-Vietnamese war That the peace talks took place in Paris

Anyway, they would have had a whole lot of reading to keep them occupied Over the course of the journey The first things out of their briefcases Would have been the final instructions Dev had given them the day before He kindly broken down his orders across five sections Number one The plenipotentiaries quote Had full powers as defined in their credentials Number two Before decisions are finally reached on the main questions A dispatch notifying the intention of making those decisions Will be sent to the members of the cabinet in Dublin And that a reply will be awaited by the plenipotentiaries Before that final decision is made A bloody convolute And slightly contradictory of the full powers in number one But anyway Number three The complete text of the draft treaty about to be signed Will be similarly submitted to Dublin And a reply awaited Number four If negotiations fall down The plenipotentiaries would send on a text of that proposal And number five The cabinet would be kept regularly informed of the progress of the negotiations This was all designed to ensure As historian Ronan Fanning puts it That De Valera’s presidential authority was not diluted By his refusal to go to London

Now I know we’ve talked a lot about the orders the plenipotentiaries had But it’s so important to understand Where De Valera thought they stood Where they thought they stood And how this would all shape what was to come So maybe that’s what they were reading on the train And once they arrived into Euston station They were met by more crowds And of course, reporters One wrote that quote None of them betrayed the weariness Which usually macks those who’ve made the journey from Dublin to London While another reporter grilled Griffith On his hopes for negotiations As well as the status of the plenipotentiaries He wrote Mr. Griffith, who’s at all times emotionless as the sphinx Appeared to be unmoved by the reception accorded him When questioned by a press association representative Arthur Griffith maintained his tacternity And would not breathe a single word As to hope or fear of the party For the success of the conference Nor would Mr. Griffith say Whether the delegates are endowed with plenipotentiary powers

Now there’s two kind of interesting things to take out from that First, compare how the reporters talk about Griffith To how they talked about Collins from the last episode He’s a sphinx He’s emotionless He’s a statesman He’s a far cry from the romantic figure that was Collins And second See how the reporters latched on to the concern Of whether or not these were full plenipotentiaries With all the powers associated

From the train station They would have travelled to their accommodation via Rolls Royce And this would have all been the height of luxury As one historian puts it They stayed where today near Harrods Russian oligarchs and rich Arabs have residence And though they had arrived via boat And then train And then fancy Rolls Royces It should be said That they were ready to leave by air The Irish had procured a small airplane That was on standby Ready to get the five men the hell out of there Should the negotiations take a turn for the worst This precaution is a great example Of how precarious the situation was It’s easy to look back at it all now And see it as a done deal But things were on a knife’s edge And if the negotiations were to collapse It could have catastrophic implications Both for Ireland And the five men who were negotiating The pressure must have been intense

And you can imagine them Sitting in their fancy accommodation The night before things were meant to kick off Busily preparing for the first session Unfortunately They didn’t have a lot to go on As Ronan Fanning puts it What passed for the Irish treaty proposals That the plenipotentiaries brought to London Were fragmentary and slight They’d been sent over with two main documents Draft Treaty A Which was the same thing Dev had shown to Lloyd George in July And Draft Treaty B Which was quote Intended for use as propaganda Should the talks break down These made no mention of Ulster And had no clear directive Of what the Irish wanted Fanning lays the blame Squarely at the feet of de Valera Arguing that Dev was unable To put his name to anything concrete And because of his love for obfuscation The Irish came to the table With not all that much that they could discuss Fanning continues saying The conclusion that de Valera Refused to be identified with any such statement Is inescapable And the delegates were consequently Unable to submit any written proposal At the opening plenary session

This opening plenary session Took place on Tuesday October 11th Now there are a few different terms That get thrown around And it can be easy to get lost in them So let’s just clarify quickly Simply put A plenary session Was one in which all members Of both delegations had to attend You would have had Griffith, Collins, Robert Barton Eamon Duggan and George Gavin Duffy On one side of the table And then Lloyd George, Churchill, Birkenstock Chamberlain, Greenwood, Worthington Evans And Gordon Hewitt on the other As well as their various secretaries and advisors It’d be a whole big deal Later the negotiations would break up Into sub-conferences, committee sessions And the like These were smaller groupings Focused on more specific tasks But don’t worry None of this will be on the test

In that opening plenary session It was clear that the British Were quite a bit more organised Than the Irish While Griffith and Co. were left With no clear document to bring to the table The British circulated a slightly amended version Of the document that Lloyd George Had given to Dev in July This gave the British the upper hand And allowed them to shape the whole negotiation And it meant that the opening sessions Focused on addressing five reservations That had been raised in relation To the July 20th proposal These were naval access to Irish ports Air facilities The constitutional position of Dominions Relations in relation to war and defence And a free trade area Between Britain and Ireland And so the first three plenary sessions Occurring between October 11th and October 14th Focused on small nitty gritty stuff Designed, you know, to get the ball rolling Before broaching any of those more thorny problems

For example, Griffith wrote to Dev on the 13th About an interaction he’d had with Lloyd George Regarding trade Griffith said this LG is a humorous rascal He talked today of the vast amount of produce England bought from us I said, you don’t buy it for love of our beautiful eyes Whereupon, with a smile he yielded, saying No, on account of your beautiful butter I love Griffith’s upbeat tone Despite the immense pressure he was under And it’s kind of hilarious That after all this fighting We had these politicians sitting down Discussing Irish butter

However, it wasn’t all fun and games Collins was hating all of this He also wrote to Dev, saying Dear Dev, I had never felt so relieved At the end of any day I need hardly say I’m not looking forward With any pleasure to resumptions Such a crowd I’ve never met This place is the bloody limit I wish to God I was back home Unfortunately for Collins The negotiations had only just started And things were going to get more and more difficult

Overall, there were seven plenary sessions in October And 24 sub-conferences Between the 24th of October and the 6th of December So yeah, there’s a whole lot more negotiations to explore For now though, we’ll leave it there And next episode We’ll see what happened When things in the negotiation room Started getting tricky And if you’re enjoying it Give us a review on Apple Podcasts Or tell your friends It really helps You can also support the show Buy merch And get in touch all through our website thehistoryofireland.com Or you can follow us on Facebook or Twitter It’s always great hearing from you guys And if I’ve made a mistake Please do let me know The History of Ireland was written and produced by me, Kevin Dole Additional research and fact-checking by Robert Babington Music by Liam Doyle And additional help from assistant producer Aoife Murphy This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri people The Wurundjeri people