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Joining Europe: Ireland, Scotland, and the Celtic Response to European Integration, 1961–1975

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2012

Andrew D. Devenney
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Journal of British Studies , Volume 49 , Special Issue 1: Special Issue on Scotland , January 2010 , pp. 97 - 116
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Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 2010

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References

1 The best recent works on Britain include Brivati, Brian and Jones, Harriet, eds., From Reconstruction to Integration: Britain and Europe since 1945 (Leicester, 1993)Google Scholar; Dell, Edmund, The Schuman Plan and the British Abdication of Leadership in Europe (Oxford, 1995)Google Scholar; Kaiser, Wolfram, Using Europe, Abusing the Europeans: Britain and European Integration, 1945–63 (New York, 1996)Google Scholar; Ludlow, Piers, Dealing with Britain: The Six and the First UK Membership Application (Cambridge, 1997)Google Scholar; Ellison, James, Threatening Europe: Britain and the Creation of the European Community, 1955–1958 (Basingstoke, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Young, John W., Britain and European Unity, 1945–1999 (Basingstoke, 2000)Google Scholar; May, Alex, ed., Britain, the Commonwealth, and Europe: The Commonwealth and Britain's Applications to Join the European Communities (New York, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Milward, Alan, The Rise and Fall of a National Strategy, 1945–1963: The UK and the European Community, vol. 1 (London, 2002)Google Scholar; Daddow, Oliver J., ed., Harold Wilson and European Integration: Britain's Second Application to Join the EEC (London, 2003).Google Scholar The scholarship for Britain is so extensive that it has spawned long-form works that only explore the historiography itself. See Daddow, Oliver, Britain and Europe since 1945: Historiographical Perspectives on Integration (Manchester, 2004).Google Scholar For Ireland, see O’Brien, Miriam Hederman, The Road to Europe: Irish Attitudes, 1948–61 (Dublin, 1983)Google Scholar; Maher, Denis J., The Tortuous Path: The Course of Ireland's Entry into the EEC, 1948–73 (Dublin, 1986)Google Scholar; Keogh, Dermot, Ireland and Europe, 1919–1989 (Cork, 1989)Google Scholar; Browne, Mary, Geiger, Til, and Kennedy, Michael, eds., Ireland and the Marshall Plan (Dublin, 2000)Google Scholar; Fitzgerald, Maurice, Protectionism to Liberalisation: Ireland and the EEC, 1957–1966 (Aldershot, 2000)Google Scholar; Kennedy, Michael and O’Halpin, Eunan, eds., Ireland and the Council of Europe: From Isolation towards Integration (Strasbourg, 2000)Google Scholar; Kennedy, Michael and Skelly, Joseph Morrison, eds., From Independence to Internationalism: Irish Foreign Policy, 1919–66 (Dublin, 2000)Google Scholar; Murphy, Gary, Economic Realignment and the Politics of EEC Entry: Ireland, 1948–1973 (Dublin, 2003)Google Scholar.

2 In addition to the works in the previous note, there are several other books one can consult on this issue. For a comprehensive contemporary examination, see Kitzinger, Uwe, Diplomacy and Persuasion: How Britain Joined the Common Market (London, 1973)Google Scholar. For a more polemical contemporary look from the left, see Evans, Douglas, While Britain Slept: The Selling of the Common Market (London, 1975).Google Scholar For a rather Anglo-centric viewpoint on the first application period, see Pfaltzgraf, Robert L Jr., Britain Faces Europe (Philadelphia, 1969), 79–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For more recent examinations, see Bange, Oliver, The EEC Crisis of 1963: Kennedy, Macmillan, de Gaulle and Adenauer in Conflict (Basingstoke, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bell, Lionel, The Throw That Failed: Britain's Original Application to Join the Common Market (London, 1995)Google Scholar.

3 The best current text on the development of European integration is Dinan, Desmond, Europe Recast: A History of European Union (Boulder, CO, 2004).Google Scholar For more detailed and divergent examinations, see also Haas, Ernst, The Uniting of Europe: Economic and Social Forces, 1950–1957 (Stanford, CA, 1958)Google Scholar; Diebold, William, The Schuman Plan: A Study in Economic Cooperation, 1950–1959 (New York, 1959)Google Scholar; Milward, Alan, The Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1945–1951 (London, 1984)Google Scholar; Gillingham, John, Coal, Steel, and the Rebirth of Europe, 1945–1955 (Cambridge, 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Milward, Alan, The European Rescue of the Nation-State (London, 1992)Google Scholar; Moravcsik, Andrew, The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht (Ithaca, NY, 1998)Google Scholar; Burgess, Michael, Federalism and the European Union: The Building of Europe, 1950–2000 (London, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gillingham, John, European Integration, 1950–2003: Superstate or New Market Economy? (Cambridge, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 For an excellent theoretical examination, see Smith, Anthony D., “National Identity and the Idea of European Unity,” in The Question of Europe, ed. Gowan, Peter and Anderson, Perry (London, 1997), 318–42.Google Scholar

5 For more information, see Parsons, Craig, A Certain Idea of Europe (Ithaca, NY, 2003)Google Scholar; Ludlow, Piers, The European Community and the Crises of the 1960s: Negotiating the Gaullist Challenge (London, 2006)Google Scholar.

6 For an interesting discussion of this issue, see Clark, J. C. D., “Britain as a Composite State: Sovereignty and European Integration,” Culture and History 9–10 (1991): 55–83.Google ScholarPubMed For an examination of the historical basis for this and the confluence of multiple identities in the British Isles, see Brockliss, Laurence and Eastwood, David, eds., A Union of Multiple Identities: The British Isles, c.1750–c.1850 (Manchester, 1997)Google Scholar; Morley, David and Robins, Kevin, eds., British Cultural Studies: Geography, Nationality, and Identity (Oxford, 2001)Google Scholar; Arnold, Dana, ed., Cultural Identities and the Aesthetics of Britishness (Manchester, 2004)Google Scholar.

7 For Scotland, there is virtually no dedicated scholarship, only small sections in larger works. Most work on Scotland's connections with Europe deals with history before the twentieth century. For instance, see Smout, T. C., ed., Scotland and Europe, 1200–1850 (Edinburgh, 1986)Google Scholar; Ditchburn, David, Scotland and Europe: The Medieval Kingdom and Its Contacts with Christendom, c.1214–1545 (East Linton, 2001).Google Scholar That being said, social scientists have begun to probe this question more thoroughly. For instance, see Ichijo, Atsuko, Scottish Nationalism and the Idea of Europe: Concepts of Europe and the Nation (London, 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar On Wales, the case is relatively the same, although there have been some recent attempts to contextualize Wales's European attitudes and experiences. See Harvie, Christopher, Europe and the Welsh Nation (Aberystwyth, 1995).Google Scholar For a notable broader examination, see Keating, Michael, “The Nations and Regions of the United Kingdom and European Integration,” in Die Politik der dritten Ebene: Regionen im Europa der Union, ed. Bullmann, Udo (Baden-Baden, 1994), 225–46.Google Scholar For more on aspects of English nationalism and the relationship with Europe, see Powell, David, Nationhood and Identity: The British State since 1800 (London, 2002)Google Scholar.

8 For a recent exploration of this issue, see Murphy, Gary, “From Economic Nationalism to European Union,” in The Lemass Era: Politics and Society in the Ireland of Seán Lemass, ed. Girvin, Brian and Murphy, Gary (Dublin, 2005), 28–48.Google Scholar

9 Whitaker is quoted in Murphy, Economic Realignment, 194.

10 Murphy, “From Economic Nationalism,” 29.

11 This statement is quoted in Girvin, Brian, From Union to Union: Nationalism, Democracy, and Religion in Ireland, Act of Union to EU (Dublin, 2002), 205.Google Scholar

12 Dáil debates, 25 July 1967, vol. 230, col. 748.

13 Horgan, John, Seán Lemass: The Enigmatic Patriot (Dublin, 1997), 199.Google Scholar

14 Further voting figures quoted in Maher, Tortuous Path, 350.

15 For more information regarding the Irish Labour Party's decision making on the Europe issue, see Puirséil, Niamh, The Irish Labour Party, 1922–73 (Dublin, 2007), 300–301.Google Scholar For details on the party's internal difficulties over coalition and the violence in Northern Ireland, see ibid., 272–99.

16 For more information on the development of the early anti-EEC opposition in Ireland, see Devenney, Andrew D., “‘A Unique and Unparalleled Surrender of Sovereignty’: Early Opposition to European Integration in Ireland, 1961–1972,” New Hibernia Review/Iris Éireannach Nua 12, no. 4 (Winter 2008): 15–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For information on their activities during the 1972 EEC Referendum, see Keogh, Ireland and Europe, 247–52.

17 For example, see the Scottish Labour MP Bruce Millan's 7 June 1962 speech in which he explored the implications of EEC membership for Britain and the commonwealth but never once referenced Scotland. Parliamentary debates, Commons, 5th ser., no. 661, col. 749–56. See also Labour MP Arthur Woodburn's 2 August 1961 speech in which he positively compared membership in the EEC to England's 1707 Act of Union with Scotland. Ibid., no. 645, col. 1514–25.

18 Kellas, James G., The Scottish Political System, 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1983), 83.Google Scholar

19 Specifically, this line of attack took place during the Glasgow Woodside by-election in 1962. See Glasgow Herald, 10 and 12 November 1962.

20 For further discussion, see Lynch, Peter, Minority Nationalism and European Integration (Cardiff, 1996), 30–36.Google Scholar

21 An Opinion Research Center poll from June 1971 recorded among Scottish respondents 73 percent against EEC membership versus 21 percent in favor. A subsequent poll in July 1971 recorded a lessening of this hostility, but only so much, with 55 percent against and 29 percent in favor, which reflected a larger swing in public opinion throughout Britain generally. For more information, see Kitzinger, Diplomacy and Persuasion, 361–65.

22 Anthony Finlay, “Marketeers Face Tough Battle in Scotland,” Glasgow Herald, 10 February 1975.

23 For advisor comments related to speculation about a referendum defeat on Wilson's political career, see Donoughue, Bernard, Downing Street Diary: With Harold Wilson in No. 10 (London, 2005), 363.Google Scholar For concern about Scotland's role in a no vote, see ibid., 377–81.

24 John Warden, “Referendum Campaign Stepped Up,” Glasgow Herald, 26 May 1975. Ewing's choice of phrase was an allusion to the Robert Burns poem “Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation,” specifically the lines: “The English stell we could disdain, / Secure in valour's station; / But English gold has been our bane- / Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!”

25 De Valera's vision of an ideal Ireland, which he described in a radio broadcast in March 1943, exemplifies the mythic character of Irish economic illusions before the turn to Europe in the 1960s: “That Ireland which we dreamed of would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis of right living, of a people who were satisfied with frugal comfort and devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit—a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contests of athletic youths and the laughter of comely maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age. It would, in a word, be the home of the people living the life that God desires that man should live.” Quoted in Fitzgerald, Protectionism to Liberalisation, 25.

26 Girvin, From Union to Union, 1.

27 Ibid., 201.

28 For more information, see O’Mahony, Patrick and Delanty, Gerard, Rethinking Irish History: Nationalism, Identity, and Ideology (Houndsmills, 1998), 167–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 For an examination of this process at the foreign policy level, see Maurice Fitzgerald, “The ‘Mainstreaming’ of Irish Foreign Policy,” in Girvin and Murphy, The Lemass Era, 82–98.

30 Horgan, Lemass, 213.

31 For an intriguing look at how this shift played out in the discourses of Irish foreign policy, see Tonra, Ben, Global Citizen and European Republic: Irish Foreign Policy in Transition (Manchester, 2006)Google Scholar.

32 This was as much a rhetorical shift as anything else. As Joseph Lee has pointed out, speaking about the wider context of Lemass's shift, “By 1959, ‘self-reliance’ had come to mean for Lemass not self-sufficiency, his once favoured slogan, but an economy sufficiently viable to enable all the Irish to live in their own country” (Ireland, 1912–1985: Politics and Society [Cambridge, 1989], 399).

33 O’Mahony, and Delanty, , Rethinking Irish History, 173.Google Scholar For a recent examination of the 1970 Arms Crisis, see O’Donnell, Catherine, Fianna Fáil, Irish Republicanism, and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968–2005 (Dublin, 2007), 24–32.Google Scholar

34 For a less charitable assessment of Lemass's role in shifting the republic's policies toward Northern Ireland in the 1960s, see ibid., 13–16.

35 For specific discussion of what Ben Tonra calls the “Narrative of the European Republic,” see Tonra, Global Citizen, 51–65.

36 Jackson, Alvin, Ireland, 1978–1998: Politics and War (Oxford, 1999), 332.Google Scholar

37 Girvin, From Union to Union, 207.

38 Coughlan, Anthony, The Common Market: Why Ireland Should Not Join (Dublin, 1970), 2.Google Scholar

39 For more information on the ideological framing of the anti-EEC campaign in Ireland, see Devenney, “Surrender of Sovereignty,” 21–25.

40 Finlay, Richard J., Modern Scotland, 1914–2000 (London, 2003), 257–58.Google Scholar

41 For further information, see Harvie, Christopher, Scotland and Nationalism: Scottish Society and Politics, 1707 to the Present, 4th ed. (London, 2004), 118–31.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., 130.

43 Finlay, Modern Scotland, 237.

44 For more information about this exclusionary construction of British identity, see Colley, Linda, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837 (New Haven, CT, 1992)Google Scholar.

45 For recent commentary on the importance of the empire to Scotland, see Devine, T. M., Scotland's Empire, 1600–1815 (London, 2004).Google Scholar For the argument that British imperial identity did not repress Scottish national identity so much as preserve and strengthen it post-1707, see John M. MacKenzie, “Empire and National Identities: The Case of Scotland,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser., vol. 8 (1998): 215–31.

46 For further detail, see McCrone, David, Understanding Scotland: The Sociology of a Nation (London, 2001)Google Scholar.

47 Mitchell, James, “Scotland in the Union, 1945–95: The Changing Nature of the Union State,” in Scotland in the 20th Century, ed. Devine, T. M. and Finlay, Richard J. (Edinburgh, 1996), 94.Google Scholar For a Marxist interpretation of this transformation in Scottish national identity in the twentieth century, see Foster, John, “Nationality, Social Change, and Class: Transformations of National Identity in Scotland,” in The Making of Scotland: Nation, Culture, and Social Change, ed. McCrone, David, Kendrick, Stephen, and Straw, Pat (Edinburgh, 1989), 49.Google Scholar For a Weberian approach that seeks to integrate the concept of civil society into explanations of Scottish identity change in the post-1945 period, Hearn, see Jonathan, “Identity, Class, and Civil Society in Scotland's Neo-Nationalism,” Nations and Nationalism 8, no. 1 (January 2002): 15–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48 Lynch, Minority Nationalism, 28.

49 “Solicitor to Contest Hamilton for S.N.P.,” Scotsman, 2 August 1967.

50 “Scottish Vote Demanded on Market Entry,” Scotsman, 21 August 1967.

51 At one point, the deputy speaker presiding over the debate had to call for order due to a commotion from the benches that made it difficult for Ewing to be heard. Parliamentary debates, nos. 796, 1086. Later in the debate, when she rose to interrupt a comment by the former Labour Foreign Secretary George Brown, Brown did not give way and labeled her a “Neanderthal woman” for her desire to see Scotland independent. Ibid., 1258.

52 For more information on the Labour Government debate and motivations regarding the establishment of the Royal Commission, see Keating, Michael and Bleiman, David, Labour and Scottish Nationalism (London, 1979), 155–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53 Royal Commission on the Constitution, 1969–1973: Volume 1; Report, Cmnd. 5460 (London, 1973), 125.Google Scholar

54 Royal Commission on the Constitution, 1969–1973: Volume 2; Memorandum of Dissent, Cmnd. 5460-I (London, 1973), 37.Google Scholar

55 For more information on various approaches to defining and articulating Europeanization, see Bache, Ian and Jordan, Andrew, eds., The Europeanization of British Politics (Houndsmills, 2006), 17–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Featherstone, Kevin and Radaelli, Claudio M., eds., The Politics of Europeanization (Oxford, 2003), 3–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bulmer, Simon, “Theorizing Europeanization,” in Europeanization: New Research Agendas, ed. Graziano, Paulo and Vink, Maarten P. (Houndsmills, 2007), 46–58.Google Scholar

56 For further analysis of this linkage between the Irish and British economies and its impact on nationalist perceptions in Ireland, see O’Day, Alan, “Nationalism and the Economic Question in Twentieth-Century Ireland,” in Economic Change and the National Question in Twentieth-Century Europe, ed. Teichova, Alice, Matis, Herbert, and Pátek, Jaroslav (Cambridge, 2000), 9–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

57 Brendan Halligan has described the situation thusly: “The fact of the matter was that, in terms of economics, as the situation had been incurred for two or three centuries, the British had locked us into a relationship with them that was entirely beneficial from their point of view and completely detrimental to us. It had destroyed us economically, so that we remained agricultural and that we supplied them agricultural products at the lowest price on the world market, the clearing price on the world market. No wonder we were bloody poor while they grew rich. From their point of view it was fine. From our point of view it was horrible. You don’t have to be an economist or historian or whatever to understand it” (interview by the author, digital voice recording, 13 July 2005, Dublin).

58 For how this push for Gaelic language manifested itself in education policy, see Kelly, Adrian, Compulsory Irish: Language and Education in Ireland, 1880s–1970s (Dublin, 2002)Google Scholar.

59 Brown, Terence, Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, 1922–2002 (London, 2004), 249.Google Scholar

60 Todd Andrews to George Colley, 25 November 1970, University College Dublin Archives Department (UCDAD), Todd Andrews Papers, P91/169.

61 Nairn, Tom, Faces of Nationalism: Janus Revisited (London, 1997), 180.Google Scholar

62 For more information on issues of autonomy and Anglicization in Scottish history, see Paterson, Lindsay, The Autonomy of Modern Scotland (Edinburgh, 1994)Google Scholar.

63 Desmond, Barry, Finally and In Conclusion: A Political Memoir (Dublin, 2000), 191.Google Scholar

64 Andrews, C. S., Man of No Property: An Autobiography (Dublin, 1982), 197.Google Scholar

65 Féin, Sinn [Street, Kevin], Why Ireland Should Not Join the Common Market (Dublin, 1972), 9.Google Scholar

66 Ibid., 10.

67 “Europe ‘Moving towards 1984’: Wolfe Warns on Centralism,” Scots Independent, 11 April 1970.

68 For more information, see Murphy, Economic Realignment, 91–155. One should note that in the case of Irish labor, this was not entirely successful, but the movement's participation in the 1960s was more important than opposition in the 1970s.

69 Ibid., 112.

70 “1963 STUC Annual Report,” Glasgow Caledonian University Research Collections: Archives (GCURCA), STUC Archive, pp. 62–63.

71 For more information, see Murphy, Economic Realignment, 47–89.

72 Whitaker is quoted in ibid., 54.

73 Halligan, interview.

74 Ibid.

75 SIE All-Party Rally, Edinburgh, 14 May 1975, cassette recording, House of Lords Record Office (HLRO), Parliamentary Archives (PA), Britain in Europe Papers (BIE), BIE/13/36.

76 Fitzgerald, Garret, “The British and the Irish in the Context of Europe,” in National Identities: The Constitution of the United Kingdom, ed. Crick, Bernard (Oxford, 1991), 8.Google Scholar

77 Ibid., 8–12.

78 For a more detailed look at the 1972 white paper, see Keogh, Ireland and Europe, 236–40.

79 Lee, Ireland, 463.

80 This excerpt was quoted in “White Paper on Entry to E.E.C.,” Irish Times, 15 January 1972.

81 Lee, Ireland, 463.

82 Keogh, Ireland and Europe, 240.

83 Parliamentary debates, nos. 746, 1568.

84 SNP preelection handbill, n.d. (presumably 1970), National Library of Scotland (NLS), Scottish National Party Archives, Acc. 7295/24.

85 O’Brien, Conor Cruise, States of Ireland, 3rd ed. (London, 1973), 293.Google ScholarPubMed

86 Lynch, Minority Nationalism, 36.

87 Intriguingly, Paolo Dardanelli argues that it was Scottish nationalism's inability to embrace Europeanization in the 1960s and early 1970s, particularly in how it related to and interpreted self-government initiatives, that contributed to the defeat of the 1979 devolution referendum. Dardanelli, See, Between Two Unions: Europeanization and Scottish Devolution (Manchester, 2005)Google Scholar.

88 The referenda in question were in 1987, over the Single European Act; 1992, over the Maastricht Treaty on the creation of the EU; 1998, over the Amsterdam Treaty, which further revised the Rome Treaty and the Maastricht Treaty; 2001 and 2002, over the Nice Treaty, which reformed EU structures to handle future community enlargement; and 2008, over the Lisbon Treaty, drafted to implement the reform policies and principles of the failed 2004–5 EU Constitution.

89 For more information about Ireland's experiences with European referenda, see Laffan, Brigid and Tonra, Ben, “Europe and the International Dimension,” in Politics in the Republic of Ireland, ed. Coakly, John and Gallagher, Michael, 4th ed. (London, 2005), 447–49.Google Scholar

90 For an analysis of the circumstances surrounding the two Nice Treaty referenda, Hayward, see Katy, “‘If at First You Don’t Succeed…’: The Second Referendum on the Treaty of Nice, 2002,” Irish Political Studies 18, no. 1 (June 2003): 120–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

91 “Ireland Delivers Stunning Blow to Europe's Leaders,” The Guardian, 14 June 2008.

92 For instance, see the Irish national report for Eurobarometer 68.1 (2007), which can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb68/eb68_ie_nat.pdf.

93 The Irish government anticipates Ireland will become a net contributor to the EU budget toward the end of the 2007–13 budget cycle. See Department of Taoiseach, the, Ireland and the European Union: Identifying Priorities and Pursuing Goals, 4th ed. (Dublin, 2006), 3.Google Scholar A PDF version of this pamphlet can be found at http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Publications/Publications_Archive/Publications_2006/Ireland_and_the_European_Union_4th_Edition.pdf. For a recent sampling of discussions related to the Irish economy's 2008–9 downturn, the controversy surrounding the revote on the Treaty of Lisbon, and the Irish public attitudes toward the EU, see Deaglán de Bréadún, “Old Punt Would Have ‘Crashed’ outside Euro Zone,” Irish Times, 23 July 2009; Michael Casey, “Boom Growth Came Too Easy—Now We’ll Have to Graft,” Irish Times, 8 May 2009.

94 Finlay, Modern Scotland, 371–72.

95 Ibid., 376.

96 Some of which are still among the ranks of the SNP. See, e.g., “SNP Rebel Calls for End to ‘Scotland in Europe,’” Sunday Herald, 7 July 2002.