I Signed My Death Warrant by Ryle T. Dwyer Page B

Victoria in the 1870s. George was born after his father returned to Europe in 1882. Brought up in Nice, George spoke French and Italian fluently. He returned to England in his teens to study at Stonyhurst, and he was a member of Roger Casement’s legal team at his trial in 1916. Elected to the First Dáil in 1918 Gavan Duffy was sent as an envoy of the Irish Republic to Paris and later to Rome.
    Gavan Duffy, Barton, and a young rather volatile Collins had served together on a delegation that went to London in December 1918 to try to enlist the help of President Woodrow Wilson, who was in Britain on his way to the Paris Peace Con­ference. Gavan Duffy drew up the petition, but it was ignored by Wilson, much to the annoyance of Collins, who suggested they kidnap the president to make him listen to them. Now the three of them were selected to go back to London under very different circumstances.
    Throughout the remainder of his life, de Valera went to great pains to justify his decision to exclude himself from the delegation. While the reasons he gave to the cabinet were un­doubtedly factors, there were other reasons that he was only prepared to elaborate on privately. In December 1921 he explained these in some detail in a letter to Joe McGarrity, and again to Lord Longford more than forty years later.
    He admitted that he was using Griffith and Collins as mere bait. ‘I felt convinced on the other hand that as matters came to a close we would be able to hold them from this side from crossing the line.’
    Following the selection by the cabinet, the Dáil met in private session on 14 September to ratify the delegation. W. T. Cosgrave moved that the president should head the delegation. But his own assistant, Kevin O’Higgins, promptly undermined Cosgrave by endorsing de Valera’s decision. ‘It was a matter of tactics,’ O’Higgins argued, according to the official report. ‘They had to safeguard the Republic and the symbol of the Republic and to face the unpleasant fact that the plenipotentiaries might have to discuss other proposals than the sovereign independence of Ireland and it was not right the President should discuss such proposals.’
    Griffith was then ratified as chairman, but when Collins’ name was submitted for formal ratification, he explained that he ‘would very much prefer not to be chosen’. He said that he believed de Valera should head the delegation.
    If he was not president and, as such a symbol of the republic, de Valera said, he would go himself. As this was out of the question, he argued, ‘It was absolutely necessary that the Minister for Finance should be a member’ because he ‘was absolutely vital to the delegation.’
    â€˜To me the task is a loathsome one,’ Collins told colleagues. ‘If I go, I go in the spirit of a soldier who acts against his better judgment at the orders of a superior officer.’
    After Collins relented, the Dáil and promptly approved his nomination, and the other names were approved without any discussion. But Gavan Duffy did object to members of the dele­­gation being categorised as plenipotentiaries. He thought they were being given too much power. De Valera – who had twice previously threatened to resign if full and unfettered plenipotentiary powers were denied to the delegation – was insistent. He wished to use the term plenipotentiaries ‘to give to the world the impression that they are sent over with full powers – to do the best they could to reconcile the Irish position with the British position. They should have full powers because if they go over they needed to have the moral feeling of support of the position to do the best they could for Ireland.’
    â€˜Remember what you are asking them to do,’ the president said. ‘You are asking them to secure by negotiations what we are totally unable to secure by force of arms.’
    Afterwards