Clann na Poblachta
Clann na Poblachta was an Irish republican political party founded in 1946 by Seán MacBride, a former Chief of Staff of the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army.
Foundation
Clann na Poblachta was officially launched on 6 July 1946 in Barry's Hotel in Dublin. It held its first Ard Fheis in November 1947 in the Balalaika Ballroom.Seán MacBride's new party appealed to disillusioned young urban voters and republicans. Many had become alienated from Éamon de Valera's Fianna Fáil, the main republican party in Ireland, which in the view of more militant republicans had betrayed their principles by executing IRA prisoners in the unrest in Ireland during the Second World War. A large majority of the founding members of the Clann had been members of the IRA at some stage of their lives. Clann na Poblachta also drew support from people who were tired of the old Civil War politics and were disillusioned with Éamon de Valera and his approach to the partition of Ireland. Many supporters also questioned the governments economic policies and wanted more attention paid to social issues. In post-war Europe many people blamed the social evils of unemployment, poor housing, poverty and disease for the rise of fascism and communism. This new mood influenced people in Ireland also. Some people saw Clann na Poblachta as a replacement for Fianna Fáil. Others saw in it a replacement for the marginalised Sinn Féin, others still a break from the traditional pro- and anti-treaty Civil War division. The new party grew rapidly during 1947.
The party was influenced by social democratic policies such as United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, British prime minister Clement Attlee's welfare state, and elements of European Christian Democracy as well as Irish republicanism. It attracted a diverse range of people, from traditional republicans such as Noel Hartnett and Kathleen Clarke to social democrats such as Dr. Noël Browne, who had been attracted to the party because of its commitment to fight tuberculosis, and Peadar Cowan, a former Labour Party executive member who had resigned in disgust owing to the infighting within that party at the time.
Irish social and health services were both starved of money and struggling with a social system where the Catholic Church's hostility to state action obstructed progress. TB was a scourge and Ireland lagged far behind the rest of Western Europe in tackling it. Furthermore, there was no free secondary education. Under-development and poor economic performance drove high levels of emigration and rural depopulation.
Clann na Poblachta was formed at a time during a period of turmoil in Irish politics. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the two major political parties, were weak. Fine Gael was in disarray because of their rival's seemingly hegemonic dominance and because of a perceived failure to be able to offer anything to disillusioned Fianna Fáil supporters. Fianna Fáil was visibly losing support because of the failure of the party's program to end mass unemployment, poverty and emigration. The Labour Party had bitterly split in 1944 over personal differences between William O'Brien and James Larkin, while Clann na Talmhan was regarded as being too specialist and too greatly concerned with the needs of farmers.
Electoral success
In October 1947, Clann na Poblachta won two by-elections. The Taoiseach, de Valera, saw the threat posed by the new party, and in February 1948 he called a snap general election to try to catch Clann na Poblachta off guard. At the time Clann had hopes of replacing Fianna Fáil both as the majority republican party and as the leading party of the state. De Valera's gambit was only partially successful. In the 1948 election Clann na Poblachta won 173,166 votes and ten seats in the Dáil Éireann — far fewer than was expected but formed a coalition government with the Fine Gael party. In September 1948 the newly formed coalition government released the bodies of Irish Republicans who had been executed in the early 1940s and buried within prisons: Richard Goss, Patrick McGrath, George Plant, Charlie Kerins and Maurice O'Neill. However, the election did produce enough seats among the opposition groups to cost Fianna Fáil its majority. The opposition parties soon realized that if they banded together, they would be able to form a government with the support of seven independents and consign de Valera to opposition for the first time in 16 years. That First Inter-Party Government was made up of Fine Gael, the Labour Party, National Labour, Clann na Talmhan, Clann na Poblachta, and some independents.Clann had stood on a platform of "get them out"; hence, a coalition with Fianna Fáil was clearly not an option. However, the republicans in Clann were reluctant to serve in a government led by Fine Gael. They were particularly opposed to a government headed by Fine Gael leader Richard Mulcahy, who had been a Free State general during the Civil War. At the suggestion of William Norton, the Labour leader, it was agreed that no party leader would be Taoiseach. John A. Costello, who had served as Attorney-General to Cumann na nGaedheal governments in the 1920s and 1930s, became Fine Gael's choice for Taoiseach. Norton became Tánaiste, while MacBride was appointed as Minister for External Affairs. Clann was an uneasy coalition of socialists and republicans; to placate the left wing, MacBride named Noël Browne for appointment as Minister for Health. However, many of the party's republicans remained unreconciled to serving with Fine Gael, and the very act of joining the government weakened the party.
On taking office MacBride burnished the party's republican anti-partitionist credentials by having Costello nominate the northern Protestant Denis Ireland to Seanad Éireann. Ireland was the first member of the Oireachtas to be resident in Northern Ireland.
In government
Foreign affairs
As Minister for External Affairs and a strong republican, MacBride was seen as instrumental in the repeal of the External Relations Act 1936, under which King George VI, who had been proclaimed King of Ireland in December 1936, fulfilled the diplomatic functions of a head of state. In September 1948 Costello announced in Canada that the government was about to declare Ireland a republic. The requisite legislation—The Republic of Ireland Act 1948—was passed through the Oireachtas, and at Easter 1949 the Republic of Ireland came into existence, with the King's remaining functions granted instead to the President of Ireland.MacBride regarded Ireland as a republic in any case and saw the repeal of the Act as merely removing the last vestiges of the British connection. He was however deeply angry that Costello had stolen his idea, and refused to attend the official ceremony marking the inauguration of the Republic of Ireland.
The Government and opposition jointly mounted what they called the "Anti-Partition Campaign', arguing the opinion that partition was the only obstacle preventing a united Ireland. At foreign conferences, Irish delegates stated their cause for the ending of partition. This campaign had no effect whatsoever on the unionist government in Northern Ireland.
MacBride was Minister of External Affairs when the Council of Europe was drafting the European Convention on Human Rights. He served as President of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from 1949 to 1950 and is credited with being a key force in securing the acceptance of this convention, which was finally signed in Rome on 4 November 1950. In 1950 he was president of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Council of Europe, and he was vice-president of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation from 1948 to 1951. He was responsible for Ireland not joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
As Minister for External Affairs, MacBride declined the offer of Ireland joining NATO to resist Soviet aggression. He refused because it would mean that the Republic recognised Northern Ireland. He did however state that Ireland was strongly opposed to communism. In 1950 he offered a bi-lateral alliance to the United States, but this was rejected. Ireland remained outside the military alliance. In 1949 Ireland joined the Organisation For European Economic Co-Operation and the Council of Europe as founder-members.
MacBride also argued for the "return of sterling assets" to Ireland: essentially a decoupling of the Irish pound from the Pound sterling by selling British gilts and investing the money in domestic enterprise. Officials in the Irish Department of Finance, who had an excellent relationship with the British Treasury and thought a decoupling would isolate Ireland and discourage investment, resisted the policy. The matter came to a head at the time of the 1949 devaluation of sterling. Despite two government meetings to discuss decoupling, it was decided to retain the sterling link—which remained until 1979.