The Gazette 1971

BOOK REVIEWS

Jones (Thomas) —Whitehall Diard—Volume III— 1918-1925. Edited by Keith Middlemas; 8vo; pp. xxvii, 268; Oxford University Press, 1971. £4.75.

1924-25 would not allow this. The fact that the author could talk in Welsh to Lloyd George ensured that he could influence the Premier in favour of moderation whenever this was possible; the author was also a most valuable go-between amongst the Irish delegation. This volume certainly ranks as an essential document for all who wish to study the history of Ireland in that troubled period. C.G.D. (1) Chairman or Chief The Role of Taoiseach in Irish Government by Brian Farrell; 8vo; pp. x'ii+110. (2) The Founding of Dail Eireann—Parliament and Nation Building by Brian Farrell; 8vo; pp. xx + 89; (Paperback Studies in Irish Political Culture, Nos. 1 and 2); Dublin, Gill and Macniillan, 1971; £1 each. It was a happy thought to get Mr. Farrell to start the volumes on Irish political culture. The first of the volumes, dealing with the role of the Taoiseach, analyses from the point of view of political theory each of the five Premiers in the last fifty years— William Cosgrave, Eamonn de Valera, John Costello, Sean Lemass, and Jack Lynch. Whereas Cosgrave, owing to the circumstances prevailing after the Civil War, and Costello, on account of the formation of the Inter-Party Government, preferred to act as Chairman to their ministerial colleagues, de Valera and Lemass were Chiefs, who, having made a decision, expected their Ministers to adhere to it; furthermore de Valera preferred unanimous decisions, and would wait hours until that position was reached. The more recent events of Mr. Lynch's Premiership may require to be rewritten when more information becomes available. The author has rightly stressed the institutional strength of the Taoiseach's role within the Irish system and the general stability of Irish political institutions. There is a most useful list of Ministers from 1922 to the present. The second volume covers the period from 1916 to 1921 and stresses how Sinn Fein began to organise as a political party to eventually achieve its remarkable success in the Election of December, 1918. The author's main proposals are stated in four propositions : (1) Modern Ireland already existed before 1916. The Wyndham Land Act of 1903 brought to an end the regime of landlord rule, and made many small farmers contented. (2) Most political values, such as universal franchise, and fundamental rights were articulated in a British way. (3) The Catholic Church in Ireland, as a conservative and popular force was a stabilising influence yet a rich stream of Catholic liberalism has prevented the development of a confessional state. (4) Constitutional agitation rather than a revolutionary urge was the prime force in the movement for independence. The Parliamentary Party, as an existing political elite was being replaced by a new, more militant and less educated group of leaders; Sinn Fein was a national front of many diverse interests. Whereas in 1910, 60 constituencies

The famous author of this Diary was Private Secretary to David Lloyd George, when he was Prime Minister from 1916 to 1922. The first two volumes of the Diaries deal with events in England and elsewhere from 1916 to 1930. It was indeed a happy idea of the children of the author, Mr. Tristram Jones and Lady White, that Volume III of these Diaries, relating specifically to events in Ireland, should be published separately. Pro- fessor Mansergh, as an expert in the period, has written an interesting foreword where he poses several historical questions, and correctly states that the views of the author will help find the answers, for instance what were the Post-Treaty relationships with the Irish Pro- visional Government? Mr. Middlemas, Lecturer in History in Sussex University, has written a fascinating Introduction, apart from having edited with a master- ful hand the vast material contained in these Diaries. It would be impossible in a few words to give an accurate brief description of the Diaries themselves. Suffice it to say that, during the worst incidents of the Black and Tan regime, Jones was already persuading Lloyd George that Dominion status was the only solution to the Irish problem, and this inevitably led to the Truce of July, 1921 and to the subsequent negotia- tions in Scotland between Lloyd George and De Valera: on 27th August 1921, the Premier stated that "the British Government had offered Ireland all that O'Con- nell and Thomas Davis asked and more". At Inverness, the Cabinet considered nine drafts be- fore agreeing upon a formula to send to De Valera. It is interesting to compare the Treaty negotiations with the account given by Pakenham; it seems that Collins as a man of action could evoke strong radical sentiments on Irish Independence, and that the British Delegation had to use all its wiles to win him over eventually in favour of the Treaty; he appears to have been even more radical in May, 1922 when Churchill was accusing him of breaches of the Treaty. Lloyd George and associates successfully managed to detach Griffith, as leader of the Irish delegation, from his colleagues, and to influence him and Collins by stealthy cunning and ruse and by lionising them of the British arguments in favour of the Treaty. This continuous political and social barrage inevitably shook Griffith. It is only fair to say that in agreeing to a Boundary Commission as regards the Six Counties, Griffith was definitely of opinion that this matter would be deter- mined not by county, but by individual districts which would have given most of Tyrone and Fermanagh to the Free State: Lloyd George's duplicity, and Craig's utter intransigence followed by the later negotiations of 188