The making of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985: a memoir by David Goodall. Edited by Frank Sheridan. Pp vii, 237. Dublin: National University of Ireland. 2021. €35.00/€20.00.

Abstract

the American criticism that vast sums of money were transferred between the U.S. and Ireland as a consequence of the illegal sweepstake. The U.S. was unwilling to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with Ireland but agreed one with Britain. Whelan poses an interesting counterfactual, asking if matters would have been different if John Cudahy (U.S. minister to Ireland, 1937–40) had remained in the post. David Gray, who replaced Cudahy, is widely blamed for the deteriorating relations between the U.S. and Ireland. While individuals do make a difference, the key individual in the relationship between Ireland and the U.S. was President Roosevelt. During most of the 1930s Roosevelt was indifferent to Ireland and U.S. diplomacy reflected this. From 1940, Roosevelt was committed to the defeat of Hitler even before the U.S. entered the war. Neither the State Department nor Roosevelt disagreed with Gray because his position largely reflected that of the president.