Irish Association 1930s

Century of Endeavour

The Irish Association in the 30s

(c) Roy Johnston 1999

Origins

The origins of the Irish Association were rooted in the perceptions of the de Valera Constitution of 1937, as seen from the angle of the Northern Protestants. It was a conscious attempt to stem the increasing divergence of outlook, and to preserve the opportunities for all-Ireland interaction presented by the status of the Free State within the Commonwealth. Names associated with its foundation were Frank McDermot and General Hugh Montgomery. The background is given in some detail in Mary McNeill's 1976 paper, as published by the Association in 1982.

What follows is abstracted from the archive of the Northern Committee of the Association, which is in record in the Northern Ireland Public Record Office (PRONI). It cannot claim to be anything like a complete picture; this archive awaits the attention of historians for systematic treatment. I have however abstracted a few nuggets, which seemed to me to be directly or indirectly related to JJ's role and political outlook.

From the Major-Gen Hugh Montgomery correspondence:

8/9/35 John M Andrews declines membership of IA '...so many RCs are disloyal...want to put us in the FS..'.

27/11/40 Montgomery to Andrews: '...wants conciliatory policy towards the South and towards minority in the North....all-round reconciliation...'.

From the Mary McNeill correspondence:

Circa 1939: there is correspondence with de Valera re the Irish Students Association, which had been founded in 1931, as an all-Ireland body. TCD and QUB supported it. The NUI was grudging, even hostile. (There are echoes of this in the TCD Board minutes of the period RJ)

Box 10 contains the 1939 list of members, with Senator Joe Johnston on it, added in pen to a typed list. There are about 50 such additions; the main list has 5 pages at 30 names per page. So JJ was in it from the beginning, and must have been active during the war years, so as to have been in a position to be asked to become President after Charlemont's resignation.

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