According to the governments of the United States and Ireland, relations have long been based on common ancestral ties and shared values.Ireland US Department of State Retrieved 2011-02-20Ireland – U.S. Relations Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Retrieved 2016-02-27 Besides regular dialogue on political and economic issues, the U.S. and Irish governments have official exchanges in areas such as medical research and education.

Ireland pursues a policy of neutrality through non-alignment and is consequently not a member of NATO, although it does participate in Partnership for Peace.

History

Pre-Irish independence In 1800 under the Acts of Union 1800, Ireland was politically unified with Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. All major diplomatic decisions regarding Ireland were made in London. From this time until 1922, when twenty-six of thirty-two counties of Ireland seceded to form the Irish Free State (later becoming Ireland), the United States' formal diplomatic affairs with Ireland were carried out through London.

Immigration

Half of the Irish immigrants to the United States in its colonial era (1607–1775) came from the Irish province of Ulster, while the other half came from the other three provinces (Leinster, Munster and Connacht).

The Scots-Irish were some of the first settlers in the 13 colonies and played an important role in The War of Independence, as well as being some of the first cattle drivers in North America. The Irish exerted their own influence inside the United States, particularly through Democratic Party politics. From 1820 to 1860, 2 million Irish arrived in the United States, 75% of these after the Great Irish Famine (or The Great Hunger) of 1845–1852, struck. Most of them joined fast-growing Irish shantytowns in American cities. The famine hurt Irish men and women alike, especially those poorest or without land. It altered the family structures of Ireland because fewer people could afford to marry and raise children, causing many to adopt a single lifestyle. Consequently, many Irish citizens were less bound to family obligations and could more easily migrate to the United States in the following decade.

Fenians After the American Civil War, American officials who were resentful of British support to the Confederacy during the conflict looked the other way as the Fenian Brotherhood plotted and even attempted an invasion of Canada.Niall Whelehan, The Dynamiters: Irish Nationalism and Political Violence in the Wider World, 1867–1900 (Cambridge, 2012) The Fenian raids proved a failure but Irish American politicians, a growing power in the Democratic Party, demanded more independence for Ireland and made anti-British rhetoric—called "twisting the lion's tail"—a staple of election campaign appeals to the Irish vote.

De Valera Éamon de Valera, a prominent figure in the Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence, was himself born in New York City in 1882. His American citizenship spared him from execution for his role in the Easter Rising.

De Valera went on to be named President of Dáil Éireann, and in May 1919 he visited the United States in this role. The mission had three objectives: to ask for official recognition of the Irish Republic, to float a loan to finance the work of the Government (and by extension, the Irish Republican Army), and to secure the support of the American people for the republic. His visit lasted from June 1919 to December 1920 and had mixed success. One negative outcome was the splitting of the Irish-American organisations into pro- and anti-de Valera factions.Jordan, Anthony J. Eamon de Valera 1882–1975, pp. 63–70. De Valera managed to raise $5,500,000 from American supporters, an amount that far exceeded the hopes of the Dáil. Of this, $500,000 was devoted to the American presidential campaign in 1920 which helped him gain wider public support there. In 1921, it was said that $1,466,000 had already been spent, and it is unclear when the net balance arrived in Ireland. Recognition was not forthcoming in the international sphere. He also had difficulties with various Irish-American leaders, such as John Devoy and Judge Daniel F. Cohalan, who resented the dominant position he established, preferring to retain their control over Irish affairs in the United States.

World War I The United States Navy had five U.S. Naval Air Stations in Ireland from 1918 to 1919. These stations were specifically in place to protect Ireland and neighbouring countries from belligerent submarine aggression. The names and locations of these bases were NAS Queenstown, NAS Wexford, NAS Whiddy Island, NAS Berehaven and NAS Lough Foyle.

Post-Irish independence

U.S. recognition of Ireland The Irish War of Independence ended in 1921 with the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which confirmed the partition of Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, the latter of which opted to remain a part of the United Kingdom. The Irish Free State quickly fell into the Irish Civil War between Pro-Treaty Forces who supported independence via partition and Anti-Treaty Forces who opposed partition and wanted independence for the entire island of Ireland. Pro-Treaty Forces won the Irish Civil War in 1923, and the following year the United States recognized the Irish Free State and established diplomatic relations with it. The Irish Free State was succeeded by the new state of Ireland in 1937, and formally declared itself a republic in 1949.

Given the major role of Irish politicians in the Democratic Party, De Valera hoped that Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt would be highly favorable toward Ireland, especially where tensions with Great Britain were concerned. Historian Bernadette Whelan concludes Dublin was disappointed regarding the negotiation of a US-Irish trade agreement and the purchase of weapons in the late 1930s. However, through "soft diplomacy," US-Irish relations achieved some degree of normalcy during this period. Whelen points out Washington's even-handed reaction to de Valera's successful revision of the 1922 Irish Constitution. It looked forward toward a united and independent republic, with Dublin controlling Northern Ireland. Washington did not agree and in the end the "special relationship" that emerged linked London and Washington.Bernadette Whelan, De Valera and Roosevelt: Irish and American Diplomacy in Times of Crisis, 1932–1939 (2020).

World War II/The Emergency

Ireland was officially neutral during World War II, but declared an official state of emergency on 2 September 1939 and the Army was mobilized. As the Emergency progressed, more and newer equipment was purchased for the rapidly expanding force from the UK and the United States as well as some manufactured at home. For the duration of the Emergency, Ireland, while formally neutral, tacitly supported the Allies in several ways.Fanning, R., 1983, Independent Ireland, Dublin: Helicon, Ltd.., pp 124–25 The Irish Sea was mined. German military personnel were interned in the Curragh along with the belligerent powers' servicemen, whereas Allied airmen and sailors who crashed in Ireland were very often repatriated, usually by secretly moving them across the border to Northern Ireland. G2, the Army's intelligence section, played a vital role in the detection and arrest of German spies, such as Hermann Görtz.

Cold War

During the Cold War, Irish military policy, while ostensibly neutral, was biased towards NATO. G2 monitored communists and agents of communist governments operating in Ireland, primarily through embassies in Dublin, sharing information with western allies. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Seán Lemass authorised the search of Cuban and Czechoslovak aircraft passing through Shannon and passed the information to the CIA.Irish Times, 28 December 2007 p. 1.

Celtic Tiger

U.S. foreign direct investment in Ireland has been particularly important to the growth and modernization of Irish industry since 1980, providing new technology, export capabilities, and employment opportunities. During the 1990s, Ireland experienced a period of rapid economic growth referred to as the Celtic Tiger. While Ireland's historical economic ties to the UK had often been the subject of criticism, Peader Kirby argued that the new ties to the US economy were met with a "satisfied silence".Paul Keenan. Book review of Peader Kirby's The Celtic Tiger In Distress. Accessed 4 November 2006. Nevertheless, voices on the political left have decried the "closer to Boston than Berlin" philosophy of the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat government. Growing wealth was accompanied by rapidly increased life expectancy and very high quality of life ratings; the country ranked first in The Economist'''s 2005 quality of life index.

The Troubles

The Troubles caused a strain in the Special Relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. In February 1994, British Prime Minister John Major refused to answer US President Bill Clinton's telephone calls for days over his decision to grant Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams a visa to visit the United States. Adams was listed as a terrorist by London.Villa, 'The Reagan-Thatcher "special relationship" has not weathered the years'. The US State Department, the CIA, the US Justice Department and the FBI all opposed the move on the grounds that it made the United States look 'soft on terrorism' and 'could do irreparable damage to the special relationship'.Alec Russell, 'Major's fury over US visa for Adams', Daily Telegraph (23 June 2004), p. 9. Under pressure from Congress, the president hoped the visit would encourage the IRA to renounce violence.Joseph O'Grady, 'An Irish Policy Born in the U.S.A.: Clinton's Break with the Past', Foreign Affairs, Vol. 75, No. 3 (May/June 1996), pp. 4–5. While Adams offered nothing new, and violence escalated within weeks,O'Grady, 'An Irish Policy Born in the U.S.A.', p. 5. the president later claimed vindication after the IRA ceasefire of August 1994.Russell, 'Major's fury', Daily Telegraph, p. 9. To the disappointment of the prime minister, Clinton lifted the ban on official contacts and received Adams at the White House on St. Patrick's Day 1995, despite the fact the paramilitaries had not agreed to disarm.

The US also involved itself as an intermediary during the Northern Ireland peace process, including, in 1995, US Senator George Mitchell being appointed to lead an international body to provide an independent assessment of the decommissioning issue, and President Clinton speaking in favor of the "peace process" to a huge rally at Belfast's City Hall where he called IRA Fighters "yesterday's men". Mitchell announced the reaching of the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998 stating, "I am pleased to announce that the two governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland have reached agreement," and it emerged later that President Clinton had made a number of telephone calls to party leaders to encourage them to reach this agreement.

War on Terror