Editing Seán MacBride (section)

== Anti-Treaty IRA, cooperation with the Soviets ==
On his release in 1924, MacBride studied law at [[University College Dublin]] and resumed his IRA activities.<ref name=mac2>Jordan (1993), p. 41.</ref> He worked briefly for [[Éamon de Valera]] as his personal secretary, travelling with him to [[Rome]] to meet various dignitaries.

In January 1925, on his twenty-first birthday, MacBride married Catalina "Kid" Bulfin, a woman four years his senior who shared his political views.<ref name=mac3>Jordan (1993), p. 42.</ref> Bulfin was the daughter of the [[Irish nationalist]] publisher and travel-writer [[William Bulfin]].

Before returning to [[Dublin]] in 1927, where he became the IRA's Director of Intelligence, MacBride worked as a journalist in Paris and [[London]].

According to historians Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly, recently deciphered IRA messages from the 1920s reveal that the organisation's two main sources of funding were [[Clan na Gael]] and the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), ''Decoding the IRA'', [[Mercier Press]], [[Cork City]]. Page 251.</ref> The messages further reveal that MacBride, before becoming IRA Director of Intelligence, was involved in the [[espionage]] activities in Great Britain of [[GRU (Soviet Union)|GRU]] [[spymaster]] [[Walter Krivitsky]], whom ciphered IRA communications referred to only by the code name "James".<ref>Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), ''Decoding the IRA'', [[Mercier Press]], [[Cork City]]. Pages 253–262.</ref>

In addition to supplying the USSR with detailed information on [[Royal Navy]] ships and [[Royal Air Force]] aeroplane engines, MacBride provided Soviet agents with "a brief specification and a complete drawing" of [[ASDIC]], an early [[sonar]] system for detecting submarines, at a covert meeting in [[Amsterdam]] during the autumn of 1926.<ref>Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), ''Decoding the IRA'', [[Mercier Press]], [[Cork City]]. Pages 253–254.</ref> MacBride also assisted the GRU by providing forged passports to Soviet intelligence operatives who were at risk of capture.<ref>Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), ''Decoding the IRA'', [[Mercier Press]], [[Cork City]]. Page 254.</ref>

In October 1926, MacBride sent a ciphered report from [[Paris]] to his IRA superiors about Soviet [[counterfeiting]] operations, saying, "Several bad [[Bank of England]] notes have been passed here lately. These are said to emanate from Russia."<ref>Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), ''Decoding the IRA'', [[Mercier Press]], [[Cork City]]. Page 256.</ref>

Soon after his return to Dublin in 1927, he was arrested and charged with the murder of politician [[Kevin O'Higgins]], who had been assassinated near his home in [[Booterstown]], [[County Dublin]]. At his trial, however, [[Cumann na nGaedheal]] politician [[Bryan Cooper (politician)|Bryan Cooper]] testified as a witness for the defence that, at the time of Kevin O'Higgins' murder, both he and MacBride had been aboard a ferry travelling from Britain to Ireland. MacBride was then charged with being a subversive and interned in [[Mountjoy Prison]].<ref name=mac4>Jordan (1993), p. 47.</ref>

In September 1927, Krivitsky sent the IRA a message from Amsterdam, demanding to see MacBride immediately, claiming to have a "present" he was anxious to give away, and naming a cafe where the meeting could take place. As MacBride was then imprisoned in Dublin, the IRA's [[chief of staff]], [[Moss Twomey]], replied that the request was "rather awkward and impossible to fulfill at the present". In response, Twomey and two other senior IRA members travelled to Amsterdam and met with Krivitsky instead.<ref>Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), ''Decoding the IRA'', [[Mercier Press]], [[Cork City]]. Page 262.</ref>

In 1929 an Irish section of the [[League Against Imperialism]] was formed and MacBride served as its secretary.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Robert Dudley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wa5nAAAAMAAJ&q=sean+macbride+league+against+imperialism |title=Irish Historical Studies: Joint Journal of the Irish Historical Society and the Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies |last2=Moody |first2=Theodore William |date=2003 |publisher=Hodges, Figgis & Company |language=en |access-date=25 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726065620/https://books.google.com/books?id=Wa5nAAAAMAAJ&q=sean+macbride+league+against+imperialism |archive-date=26 July 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> Aimed at creating a "mass anti-imperialist movement", the organization was founded with the support of the [[Comintern]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jani |first=Disha Karnad |date=2022 |title=The league against imperialism, national liberation, and the economic question |journal=Journal of Global History |language=en |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=210–232 |doi=10.1017/S1740022822000079 |issn=1740-0228 |s2cid=248445034 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Towards the end of the 1920s, after many supporters had left to join [[Fianna Fáil]], some members of the IRA started pushing for a more left-wing agenda. After the [[IRA Army Council]] voted down the idea, MacBride launched a new movement, [[Saor Éire]] ("Free Ireland"), in 1931. Although it was a non-military organisation, Saor Éire was declared unlawful along with the IRA, [[Cumann na mBan]] and nine other bodies. MacBride, meanwhile, became the security services' number-one target.<ref name=mac5>Jordan (1993), p. 57.</ref>

In 1936, the IRA's [[chief of staff]] Moss Twomey was sent to prison for three years; he was replaced by MacBride. At the time, the movement was in a state of disarray, with conflicts between several factions and personalities. [[Tom Barry (Irish republican)|Tom Barry]] was appointed chief of staff to head up a military operation against the British, an action with which MacBride did not agree.<ref name= mac6>Jordan (1993), p. 70.</ref>

In 1937, MacBride was called to the [[Irish Bar|bar]]. He then resigned from the IRA when the [[Constitution of Ireland]] was enacted later that year. As a barrister, MacBride frequently defended IRA prisoners of the state ([[Thomas Harte (Irish republican)|Thomas Hart]] & [[Patrick McGrath (Irish republican)|Patrick McGrath]]). MacBride was unsuccessful in preventing the 1944 [[death by hanging]] of [[Charlie Kerins]], who had been convicted based on fingerprint evidence of the 1942 ambush and murder of [[Garda Síochána|Garda]] [[Detective Sergeant]] [[Denis O'Brien (police officer)|Denis O'Brien]]. In 1946, during the inquest into the death of [[Seán McCaughey]], MacBride embarrassed the Irish State by forcing them to admit that conditions in [[Portlaoise Prison]] were inhumane.<ref name="IRA Documentary History">{{cite book |last=Hanley |first=Brian |year=2010 |page=122 |title=The IRA: A Documentary History 1916–2005 |location=Dublin |publisher=Gill & Macmillan |isbn=978-0717148134}}</ref>