The "German Plot" was a spurious

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agr ...

that the Dublin Castle administration in Ireland claimed existed between the Sinn Féin movement and the German Empire in May 1918. Allegedly, the two factions conspired to start an armed insurrection in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, which would have diverted the British war effort. The administration used these claims to justify the internment of Sinn Féin leaders, who were actively opposing attempts to introduce conscription in Ireland. The "plot" originated on 12 April when the British arrested Joseph Dowling after he was put ashore in

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...

by a German U-boat. Dowling had been a member of the Irish Brigade, one of several schemes by

Roger Casement Roger David Casement ( ga, Ruairí Dáithí Mac Easmainn; 1 September 1864 – 3 August 1916), known as Sir Roger Casement, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, CMG, between 1911 and 1916, was a diplomat and Irish people, Irish I ...

to get German assistance for the 1916 Easter Rising. Dowling now claimed that the Germans were planning a military expedition to Ireland.

William Reginald Hall Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall (28 June 1870 – 22 October 1943), known as Blinker Hall, was the British Director of Naval Intelligence (DNI) from 1914 to 1919. Together with Sir Alfred Ewing he was responsible for the establishmen ...

and

Basil Thomson Sir Basil Home Thomson, (21 April 1861 – 26 March 1939) was a British colonial administrator and prison governor, who was head of Metropolitan Police CID during World War I. This gave him a key role in arresting wartime spies, and he was cl ...

believed him and convinced the authorities to intern all Sinn Féin leaders. 150 were arrested on the night of 17–18 May and taken to prisons in England. The introduction of internment and conscription reflected a decision of the

British cabinet The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the senior decision-making body of His Majesty's Government. A committee of the Privy Council, it is chaired by the prime minister and its members include secretaries of state and other senior ministers. ...

to take a harder line on the

Irish Question The Irish question was the issue debated primarily among the British government from the early 19th century until the 1920s of how to respond to Irish nationalism and the calls for Irish independence. The phrase came to prominence as a result ...

following the failure of the

Irish Convention The Irish Convention was an assembly which sat in Dublin, Ireland from July 1917 until March 1918 to address the '' Irish question'' and other constitutional problems relating to an early enactment of self-government for Ireland, to debate its w ...

. Paul McMahon characterises the "Plot" as "a striking illustration of the apparent manipulation of intelligence in order to prod the Irish authorities into more forceful action". Republicans were tipped off about the impending arrests, allowing some to escape capture while others chose to be taken in order to secure a propaganda victory. The internment was counterproductive for the British, imprisoning the more accommodating Sinn Féin leadership while failing to capture members of the

Irish Republican Brotherhood The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB; ) was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland between 1858 and 1924.McGee, p. 15. Its counterpart in the United States ...

more committed to physical force republicanism. This allowed Michael Collins to consolidate his control of the organisation and put it on a more focused military footing. Even at the time, the proposition that the Sinn Féin leadership were directly planning with the German authorities to open another military front in Ireland was largely seen as spurious. Irish nationalists generally view the "German Plot" not as an

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the ...

failure but as a

black propaganda Black propaganda is a form of propaganda intended to create the impression that it was created by those it is supposed to discredit. Black propaganda contrasts with gray propaganda, which does not identify its source, as well as white propaga ...

project to discredit the Sinn Féin movement, particularly to an uninformed public in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. Historian Paul McMahon comments that this belief is mistaken, and that the authorities acted honestly but on the basis of faulty intelligence. It is still a matter of study and conjecture what impact it had on US foreign policy regarding the 1919 bid for international recognition of the Irish Republic.

References

{{Sinn Féin 1918 in Ireland Conspiracy theories in Ireland History of Sinn Féin Ireland in World War I Propaganda in the United Kingdom

See also

References