Officers of the Irish Defence Forces and Civilian Higher Education Since the 1960S

Socialisation, Role Theory, and Infrapolitics: Officers of the Irish Defence Forces and Civilian Higher Education since the 1960s Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy Trinity College Dublin November, 2020 Andrew Gerard Gibson Supervisor: Dr John Walsh Title: Socialisation, Role theory, and Infrapolitics: Officers of the Irish Defence Forces and Civilian Higher Education since the 1960s. Author: Andrew Gerard Gibson Abstract: The military profession has a long history, and its institutions of education have been central to the development of military officers. Questions about the higher education of officers became increasingly important in the wake of World War 2 and the changing nature of military authority and the roles that military officers would be expected to fill. In Ireland these changes became manifest in the advent of the decision in 1969 to send Army officers to university in University College Galway. Combining documentary and archival research with data generated through semi-structured interviews with 46 retired and serving officers, it adopts a conceptual frameworK of role theory combined with ideas from James C. Scott in a case study approach to examine the origins and effects of the USAC scheme for the civilian higher education of Irish military officers since 1969. It answers the question of how officers in the Defence Forces interacted with civilian higher education at undergraduate level, and how this influenced their socialisation, professional formation, and the implications of higher education for them as individuals and for their military role. Declaration I declare that this thesis has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other university and it is entirely my own work. I agree to deposit this thesis in the University’s open access institutional repository or allow the Library to do so on my behalf, subject to Irish Copyright Legislation and Trinity College Library conditions of use and acknowledgement. Signed: _________________________________ Andrew Gerard Gibson Date: __________________________________ i Summary The military profession has a long history, and its institutions of education have been central to the development of military officers (Lovell, 1979; Masland & Radway, 1957). Questions about the higher education of officers became increasingly important in the wake of World War II and the changing nature of military authority and the roles that military officers would be expected to fill (Janowitz, 2017). More broadly twentieth century saw higher education become increasingly important, with concepts such as the “massification” (Trow, 1973, 2010b) of higher education systems emerging to capture this change. In Ireland these changes became manifest in the advent of the decision in 1969 to send army officers to university in University College Galway. This dissertation examines the origins and effects of this scheme, and answers the question of how officers in the Defence Forces interacted with civilian higher education at undergraduate level, and how did this influence their profesional formation? The conceptual framework for this approach combines role theory with concepts from the work of political anthropologist James C. Scott. Role theory accounts for the processes of professional military formation and socialisation to the Defence Forces on the one hand, while James C. Scott’s concepts of ‘infrapolitics’ and the ‘hidden transcript’ moves beyond the institutional and organisational perspective that often limits role theory. Taking a case study approach to higher education in the Irish Defence Forces, this dissertation combines documentary and archival research, and data generated through semi-structured interviews with 46 retired and serving officers. The goal is to understand the origins of university education for military officers, the individual experience of higher education for officers over the history of the scheme, and the wider effects this has had on them, and the military as a whole. The documentary and archival research finds that the origins of the scheme are found in the Commission on Higher Education, established in 1960. As part of ii the Commission’s work, submissions were submitted from a variety of groups, and the Defence Forces made two such submissions on the education of their officers. The proposal to educate army officers to university level came with the publication of the Commission’s findings in 1967. This led to much debate and discussion between different government departments, but the Defence Forces pushed through the resistance, with the first group of officers going to Galway to attend University College Galway in 1969. The interviews considered entry to the cadets and the Cadet School experience, in order to understand the professional formation of officers within that total institution (Goffman, 1961). In light of this, higher education is a significant change for military personnel, and the question of choice of university degree is considered, alongside discussions of the transition to university life, interacting with other students and staff, and the matters of military role and maintaining military identity in a civilian setting. The interviews then considered the return of these university educated officers to the Defence Forces and the nature of their integration into military life. In this context, wider questions of military socialisation are considered, as is the military relevance of higher education in terms of the career of officers, as well as their activities serving at home and abroad. The findings raised questions about tensions relating to military socialisation and the performance of military role, how individual officers deal with these tensions, and whether or how civilian higher education for officers fits in with the military socialisation of officers. The findings show that being in higher education led to different behaviours over time in terms of how officers dealt with the demands of their university studies on the one hand, and the expectations and requirements of their military role and the military discipline of the Defence Forces. Particularly from the 1990s, an increasing number of those attending university sought to downplay the military aspects of their identity, namely the officer role. They did so through changed attitudes to iii various Defence Forces regulations relating to the wearing of uniform, and in some cases the requirement to live in the military setting. An increasing number also chose to keep their military identity private, and not disclose this to fellow students. The concept of role abeyance is proposed to explain this in the light of the fact that the experience of higher education, contrary to anxieties expressed from the very origins of the scheme, has not appeared to weaken military socialisation or individual officers’ commitment to the organisation and the profession. iv Acknowledgements I would like to first mention my parents, Mary and Gerry, both of whom have encouraged me on my academic journey. They have supported me immeasurably as I carried out my research and were always interested in my progress with this project. I thank them both so much for this, and for everything else! Thanks of course also to Louise, Benny, Toby, and Aidan. I would also like to mention my friends Paul, Ran, Catherine, Fionnuala, Deirdre, Jordan, Michael, Dylan, and most especially Robert for keeping me connected to the world away from my research, and keeping me going in ways large and small. Thank you to my supervisor, Dr. John Walsh for being the model of what a good supervisor is. His keen eye for historical detail, and sensitivity to alternative interpretations helped me to improve as a researcher with each conversation and set of detailed comments on my writing. I would also like to thank him for being sanguine when I came to him to suggest a major change of topic two years into my PhD journey, but also for good conversation whenever it was required! To those in Trinity College: thanks to Dr. Andrew Loxley for his input and suggestions along the way; to the staff of the School of Education for their assistance whenever needed; to my PhD colleagues Colm, Tanya, Shelli, and Emily for beverages and chats. Thanks also to the School itself for providing with three years of PhD Studentship funding. I also acknowledge Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship for providing a year’s funding for this project (GOIPG/2018/3105). Thanks to my invisible college: Dr. Aline Courtois, now of Bath University, for being a good friend and a guide in the world of sociology, sending me interesting papers of relevance to my research, and also for being interested in v this topic when I first mentioned it! A very special thank you to Deirdre Troy for encouraging me to pursue this topic during one of our long nights of PhD conversation. Thanks also to Prof. Ellen Hazelkorn for giving me my start in academic research, and to Dr. Miguel Lim for always useful chats along the way. Finally, a very special thank you to the 46 women and men of the Irish Defence Forces, serving and retired, who gave so freely of their time and thoughts. Special thanks to the Chief of Staff Vice-Admiral Mark Mellett for allowing me access to the serving officers I interviewed, as well as Lt Col Rory McCorley for facilitating this. Thanks also to Col Dave Betson (rtd.), Col Tom Hodson (rtd.), and Col William Gibson (rtd.). Without the help and interest of all the above, this project

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