Aide-Mémoire from John A. Costello to Sir Alexander Clutterbuck (Dublin)

The Government of Ireland have noted the contents of the Aide-Mémoire presented to the Taoiseach by the British Ambassador on the 18th December, 1956.¹

The attitude of the Government towards the unlawful use of force has been fully expressed in a number of public statements, including the statements made by the Taoiseach in Dáil Éireann on the 28th October, 1954,² and the 30th November, 1955,³ the statement issued by the Government on the 14th December, 1956,⁴ and the letter dated the 18th December, 1956, addressed by the Taoiseach to a member of Dáil Éireann.⁵

In stating their resolve to use all such means as they deem necessary and appropriate to bring unlawful military activities to an end, the Government have taken their stand on the firm ground that such activities are contrary to the moral law and are a challenge to the democratic institutions of this State. Measures which may be required here to give effect to their resolve are for determination by the Irish Government, solely, in the light of their experience and judgment and in discharge of their responsibility to Dáil Éireann.

The Government invite the particular attention of the British Government to those passages in the Taoiseach’s statement of the 30th November, 1955, in which he pointed out that the responsibility for the root cause of unlawful military activities in Ireland – Partition – rests on the British Parliament and Government and on the Government of the Six Counties. While fully sharing the desire of the British Government for the continuance of good relations, the Irish Government find it a matter of the deepest concern that there has, so far, been no indication of any change of attitude, on the part of either the British or the Six County Government, towards the problem of Partition and that, on the contrary, that attitude, which has already had such deplorable consequences, has been reaffirmed in recent public statements. In particular, the references to the Ireland Act, 1949, made by Sir Anthony Eden in the House of Commons on the 19th December, 1956, have had the most regrettable effect on public opinion in this country.

The Prime Minister’s claim that the Six Counties are ‘an integral part of the United Kingdom’ is one that could never, in any circumstances, be accepted by an Irish Government – as should have been evident from the representations urging the termination of Partition that have been made so often over the past thirty years to successive British Governments. The Six Counties are part of the national territory of Ireland, and it remains the profound conviction of the Irish Government that the evils attendant on Partition can be eradicated only by the removal of their basic cause – that is by the restoration of the territorial unity of Ireland, in accordance with the ardent and legitimate desire of the great majority of the people of this island. It would, indeed, be in the interest of Britain as well as Ireland – and, further in the interest of all the peoples whose peace and freedom are so gravely threatened at this time – if the British Government took the initiative in terminating Partition, for which that Government is primarily responsible. The Irish Government reserve, now as always, the right to take whatever action they may judge best suited to secure a just and peaceful settlement of the problem.