The Migration of Irish Nationalist Ideology in Postwar Europe, 1918–26

The Armistice of November 1918 suspended the violence of the Great War. Rather than inspiring collective peace throughout Europe, the conflict had influenced the growth and radicalization of nationalist thought. Regionalist, devolutionary, and radical socialist movements, which had been sidelined or silenced at the war’s commencement, re-emerged in 1918 and demanded their respective countries honor their commitments to the rights of small nationalities. Chief amongst them was the Irish nationalist movement, personified in the political program of the separatist Sinn Féin party, and its militant counterpart, the Irish Republican Army. The influence of the Irish revolutionary experience, which encompassed an unsuccessful but symbolic uprising in 1916, a formative War of Independence from 1919-1921, and an integrated cultural resurgence, carried far beyond the small island on the edge of Western Europe. Elements of the Irish Diaspora in North America, South Africa, and Australia followed the development of Ireland’s independence struggle, and offered instrumental moral and financial support. In Europe, declarations of solidarity were issued from a variety of local bodies in Spain and Italy, while nationalists in Brittany attempted to imitate the Sinn Féin program. Such wide familiarity with a comparatively small, isolated struggle owed much to the efforts of rebel Ireland’s widespread diplomats and press corps. This paper will examine the extent to which the ideology of Irish nationalism migrated throughout Europe during the Irish Revolution and in its aftermath. Particularly, it will trace the presence and influence of diplomats appointed by the Irish Republic during its revolution, how and where their message was received, as well as its influence on local and international outlooks. Overall, this research argues that the development and broad dissemination of Ireland’s revolutionary program to countries not traditionally home to its Diaspora communities contributed greatly to its independence struggle following the Great War.