Life
1904-1988; [given name Seagan, and often so called by Maud Gonne MacBride]
b. Paris, son of John MacBride and Maud Gonne MacBride; god-son of John O’Leary; ed. Mount St
Benedict’s, Gorey; active in War of Independence; opposed Treaty,
1921; prison sentences; ‘on the run’; lived as journalist in
Paris, employing his first language; chief of staff, IRA, Dublin 1936;
fnd. Cumann na Pobhlachta na hÉireann, 1936, as alternative platform
for Republicans opposed to Congress; bar, 1937; resigned from IRA on enactment
of Irish constitution, 1937; defended Republican prisoners; founded Clann
na Poblachta, 1946; first coalition Govt., Min. of Foreign Affairs, 1948;
rejected NATO in the belief that the Allies could be bargained with over
Northern Ireland and partition; relentlessly attacked de Valera’s
statement that ‘forty-five shillings [45/-] a week is an adequate
income for a family in a Christian country’; acceded to Council of
Europe, affirming neutral status; repeal of External Relations Act, and
counselled declaration of republic, Easter Monday, 1949; supported hierarchy
against Noel Browne in Mother and Child scheme controversy; his party
reduced from ten to two seats, June 1951; founded Cultural Relations Committee,
1951; held his seat and re-elected, 1954; defeated 1957, and 1961; quit
politics; acted as constitutional lawyers; prominent in human rights defence;
took Lawless case on internment ot European Commission on Human Rights;
founder-member of Amnesty International, and Chairman, 1961-74; Sec.-Gen
of International commission of Jurists, 1963-71; Exec. chairman Internat.
Peace Bureau, Geneva, 1969; president 1974; UN High Commissioner for Namibia,
1973-76, with rank of Asst. Sec.-Gen.; Nobel Peace Prize, 1974; Lenin
Peace Prize, 1977; instituted MacBride Principles on equal representation
and equal opportunity in N. Ireland; American Medal for Justice, 1978;
UNESCO internat. comm. for study of communication problems, chairman;
report, 1980 (Many Voices, One World); formulated MacBride Principles
as a guide to American companies employing in S. Africa, and later recommended
by nationalists in Northern Ireland; won support in last campaign in US;
first recipient of the Tipperary Peace Prize in 1984;
d. Roebuck House, Clonskea, Dublin, 15 Jan.; buried in Republican plot,
Glasnevin, with Catalina MacBride and his mother. DIB DIH
[ top ]
Criticism
Ronan Sheehan, ‘Interview with Sean MacBride’, in Crane Bag,
2. 1&2 (1978); rep. Crane Bag Book of Irish Studies (1982),
pp.296-303.
Anthony J. Jordan, Seán MacBride (Blackwater Press 1995), 199pp., 24pp. photos [reviewed by Rory Brennan, Books Ireland, Nov. 1995, p.284].
Kevin Rafter, The Clann: The Story of Clann na Poblachta (Mercier Press 1996).
Eithne MacDermott, Clann na Poblachta (Cork UP 1998).
Steve Bruce, The Edge of the Union, The Ulster Loyalist Political Vision (OUP 1994), p.56 [critique of the ‘MacBride Principles’].
Ulick O’Connor, "Homage to Seán MacBride (died 16 July 1988)", anthologised in Irish Poetry Now, ed. Gabriel Fitzmaurice (Wolfhound 1993) [q.p.].
Conor Cruise O’Brien’s, Memoir: My Life and Times (1998).
John P. McCarthy, Dissent from Irish America (Univ. of America Press 1993), reviewed in Irish Literary Supplement, Fall 1994.
Conor Cruise O’Brien, ‘The Power of a Nation’s Ghosts’ [2nd extract from his Ancestral Voices, 1994], in Sunday Independent, 23 Oct. 1994.
David Andrews: ‘Andrews on Saturday’ [column], The Irish Times (26 May 2001).
Martin Mansergh, ‘Remembering the fascinating career of Sean MacBride’, in The Irish Times (17 July 2004).
[ top ]
Notes
Garret Fitzgerald records that MacBride blundered in negotiations
over membership of NATO, which he would have liked, on the premisses that
the Allies would be willing to accede to a United Ireland in exchange
for Irish co-operation. (Irish Times, ‘Comment’; Saturday,
19 Oct. 1996).
Harry Gleeson: Brendan Ó Cathaoir writes in "Irishman’s Diary" on the hanging of Harry Gleeson for his supposed murder of Molly McCarthy, which Sean MacBride defended and appealed on the grounds that the charge to the jury had been ‘incomplete, defective, unsatisfactory and incorrect’. The execution was carried out on 23 April 1941 in spite of a petition signed by 7,000. (The Irish Times, 25, 26, 27 Dec. 2001, p.17.)
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)