German Plot (Ireland, May 1918)

The German Plot, often written “German Plot” in Irish historiography, was the rationale given by the British authorities for a mass round-up and internment of Irish nationalists in May 1918 during a crucial phase of World War I. It stemmed from a fundamental misunderstanding of the Sinn Féin movement, and largely for this reason ultimately proved to be counter-productive. It also marked a strategic watershed on the part of the British in dealing with the Irish Question following a Cabinet decision to take a more hard line position. [ Forman, F. N. : "Constitutional change in the United Kingdom" p56 ISBN 9780415230353 ]
The resulting imprisonment of moderates within the Sinn Féin leadership while, in the main, failing to capture the faction dominated by the IRB, [Valiulis, Maryann Gialanella :"Portrait of a Revolutionary: General Richard Mulcahy and the Founding of the Irish Free State" p22 ISBN 9780813117911] allowed Michael Collins to consolidate his control of the organisation and put it on a more focused militant footing. [ Cottrell, Peter "The Anglo-Irish War" p42 ISBN 9781846030239 ] 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, a second Easter Rising, was largely seen as spurious. [Laffan, Michael : "The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Féin Party, 1916-1923" p145 ISBN 9780521650731]
No reliable evidence has since come to light to give credibility to the ‘Plot’, and it is viewed at best as a mistake based on flawed intelligence. In Ireland, it is more generally seen as a black propaganda project to discredit the Irish secessionists, particularly to an uninformed public in the United States and also to facilitate the introduction of conscription in Ireland. ['The Plot' as reported by New York Times, 22nd May 1918 [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9A00E3DC163EE433A25751C2A9639C946996D6CF&oref=slogin] ] The impact it had on contemporary US foreign policy regarding the later bid for recognition of the Irish Republic is still a matter of study and conjecture. Some recent attempts to validate the ‘plot’ and link it with an earlier Indian-German conspiracy are entirely unproven.

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