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Partition 100 Years On: Craig and de Valera’s one and only meeting

In the latest of his series of articles on the centenary of the division of Ireland, historian Cormac Moore recounts the sole meeting between the northern and southern leaders, held clandestinely in the midst the War of Independence

Éamon de Valera, Sinn Féin leader and president of Dáil Éireann when he met Craig in 1921
Éamon de Valera, Sinn Féin leader and president of Dáil Éireann when he met Craig in 1921 Éamon de Valera, Sinn Féin leader and president of Dáil Éireann when he met Craig in 1921

ONE hundred years ago, on May 5 1921, the Ulster Unionist leader James Craig and the Sinn Féin leader Éamon de Valera met for the first and only time. While the meeting yielded no meeting of minds, it was significant in that it happened at all and it demonstrated there was more flexibility within both camps than has been acknowledged by some commentators since.

By 1921 de Valera had modified his views from a stance of "Ulster must be coerced if she stood in the way" to one of ruling out the use of force against Ulster. This stance was further crystallised with de Valera open to accommodating unionists in a federal Ireland externally associated within the British Commonwealth.

On becoming Ulster Unionist leader in February 1921 Craig appeared to be mindful of governing for the nationalist minority as well as for the unionist majority of Northern Ireland. In February 1921 he spoke of his "hope not only for a brilliant prospect for Ulster, but a brilliant future for Ireland".

There had been rumours of conferences between the two men before the May 5 meeting, with Craig responding to those rumours by stating he was "perfectly prepared to meet Mr de Valera, perfectly prepared, but the [Government of Ireland] Act provided for it" through the Council of Ireland.

Craig hoped to lead the Northern Ireland council members and presumably de Valera would lead the Southern Ireland council members, whereby both men could "discuss all matters which were considered to be for the benefit of Ireland as a whole".

In many ways it was extraordinary that the meeting took place when it did, less than three weeks before the Northern Parliament election, with the War of Independence still ongoing and de Valera remaining a wanted man by the British. He was arrested in Dublin on June 22, the same day the Northern Ireland Parliament was officially opened.

The meeting was organised by Alfred Cope from Dublin Castle with the blessing of the British prime minister David Lloyd George. It appears that Cope tricked both Craig and de Valera into thinking the other had asked for the meeting.

Craig and his wife Cecil arrived in Dublin to meet the newly appointed Lord Lieutenant Lord FitzAlan and stayed at the Private Secretary’s Lodge in the Phoenix Park (today the official residence of the US ambassador to Ireland).

Cope drove Craig to the home of James O’Connor, a leading judge, on Northumberland Road, on the morning of May 5, where he met the prominent Sinn Féin priest Fr Michael O’Flanagan. From there, Craig, showing great personal courage, was accompanied alone by men "armed to the teeth" to an unnamed location to meet de Valera.

Craig described the men in the car with him as "three of the worst looking toughs I have ever seen". It appears the three men were de Valera’s courier Sean Harling, Michael Collins’s ‘wheelman’, the taxi-driver Joe Hyland, and IRA Dublin Brigade member Emmet Dalton, although Dalton’s cultured accent, debonair manner and toothbrush moustache does not fit in neatly with Craig’s characterisation of him as a "tough".

According to Dalton’s biographer Sean Boyne, Dalton sat in the car beside Craig and advised him to pass himself off as his secretary if they were stopped by Crown forces. In the event of trouble, Craig would be "first to go".

The meeting took place in solicitor Thomas Greene’s house, ‘Belvidere’, on the Howth Road in the north Dublin suburb of Clontarf. On his arrival, Craig noticed men with picks and shovels "pretending" to repair the road outside the house, but who were clearly "guarding" de Valera instead.

Craig felt de Valera had "the look of a hunted man, and has also a nervous habit of licking his lips constantly" whereas de Valera thought Craig seemed "anxious and ill at ease".

Harling claimed the meeting lasted for 30 minutes while Craig contended it lasted for 90 minutes. Given Craig’s description of the meeting, perhaps it felt like 90 minutes; he said that de Valera spent the time "harping on the grievances of… the last 700 years…

"After half an hour he had reached the era of Brian Boru. After another half hour he had advanced to the period of some king a century or two later. By this time I was getting tired."

De Valera’s recollection of the meeting was different, saying they mainly talked about the Act of Union, with Craig speaking "of the Union as if it were a mystical thing".

With Craig wanting an agreement on the border and de Valera an agreement on Irish unity, each as unrealistic as the other, unsurprisingly, the meeting ended without a settlement. They did agree, though, on a statement to give to the press and to meet again.

On leaving, Dalton claimed Craig told him that he found de Valera "impossible".

Speaking in Dáil Éireann five days later, de Valera contended that "the interview was of no significance". However, others did see it as significant, with chief secretary for Ireland Hamar Greenwood outlandishly claiming the meeting "was the most hopeful sign for peace in Ireland in 750 years".

Dublin Castle and London saw it as a sign that Sinn Féin was willing to compromise on its insistence on a republic, something picked up by Michael Collins who warned de Valera that the meeting was being taken as "an admission of something by you and by us".

Albeit small, it was a step towards a settlement between Sinn Féin and the British government. While most Ulster unionists supported the meeting, on his return to Belfast, Craig was met by some nervy and agitated people, all thinking he had made a fearful mistake, believing the ludicrous rumours that Craig had gone to Dublin to ask de Valera to become prime minister of a united Ireland.

Craig had no intention of abandoning partition and, as the years went by, he became more intransigent on the question of partition.

Even though both agreed to meet again and despite subsequent efforts by de Valera to arrange a meeting, it never happened.

Craig did meet and agree on two short-lived pacts with Collins in 1922, showing that, although both sides were irreconcilable in many ways, as with the de Valera meeting, some flexibility existed beyond the dogmatic zealous outlook often portrayed.

:: Cormac Moore is author of Birth of the Border: The Impact of Partition in Ireland (Merrion Press, 2019).