Spying on Ireland – New Book by TCD Academic on British Intelligence and Irish Neutrality during the Second World War

Posted on: 06 May 2008

Irish neutrality during the Second World War presented Britain with significant challenges to its security. Exploring how British agencies identified and addressed these problems, a new book, Spying on Ireland by TCD’s Professor Eunan O’Halpin, reveals how Britain simultaneously planned sabotage in and spied on Ireland , and at times sought to damage the neutral state’s reputation internationally through black propaganda operations. It analyses the extent of British knowledge of Axis and other diplomatic code-breaking in shaping British policy and also outlines just how much Ireland both interested and irritated Churchill throughout the war.

Using the records of a range of British secret agencies, from the codebreakers of Bletchley Park to the security service MI5, the irregular warfare and black propaganda organisations, Special Operations Executive and the Political Warfare Executive, Spying on Ireland also explores the impact of intelligence activities upon British policy towards Ireland . The Irish case is also compared with British treatment of other neutrals, particularly Afghanistan and Persia . Such a study is possible because of recent liberalisation of policy on the release of security and intelligence records.

Churchill’s views on Ireland were influenced by the work of the various intelligence and security agencies, from codebreakers to the security officers of MI5 and the spies of MI6. He had a particular appetite for raw intelligence concerning Ireland obtained by intercepting and decoding the communications of enemy, neutral and even friendly powers. Just three weeks before Pearl Harbor, he saw a decoded cable from Washington to the United States minister in Dublin about Irish protests on Northern Ireland . Churchill saw a large number of decodes concerning Ireland . These included many Irish diplomatic reports from Rome and Berlin in 1943 and 1944/5 – although for a time in early 1944 the British were unable to decode some of this traffic.

The book also provides the first authoritative account of the remarkable case of Joseph Lenihan, the mercurical Irish republican sent as a German spy in 1941 who then turned himself over to the British to work as a double agent codenamed ‘BASKET’. He was the uncle of the late Tánaiste and Minister Brian Lenihan TD and of Mary O’Rourke TD, and grand uncle of current ministers and Dáil deputies Brian Lenihan and Conor Lenihan.

Professor O’Halpin argues that British activities concerning Ireland should be placed in the wider context of intelligence and security problems that Britain faced in other neutral states, particularly Afghanistan and Persia . Taking a comparative approach, he illuminates how Britain dealt with challenges in these countries through a combination of diplomacy, covert gathering of intelligence, propaganda and intimidation. The British perspective on issues in Ireland becomes far clearer when discussed in terms of similar problems Britain faced with neutral states worldwide.

Drawing heavily on British and American intelligence records, many disclosed here for the first time, Spying on Ireland presents the first country study of British intelligence to describe and analyse the impact of all the secret agencies during the war. He casts fresh light on British activities in Ireland , and on the significance of both espionage and intelligence cooperation for developing wider relations between the two countries.

Spying on Ireland is published by Oxford University Press. Professor Eunan O’Halpin is Professor of Contemporary Irish History at the School of Histories and Humanities, TCD. The book will be featured on ‘Talking History’ on Newstalk 106FM on Sunday June 82008.