Seán McBride – That
Day’s Struggle. A Memoir
1924-1951. Recorded and
edited by Caitriona Lawlor. Currach Press,
Dublin, 2005.
(Caitriona Lawlor, was Seán McBride's secretary from 1977 to 1988)
The following review was written on December 31st 2005 and was published in the Irish Times
Seán McBride was
the only son of John and Maud Gonne McBride. He lived in Paris for the first
fourteen years of his life. His mother was barred from entry to Ireland by the
British because of her separatist views. His father was executed in 1916
following the rebellion.
It is not
surprising that McBride was committed to the republican ideal with this family background.
He opposed the Treaty on grounds of partition and the oath. Like many opponents
of the settlement, he had little insight into the ineluctability of partition. He
arrived in Ireland in 1918 and, despite his youth of 15 years, he acted as a
messenger for the Sinn Féin and military leaders during the War of
Independence. He spent the entire civil
war period in jail. He remained in the IRA after the civil war but his activities
were confined to defending dissident republicans who were charged under the
Offences against the State Act. He
was appointed chief of staff of the IRA for 18 months in 1936 but claimed that
he was only appointed in a caretaker capacity and was opposed to violence
against the state forces.
In 1961 MacBride became the first director of Amnesty International |
He was instrumental in forming the Clann
na Poblachta party in 1946. He was Minister for External Affairs in the first
Inter-party Government in 1948. This Government was defeated in 1951 following
the Browne controversy and because of mounting economic difficulties. He
refused a cabinet position in the second inter-party government and lost his
Dáil seat in 1961. Thanks to his French background and ministerial contacts
with British, European and American leaders, he became involved in international
affairs at a high political and social level.
His family
background determined his early and uncompromising political views, but shifts
in political attitudes made him an enigmatic figure. His memoirs read as the spoken
rather than written word and terminate at the time of his retirement from the
cabinet in 1951. His views on several controversial issues are largely based on
self justification and he tends to be dismissive, patronising and even embarrassingly
personal about his opponents. He takes more credit than is consistent with the
facts for such events as the formation of the inter-party government, the passing
of the External Relations Act, Ireland’s departure from the Commonwealth, and
the new and enlightened economic policies of his government. His views on these
and other issues cannot be accepted without appropriate research and documentary
evidence. He provides none.
His interests
extended beyond his remit as minister for external affairs to such areas as
forestry, waterways and the railway system. He tended to lecture civil servants
and to interfere in other government departments, thus not always endearing
himself to colleagues. In his capacity as an energetic minister for external affairs
and during his subsequent career abroad, he undoubtedly helped to counteract
the insular attitude of the post World War Irish. Later, after retiring from
national politics, his career was distinguished by many important contributions
to European unity and to the human rights movement. He was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Peace, an irony not lost on some of his opponents.
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