Winston Churchill: Ireland 1933. Preparing for a second world war?

Kettleson

I was re-reading a book about Inishmurray Island off the Sligo coast, which was visited by Winston Churchill in 1933.

I was wondering if Churchill might have had plans for Inishmurray in what he may have considered to be an inevitable second world war with Germany.

Any thoughts on this? (An earlier post of mine).

Winston Churchill visited the island in 1933, incognito and unnoticed. But his face was remembered by some of the islanders.

A good few years later, probably when Churchill was in the thick of it, one of the islanders, then living in England recognised a picture of Churchill in a newspaper.

He sent a copy of it to another islander commenting: "see the little fat man we took around the island the day Lord Londonderry's yacht landed".

Apparently he was smoking his cigars, and tipped a couple of islanders five shillings each for showing him around the island, during which he wrote down plenty of notes in shorthand.

Interesting to note that in 1932 Churchill then out of government, a year before his visit to Inishmurray, was beginning to warn of the dangers of Germany's rearmament and was later to become First Lord of The Admirality in 1939.

I wonder what those notes said and why they were being taken?

Plans for Inishmurray during a world war that Churchill knew probably lay ahead? Or just a "little fat man" scribbling down notes to remind him of a pleasant trip to an ancient monastic Irish island?

pedroeibar1

Kettleson wrote: »

I was re-reading a book about Inishmurray Island off the Sligo coast, which was visited by Winston Churchill in 1933.

I was wondering if Churchill might have had plans for Inishmurray in what he may have considered to be an inevitable second world war with Germany.

Any thoughts on this? (An earlier post of mine).

That is the conspiracy theory of conspiracy theories! Inishmurray is hardly the centre of the universe for North Atlantic defences!

Churchill was a regular visitor to Ireland and lived here for several years. He first came as a small boy - his grandfather was Lord Lieutenant and his father Randolph was private secretary, so Winston grew up in what is now Aras an Uachtarain. Both his aunts (Americans) had strong Irish connections – one married John Leslie of Castle Leslie/ Glaslough, the other married Moreton Frewen whose family owned the Inishannon estate in Co. Cork. Churchill stayed there on many occasions.

There is a Churchill / Sligo connection via William Bourke Cockran, a Sligo schoolteacher who had emigrated to the USA and became a highly successful lawyer and politician. Churchill was a close friend and admirer of Cockran – the connection was initially made through Frewen who when cattle ranching in Wyoming used to meet Cockran in New York and they had a shared interest in bimetallism. Adlai Stevenson wrote that Churchill once told him that Cockran taught him (Churchill) everything he knew about public speaking.

The Londonderry family was very wealthy & connected, and most generations were heavily involved in politics. Londonderry’s mother, Theresa, was a longstanding family friend of the Churchills and a major political ‘fixer’ in her own right (as well as being a bit of a tramp). Most of her papers are in PRONI. Londonderry himself later fell foul of Churchill due to his Nazi appeasement policies. (Londonderry is a fascinating character, his outlook and political views were deeply influenced by what he went through in WWI.)

Kettleson

Thanks for that Pedroeibar1.

Though hardly a conspiracy theory? Ok I'm no naval expert, but with a brain like Churchills, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that he was considering the potential sea defences of Inishmurray, however small the use?

However outlandish my suggestion might seem, I'm also pondering it in the context of Fort Dunree in County Donegal and for example, the use of Inishmurray as an outpost to defend the port of Sligo.

Churchills connections with Ireland does not explain his note taking, or perhaps he was taking notes on the flora and fauna on Inishmurray?

I'm reading on line that during his life, Churchill had written close to one million pages of notes which took archivists nearly 5 years to put into order. So perhaps one day we will know what his notes were about.

Peregrinus

Kettleson wrote: »

Churchills connections with Ireland does not explain his note taking, or perhaps he was taking notes on the flora and fauna on Inishmurray?

He was a journalist, remember, and made his principal living out of journalism when not actually holding ministerial office (i.e. for most of his career). MPs were not paid in his day.

Whenever he travelled, he usually looked to write about it afterwards (and sometimes tried to line up a commission beforehand). Keeping notes of the places he went and the people he met was a lifelong habit. What didn't get used in journalism would eventually turn up in his memoirs.

Kettleson

Peregrinus wrote: »

He was a journalist, remember, and made his principal living out of journalism when not actually holding ministerial office (i.e. for most of his career). MPs were not paid in his day.

Whenever he travelled, he usually looked to write about it afterwards (and sometimes tried to line up a commission beforehand). Keeping notes of the places he went and the people he met was a lifelong habit. What didn't get used in journalism would eventually turn up in his memoirs.

Thanks Peregrinus

nuac

Hard to imagine that Inishmurray would have any startegic or tactical advantages.

As already mentioned Churchill had an enquiring mind. See the endless stream of memos etc in his WW2 Histories