Seán MacBride

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Seán MacBride
October 1947 – February 1948
ConstituencyDublin County
Personal details
Born(1904-01-26)26 January 1904
Paris, France
Died15 January 1988(1988-01-15) (aged 83)
Dublin, Ireland
Resting placeGlasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland
NationalityIrish
Political party
Spouse
Catalina Bulfin
​
​
(m. 1924⁠–⁠1976)​
Children2
Parents
RelativesIseult Gonne (half sister)
Education
Alma materUniversity College Dublin

Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988)

Chief of Staff of the IRA from 1936 to 1937. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1947 to 1957.[2][3]

Rising from a domestic Irish political career, he founded or participated in many international organisations of the 20th century, including the United Nations, the Council of Europe and Amnesty International. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974, the Lenin Peace Prize for 1975–1976 and the UNESCO Silver Medal for Service in 1980.

Early life

MacBride was born in

Irish Transvaal Brigade against the British in the Second Boer War. Within a year of MacBride's birth, he returned to Dublin where, following his participation in the Easter Rising, John MacBride was court-martialed by the British and executed in May 1916.[10][11][12]

MacBride's first language was French, and he retained, or, as some would claim, affected, a French accent in the English language for the rest of his life.[13][14][15] MacBride first studied at the Jesuit Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, and remained in Paris until his father's execution by the British for his involvement in the 1916 Easter Rising, when he was sent to school at Mount St Benedict's, Gorey, County Wexford in Ireland, and briefly at the Downside School.[16]

MacBride first became involved in politics during the 1918 Irish general election in which he was active for Sinn Féin. The following year in 1919, aged 15, he lied about his age to join the Irish Volunteers, which fought as part of the Irish Republican Army, and took part in the Irish War of Independence. He opposed the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and was imprisoned by the Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War.[17]

Anti-Treaty IRA, cooperation with the Soviets

On his release in 1924, MacBride studied law at University College Dublin and resumed his IRA activities.[18] He worked briefly for Éamon de Valera as his personal secretary, travelling with him to Rome to meet various dignitaries.

In January 1925, on his twenty-first birthday, MacBride married Catalina "Kid" Bulfin, a woman four years his senior who shared his political views.

Irish nationalist publisher and travel-writer William Bulfin
.

Before returning to Dublin in 1927, where he became the IRA's Director of Intelligence, MacBride worked as a journalist in Paris and London.

According to historians Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly, recently deciphered IRA messages from the 1920s reveal that the organisation's two main sources of funding were Clan na Gael and the Soviet Union.[20] The messages further reveal that MacBride, before becoming IRA Director of Intelligence, was involved in the espionage activities in Great Britain of GRU spymaster Walter Krivitsky, whom ciphered IRA communications referred to only by the code name "James".[21]

In addition to supplying the USSR with detailed information on

ASDIC, an early sonar system for detecting submarines, at a covert meeting in Amsterdam during the autumn of 1926.[22] MacBride also assisted the GRU by providing forged passports to Soviet intelligence operatives who were at risk of capture.[23]

In October 1926, MacBride sent a ciphered report from

counterfeiting operations, saying, "Several bad Bank of England notes have been passed here lately. These are said to emanate from Russia."[24]

Soon after his return to Dublin in 1927, he was arrested and charged with the murder of politician Kevin O'Higgins, who had been assassinated near his home in Booterstown, County Dublin. At his trial, however, Cumann na nGaedheal politician Bryan Cooper testified as a witness for the defence that, at the time of Kevin O'Higgins' murder, both he and MacBride had been aboard a ferry travelling from Britain to Ireland. MacBride was then charged with being a subversive and interned in Mountjoy Prison.[25]

In September 1927, Krivitsky sent the IRA a message from Amsterdam, demanding to see MacBride immediately, claiming to have a "present" he was anxious to give away, and naming a cafe where the meeting could take place. As MacBride was then imprisoned in Dublin, the IRA's chief of staff, Moss Twomey, replied that the request was "rather awkward and impossible to fulfill at the present". In response, Twomey and two other senior IRA members travelled to Amsterdam and met with Krivitsky instead.[26]

In 1929 an Irish section of the

Comintern.[28]

Towards the end of the 1920s, after many supporters had left to join Fianna Fáil, some members of the IRA started pushing for a more left-wing agenda. After the IRA Army Council voted down the idea, MacBride launched a new movement, Saor Éire ("Free Ireland"), in 1931. Although it was a non-military organisation, Saor Éire was declared unlawful along with the IRA, Cumann na mBan and nine other bodies. MacBride, meanwhile, became the security services' number-one target.[29]

In 1936, the IRA's chief of staff Moss Twomey was sent to prison for three years; he was replaced by MacBride. At the time, the movement was in a state of disarray, with conflicts between several factions and personalities. Tom Barry was appointed chief of staff to head up a military operation against the British, an action with which MacBride did not agree.[30]

In 1937, MacBride was called to the

Detective Sergeant Denis O'Brien. In 1946, during the inquest into the death of Seán McCaughey, MacBride embarrassed the Irish State by forcing them to admit that conditions in Portlaoise Prison were inhumane.[31]

Clann na Poblachta, Minister for External Affairs

Main article: Clann na Poblachta
MacBride circa 1947 when he founded Clann na Poblachta

In 1946, MacBride founded the republican/socialist party

by-election in the Dublin County constituency.[32] On the same day, Patrick Kinane also won the Tipperary by-election for Clann na Poblachta.[33]

However, at the 1948 general election Clann na Poblachta won only ten seats. The party joined with Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the National Labour Party, Clann na Talmhan and several independents to form the First Inter-Party Government with Fine Gael TD John A. Costello as Taoiseach. Richard Mulcahy was the Leader of Fine Gael, but MacBride and many other Irish Republicans had never forgiven Mulcahy for his role in carrying out 77 executions under the government of the Irish Free State in the 1920s during the Irish Civil War. To gain the support of Clann na Poblachta, Mulcahy stepped aside in favour of Costello. Two Clann na Poblachta TDs joined the cabinet; MacBride became Minister for External Affairs[4] while Noël Browne became Minister for Health.

On his ministerial accession, MacBride sent a telegram to Pope Pius XII offering:

...to repose at the feet of Your Holiness the assurance of our filial loyalty and our devotion to Your August Person, as well as our firm resolve to be guided in all our work by the teaching of Christ and to strive for the attainment of a social order in Ireland based on Christian principles.[34]

At MacBride's suggestion, Costello nominated the northern Protestant

Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC, later OECD) in 1948–1951. He was responsible for Ireland not joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).[37]

He was instrumental in the repeal of the

Republic of Ireland Act which came into force in 1949. It declared that Ireland may officially be described as the Republic of Ireland and that the President of Ireland
had the executive authority of the state in its external relations.

In 1951, MacBride controversially ordered Noël Browne to resign as a minister over the

Irish Catholic hierarchy and the Irish medical establishment.[38][39]
Whatever the merits of the scheme, or of Browne, MacBride concluded in a Cabinet memorandum:

Even if, as Catholics, we were prepared to take the responsibility of disregarding [the Hierarchy's] views, which I do not think we can do, it would be politically impossible to do so . . . We are dealing with the considered views of the leaders of the Catholic Church to which the vast majority of our people belong; these views cannot be ignored.[40]

Also in 1951, Clann na Poblachta was reduced to two seats after the general election. MacBride kept his seat and was re-elected again in 1954. Opposing the internment of IRA suspects during the

Border Campaign (1956–1962), he contested both the 1957 and 1961
general elections but failed to be elected both times. He then retired from politics and continued practising as a barrister.

International roles and commissions

Seán MacBride in 1986

After retiring from politics in Ireland, MacBride assumed various international commissions and roles. He was among a group of lawyers who founded

show trials after the 1956 Budapest uprising. Later it became the UK section of the International Commission of Jurists for which MacBride, from 1963 to 1971, was Secretary-General. In 1966, his standing on the Commission was unsuccessfully challenged by US claims that he had been involved with a Central Intelligence Agency funding operation.[41]

In 1961, MacBride was a co-founder of Amnesty International, and he served as its International Chairman until 1975.[42]

In 1963, he had helped draft the constitution of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU); following consultations on the constitutions of newly-independent Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania.[43]

In 1968, MacBride was elected Chair and, in 1975, President of the International Peace Bureau in Geneva, a position he retained until 1985.[44] He was also involved in the International Prisoners of Conscience Fund.[45][1]

In the course of the 1970s, he held various positions with the United Nations.[44] In 1973, he was elected by the UN General Assembly to the post of High Commissioner for Namibia, with the rank of Assistant Secretary-General. It was thought that, represented by man whose father had volunteered to fight alongside their forefathers, the Afrikaner leadership of Apartheid South Africa would find the UN's assurances in return for a withdrawal from Namibia more credible.[43]

In 1977, MacBride was appointed president of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, set up by UNESCO. In 1980, this produced the controversial MacBride Report which called for policies to reduce the international dominance of the western media.[46]

During the 1980s, he initiated the Appeal by Lawyers against Nuclear War

Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons
was eventually handed down by the ICJ in 1996.

In 1982, MacBride was chairman of the International Commission to enquire into reported violations of International Law by Israel during its

government of Israel has committed acts of aggression contrary to international law", was published in 1983 under the title Israel in Lebanon.[48]

Nobel Peace Prize and other international honours

MacBride's work was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1974)[49] as a man who "mobilised the conscience of the world in the fight against injustice". He shared the prize with Eisaku Sato, the former Japanese Prime Minister acknowledged for his commitment to peace and non-proliferation.[50]

Other international honours followed: the Lenin Peace Prize in 1975; the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1978;[51] and the UNESCO Silver Medal for Service (1980). He received the Lenin Peace Prize for his opposition to what MacBride referred to as "this absolutely obscene arms race." He was one of only two to win both the Lenin and Nobel peace prizes, the other being Linus Pauling.[52]

Last Irish interventions

In 1977, in the midst of the

QC and former chairman of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party) as joint mediator in confidential negotiations between the Provisional IRA (PIRA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force about a federal settlement for Ireland.[53] Their efforts included a meeting, brokered by West Belfast priest Des Wilson, between Boal and Gerry Adams. Inasmuch as their exchange was "frank", Adams found the discussion "constructive", but it failed to identify common political ground.[54]

In 1984, MacBride was one of four well known Irish activists, two Catholic and two Protestants, who endorsed a set of

fair-employment guidelines for American investment in Northern Ireland, intended to redress a history of sectarian discrimination.[55][56] The campaign for what became known as the MacBride Principles resulted in both British and American legislation.[57]

In the Irish Republic, MacBride edited a 1981 report of a Commission of Enquiry into the Irish Penal System. Crime and Punishment broadly condemned the country's prisons, unreformed since independence, for failing to address the task of offender rehabilitation and consequently for its high degree of recidivism.[58]

In 1983, MacBride voted yes to the

Dunnes Stores Strike and attended at least one of their rallies.[43]

Later life and death

In his later years, MacBride lived in his mother's home, Roebuck House, that served as a meeting place for many years for Irish nationalists, as well as in the Parisian arrondissement where he grew up with his mother.

Seán MacBride died in Dublin on 15 January 1988, eleven days before his 84th birthday. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery alongside his mother, and his wife, who died in 1976.

On the occasion of MacBride's death, Oliver Tambo of the African National Congress (ANC), stated "Seán MacBride will always be remembered for the concrete leadership he provided to the liberation movement and people of Namibia and South Africa. Driven by his own personal and political insight arising out of the cause of national freedom in Ireland ... our debt to him can never be repaid."[43]

Legacy

Streets in Windhoek, Namibia and Amsterdam are named after him.[43] The Headquarters of Amnesty International Ireland is called 'Seán MacBride House' in his honour.[60] and the International Peace Bureau likewise named the 'Seán MacBride Prize' in his name.[61]

A bust of MacBride was unveiled in Iveagh House, headquarters of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs in 1995.[62]

In popular culture

A novel, The Casting of Mr O'Shaughnessy, was published in 1995 (revised edition 2002) by Éamon Delaney in which the eponymous Mr O'Shaughnessy was, in the author's own words "partly, but quite obviously, based on the career of the colourful Seán MacBride".[63]

Career summary

  • 1946–1965 Leader of Clann na Poblachta
  • 1947–1958 Member of Dáil Éireann
  • 1948–1951 Minister for External Affairs of Ireland in Inter-Party Government
  • 1948–1951 Vice-president of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC)
  • 1950 President, Committee of Ministers of Council of Europe
  • 1954 Offered but declined, Ministerial office in Irish Government
  • 1963–1971 Secretary-General, International Commission of Jurists
  • 1966 Consultant to the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace
  • 1961–1975 chairman Amnesty International Executive
  • 1968–1974 Chairman of the Executive International Peace Bureau
  • 1975–1985 President of the Executive International Peace Bureau
  • 1968–1974 Chairman Special Committee of International NGOs on Human Rights (Geneva)
  • 1973 Vice-chairman, Congress of World Peace Forces (Moscow, October 1973)
  • 1973 Vice-president, World Federation of United Nations Associations
  • 1973–1977 Elected by the General Assembly of the United Nations to the post of United Nations Commissioner for Namibia with rank of Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations
  • 1977–1980 Chairman, Commission on International Communication for UNESCO
  • 1982 Chairman of the International Commission to enquire into reported violations of International Law by Israel during its invasion of the Lebanon

Further reading

  • Keane, Elizabeth (2006). An Irish Statesman and Revolutionary: The Nationalist and Internationalist Politics of Seán MacBride. Tauris.
  • Jordan, Anthony J, (1993), Seán A biography of Seán MacBride, Blackwater Press

References

  1. ^ a b "Seán MacBride | Irish statesman". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 29 June 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  2. ^ "Seán MacBride". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2009.
  3. ^ Keane, Ronan. "MacBride, Seán". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  4. ^ a b Saturday Evening Post; 23 April 1949, Vol. 221 Issue 43, pp. 31–174, 5p
  5. ^ "MacBride, (Edith) Maud Gonne | Dictionary of Irish Biography". www.dib.ie. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  6. ISBN 978-1682192061
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  7. ^ Warren, Gordon (24 November 2020). "Maud Gonne and the 1930s' movement for basic income in Ireland". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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  11. ^ McEvoy, Dermot (18 April 2021). "Arbour Hill, Dublin's forgotten memorial to the men of 1916". Irish Central. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  12. ^ Jordan Anthony J. The Yeats Gonne MacBride Triangle (Westport Books 2000) pp. 49–104
  13. ^ Dungan, Myles (2007). Speaking ill of the dead. New Island Books. p. 156.
  14. ^ Delaney, Eamon (2001). An Accidental Diplomat. New Island Books. p. 391.
  15. ^ Ireland – A Television History – Part 10 of 13 – 'Civil War 1921–1923', archived from the original on 29 December 2019, retrieved 28 August 2019
  16. ^ "Mount St Benedict – Craanford Monaseed Hollyfort".
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  18. ^ Jordan (1993), p. 41.
  19. ^ Jordan (1993), p. 42.
  20. Cork City
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  21. Cork City
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  22. Cork City
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  23. Cork City
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  24. Cork City
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  25. ^ Jordan (1993), p. 47.
  26. Cork City
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  27. ^ Edwards, Robert Dudley; Moody, Theodore William (2003). Irish Historical Studies: Joint Journal of the Irish Historical Society and the Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies. Hodges, Figgis & Company. Archived from the original on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  28. S2CID 248445034
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  29. ^ Jordan (1993), p. 57.
  30. ^ Jordan (1993), p. 70.
  31. ISBN 978-0717148134
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  32. ^ "Seán MacBride". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 30 November 2010. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
  33. ^ Jordan (1993), pp. 86–98
  34. ^ Semple, Patrick (18 November 2014). "Previous generations would be astounded at attitudes to churches in Ireland today A 60-year journey from obsequious conformity". Irish Times. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  35. ^ "Denis Ireland". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 7 November 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  36. ^ William Schabas (2012). "Ireland, The European Convention on Human Rights, and the Personal Contribution of Seán MacBride," in Judges, Transition, and Human Rights, John Morison, Kieran McEvoy, and Gordon Anthony eds., Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2012
  37. ^ Jordan (1993), p. 115
  38. ^ Jordan (1993), pp. 125–140
  39. ^ Blanshard, Paul (1954). The Irish and Catholic Power: an American Interpretation. London: Derek Verschoyle. pp. 78–79.
  40. ^ Ronan Fanning (6 December 2009) The age of our craven deference is finally over Archived 23 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. The Independent.
  41. ^ "Peter Benenson". The Independent. 28 February 2005. Archived from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  42. ^ "Peace Prize Laureates: Seán MacBride 1974". peaceprizelaureates.nobelpeacecenter.org. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  43. ^ a b c d e "Seán MacBride and Namibia". History Ireland. 21 February 2013. Archived from the original on 19 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  44. ^ a b "The Nobel Peace Prize 1974". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  45. ^ Jordan (1993), pp. 157–165
  46. ^ "The MacBride Report". archive.ccrvoices.org. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  47. ^ Appeal by Lawyers against Nuclear War Archived 21 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine. I-p-o.org. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  48. ISBN 0-903729-96-2
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  49. ^ United Nations Chronicle, Sep95, Vol. 32 Issue 3, p. 14, 2/5p, 1c; (AN 9511075547)
  50. ^ "Eisaku Sato". Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Institute. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  51. American Academy of Achievement. Archived
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  52. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived
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  53. ^ Maune, Patrick (2022). "Boal, Desmond Norman Orr | Dictionary of Irish Biography". www.dib.ie. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  54. ^ Sharrock and Devenport (1997), p. 155
  55. ^ "The MacBride Principles | Irish America". 7 October 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  56. ^ "The Nine MacBride Principles". The Irish Times. 2 March 1996. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  57. ^ Staff Reporter (16 February 2011). "Editorial MacBride's triumph". Irish Echo. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  58. ^ Sean MacBride ed. (1982). Crime and Punishment : Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the Irish Penal System. Dublin : Ward River Press.
  59. ^ O'Brien, Breda (23 April 2016). "Amnesty abandons values of Seán MacBride". The Irish Times.
  60. ^ Seán MacBride: A Republican Life, 1904–1946 By Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid
  61. ^ "Media's lack of interest in Jeremy Corbyn's Seán MacBride Peace Prize not biased, www.irishnews.com". 15 December 2017. Archived from the original on 6 June 2019. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  62. ISBN 1-902602-39-0
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  63. ^ An Accidental Diplomat. p. 382.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Seán MacBride.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister for External Affairs
1948–1951 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
New political party Leader of Clann na Poblachta
1946–1965 		Succeeded by
Party disbanded
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