Pragmatic Opportunism: Ireland and the Czechoslovak Crisis 1938–39

Acquisition of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia was the next phase of Nazi Germany’s expansion in 1938. When it seemed likely that the region would indeed be incorporated into Germany’s borders, based on a mixed historic and ethno-cultural logic, nations across Europe with unresolved border questions of their own took notice—Ireland among them. This article will examine the extent to which a fervent desire to undo the country’s partition influenced Irish foreign policy at a time when international tensions over the Sudetenland were brewing into a potential European conflict. The contradictory nature of Irish foreign policy at the time will be illustrated, and Ireland’s navigation of one of interwar Europe’s most dynamic crises will in turn be re-assessed.