Lessons for Ukraine

At this point in time when representatives of the United States and Russia hold talks on the terms for peace between Ukraine and Russia, it is worth contemplating what happened in 1921 and beyond in Ireland.  In 1921, after three years of a guerrilla war of Irish independence from Britain, the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George called for a truce to negotiate a treaty to end the fighting.

Éamon de Valera, President of the Irish de facto government (Daíl Éireann) sent a team of five to London to negotiate the treaty.  He chose to remain in Ireland.  The Irish negotiators were led by Arthur Griffith and included Michael Collins, the young commander of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).  The British delegation, led by Lloyd George also included Lord Birkenhead and Winston Churchill.

The Irish team was no match for the experienced and wily Lloyd George and his team.  Instead of full independence the Irish were offered self-government as the Irish Free State with continuation of an oath of allegiance to the British Crown and retention of six of the nine Ulster counties within the United Kingdom (i.e. current day Great Britain and Northern Ireland).  The British would also retain naval access rights to three Treaty Ports within the Irish Free State.

The Irish team was threatened with a recommencement of the war of independence if they refused the terms of the treaty so offered.  Given that the IRA was in a weakened state, the negotiators felt that they had no option but to accept the terms presented by the British.  Lloyd George had shown his mastery in negotiating to ensure a minimum of loss of face for his nation.  His expectation was that Ireland, effectively Britain’s first colony, would continue to be part of the British Empire.

The Irish team returned to Ireland with these treaty terms to seek parliamentary ratification.  This was narrowly achieved.  However de Valera rejected the treaty and the IRA split and thus the short but extremely violent Irish Civil War ensued.  In the end, the anti-Treaty forces were defeated but not before Michael Collins was killed in an ambush, Arthur Griffith died of a heart attack and many thousands of combatants and civilians were killed.

Ironically, de Valera would subsequently return to political power and at a point of his choosing would declare Ireland a republic, leave the British Commonwealth and take back the Treaty Ports.  However, Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom.  The aspiration for a United Ireland remains.

There are plenty of parallels and lessons for the Ukrainians in this history of relations between England and Ireland.  This history of entanglement goes back more than six hundred years to before the Tudor kings.  Perhaps the biggest of these lessons is not to trust a wily leader of an empire that considers your nation has no legitimacy.

Also, there are parallels and lessons for the Russians in this history.  Ultimately, the Irish were successful in gaining full independence against what was by then a fading empire.

Also there are parallels and lessons for the United States in this history and indeed in its own history.  Never underestimate a determined peoples desire to be free of an oppressive empire.