‘Hawks Turn to Doves': The Response of the Post-revolutionary Generation to the ‘New' Troubles in Ireland, 1969–1971

Abstract

This article explores how Frank Aiken's (1898–1983) later political career was shaped by his experiences during the Irish revolutionary period (1916–1923). One of the central arguments is that it was Aiken's experience of the internecine violence of the civil war which led him to exercise more caution (relative to the new generation of Fianna Fáil ministers) in dealing with the outbreak of the ‘new’ Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1969. Aiken's experience of UN diplomacy is compared with that of his successor Patrick Hillery, and his role both inside and outside the cabinet, in shaping official government policy towards Northern Ireland at the start of the Troubles, is examined against that of the new post-revolutionary generation, many of whom broke from Aiken's stance on armed struggle, failing to appreciate the consequences of a new civil war erupting north of the border.