Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Volume III, 1926-1932

The third volume of Documents on Irish Foreign Policy explores Ireland's move to secure its standing amongst the nations. Confidential telegrams, secret despatches and personal letters reveal how Ireland protected its interests in an increasingly unstable world system. The Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s lead to fears for Ireland's future as a small state, tensions which are built on in this choice documentation. Volume III charts Ireland's admission in 1930 to the Council of the League of Nations. It presents new dimensions to Anglo-Irish relations, showing how Irish foreign policy developed beyond British interests, which had long dominated Ireland's external affairs.The volume examines the visit of W.T. Cosgrave to the United States and Canada in January 1928, the first overseas visit by an Irish taoiseach (prime minister). It looks at the run-up to the 1932 Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, the views of Irish diplomats on the collapse of Weimar Germany and challenges such as selling Ireland as a tourist destination and the development of trade with Europe. Political debates are uncovered, such as the question of state expenditure on visiting dignitaries and the use by Irish diplomats of new technologies like cinema newsreels and talkie films. The picture that emerges in Volume III is of a small nation seeking peace and prosperity across the international system.