IDENTITIES AND DISTORTIONS: IRISH AMERICANS, IRELAND, AND THE UNITED STATES, 1932-1945 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By John Day Tully, B.A., M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2004 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Peter Hahn, Adviser Professor Carole Fink _______________________ Adviser Professor Kevin Boyle Department of History Copyright by John Day Tully 2004 ABSTRACT This dissertation looks at new evidence and asks new questions about Irish and Irish-American identity and U.S.-Irish relations from 1932 to 1945, especially during the critical years of World War II. It explores the relationship among the Irish, American, and British governments, the role of Irish Americans in shaping each government’s policy, and the consequences of those policies in the postwar period. Through extensive use of primary sources in Ireland and the United States, it builds on recent trends in the history of American foreign relations, contributes a fresh perspective to the relatively new field of Irish diplomatic history, exposes the myths surrounding Irish neutrality, and brings to light new evidence on the role of Irish Americans in shaping official diplomacy. The dissertation is divided into five chapters. The first chapter examines the Irish- American pattern of immigration, the history of Irish-American involvement in Irish nationalist groups prior to the outbreak of World War II, and subsequent efforts by the American, British, and Irish governments variously to control, discourage, or incite Irish Americans. The second chapter examines the context of the relationship between the U.S. and Irish governments from 1932, the year de Eamon de Valera took office as President of the Executive Council and Franklin Roosevelt was elected president, until the outbreak of the European war in September 1939. Chapter three examines the tense years from ii 1939 to 1941, when the British fought the war but the Irish and the Americans did not. Churchill pressed de Valera to abandon neutrality, even to the point of discussing the possibility of invading Ireland. De Valera countered by appealing to Irish Americans, hoping that their influence would force the U.S. government to hold the British in check. Chapter four examines the American-Irish relationship from Pearl Harbor until the end of the war. The wartime activities of the American Minister to Ireland, David Gray, had a tremendous impact on postwar Anglo-American and American-Irish relations, and this is the subject of chapter five. The myth of Nazi spies dominating Dublin and the misrepresentation of the actual impact of Irish neutrality took root largely as a result of Gray’s actions. iii Dedicated to my parents iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank all of the faculty members and graduate students at Ohio State who have helped my scholarship and teaching by being outstanding mentors and colleagues. The Irish portion of the research was the result of Carole Rogel's generous donation to the Department of History in the form of the Philip Poirier Award for work in British history. Michael Hogan took me on as a student after I arrived at Ohio State, allowing me to pursue my dreams in the classroom, in front of the classroom, and in the Harvey Goldberg Program for Excellence in Teaching. Thank you. Peter Hahn has been an excellent example and a dedicated adviser. His door was always open and he was always eager to help. Carole Fink has always shown a sincere concern for my scholarly career, and I deeply appreciate her counsel. Kevin Boyle graciously accepted this late assignment and has helped in several other projects. One would be hard pressed to find a more kindhearted faculty member. Most important, Nancy and Erin. Thank you and I love you. v VITA 16 May 1963 . Born – Scranton, Pennsylvania 1985 . B. A. Economics, Boston University 1995 . M.A. History, Central Connecticut State University 1995 – 1998 . Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University 1998 – present . Director, The Harvey Goldberg Program for Excellence in Teaching, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS "Journalism," "Henry R. Luce," and "George C. Marshall," Facts on File Encyclopedia of American History, vol. 9, 1945-1968, ed. Allan M. Winkler (New York: Facts on File, 2002). The Cuban Missile Crisis: History, Memory, and a Hot Spot in the Cold War (Ann Arbor: Xanedu, 2000). (Peer-reviewed Internet coursepack for upper-division courses) The Iran-Contra Scandals: National Security Archive Sources (Ann Arbor: Xanedu, 2000). (Peer-reviewed Internet coursepack for upper-division courses) FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Minor Fields: American Foreign Relations, Modern American History, Modern European History (with a concentration in Modern Irish History) vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract . ii Dedication . iv Acknowledgments . v Vita . vi Chapters: Introduction . 1 Chapter 1 – Exiles, Identity, and a New Nation . 10 Chapter 2 – Searching for Identities, 1932-1939 . 48 Chapter 3 – Being Neutral(?), 1939-1941 . 89 Chapter 4 – War, Demands, Neutrality, Distortions: 1941-1945 . 139 Chapter 5 – Identities, Distortions, Consequences . 179 Conclusion . 194 Bibliography . 198 vii INTRODUCTION “Support for Irish neutrality is a core republican value. It has never been more relevant than at this time of great volatility in international relations.”1 Gerry Adams 28 May 2004 Somewhere in the Bronx, only twenty minutes or so from the cemetery, Maeve found a small bar-and-grill . that, lacking only draught Guinness and a peat fire, might have been a pub in rural Ireland. Or lacking dialogue by John Millington Synge, the set of a rural Irish play. You could not redeem Billy’s life, redeem your own relentless affection for him, without saying at some point, “There was that girl.” “The Irish girl.” . “That was a sad thing, wasn’t it? That was a blow to him.” “A girl he met right after the war. Right after he came home. Out on Long Island.”2 Alice McDermott Charming Billy Ireland and Irish America shared a struggle for political identity during the twentieth century that echoes and continues in current Irish politics and Irish-American culture. After gaining independence from Britain in 1921 and enduring a civil war over 1 “Positive Neutrality Should Form Basis of International Relations Policy,” press release, 28 May 2004, Sinn Féin, http://www.politics.ie/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=5279, (accessed 30 May 2004). 2 Alice McDermott, Charming Billy (New York: Dell, 1998), 1, 5. 1 the partition of the island, Irish leaders were eager to establish a national identity that secured Ireland’s place in the world and promoted internal unity. In the 1930s and 1940s, faced with the growing European crisis and eventual war, Irish leaders used the issue of neutrality to forge a distinctly “Irish” identity. In doing so, however, they had to balance that neutrality against competing desires to see the Allies win the war and to prevent a strong British backlash to the policy. That Gerry Adams, a former leader of a group whose goal was to eliminate the British presence in Northern Ireland through violence, would embrace a policy of neutrality is an illustration of just how well the identity mission succeeded. In the twentieth century, Irish Americans faced a similar identity crisis as they struggled to find their place in American society. Like many immigrant groups, Irish Americans tried to forge an identity that recognized their ethnic and national past but allowed for assimilation into an American society that put up first racial and then religious roadblocks to their integration. Alice McDermott, like many other Irish- American novelists, explores this complicated nature of Irish-American identity in her writings. These artists have given expression to the Irish-American dilemma of feeling forced to choose between an ethnic community that insulated them from mainstream society and the dominant culture that allowed them to rise up the economic ladder but did not offer real assimilation. This dissertation explores how the Irish and Irish Americans negotiated their new identities, how each struggle played itself out, especially before and during World War II, and how their interactions affected each other. For Irish Americans, it attempts an ii accounting of, in Nathan Glazer’s and Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s phrase, the “persisting facts of ethnicity.” For Ireland, it explores how Eamon de Valera, who led Ireland from 1932 through 1947, his followers, and his Irish Republican Army (IRA) opponents could all agree that neutrality was the means to establish an identity for Ireland on the world stage. Much of the early work on Irish immigrants of the nineteenth century reflected the wider historical debates over “assimilation” that dominated immigration and ethnic history for many years. Oscar Handlin, for example, argued that replacing “dysfunctional Irish culture” with American mores offered the best hope for Irish-American success in the United States. Thomas Brown asserted forcefully that Irish America’s active work on behalf of Irish nationalism at the end of the nineteenth century was their ticket into the American mainstream. By maintaining their ethnic identity and working for Irish independence, Brown posited, Irish Americans were able to show their respect for American values. Kerby Miller showed the degree to which early Irish immigrants saw themselves as “exiles,” and explained how this perception formed their identity. Hasia Diner and Noel Ignatiev have highlighted the importance of gender when examining Irish iii America and how Irish Americans navigated the race issue in their process of creating their identity in America.1 The most promising recent approach to examining ethnic history and identity involves the concept of “invention.” In 1992, Kathleen Conzen and several other prominent ethnic and immigration historians called for a wider perspective on the nature of ethnic identity and how ethnic groups reinvent themselves over time.