BiographyThe life of Seán MacBride was full of contradictions. He was, of course, not the only Irish revolutionary in the 20th century who made the change from supporting physical force to being a constitutional politician, writes Ronan Keane
But he was also the leader in the 1940s of a political party, Clann na Poblachta, which presented itself as a progressive alternative to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and yet, as a minister in government, he offered no resistance to the combined forces of the medical establishment and the Catholic hierarchy when they destroyed the mother and child health scheme, a measure of social reform which was modest even by the standards of the time. He was fervently opposed to the Soviet Union and happy that Ireland should join a military alliance armed with nuclear weapons in the form of Nato, provided Britain ended partition. But in later life, he tirelessly denounced the Cold War policies of the United States and accepted the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviets. His uncompromising brand of Irish nationalism seems to have been unaccompanied by any interest in Gaelic culture. The sophisticated man of the world, whose mentors in his youth included WB Yeats and Ezra Pound, seemed oddly out of place in the world of Irish politics 60 years ago.
The difficulties for his biographers do not end there. His domestic political career came to a virtual end in 1957 and he devoted the remaining 30 years of his life to international projects which, although worthy, are scarcely the stuff of drama. Elizabeth Keane (no relation) has sensibly met this problem in the most comprehensive and scholarly biography so far of this complex figure by devoting only two chapters out of 10 to the final three decades. But there is the further difficulty that, although he was survived by his two children, he left the contents of his library, including his papers, to his secretary, Catriona Lawlor, who told Keane that he did not want his life examined and who permits only limited access to the papers.
As Keane emphasises, much of the complexity of MacBride's personality can be traced to his extraordinary early life. He was the only child of the disastrous and short-lived marriage of the beautiful and formidable Englishwoman Maud Gonne and Major John MacBride. Her accusations of infidelity and violence against her husband, the denial of any access by him to Seán and his execution after his part in the Easter Rising provided a lurid background for a sensitive and intelligent child. Then there were the upheavals of their home, with moves from Paris, where he was born, to London and eventually Dublin, punctuated by his mother's spells in jail for her nationalist activities, pursued with all the zeal of the convert. Seán himself became a member of the IRA at the age of 16 in 1920: one can only guess at their reaction to the presence in their midst of this exotic schoolboy with the pronounced French accent which he retained all his life.
SINCE FEW OF the participants in the 1919/21 struggle left memoirs, Keane has had to rely to a large extent on MacBride's posthumously published, and somewhat selective, memoirs in assessing the part he played. Given his age, one cannot help wondering whether in later life he was inclined to overstate the importance of his role. There is no doubt, however, that he was one of the anti-treaty garrison which occupied the Four Courts at the outbreak of the Civil War and spent lengthy periods in jail thereafter. He refused to follow de Valera down the road of constitutional politics and was, briefly, chief of staff of the IRA but seems to have ceased his active involvement in 1937, probably because he thought de Valera's successful dismantling of the provisions of the 1921 Treaty most objectionable to its opponents deprived the IRA of any useful role. He also embarked somewhat belatedly on a career at the bar and scored some notable victories when defending IRA prisoners.
Clann na Poblachta, which he founded just after the second World War, attracted much support initially, a reflection of the discontent with de Valera's government ,which had been in power for 16 years and was presiding over a dismal economic scene. While the party won only 10 seats in the 1948 election, the opposition parties were united in their determination to eject de Valera and the result was the first coalition or "inter-party" government with John A Costello of Fine Gael as taoiseach. MacBride became minister for external Affairs and his young Clann na Poblachta colleague, Noel Browne, minister for health. At first all seemed to go well: MacBride succeeded in raising the profile of the external affairs department and impressed his European colleagues in particular with his personal charm, industry and fluent French. However, while Keane is also inclined to treat Ireland's departure from the British Commonwealth as among MacBride's notable achievements in office, it seems to have owed more to Costello's dislike of the ambiguous nature of Ireland's relationship to the Commonwealth and his determination to outflank de Valera on a national issue.
All this, however, was to be overshadowed by the mother and child catastrophe in 1951. Noel Browne was forced out of office when he refused to abandon the scheme, MacBride's credibility as a radical, reforming politician was fatally damaged and his party never recovered. He lost his Dáil seat in 1957 and until his death in 1988 devoted his energies to various international bodies concerned with peace and the end of colonialism. He was the United Nations commissioner for Namibia and, in 1974, became the first Irish person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was also one of the founders of Amnesty International.
Despite his considerable achievements, he was undoubtedly something of an opportunist and seems to have been curiously detached from most people, including his family. Keane has given us a balanced and meticulously researched study of an elusive figure which is unlikely to be superseded by any future biographies, unless his papers enter the public domain.
Ronan Keane is a former chief justice and the author of a number of books on Irish law
Seán MacBride: A Life By Elizabeth Keane, Gill and Macmillan, 311pp. €24.99