The US ambassador to Ireland during the second World War David Gray was a frequent thorn in the flesh of the Irish government.
Gray’s relentlessly needled the government about Irish neutrality and sought to bring Éire, as it was then, into the war on the side of the Allies.
Gray was no diplomat and was appointed at the age of 70 to the position in 1940 because he was an uncle by marriage of president Franklin D Roosevelt’s wife Eleanor Roosevelt.
Gray caused a major diplomatic incident in December 1942 when he told a visiting American journalist that Ireland had “scores” of consular attachés from the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan who were there solely for espionage purposes. He estimated that 80 staff alone worked in the German Legation.
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Charles Gould, the co-editor of the Ladies Home Journal, subsequently published the comments and it was picked up by the mainstream newspapers in the United States. According to Gould, Gray reminded Americans that they had helped the Irish get their freedom and “now when America needs Ireland they are not standing with us”.
According to files in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Gould’s report brought a furious rebuttal from Gray who said what he was quoted as saying was “not only unauthorised and a violation of the code of decent journalists, but as it appeared in the press was an entirely untruthful and mischievous fabrication”.
Gould was asked to comment on Gray’s denial and did so in trenchant terms stating that American soldier boys in Northern Ireland were in danger because of Axis spies in Ireland.
“These are the facts. Mr Gray’s statement is what is known as a ‘diplomatic denial’, said Gould.
A memorandum was prepared by the beleaguered Irish Legation in Washington in which officials were told to say that there were only six staff working in the German and Italian legations in Dublin. They did not have wirelesses and all correspondence with Berlin had to go through London.
Gould also quoted the Irish writer George Bernard Shaw who he had met in London.
When asked if Hitler would take his own life, Shaw responded: “Nonsense. I know lots of people who think he will hang as they seemed to think about the Kaiser last time. But I think he will go to Éire, hire a magnificent lodge and live happily ever after.”