Nick Maxwell

Few terms cause as much annoyance to Irish ears as the title ‘BritishIsles’. In 1951 the Minister for External Affairs, Seán MacBride,complained because particulars relating to Ireland were entered underthe heading ‘British Isles’ in a table in the Economic Bulletin forEurope published by the United Nations in Geneva. He considered ‘theinclusion of Ireland under this … Read more

Cold War paranoia and hunger for new markets clashed in governmentdisscussions in 1971 on the desirability of establishing diplomaticlinks with the Soviet Union and Poland. In a memorandum of 28 October1971 the cabinet was informed: The Minister for Foreign Affairs [Dr Patrick Hillery] considers thatthe establishment of formal relations with at least some of the … Read more

A secret memorandum, prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs forthe minister, Dr Patrick Hillery, dated 21 June 1971, provided ‘a briefanalysis of the present Nothern Ireland situation’. The Department felt that ‘the short-term objective, that of forcingsuch institutional and other changes in the North as will break defacto and permanently the Unionist hegemony, needs … Read more

During a visit to Dublin on 5 February 1971 James Callaghan MP, former Labour British Home Secretary, met with Dr Patrick Hillery, Minister for External Affairs. Mr Callaghan began by attempting to ascertain Dr Hillery’s ‘view on the cause of the present troubles’. Dr Hillery stated ‘that the basic cause was the 1920 “solution”’. He … Read more

What do Ireland, India-Pakistan and Israel-Palestine have in common? All have experience of British rule and partition and all, in the words of Gyan Pandey (Johns Hopkins) ‘have contested pasts and contested presents’. These connections and parallels were to the fore between 6 and 9 December 2001, when The Keough Institute for Irish Studies at … Read more