‘Dangerous Friends’: Irish Republican Relations with Basque and Catalan Nationalists, 1916–26

Abstract

Radical nationalists in the Basque Country and Catalonia looked to Ireland in the years following the 1916 Easter Rising for inspiration as they envisioned their own respective secessions from Spain. Ireland emerged as a central point of interest for such groups in Spain and beyond, though indirect influence was merely one modality of transnational exchange. This article examines the personal links between Irish republicans and radical Basque and Catalan nationalists forged by a small ensemble of internationally attuned and often transient figures. While the leadership of the Irish republican movement regarded these connections as unimportant and politically dangerous, on the ground, solidarity gave rise to such entanglements as two Irish republicans covertly assisting a Basque-Catalan plot to spark an insurrection and declare independent republics. This article provides a detailed account of this clandestine nexus, its key players, and its significance. Ultimately, the transnational ties between Irish republicans and their ardent Basque and Catalan separatist admirers were largely the product of a single, enigmatic Irish-Argentinian whose Odyssean life served to bridge the gap between them. These relations, despite their limited extent, invigorated radical Basque and Catalan nationalists, for whom Ireland represented a role model of mythic proportions.