To bring light unto the Germans': Irish recognition-seeking, the Weimar republic and the British commonwealth, 1930-2

This case study of the first years of the Irish Legation in Berlin (1929-1932) sheds light on the challenges created in the transition from Empire to Commonwealth. It serves as a counterbalance to the existing work which has tended to focus almost exclusively on the relationship between the metropole (Britain) and the dominions. This approach neglects a third set of actors, namely third states with which Britain and the dominions had diplomatic relations, such as Weimar Germany. How did the Saorstát represent its co-equal status within the British Commonwealth and how did Weimar perceive the Irish role in the Commonwealth? This article demonstrates that the Saorstát encountered difficulties in explaining the Commonwealth experiment and expressing their national autonomy in the face of incomprehension by the pre-existing European state system and the resistance from the local British embassies. Established power relations and perceptions were ingrained, inhibiting the international recognition the Free State considered that it warranted.