Churchill and Ireland

by Paul Bew

Winston Churchill spent his early childhood in Ireland, had close Irish relatives, and was himself much involved in Irish political issues for a large part of his career. He took Ireland very seriously -- and not only because of its significance in the Anglo-American relationship. Churchill, in fact, probably took Ireland more seriously than Ireland took Churchill. Yet, in the fifty years since Churchill's death, there has not been a single major book on his relationship to Ireland. It is the most neglected part of his legacy on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Distinguished historian of Ireland Paul Bew now at long last puts this right. Churchill and Ireland tells the full story of Churchill's life-long engagement with Ireland and the Irish, from his early years as a child in Dublin, through his central role in the Home Rule crisis of 1912-14 and in the war leading up to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922, to his bitter disappointment at Irish neutrality in the Second World War and gradual rapprochement with his old enemy Eamon de Valera towards the end of his life.
As this long overdue book reminds us, Churchill learned his earliest rudimentary political lessons in Ireland. It was the first piece in the Churchill jigsaw and, in some respects, the last.

Genres: Politics, History, Irish Literature

230 pages, Hardcover

First published April 25, 2016

About the author

A graduate of Pembroke College, Cambridge, Paul Bew has been Professor of Irish Politics at Queen's University, Belfast since 1991. A leading commentator on Northern Irish politics, he is the author of many publications on Irish history and the politics of contemporary Ireland.

Reviews

[Brian Kinkead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Bew’s book is a very balanced account of Churchill’s relationship with Ireland, a relationship as complex as the history of Ireland was itself. Bew does a great job showing how Churchill’s position on Ireland subtly evolved over time and how nuanced his positions were during certain periods as he tried to balance nationalists desires for independence with unionist desires to remain part of the U.K. He succeeds in dispelling some of the stereotypes about Churchill adopted by both ends of the political spectrum in Ireland, north and south. I found the chapters on the Treaty and on Irish Neutrality during WWII especially interesting. I wish he had spent a little more time on the relationship between Collins and Churchill. All in all, an excellent book for anyone interested in Churchill and Ireland.

[Peter Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well surely we all know Churchill’s disdainful view of Ulster that is best summed up in his famous quote following World War One:

“…as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again. The integrity of their quarrel is one of the few institutions that has been unaltered in the cataclysm which has swept the world.”

..and surely we all know how much he grew to dislike de Valera’s Irish Free State (and later Republic) with its war time neutrality and its refusal to bend on the treaty ports.

So what can such a short book tell us about this topic that we don’t already know? Well to my shame it transpires that the answer is a very great deal.

I now have a much clearer understanding of how and why Churchill’s views of both Ulster and the South changed and evolved. There are also some real surprises thrown in as that evolution is explored in the book. These surprises include Churchill’s very personal, as well as his known professional, link to the events of the Curragh “mutiny”, and his specific role in the creation of the so called Black and Tans. I really should have paid much more attention when I was a student attending Paul Bew’s lectures at Queens Belfast.

[George Morrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

A worthy read on a historical titan and his relationship with my home nation. Overall, I liked this book. Bew's prose is very readable and he's clearly an expert on his subject and Churchill and his feelings on Ireland certainly qualify as an enigma.

My main issue is that parts of the book felt glossed over. I was disappointed that Churchill's part in negotiating the Anglo-Irish treaty that ended the war of Irish independence is barely mentioned. His attempts to diplomatically isolate Ireland are alluded to in a single sentence.

A real shame. I think this book had real potential but it sadly feels rushed and should have been at least a hundred pages longer given the vast amount of material there is in speeches and writing from Churchill.

[Godowd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book really well researched and presented. Gets into Churchills character well and his opinions of Ireland. Very politically aware bright but headstrong who was not afraid to put his views out there.

Ultimately believed in Irish self government within the British Empire and by giving Ireland this would head of separatist movement. Chapters on Dev and him butting heads around WWII are the highlight for me.

[T H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent history which gave me a real insight into Churchill's prickly relationship with Ireland. He wanted a united Ireland but one within the British Empire
I had not realised just what effect Ireland played on the political life at Westminster at the turn of 19th century