Overview

This is a ground-breaking book on Irish diplomatic relations with Argentina/Latin America from the nineteenth to the twenty first century. Written in an accessible style, the contents will appeal to both a specialist academic and general readership. The volume enhances our understanding of the contribution Irish immigrants like the journalist and author William Bulfin made to their new home in Argentina. The role of Irish Catholic missionaries, which the author refers to as 'Irish soft power,' is also a major theme in the book. Based on original research in public and private archives in Europe, the U.S.A. and Latin America, he reveals for the first time the active role played by Irish Argentines in the struggle for Irish independence and the campaign waged over 25 years for establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The continued presence of Irish diplomats in Buenos Aires since 1948 provide eyewitness accounts of the rise and fall of Juan Domingo Peron in 1955, his chaotic return in 1973, the sinister and dark days of the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983 which ended in its collapse following the decisive military defeat in the Falklands/Malvinas war. This book sheds light on the complex challenges the Catholic Church and other faiths confronted during that dictatorship which used kidnapping, torture and murder to silence the thousands of Argentine citizens who regime considered to be enemies of the state. The author presents three interlocking case studies to illustrate the resistance to the terror by (1) the worker priest Patrick Rice, (2) the Irish Vatican diplomat, Kevin Mullen and(3) the Irish diplomats, Justin Harman and Ambassador Wilfred Lennon. Rice was kidnapped in October 1976, tortured and held without charge for three months before being deported. He credits his survival to the swift action of two Irish diplomats, Harman and Lennon. This volume also details the making of Irish foreign policy during the Falklands/Malvinas crisis, and traces the role played by Irish Argentines in lobbying the Irish government to change its position. Here he examines the interplay between divergent perspectives in the policy-making process and the uncharacteristically volatile shifts in that policy in early May 1982, triggering a major deterioration in Anglo-Irish relations a loss of status in the EEC. Keogh concludes on a hopeful note with the restoration of democracy in Argentina in 1983 and the expansion of the Irish diplomatic service in Latin America with the opening of embassies in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Colombia.

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9781782055112

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Reviews

Ireland and Argentina in the twentieth century: Diaspora, diplomacy, dictatorship, catholic mission and the Falklands crisis will be of interest to a wide English-speaking audience in the fields of nineteenth- and twentieth-century history of Argentina, Irish Latin American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Human Rights and Peace Studies, Irish Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Memory Studies. The book will also be of interest to a Spanish-speaking audience in translation. This is a text for both primary and secondary reading in the subjects mentioned above. --Margaret Brehony, Moore Institute, NUIG and the Society for Irish Latin American Studies, Ireland This is an interesting book and an original contribution to our understanding of the relationship between Ireland and Argentina (and Ireland and Latin America more broadly). It provides the first synthesis of Ireland's diplomatic response to developments in the region, as well as some very interesting insight into the broader role of Irish communities (plural, since, as the author suggests, these are not easily defined) in Argentina. --Kevin O'Sullivan, Lecturer in History, NUI Galway, Ireland

Author Information

Dermot Keogh is Emeritus Professor of History and Emeritus Professor of European Integration Studies, University College Cork. He has twice held Fulbright and Woodrow Wilson fellowships and was a Burns Scholar at Boston College. Among his visiting professorships, he has taught on a number of occasions at Beijing Foreign Students University. His book on Twentieth Century Ireland is to be published in Chinese. He was the winner of James S. Donnelly Prize for his Jews in Twentieth Century Ireland: Refugees, anti- Semitism and the Holocaust in 1999 and was an adviser and participant in 2000 on the RTE series: Seven Ages: The History of the Irish state. He is the author of monographs on Irish diplomatic, religions, political and trade union history. Prof. Keogh has travelled frequently to Argentina since 2000 and he has taught for over ten years at the Universidad del Salvador (USAL), Buenos Aires. USAL published his monograph: La independencia de Irlanda: La conexion Argentina in 2016 and awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2018. His latest book, the fruit of over twenty years of research, combines his historical interests in Argentina with that of the Irish diaspora, diplomacy, Catholic mission, the international role of the Holy See, human rights, military and social conflict and the Anglo-Argentine war over the Falkland Islands.

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