The Irish Against the War

The tradition of neutrality, be it political or military, was debated, and some activists forced Irish judges to grapple with the Constitution to determine how binding it was for the Irish government (Crotty v. An Taoiseach, 1987; Horgan v. An Taoiseach, 2003).² At the time when the Constitution was written, neutrality was the symbol of the affirmation of a newly independent state, whose foreign policy differed from that of the United Kingdom. Recently, a motion supported by People Before Profit/Solidarity TDs, who belong to the left-wing alliance headed by the Irish Anti-War Movement leader Richard Boyd Barrett, requested a referendum to explicitly insert Ireland’s neutral status into the Constitution (March 2022). The majority of TDs in the Dáil, the Irish House of Representatives, voted against the motion, in the context of the Ukraine War and the debate about the Republic of Ireland joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).³ Boyd Barrett commented: ‘Ireland’s neutrality and the struggle for an independent Irish Republic are one and the same thing.’⁴ Asserting independence, in a state whose identity is branded by its colonial history, is crucial.

In the Republic of Ireland, single-focus organizations mobilizing to oppose the war can be traced back to the Irish Anti-War Crusade (Croaid Frioth-Chogaidheach na hÉireann) which was set up in 1936, and then became the Irish Pacifist Movement. It was based in Dublin and was characterized by a strong Quaker and Protestant influence.⁵ In 1937, in the run-up to the Second World War and a possible military alliance with Britain, the Irish Pacifist Movement set up the Irish branch of the War Resisters International and participated in the creation of a collective action repertoire that would pave the way for later activism: ‘[I]t tried to promote the ideal of peace in opposition to war, by holding meetings, talks, poster displays, leafleting and the organising of petition.’⁶ The Irish Pacifist Movement remained active until 1969, despite divisions regarding Irish involvement in the Congo peacekeeping forces (1962) and the inner competition of a very strong anti-Vietnam War campaign led by activists William Ledwich and Moira Woods. Similarly to the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, set up in 1958, the Irish Pacifist Movement opposed the nuclear bomb very strongly. In the late 1960s, they ceased activity, mostly due to the failure to appeal to younger members and Catholics. In the early 1970s, Moira Woods went on to create the more radical Irish Movement for Peace and Justice to pursue the campaign against the war in Vietnam. A few years later, in 1977, the Irish International Peace Movement was formed in Dublin, with political figures such as Seán MacBride, Roy Johnston, and Proinsias Mac Aonghusa who connected international questions and Irish neutrality with a focus on national liberation movements. The Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement should also be mentioned, as it was very active in the 1980s, with the Dunnes store strike in Dublin, for example (1984–1986), and many activists involved in this group were also part of the anti-war organizations the book focuses on.⁷ Of course, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, starting in 1968–1969, were a breeding ground for many peace groups in the Republic of Ireland as well as in the North, including, for example, the Peace People founded in 1976. While such groups will be mentioned in the narrative of the history of Irish anti-war organizations, they will not be the main focus of the book which concentrates on Irish anti-war movements focused on foreign conflicts. Their presence in the background should still be taken into account because of their influence over collective actions on the island of Ireland and the permeability between anti-war groups.

The legacy of colonialism includes the organization of the state and institutions which shape the political opportunity structure in which the Irish anti-war movements have evolved. Ireland is a small state, with well-developed patronage relations and easy access to the political class. Crotty and Schmitt underline the fact that ‘the openness of the Irish polity to lobbying, derivative of the small size of the bureaucracy but also arising from the Irish tradition of clientelism’ is an asset for activists who try to lobby the Irish government.⁸ Among other factors, this has allowed social movements to have a very strong impact on the evolutions of the Irish society in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, on issues such as women’s rights, abortion, and gay marriage, among others. It has also given opportunities to anti-war lobbyists. The opposition to war is necessarily connected with the field of international relations and brings in the complex geopolitical dynamics that shape the power relations between states. It is relevant, for example, to look at the historical connections between the United States and the Republic of Ireland since the Americans have been allies, economic partners, and investors with strong diasporic links with the Irish nation. Consequently, the Irish government may sometimes have been at pains to answer the requests of activists, regarding for instance the search of warplanes at Shannon Airport. As a matter of fact, the Irish anti-war movements’ discourse is suspicious of different sources of neo-imperialism over the Republic of Ireland: the European Union, NATO and, most of all, the United States.⁹ In ‘Myth-making and Missing the Point: Largely Irish Perceptions of American Foreign Policy’, George T. Dempsey, a former American diplomat who worked for four years at the American Embassy in Dublin (1988–1992), laments Irish scathing criticism against US foreign policy, from the streets to the Dáil: ‘Pleasure was taken over our failures and supposed defeats. The only words spoken about us in the Dáil were ones of condemnation. Indeed, on virtually every issue in international relations, the common parlance in the Dáil, in the newspapers, on radio and television and at cocktail parties was one of accusations and judgmental observations that found us in the wrong, usually wilfully in the wrong. We even enjoyed the singular pleasure of a regular demonstration each Saturday morning.’¹⁰ This anti-American climate, somewhat exaggerated in this self-confessed ‘cri de coeur’ by Dempsey, was not foreign to the first Gulf War that was raging in Iraq. Mistrust of the American neo-imperialism that has developed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is characteristic of the framing of the anti-war cause by many Irish activists. In this respect, it is interesting to read American student Margaret Havemann’s testimony. In 2006, she wrote a project on the Irish Anti-War Movement, interviewing activists and politicians and she made the following comment on her work: ‘I found it difficult to start a conversation with an Irish person without first waiving a disclaimer: “I disapprove of my country’s government!”. But speaking with well-educated, balanced activists and hearing from politicians intent on remaining in America’s good graces reminded me of all that I have to be proud of in my home country, the current administration notwithstanding.’¹¹ The Bush administration and the hawks were the real targets of most of the anti-war activists that she interviewed, as opposed to a primary anti-American instinct, similar to what Dempsey had described.

The book’s approach is diachronic and encompasses several movements that were born, evolved, and changed over decades. It is based on the use of numerous primary sources, which gave me an insight into the evolution of Irish anti-war activism over almost one century. These sources include press articles, parliamentary archives, political statements, official reports, and magazines, but also grey literature such as newsletters, agendas, leaflets, posters, and balance sheets. For the contemporary period, I also found useful information on websites, blogs and social networks. In addition, I interviewed many of the main participants in this anti-war activism – politicians, grassroots activists, academics, and religious figures – who kindly agreed to share their memories of their involvement in the cause of opposition to the war for the purpose of this work.