An Irishman's Diary

NINETY years ago today, the Anglo-Irish Treaty talks in London were reaching a critical point. The British prime minister cancelled a trip to Washington and the next day's Irish Timesreported there had been a "protracted night meeting" between the delegations at 10 Downing Street.

Mind you, it was also suggested the British were proposing “a settlement which contemplates a united Ireland”. And as we know, there would be more twists and late night meetings before the fateful document was signed at 2am on December 6th.

It may be just as well, so, that the Irish plenipotentiaries were keeping up their sugar levels. We can assume they were, because among the documents in an online exhibition to be mounted by the National Archives later this month is an invoice from Harrods detailing the extraordinary array of sweets supplied to the visiting delegation.

Dated November 8th, the two-page document mentions “crackers”, “bon bons”, “peppermint lumps”, “peppermint liqueurs”, “assorted sweets”, “assorted chocolates”, and “fruits”. Also billed for were such accessories as “fancy baskets”, “d’oyleys” and “serviettes”. The total for which all of which came to a handsome 14 pounds, 13 shillings, and one-and-a-half pence.

To put that in perspective, the same day's Irish Timescarried small ad from a family in Ballsbridge, seeking a senior domestic servant – or a "superior general (protestant)" as they put it – for wages of £25 to £30 a year.

If it happened now, the Comptroller and Auditor General might be asking questions of the plenipotantiaries, including why they had to buy such stuff from Harrods, of all places. But in fairness to the delegation, which was based at Hans Place in Kensington, Harrods was one of the nearest sweetshops.

Hardline republicans may also be assuaged to learn that the Irish dragged their heels when it came to paying the bill. Eaten sweets are soon forgotten. And in the event, Harrods had to issue a reminder in January 1922, by which time the delegates were back fighting their case in the Dáil, where sweetness of any kind was in short supply.

Happily, there is a lot more to the National Archives exhibition than bills from Harrods. It will also feature high-quality images of the Treaty itself, a searchable gallery of documents relating to the talks, digitised Cabinet minutes, and many other extraneous materials, including contemporary Pathé news reel.

The Treaty was acquired (from the Department of the Taoiseach) by the National Archives back in 2002. But this will be the first time it has been displayed to the general public. The online exhibit begins informally on November 30th, from which date documents will be added to the website (nationalarchives.ie) on a daily basis, as their exact 90th anniversaries fall.

A SOMEWHATless ominous anniversary will be celebrated in Limerick next week. It concerns sporting links between Ireland and France and takes the title "Entente Cordiale?" Which question mark, combined with the timing of the event – November 11th ("lest we forget") – might suggest it has something to do with the second anniversary of a certain infamous handball incident in Paris.

But no. The gathering in Limerick is dedicated to rugby, a sport in which French ball-handling skills are justly admired. And despite the equivocation in its title, the evening will be an unalloyed celebration of “a century of rugby rivalry”, featuring a number of former combatants.

Strictly speaking, the centenary celebrations are two years late. After all, the first Ireland-France rugby international was in 1909, when the home team won comfortably and this newspaper’s match report could patronise the visitors as follows: “Until quite recently, France has never been seriously considered as a football country, but what she has done this year, and particularly on Saturday, suggests that before very long, and with a few more lessons, she may take her place in the game without consideration of any kind.” It would require a decade or so of lessons before the French finally graduated, after which they quickly became masters of the fixture, a role they have rarely since lost. Poignantly, as if to foreshadow the annual tragedies ahead, the Irish captain in 1909 was a man named “Hamlet”.

As for the two-year lag in the centenary celebrations, it’s not, apparently, because Hiberno-French antipathy was running too high in 2009 to risk such an event. It has more to do with Limerick being European City of Sport for 2011. To mark which, the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies has organised the event at Mary Immaculate College, with guests including Mick Galway, Peter Clohessy, Donal Spring and former French scrum-half, Jean-Michel Aguirre.

The event will also feature a talk by Dr Philip Dine entitled La Vie en Rose: reinventing French rugby in the professional era. More information about the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies, based at the Tallaght Institute of Technology, is at it-tallaght.ie/afis.