President Mary Robinson’s presence at commemorations in Paris in 1995 to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany would not conflict with Ireland’s neutrality, a senior Department of Foreign Affairs official advised.
French president Francois Mitterand had invited Robinson and Fine Gael taoiseach John Bruton to so-called VE Day commemorations, along with the leaders of other states neutral in the second World War, including Sweden and Switzerland and Austria.
“The issue of attendance at such commemoration ceremonies, remembrance days, etc, has always been a sensitive one,” noted the head of Foreign Affairs’ political division, Richard Townsend.
“Ireland’s neutrality in World War II and sensitivities in the Anglo-Irish context have led governments in the past to decline such invitations,” he said, though feelings on the issue “have abated somewhat in recent years”.
RM Block
On this occasion, he said, there “appears to be a good case to reconsider Ireland’s approach” since the 50th anniversary was “generally being marked as an occasion to emphasise reconciliation in Europe, rather than the victory of one side over the other”.
In the end, Robinson was one of 55 heads of state who attended the anniversary in Paris, an event which included a large military parade in which each state in attendance saw their flag carried by a soldier.
The United States’ vice president Al Gore, British prime minister John Major and German chancellor Helmut Kohl attended, too, though Bruton went to the commemorations in Moscow the following day, and not to Paris.
The preparations for Robinson’s trip and Ireland’s wider participation are contained in confidential documents from the Department of Foreign Affairs now released to the National Archives under the 30-year rule.
One draft briefing note from April 1995 signed by the DFA’s then chief of protocol John O Burke outlined the department’s thoughts on whether the Defence Forces could participate in the parade.
Foreign Affairs would have “no objection” to it taking part, but that this decision was only arrived after Irish diplomats in Paris made contact with “other neutral States, namely Sweden, Switzerland and Austria”.
Noel Dorr, then secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs, noted in one briefing note that “other neutrals and even countries such as Germany and Italy who fought on the other side” were doing so.
Dorr, 30-year veteran of the DFA who retired only months after preparing this briefing, wrote that: “We were militarily neutral in World War II but we were certainly not unaffected by the War.”
“Apart from major effects on the economy and on our population (rationing etc), we had civilians killed in the North Strand bombing and seamen lost at sea to hostile attack. In addition, of course, there is the fact that many thousands of Irish people actually fought with the Allied forces in the War by their own choice and many were killed,” Dorr wrote.
He added: “If the commemoration is so widespread, there should certainly be no basis for suggesting that our participation would be some kind of signal about future involvement in an alliance or that it would show anything other than our commitment, along with the rest of Europe, to work to ensure that no such war will ever recur.”
