Bose arrived in Cobh on 31 January 1936. He was persona non grata with the British authorities and was told that he would not be allowed into the UK owing to his radical credentials. De Valera was well aware of this and so he deliberately courted the Indian revolutionary under their very noses. After visiting the MacSwiney family in Cork, Bose made his way to Dublin and arrived there on 2 February. The next day was the busiest in his crammed schedule. He was received at government buildings by de Valera and later in the evening at the Mansion House by the lord mayor, Alfie Byrne. That night he was the guest of the Indian–Irish Independence League at a reception in the Broadway Restaurant, where Maud Gonne MacBride, president of the League, welcomed him.

Bose’s ‘Impressions of Ireland’ We have an accurate picture of Bose’s reactions to his Irish visit from a statement that he released on 30 March 1936 entitled ‘Impressions of Ireland’. It seems that his meetings with Irish ministers were most worthwhile: De Valera visits India Further reading: K. O’Malley, Ireland, India and empire. Indo–Irish radical connections, 1919–64 (Manchester, 2008). L.A. Gordon, Brothers against the Raj. A biography of Sarat and Subhas Bose (New York, 1990). T. Foley & M. O’Connor (eds), Ireland and India: colonies, culture and empire (Dublin, 2006). S.K. Bose & S. Bose (eds), S.C. Bose: Netaji collected works, volume 8: letters, articles, speeches and statements 1933–1937 (Oxford, 1994). Kate O’Malley is an assistant editor with the Royal Irish Academy’s Documents in Irish Foreign Policy series. Nehru held a dinner in honour of de Valera and it was attended by several cabinet ministers as well as by Lord and Lady Mountbatten. The Mountbattens reciprocated and had de Valera and Nehru as their lunch guests the following day. It was in fact one of the viceroy’s last official functions in his capacity as governor-general of India, as he was succeeded a week later by Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari. It was poignant, though clearly not orchestrated, that de Valera was one of the viceroy’s last guests, given the part played by Ireland in the breakup of the British Empire. HI ‘. . . for more than 30 years many of us in Ireland have followed with deepest sympathy the fortunes of the people of India in their efforts to secure freedom. We regarded the people of India as co-workers and allies in a common cause and we rejoiced exceedingly when India’s right to independence was fully acknowledged.’ De Valera and Frank Aiken arrived in Calcutta on the morning of 14 June 1948. From there they travelled to Delhi, to Government House, where they stayed for the next two days with Nehru. The following day de Valera spoke on Indian public radio. His speech was full of the type of rhetoric that would have greatly pleased his Indian listeners. He told them how The decision to include India on his world tour was met with some apprehension in London, evidenced by the large file that the Dominions Office kept on the visit. De Valera’s continuing influence on Indian nationalist thinking, this time in relation to Commonwealth membership, was a source of much concern, more so than his utterances about partition. An India outside the Commonwealth could prove problematic for Britain, and taking advice from the author of the External Relations Act was not exactly top of their preferred list of methods to elucidate the situation. The Commonwealth relations office warned the high commissioners of both India and Pakistan in advance of de Valera’s visit that it might have the effect of encouraging ‘yet further examination in India (and perhaps Pakistan) of the possible applicability of a solution on lines similar to those adopted in Éire to the problem of the future position of India and Pakistan in the Commonwealth’. As it happened, within a year India would become the first Commonwealth republic and, much to de Valera’s chagrin and amid controversy, the first inter-party government would declare Ireland a republic outside the Commonwealth. De Valera’s high-profile anti-partition tour in 1948 (in the aftermath of losing his first general election in sixteen years) took in the newly independent India. India had just been partitioned and, as in Ireland, this was carried out along religious lines and coincided with the transfer of power from Britain—the similarities were uncanny. De Valera already knew Patel and Bose, but he would now meet the newly appointed prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, whose career reflected many aspects of his own. Having recently adopted constitutional nationalism at the expense of partition, the one-time revolutionary was preparing a warm reception for the one-time Irish freedom fighter who had inspired so many Indians over the years. The visit was the beginning of a fond friendship between the two men. Bose stated how, on the whole, he found the work of the Irish government of interest and of value to Indians, who would soon have to tackle the problem of nation-building through the machinery of state themselves. Pragmatic and profitable exchanges abounded between the two parties. Helping Bose look to the future and providing tips on self-government were done behind closed doors, in contrast to the public rhetoric, which centred on both countries’ shared history and experiences with the treacherous Empire. In the wake of his visit to Ireland Bose continued to write and receive letters and press cuttings from his fond friend, the left-wing republican Mollie Woods. ‘With the minister for agriculture I discussed how they were trying to make the country self-sufficient in the matter of food supply. It was interesting to know that wheat and sugar-beet were now being cultivated in large areas and the development of agriculture was making the country less dependent on cattle-rearing and therefore less dependent on the English market. I also discussed with him the question of restriction of jute-cultivation in India and he gave me valuable suggestions as to how he would tackle the problem if he were put in charge.’ It would be reasonable to assume that these meetings consisted of nothing more than the Irish ministers articulating their adherence to the principle of Indian independence, as well as expressing in general terms their sympathy for Bose’s position. This was not the case, however. According to Bose: ‘Besides having prolonged discussions with Mr de Valera, I met individually most of the Fianna Fáil ministers. All of them are exceedingly sympathetic, accessible and humane. They had not yet become “respectable”. Most of them had been on the run when they were fighting for their freedom and would be shot on sight if they had been spotted. They had not yet [become] hardened bureaucratic ministers and there was no official atmosphere about them.’ On 5 February he listened to proceedings in the Dáil from a seat in the visitors’ gallery. He had interviews with the minister for defence, Frank Aiken, the minister for finance, Seán MacEntee, and the minister for industry and commerce, Seán Lemass, as well as with the Labour Party leader, William Norton, Fianna Fáil TD P.J. Little and the secretary of the Department of External Affairs, Joseph Walshe. On the evening of 7 February he was received by the executive committee of the Dublin Trades Union Council. He also attended a meeting of the Women’s Prisoners Defence League at Cathal Brugha Street. His last engagement was perhaps the most elaborate and eventful. A reception was held in his honour in the Shelbourne Hotel, where he was in fact staying. Bose himself addressed the meeting, where speakers also included the prominent left-wing activists Peadar O’Donnell, Seán Murray, Frank Ryan and Seán MacBride.