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Dáil Éireann Collections

The National Archives, as the official repository of State records, holds a variety of documents relating to the foundational years of the Irish State. These include the proceedings of the first (1919-1921) and second (1921-1922) Dáil and related activities. The establishment of the Irish State, and the decisions of those formative leaders, can be examined in the records held by the National Archives.

These records chart the most tumultuous and significant period in our Nation’s history, providing evidence of the decisions which determined the establishment of the State.

As part of its ambitious plans for decade of commemoration activities, the National Archives, in collaboration with the Houses of the Oireachtas Service, has digitised the complete holdings of the collections known as DE/2 and DE/4.

Files in focus: A telegram on the resignation of Charles de Gaulle, 28 April 1969

The document above is something of a curiosity: communications technology rendered the telegram obsolete quite some time ago. Irish diplomatic missions regularly reported back to Dublin by post (the traditional ‘diplomatic bag’) but rapidly changing events might require faster means of communication; and in 1969 telegrams could do that job. This telegram is reproduced in the latest volume – XIII – in the Royal Irish Academy’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series, covering the years 1965 to 1969. The original is nestled in a file (NAI, DFA 2001/43/214) containing the regular reports sent back to Dublin by the Irish ambassador in Paris and registered something that the Irish embassy felt should be reported as quickly as possible: the resignation of French President Charles de Gaulle on 28 April 1969.

There was a good reason for this. Under Taoiseach Seán Lemass, Irish membership of the European Economic Community (the EEC, as the EU was then known) had become a strategic objective, due to the potential it offered for economic growth, and for extricating the Irish economy from its traditional dependence on Britain, the destination at this time for the vast bulk of Irish exports.

But precisely because of that dependence, Ireland could not realistically join the EEC unless Britain did so too. And this is where the iconic figure of de Gaulle loomed large in the worldview of Irish policymakers. Throughout the 1960s he effectively vetoed British membership of the EEC, due to his deep distrust of Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with the United States and its economic relations with the US and the Commonwealth. De Gaulle expressed a great deal of goodwill towards Ireland (he was a particular admirer of Éamon de Valera), desired closer co-operation between Ireland and France, and assured Irish officials and politicians that he had no objection in principle to Ireland joining the EEC. But his opposition to British membership was perhaps the biggest obstacle to Irish membership, for Ireland could not join the bloc if it was going to be separated from its biggest market (a conundrum that, in fairness, de Gaulle was sympathetic towards).

And so, when de Gaulle resigned on 28 April 1969 following defeat in a referendum on political reforms, it deserved a telegram to itself; a path once blocked might now become open. Ireland did not join the EEC until 1973, but the comments written on the telegram after it was received in Dublin, to be circulated within the Department of External Affairs, suggest that the implications of de Gaulle’s sudden departure from politics were not lost on Irish officials; most especially the one who inscribed this copy of the telegram with ‘Bless my European soul!’

This telegram is included in DIFP XIII as No. 519.

 

John Gibney is Assistant Editor with the Royal Irish Academy’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) project. The DIFP series publishes archival material relating to Ireland’s foreign relations since 1919 and is a partnership project of the Royal Irish Academy, the National Archives and the Department of Foreign Affairs: www.difp.ie. Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Vol. XIII: 1965-1969 is published by the Royal Irish Academy.

File in Focus: An Irish Message on the Moon

The Apollo 11 space mission was the culmination of United States President John F. Kennedy’s goal, set in 1961, to perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth.

A version of this short message from President Éamon de Valera, contained in the letter across, was taken by Apollo 11 to the moon (ref. NAI, TSCH 2000/6/481). The letter was sent from the Secretary of the Department of External Affairs Hugh McCann to the Secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach, Nicolás Ó Nualláin (Nicholas Nolan). The text that de Valera ultimately sent to the moon, which was altered slightly, is as follows:

Go ndeonaí Dia go dtabharfaidh an mheabhair agus an misneach a chuir ar chumas an duine cos a leagan ar an ngealach go mbeidh ar a chumas chomh maith síocháin agus sonas a chur in áirthe ar an talamh seo agus teacht slán ó chontúirt a léirscriosta féin

May God grant that the skill and courage which have enabled man to alight upon the moon will enable him, also, to secure peace and happiness upon the earth and avoid the danger of self-destruction

The request to send a message to the moon came from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and was communicated to Dublin by the Irish Ambassador to the United States, William Fay. In a cable to the Department Fay said how ‘President de Valera, as one of Earth’s most distinguished living citizens should send (a) message’. Fay also informed them that, along with some other diplomatic colleagues, he had been invited to view the ‘Blast Off’ from Cape Kennedy (Canaveral), Florida, on 16 July 1969. He was one of a select few invited to witness the take off in person, while 650 million people are estimated to have watched the lunar landing on television four days later.

The process involved in getting the Ireland’s message to the moon, along with those of seventy-two other countries, provides an insight into the history of technology in mid-twentieth century. NASA explained to Fay how the message was processed for preservation on the surface of the moon via a technique that was developed ‘for etching microminiaturized electronic circuits utilized in NASA’s space missions. With this process the messages of goodwill were etched on a silicon disc about 3cm in diameter.’ The message appears on the disc exactly as it was sent but reduced two hundred times to a size smaller than the head of a pin. It can be clearly seen and read under a high-powered microscope.

The reason for seeking these messages from countries around the world was in part to strengthen American diplomacy, with the Apollo 11 mission considered a ‘soft-power victory’ for the United States during the Cold War. The three members of the Apollo 11 crew, Neil Armstrong, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and Michael Collins, went on another mission after they came back down to Earth, a twenty-four-country goodwill tour of the world promoting American cultural interests. Their endeavours have been linked to what has since been coined ‘Space Diplomacy’.

On the occasion of the safe return of the astronauts Taoiseach Jack Lynch sent another message, this time to President Richard Nixon. He offered the astronauts and NASA ground control staff at Houston, Texas, ‘the sincerest congratulations of the Government and people of Ireland’ and he paid ‘a special tribute to the wives and families of these brave pioneers.’

The silicon disc containing the goodwill messages along with other less lofty items like bags of human waste, remain where the astronauts left them in 1969, intergalactic artefacts, evidence of humankind’s first flight to the moon.

Kate O’Malley is Assistant Editor with the Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) series. DIFP publishes archival material relating to Ireland’s foreign relations since 1919. It is a partnership between the Royal Irish Academy, the National Archives and the Department of Foreign Affairs: www.difp.ie. Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Vol. XIII: 1965-1969 is published by the Royal Irish Academy.

This letter is contained in DIFP XIII as Document No. 542.

 

File in Focus: A worrying note from the Secretary General of the Department of External Affairs for the attention of Taoiseach Jack Lynch, 1967

In the late-1960s Dublin and Washington were on a collision course over transatlantic aviation.

Since the end of the Second World War United States aircraft on transatlantic passenger flights could land at Shannon Airport. They had not permission under the 1945 Ireland-United States Air Transport Agreement to land at Dublin airport.

The big United States carriers of the 1960s – Pan American Airlines and Trans World Airlines – wanted access to Dublin. They felt it would give them access to Ireland’s main tourist attractions and that it would allow them to compete more equally with Aer Lingus on the increasingly busy transatlantic routes into Ireland.

By the late 1960s, under the influence of powerful airline bosses, including Juan Trippe of Pan-Am, United States Secretary of State Dean Rusk put pressure on Ireland’s Minister for External Affairs Frank Aiken to have the 1945 Agreement revised to allow American carriers access to Dublin to compete with Aer Lingus.

On receipt of Rusk’s letter, Secretary of the Department of External Affairs Hugh McCann explained in this 8 August 1967 letter (ref. NAI, TSCH 98/6/95) to Cabinet Secretary and Secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach Dr Nicolás Ó Nualláin (Nicholas Nolan) that the ‘Dublin Landing Rights’ issue had been raised to a ‘political level’. Dublin needed to act and refocus their strategy in response to Washington’s raising the stakes. 

The worrying point in McCann’s letter was that Rusk had threatened to terminate the 1945 Air Transport Agreement if Dublin did not alter its position. That would prevent Aer Lingus from landing at JFK, Boston, and Chicago and the other destinations on its prestige transatlantic service.

The late 1960s were the golden age of transatlantic aviation. Aer Lingus flew state of the art Boeing 707s across the Atlantic and was soon to introduce Boeing’s 747 on flights to North America. The Irish airline had even taken out options on purchasing two Boeing 2707s, the ill-fated Boeing competitor to the Anglo-French supersonic concord. 

There was thus much at stake on 8 August 1967 when McCann wrote his note to Ó Nualláin. 

Taoiseach Jack Lynch read the note that day and in a handwritten annotation on the bottom right-hand corner wrote to Ó Nualláin that he and Aiken had spoken and that Aiken would ‘take whatever initiative is necessary’.

Aiken played hardball with the State Department and Dublin continued to hold out. Aer Lingus had a small route share on the Atlantic, buts its customers – many of whom were Irish-Americans – were loyal. Dublin might win out.

Washington would not give in. Under relentless pressure and the eventual termination for a brief period of Aer Lingus’ landing rights at JFK in the early 1970s, Dublin was ultimately forced to allow Pan-Am and TWA to land at Dublin.

The irony of this game of power-politics was that when the two American carriers got their landing rights in Dublin TWA and Pan-Am showed little interest in the service.

 

Michael Kennedy is the Executive Editor of the Royal Irish Academy’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) series. He has for thirty years researched and published on the history of Ireland foreign policy. DIFP publishes archival material relating to Ireland’s foreign relations since 1919. It is a partnership between the Royal Irish Academy, the National Archives and the Department of Foreign Affairs: www.difp.ie. Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Vol. XIII: 1965-1969 is published by the Royal Irish Academy.

This note is included in DIFP XIII as No. 332.

File in Focus: Constitution Committee, 1922 DE/9

 

‘…bear in mind not the legalities of the past but the practicalities of the future’ Michael Collins, Chairman, Constitution Committee, 24th January 1922

This is the guidance given by Michael Collins to the members of the Constitution Committee present at its inaugural meeting in the Mansion House at 3.30pm on the 24th January 1922. When we think of the Irish Constitution, it is usually the 1937 Constitution that immediately comes to mind. It is, after all, our current constitution and holds the cultural associations with the status of women and religion that have defined recent amendments. However, the first constitution of the Irish State came into being in 1922. It set out very different parameters determined by a desire to establish, in the words of its Chairman, ‘a free democratic constitution’, an undertaking which Collins defined as ‘the most important task – more important than the Treaty itself’ (DE/9/12/3).

The papers of the Constitution Committee are held by the National Archives, Ireland’s official repository of State records. They sit alongside other complementary collections of early Dáil Éireann papers. Collectively, these records chart the most tumultuous and significant period in our Nation’s history, providing evidence of the decisions which determined the establishment of the State. The Constitution Committee holdings comprise its working papers, research, and drafts. Given the Committee’s narrow deadline, the quantity of research and debate chronicled in these papers shows the immense task which faced its members.

Although Michael Collins took on the role of chair, at its first meeting Arthur Griffith proposed Darrell Figgis become acting Chair. Collins, with his many responsibilities, was only able to attend one other meeting, but his directions to the Committee determined the course of their work. The Committee worked within an exceptionally tight timeframe, their initial deadline had given to them by Collins had been the end of February to produce a document to be reviewed by the Provisional Government. The other members of the Committee included two academics, Professor Alfred O’Rahilly and Professor James Murnaghan, four lawyers, Hugh Kennedy, John O’Byrne, Kevin O’Shiel and Clement J France, a former civil servant, James McNeill, and a businessman, James Douglas.

At the end of their deliberations on the 7 March 1922, the Committee presented the three self-contained constitutions which were known as Drafts A, B and C.  Draft A was supported by Figgis, McNeill and O’Byrne, Draft B was supported by Kennedy, Douglas and France and Draft C was supported by O’Rahilly and Murnaghan. O’Shiel ultimately declined to sign any of the final drafts.

These texts were then subject to criticism and consultation by the Provisional Government, with Draft B eventually emerging as the basic text which was brought before the British Government for further deliberation and revisions. An amended text was agreed to by both sides, and published by the Provisional Government on 16 June 1922, the day of the 1922 General Election. This text formed part of Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act, 1922. The Constitution of the Irish Free State (Bunreacht Shaorstáit Éireann) was adopted by Act of Dáil Éireann sitting as a constituent assembly on 25 October 1922.

The papers of the Committee were originally transferred from the Department of the Taoiseach to the State Paper Office in August 1972. Now, a centenary after its formation, the papers of the committee have been digitised by the National Archives to open up access around the world. A fitting tribute to a committee that sought to draw its inspiration from four continents and look to the practicalities of the future.

Antoinette Doran, Archivist

Behind the Scenes- Michael Collins’ Diaries on display in Dublin

In November 2021 the diaries of Michael Collins 1918-1922 were officially loaned to the National Archives by the family of the late Liam and Betty Collins, Clonakilty, Cork, a nephew of Michael Collins. 

This deposit, in the context of the State’s Decade of Centenaries 1912-1923 Commemorations Programme, was hugely significant for the National Archives. It not only recognised the statutory role of the National Archives in preserving and protecting the memory of the State in the form of its written records but it also recognised the substantial contribution made by Michael Collins to the development of the Irish Free State from 1916 to his death in 1922.

Since the bequest a great deal of work has been happening behind-the-scenes to make these records materially stable, secure, understood and accessible. This has involved conservation and preservation treatment, archival cataloguing and digitisation. Finally the context and interpretation of them was provided by historians Anne Dolan and William Murphy who published their book about the diaries ‘Days in the life: reading the Michael Collins diaries, 1918-1922’ in August.

Having been on display in Cork at the Michael Collins House Museum for several weeks the diaries of Michael Collins are now available to view in the ground floor lobby of the National Archives, Bishop Street.

They can be viewed weekdays 10-5pm, no booking or possession of a reader’s ticket is required.  For further details see here.

File in Focus: Protection of Wild Birds Acts

This Department of Justice file (ref. NAI, JUS/H109/4) contains a discussion of the Protection of Wild Birds Acts, which were introduced in the late 19th century following public outrage at the extinction of various species of wild birds. A growing wildlife protection movement across Great Britain and Ireland, which included a number of high profile members of the aristocracy who introduced restricted shooting and wildlife sanctuaries on their landed estates, led to mounting political pressure and the passing of legislation to curb the illegal trade and poaching of wild birds. The popularity of using bird feathers as a fashion accessory, particularly for use in women’s hats, led to an unregulated trade in various species. Legislation to protect wild animals was introduced from the mid-19th century onwards as a growing interest in the study of natural history led to the establishment of a number of wildlife protection societies that attempted to educate public opinion and halt the widespread destruction.

 

The file contains discussion of the obligations of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) to enforce wildlife protection legislation and to advertise the various hunting seasons of wild animals, including birds. In a minute, dated 7 April 1899, Inspector General of Constabulary A Reed states that ‘in regard to the prevention of cruelty to animals in connection with these Acts, the Royal Irish Constabulary are behind the English Police, and I am aware the humane members of the Irish public cannot well understand why the Royal Irish Constabulary do not perform this duty’. He further states ‘In England, the London and County Police strictly enforce them’ (NAI, JUS/H109/4/23).

 

The obligations of the enforcement of legislation by the RIC arose on foot of a Parliamentary Question by the Earl of Mayo in 1903 asking why posters were no longer displayed in RIC stations and why the RIC were enforcing the act in such a ‘mild’ and ‘roundabout’ way whereby a Constable had to seek permission from a District Inspector before pursuing a prosecution (NAI, JUS/H109/4/10). Previous correspondence dating from 1899 about the role of the RIC is also included in the file. The Royal Zoological Society of Ireland had formally written to complain to the Law Officer in Dublin Castle after they were informed of an advertisement in an English newspaper by Mr Francis Bournes of Bangor, Erris, County Mayo for the sale of chough, a protected bird (NAI, JUS/H109/4/25). The advertisement was answered by Mr Tangley of Andover, England, a concerned member of the public. In his reply, dated 1 March 1899, Bournes states that upon receipt of 15 shillings he can send ‘two clean adult freshly shot choughs…’. He goes on to state ‘These birds are very scarce and will soon be extinct – I can also supply you with a great variety of other birds and their eggs and young birds from the nest in down and feather’ (NAI, JUS/H109/4/25/3). Mr Tangley sent the letter to Professor Scharff, director of the Natural History Museum in Dublin, who in turn forwarded it to the Council of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland who instigated the complaint to the Law Office in Dublin Castle.

 

The failure of the RIC to enforce the legislation is highlighted as a reason for the poaching of protected species. The file contains reports and correspondence from RIC officers and clerks of the Petty Sessions outlining the difficulties they face in prosecuting known offences due to the ambiguous directive to the RIC not to enforce the legislation based on a legal opinion dating from 29 October 1879, (NAI, JUS/H109/4/46) which sought to clarify the role of the RIC in enforcing the Hares Preservation (Ireland) Act, 1879 and the Wildfowl Preservation Acts.

 

The file was originally part of the Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers, the archives of the British administration in Ireland, but was transferred to the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1923. This happened occasionally where information on a particular topic was required or referenced by civil servants in the newly formed department of the Irish Free State. It was retained by the Department of Home Affairs, which later became the Department of Justice, and transferred to the National Archives for public release following the introduction of the National Archives Act, 1986.

Niamh McDonnell, Keeper