Éamon de Valera was "quite intrigued" by a British inquiry about his terms for abandoning Irish neutrality and taking the Allied side in the second World War, according to the secret diaries of a British spy- chief published today.
"I gather that de Valera is quite intrigued and is thinking things over," wrote Guy Liddell, London- based head of wartime counter- espionage. "The move is inspired from the highest quarter here."
Liddell writes that the offer to Dev was made by a Connor Carrigan but the editor of the diaries, Nigel West, told The Irish Times last night that he had no further details on Carrigan and would welcome any information "from either him or his descendants".
The Guy Liddell Diaries, Volume 1: 1939-1942 (Routledge) also reveal contingency plans for British troops in Northern Ireland to assist the Irish Free State in the event of a German invasion.
Liddell's records suggest a close relationship between Britain's MI5 and Ireland's G2 military intelligence through the war years. Liddell's brother, Cecil Liddell, spent considerable time in Ireland.
Reports of conversations with successive G2 chiefs, Colonels Liam Archer and Dan Bryan, feature prominently. "They were back and forth to England all the time," West said last night.
They discussed with the British possible German U-boat bases and wireless stations on the west coast of Ireland. The activities of the German embassy were also of great interest to the British, who were able to decode messages sent from the embassy to Berlin.
Liddell also talks of "a considerable stir in the Irish world" in 1942 when 29 priests and three nuns were strip-searched at Liverpool en route from Rome.
This was in accordance with MI5 rules that demanded thorough searching of anyone returning from enemy territory. "The incident is unfortunate," Liddell wrote at the time.
Dictated nightly by Liddell to his secretary, these diaries were considered so sensitive that they were code-named "Wallflower" and locked, until recently, in the personal safe of successive MI5 directors-general.
Liddell was married to Calypso Baring, daughter of Cecil Baring, Lord Revelstoke, whose home was on Lambay Island in Dublin Bay. Liddell made many visits to the island.
He won the Military Cross during the first World War, then joined the Special Branch where he specialised in tracking Soviet spies. He was transferred to MI5 in 1931 and became director of counter-espionage. He died in 1958.