Irish Delegation
Reaction to de Valera’s Letter
Introduction from Chronology
De Valera’s letter of the previous day creates consternation among the
Irish delegation. Griffith said that he
would go home unless de Valera and the rest of the Irish cabinet left their
hands free. Collins was angry. He said that there were people on Dublin
trying to get him “to do the dirty work for them” and that he was being led
into a trap by Brugha and Stack.
The full Irish delegation writes to de Valera saying that his letter was
inconsistent with their powers and limited their freedom of discussion.
They stated that “The responsibility, if this inference breaks the very slight
possibility of a settlement, will not and must not rest on the
Plenipotentiaries.” More specifically they stated that "Obviously any form
of association necessitates discussion of recognition in one form or other of the
head of that association."
Comment
Curran says that the strong reaction from Griffith
and Collins to de Valera’s letter came from their belated realisation
that de Valera would not accept a Dominion settlement. This is unlikely
as external association was not a dominion settlement but, at a minimum, it
shows that Collins and Griffith may not have fully comprehended external
association. According to Curran, this may have been because de Valera had not
fully explained it to them.
In his letter of October 25th, de Valera had
offered to go to London himself but only if the situation demanded it. The Delegation replied to only come if he
could do so privately or if they sent him an urgent message. (It seems counter intuitive that, if de
Valera thought the delegation was straying fundamentally from his concept of
External Association, he did not go to London immediately.)