WITH DEV IN AMERICA Sinn Féin and Recognition Politics, 1919-21

Abstract

This essay borrows its title from Patrick McCartan's memoir about his experiences as Irish Ambassador in Washington for the Provisional Dáil Eirrean government during Eamon de Valera's fund-raising mission to the United States from June 1919 to December 1920. Where McCartan contextualizes de Valera's controversial trip as part of the battle for self-definition among the different factions within Irish-America and Sinn Féin, this essay supplements McCartan's account by situating de Valera among a different set of international actors, particularly other anti-colonial groups, such as the Friends of Freedom for India and Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, which were also based in New York City and shared de Valera's desire for political recognition. During this post-war period, when concepts of the nation-state were being reimagined, many anti-colonial movements became acutely aware that, despite the fervour of revolutions, states are not willed into existence as much as they are allowed into existence through a process of recognition by a world-system of states. But how does the context of recognition politics affect the kinds of cross-cultural affiliations made during this period? Drawing on contemporary theories of recognition, this essay uses de Valera's American campaign to explore the problematic role of 'recognition' as a feature of anti-colonial politics in the transnational context.