Irish Realpolitik versus Catalan Idealism: The Propaganda Campaign of Terence MacSwiney’s Hunger Strike

Abstract In the autumn of 1920, Dáil Éireann leveraged the hunger strike and subsequent death of the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, to launch a propaganda campaign aimed at advancing the Irish independence cause in the context of the Anglo-Irish War. One of the principal countries targeted by this campaign was Spain. There, Sinn Féin received significant support from the various branches of the Catalan nationalist movement. However, this support was met with unease by Irish republicans, whose primary objective was to win over broader Spanish public opinion and Spanish political elites. This article examines how the Dáil crafted its propaganda strategy in Spain based on the principles of realpolitik, in contrast to a Catalan nationalism that offered its backing from a position of idealism, and situates that response within a broader context and contrasts it with the reception it received from the Irish delegates led by Éamon de Valera.