The lost origins of Ireland’s involvement in Europe

In a collected volume assessing Ireland’s involvement in European integration Gearóid Mac Niocaill and Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh wrote that With the establishment of an Irish National State in 1922 the opportunities for expanding Irish links with Europe seemed greatly enhanced. It remained to be seen if these opportunities would be taken. However, Patrick Keatinge reminded readers of the same volume that ‘Up to the late 1950s Ireland’s diplomatic persona was only slightly “European”.’ Most Irish diplomatic historians would agree with this interpretation, arguing that Britain, the Commonwealth and the League of Nations remained the primary focus of Irish foreign policy in the inter-war period. Supporting Keatinge’s interpretation, the existing historical literature suggests that Irish diplomats were rather slow in renewing the perceived longstanding contacts with continental Europe before the Second World War. Indeed, Roy Foster has criticised the discursive claim of Ireland’s longstanding contacts with continental Europe, made by many Irish policy-makers at the time of Ireland’s entry into the European Economic Community in 1973, as a ‘grandiose self-delusion’. Most historical accounts, therefore, suggest that Ireland’s involvement in Europe tentatively started with the involvement in the Marshall Plan and participation in the Council of Europe

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