Deporting the Irish Envoys: Domestic and National Security in 1920s Australia

Abstract

The 1923 deportation of two Irish republican envoys was a signal moment in the construction of Australian immigration policy, remembered more in legal than political history. The arrival of the Irish envoys, anti-treaty, anti-Free State and anti-British, provoked anxieties about imperial loyalty and domestic harmony. This article contextualises the role of the envoys as a performance of Irish republican politics in the dying stages of the Irish Civil War before analysing the responses to them by Australian governments determined to curb their activities. Immigration policy and administration were constructed in this episode as an element of national security, one that implied a consideration for relations between states of a changing empire as well as the need for domestic harmony within Australian borders.

Acknowledgements

This paper draws on research supported by the Australian Research Council (DP0771492) and Griffith University. I am grateful to John Myrtle for research assistance.

Notes

See Bashford and Strange, ‘Asylum-Seekers and National Histories of Detention’; Brawley, The White Peril; Burke, Fear of Security; Crock and Berg, Immigration, Refugees and Forced Migration; Jayasuriya, Walker and Gothard, Legacies of White Australia; Lake and Reynolds, Drawing the Global Colour Line; McMaster, Asylum Seekers; Nicholls, Deported; Tavan, The Long, Slow Death of White Australia.

Dutton, One of Us?; Fischer, Enemy Aliens; Neumann, Refuge Australia; and In the Interest of National Security.

For deportation see esp. Evans, ‘Radical Departures’; Henderson, ‘Deportation of Charles Jerger’; Nicholls, Deported; Zogbaum, Kisch in Australia; for legal approaches see esp. Crock and Berg, Immigration, Refugees and Forced Migration; Saul, ‘Kafka-esque Case of Sheikh Mansour Leghaei’, but, for legal treatments in historical context, see Hasluck, ‘Kisch Case’; Robertson, Hohmann and Stewart, ‘Dictating to One of Us’.

Priest and Simpson, ‘Irish Envoys Case.’

The case, R v Macfarlane, ex parte O'Flanagan and O'Kelly, [1923] HCA 39 remains among the most commonly cited on the immigration power; it is also cited for its significance in relation to judicial integrity and the constitutional status of courts: see the citations at Law Cite, http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/LawCite?cit=[1923]%20HCA%2039 (accessed 4 Oct. 2011). In addition to Priest and Simpson, ‘Irish Envoys Case’, see Crock and Berg, Immigration, Refugees and Forced Migration, 2.58, for the case as grounding the position that the immigration power ‘from early times was held to be sufficient to support legislation restricting the entry of British subjects not born or naturalised in Australia’; Cowen, Isaac Isaacs, 169–71. In the historical literature, the most detailed and accurate account is the earliest, aware of both the Irish political background and the legal dimensions of the case; Fitzpatrick, The Australian Commonwealth, 295–8. For other brief treatments in context, see Boland, James Duhig, 163–6; Dutton, One of Us?, 120; Kildea, Tearing the Fabric, 247–9; O'Farrell, The Irish in Australia, 291–3.

Including home rulers John Redmond (1883), John Dillon (1889), Michael Davitt (1895) and William Redmond (1911–1912): O'Farrell argues for the important role these visits played in sustaining Irish Australian identity, otherwise waning through these decades. O'Farrell, The Irish in Australia, 223–51.

Carroll, They Have Fooled You Again.

For O'Flanagan's political beliefs and activities, see esp. Carroll, They Have Fooled You Again; Laffan, The Resurrection of Ireland.

Keogh, The Vatican, the Bishops, and Irish Politics, 132; Laffan, The Resurrection of Ireland, 441–2; Murphy, Patrick Pearse and the Lost Republican Ideal, 156–9. O'Kelly succeeded de Valera as president of the rapidly irrelevant Sinn Fein.

Murphy, The Catholic Bulletin and Republican Ireland.

Laffan, The Resurrection of Ireland, 239.

Ibid., 87.

Walsh, Irish Republicanism and Socialism, 37–8.

Murphy, Patrick Pearse and the Lost Republican Ideal, 182, 190.

Carroll, American Opinion and the Irish Question, 177–93; Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland's Irish Revolution; Hopkinson, Green against Green.

Hopkinson, Green against Green, 253–4. The disclosure of this correspondence was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, 10 May 1923, which published a long attack by Free State President Cosgrave on the envoys' visit to Australia, citing this letter.

de Valera to Kelly, 10 Jan. 1923, ‘Irish Envoys case’, 7/6723, NSW State Records (hereafter NSWSR).

Garvin, 1922; Harkness, The Restless Dominion; Mansergh, Britain and Ireland.

The Sun, 20 April 1923, press clipping in 7/6723 NSWSR.

Report of Det. Sainsbury to Jones, CIB, 4 May 1923, NSWSR 7/6723. The pamphlet was printed on 10 March, shortly before the envoys' arrival. Calwell's memoir records his Irish nationalist sympathies and the visit of the envoys, although not the extent of his involvement in this latter event. Calwell, Be Just and Fear Not, 32–7, 138–9.

Report on Marrickville meeting (Insp. Scott), 25 April 1923, NSWSR 7/6723; on the ‘disappointment’ of speeches at the anti-envoys meeting organised by the Protestant Federation, see letter to H. E. Jones, 2 May 1923, Deportation of ‘Irish Envoys’, National Archives of Australia (hereafter NAA) B741 (B741/3), V/372.

In fact the Free State government early made clear its own position on the sovereignty question when it lodged the treaty with the League of Nations as a treaty between two sovereign powers. Harkness, The Restless Dominion; Kennedy, Ireland and the League of Nations, 53–72.

This Dail had been succeeded by the Third Dail, the result of the post-treaty ‘Pact’ election of June 1922—but the anti-treaty candidates lost badly in this election. Post-treaty republicanism indulged in this constitutional casuistry for a number of decades, seeking to emphasise the illegitimacy of the Free State. Garvin, 1922.

Like the majority of Irish nationalists, O'Flanagan was not so enamoured of the Easter rebels at the time: according to Mrs Tom Barry, the wife of another nationalist, O'Flanagan had said to her that the fighters at the GPO ‘let these people burn to death, they are murderers’. Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland, 151.

Transcript of speech at Sydney Hippodrome, 10, 22 April 1923, 7/6723, NSWSR.

Jones, ‘Irish Republican Envoys’, 10 April 1923, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

Transcript of speeches, Richmond Reserve, 1 April 1923, 7/6723, NSWSR.

The Sun, 19 April 1923, press cutting in NSW police file, Irish Envoys Case, 7/6723, NSWSR. The most detailed account of the patterns of violence is by Peter Hart who estimates more than 10,000 killed and wounded from the Easter Rising 1916 to the end of the Civil War in 1923. Hart, The I.R.A. at War, 30. O'Flanagan grossly underestimated the scale of the violence over the seven years to 1923.

Argus, 20 April 1923, 12—the letter was prompted by O'Flanagan's appearance at the annual conference of the Hibernian Society, which had nevertheless declined to support the anti-treaty forces while remaining ambivalent about the position of de Valera.

Hopkinson, Green against Green, 50. The porous boundaries of relief and military funds were evident in Harry Boland's using the Refugee Relief Fund in 1921 to reimburse the military fund which had suffered a huge loss over the botched delivery of a large shipment of Thompson sub-machine guns. Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland's Irish Revolution, 216.

One of Boland's great frustrations in America was the difficulty of getting all the various relief funds under a single control, one that would finance the armed struggle as well as the political one. See Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland's Irish Revolution, 194–224.

Copies of O'Kelly papers seized by NSW police, 7/6723 NSWSR, including an authority to pay for the funeral of Harry Boland as well as back pay for Boland.

Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland's Irish Revolution, 242.

For the contrasting position in the United States in wealth and scale, see esp. Carroll, American Opinion and the Irish Question; Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland's Irish Revolution. Fund-raising for the home rule envoys in Australia had been much more successful. O'Farrell, The Irish in Australia. An exception for the 1923 Irish envoys was the Sydney meeting at the Hippodrome (22 April) when the police reported a capacity crowd of 3,200 with an overflow outside of about 1000 people—at this meeting it was said that several sums of from 10s. to £25 were handed up—Police Report 22 April 1923, 7/6723 NSWSR. Other meetings, however, had trouble raising anything more than coins.

Extract from the Daily Mail, 28 April 1923, press clipping NSWSR 7/6723.

Sydney Morning Herald, 21 April 1923, 15; Ness, John Thomas (1871–1947) ADB 11, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ness-john-thomas-7819; Henderson, ‘Deportation of Charles Jerger’; Weaver, Reginald Walter Darcy (1876–1945) ADB 12, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/weaver-reginald-walter-darcy-9022.

Sydney Morning Herald, 27 March 1923, 11.

Keogh, Vatican, the Bishops, and Irish Politics, 95–6; O'Farrell, ‘Archbishop Kelly and the Irish Question’, 12–13.

Gilchrist, Daniel Mannix, 91–9; Keogh, Vatican, the Bishops, and Irish Politics, 47–9.

Both cited in Report of H. E. Jones (Investigation Branch), 10 April 1923, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

Gilchrist, Daniel Mannix, 115.

Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland's Irish Revolution, 238, 398.

Boland, James Duhig, 163–4.

O'Farrell, ‘Archbishop Kelly and the Irish Question’, 13–4.

Immigration Act 1920, s. 3 (b), s. 7; Hansard (Senate), 29 April 1920, 1522 (Senate: for dropping word ‘anarchist’); Hansard (House), 22 Nov. 1920, 6784 (House: cl. 3 amended, agreed to).

Doulman and Lee, Every Assistance & Protection, 86; Dutton, One of Us?, 112–3. The visitor was an envoy of the Dail Eireann government (i.e. before the treaty), Ormonde Grattan Esmonde, detained January to March 1921 as he described in a report back to the Dail government. Fanning et al., Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, vol. 1, 187–90, available also at http://www.difp.ie/docs/Volume1/1921/105.htm#s1.

See esp. Hansard (House), 22–4 Nov. 1920.

Dutton, One of Us?, 95; Finnane, ‘Controlling the “Alien” in Mid-Twentieth Century Australia’, 448. The Act was suspended in 1926 and repealed in 1934.

Cain, Origins of Political Surveillance in Australia; Dutton, ‘The Commonwealth Investigation Branch’.

Burgmann, Revolutionary Industrial Unionism; Curtis, ‘Red Criminals’; Evans, The Red Flag Riots; Fischer, Enemy Aliens.

Jones, Harold Edward (1878–1965), ABD 9, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/jones-harold-edward-6873; Lloyd, Eric Edwin (1890–1957) ADB 15, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lloyd-eric-edwin-longfield-10840. Cain, Origins, while invaluable on the history of the time, ignores the envoys case in which these officers were crucial. For Lloyd's active measures as a press informant see Lloyd to Jones, 3 July 1923, ‘Irish envoys’, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779: ‘The Press were most cordial in the matter [relating to allegations about communications between US and Australia government] and acted very fairly as soon as they had the true case put to them—in fact they came along and asked for it. I considered it absolutely necessary to protect the Government against the scandalous misrepresentations of O'Flanagan and trust that the matter of doing so will be approved.’

Argus, 28 April 1923, 25. Although the Argus, 27 April 1923, asked whether the issuing of passports had been an act of incompetence, the explanation was simpler, as the Colonial Office later explained to the governor-general: both men had been issued British passports at different points in the year preceding the formal establishment of the Free State in April 1922. A confidential attachment advised also of the controls in place after that date: ‘Since the establishment of the Irish Free State with Dominion status every precaution has been observed … in co-operation with Government of Irish Free State to ensure that movements of persons actively hostile to latter should not go unwatched.’ Secretary of State for Colonies to GG (Aust), 2 May 1923, ‘Irish envoys in Australia’, NAA A11804 1923/426.

Report of H. E. Jones (Investigation Branch). 10 April 1923, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

Oakes, Charles William (1861–1928), ADB 11, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/oakes-charles-william-7866.

Sydney Morning Herald, 24 April 1923, 9, 28 April, 13.

Groom, 30 April 1923, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

Sydney Morning Herald, 30 April 1923, 10.

Fanning et al., Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, Vol. 2, 87–90; Keogh, Vatican, the Bishops, and Irish Politics, 108–21.

Indeed on the very day of their arrest at Waverley, the Sydney Morning Herald published de Valera's truce proposals and the IRA cease-fire was announced a few days later. Sydney Morning Herald, 30 April 1923, 9, 1 May 1923, 9; Hopkinson, Green against Green, 258–9.

Sydney Morning Herald, 10 May 1923, 10.

Sydney Morning Herald, 30 April 1923, for Oakes meeting with others and police; police report (Sgt W MacKay), 1 May 1923, NSWSR 7/6723.

Groom to Garran, 27 April; Oakes to PM, 28 April 1923, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779; PM's Dept to GG, 27 April, NAA A11804 (A11804/1), 1923/426.

William MacFarlane was a long-serving public servant, mostly in the Justice Department and had been comptroller of prisons (1910–1914). Sydney Morning Herald, 14 Sept. 1921, 6; Manning, Henry Edward (1877–1963), was also a member of the NSW Legislative Council at this time. ADB 10, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/manning-sir-henry-edward-7776; John Stinson (died 1924) was head of the legal firm Piggott and Stinson, a ‘prominent figure in the King and Empire Alliance’ and a one-time president of the Ulster Association. Obituary in Sydney Morning Herald, 7 July 1924, 8. Garran negotiated the appointments, noting the acceptance by MacFarlane and Stinson ‘with alacrity’. His notes make clear that two other possibilities had been considered: Sir Henry Braddon (who evidently declined) and Mark Sheldon, both of them leading businessmen who had served government as trade emissaries in the United States. Garran noted that Sheldon was a Catholic. Garran to Groom, 4 May 1923, ‘Irish envoys’, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

Bruce to Groom, 4 May, ‘Irish envoys’, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779. So uncertain were the procedures of the board that regulations had to be enacted to specify the time at which the respondents should appear before the board. The attorney-general was also anxious to learn how evidence would be taken before the board; Garran reassured him that the authority to take evidence and administer oaths was in power. Groom to Garran, 30 April 1923, and enclosures; telegrams to Groom, 7 May 1923: both in ‘Irish envoys’, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779. Garran considered the board was covered by the procedures for courts in the Acts Interpretation Act. 1901, s. 34.

Garran to Groom, 10 May 1923, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

Argus, 12 May 1923, 25; Whitlam to Garran, Irish envoys, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779. The deputy crown-solicitor was H. F. E. Whitlam, later solicitor-general, father of Gough Whitlam, later prime minister of Australia (1972–1975).

Sydney Morning Herald, 16 May 1923, 14.

Argus, 21 May 1923, 9, 22 May 1923, 9; Waugh to Garran, 22 May 1923, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

Priest and Simpson, ‘Irish Envoys Case’, 358. who cite Tennant's biography of Evatt to this effect. See Tennant, Evatt, 40, ‘above the bewildered heads of the two Irish gentlemen’.

Isaacs J, in R v MacFarlane [1923] HCA 39, http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1923/39.html. The decision was announced on 1 June (Argus, 2 June 1923, 21), but the reasons were not published until 23 August, long after the envoys had been deported.

Barrier Miner, 1 June 1923; Carroll, They Have Fooled You Again, 144.

Sydney Morning Herald, 16 May 1923, 5 (remand); Advocate (Burnie), 16 May 1923, 5 (restrictions withdrawn); Toowomba Chronicle [June 1923], press clipping, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

Sydney Morning Herald, 6 June 1923, 11.

Whitlam to Crown Solicitor, 7 June 1923, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

In the matter of the Board appointed under the Immigration Acts 1901–1920, re the Reverend Michael O'Flanagan and John Joseph O'Kelly, 8 June 1923, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

See note 67 above.

For example, in contemporary Australia, while Migration Review Tribunal hearings are public, the Refugee Review Tribunal proceeds in private, http://www.mrt-rrt.gov.au/Conduct-of-reviews/default.aspx (accessed 6 Oct. 2011).

Lloyd, 3 July 1923, NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

The protracted deportation process is documented in both state and commonwealth files. See NSWSR 7/6723 and NAA A432 (A432/86), 1929/2779.

Sydney Morning Herald, 3 May 1923, 9.

Hansard (House), 27 June 1923, 321–3 (Groom).

Isaacs J, transcript 31 May 1923, 287, in R v MacFarlane, ex parte O'Flanagan and O'Kelly, NAA MP 401/1 CL2167.

Evatt was the judge in the case of Mrs Freer in 1936: Robertson, Hohmann and Stewart, ‘Dictating to One of Us’.

Henderson, ‘Deportation of Charles Jerger’; Nicholls, Deported; Zogbaum, Kisch in Australia.

Higgins J in R v MacFarlane [1923] HCA 39, http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1923/39.html.