In May 1949, Massachusetts Calls on US State Department to Send an Ambassador to the Newly Created Republic of Ireland

In May, 1949, state legislators in Massachusetts sent a resolution to the U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson to "increase the status of the representative to the Irish Republic to that of an Ambassador."

The request came in the wake of Ireland being "formally proclaimed a Free, Independent and Sovereign Republic on the Historic Day of Easter Monday" on April 18, 1949.

The petition was made by three Massachusetts legislators: Senator William J.Keenan, a native of Ireland, Representative Bernard M. Lally of Boston, and Representative John Pierce Lynch of Springfield. They asked Secretary Acheson "to accord the proper recognition to the new Irish Republic, increase the present status of the United States representative from that of a Minister to an Ambassador."

The petition was also sent to U.S. President Harry S. Truman, to Senate Majority Leader William H. White, U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn, and to the Massachusetts congressional delegation.

Several months later, on September 3, 1949, South Boston's U.S. Congressman John W. McCormack also wrote a letter to State Secretary Acheson, stating that "sending a diplomatic representative with the rank of Ambassador would strengthen the ties of friendship that has existed between Ireland and the United States for many years."

Four years later, the United States appointed William Howard Taft as the first U.S. Ambassador to Ireland. He had previously been an officer of the ECA (Marshall Plan) and had worked in Dublin for three years, completing his mission in 1951, according to The Boston Globe. Ambassador Taft and his wife Barbara were received enthusiastically by Irish officials when they returned in May, 1953.

Read story here about the Republic of Ireland Act that led to Ireland severing ties with Great Britain in 26 of the 32 counties.

Text + Research, Michael Quinlin

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