Niall Cullen undertakes a difficult task in dissecting the history of relations between radical Basque nationalists and Irish republicans. There is a popular understanding that holds solidarity between the two movements as natural, even axiomatic. Cullen deconstructs tidy metanarratives in outlining how and why relations emerged, what sustained them and what impact they had on their respective political cultures. It considers relations in terms of connections (whether personal or organisational) and mutual perceptions, offering the most thorough accounting and careful analysis of the subject to date.

Though the title might conjure images of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (P.I.R.A.) and Euskadi ‘ta Askatasuna (E.T.A.), the book sets off long before paramilitaries, arms deals and revolutionary declarations of solidarity. In one persistent variant of the medieval folkloric origin story, Ireland’s Iberian forebears (the Milesians) were posited to come specifically from the Basque Country. Tracing an early disjointed history of Basque-Irish perceptions and contacts, Cullen explores how these were shaped by invocations and political uses of this Basque-origin myth.

With the emergence of an organised Basque nationalist movement at the beginning of the twentieth century, Ireland was to gain a new significance to Basque observers. Ireland became an indispensable reference point for Basque nationalists in 1916, with the Easter Rising and subsequent events of the Irish revolutionary period serving as useful markers against which to analyse Basque views. These views ranged between ‘moderate’ and ‘radical’ tendencies of the movement, with the latter consistently exalting and finding inspiration in Irish republicanism. This later set Basque nationalists up for failure and disappointment during the Spanish Civil War, when their heroised Éamon de Valera abided by a policy of neutrality, and Irish public opinion favoured the rival insurgents under Francisco Franco.

Cullen observes that this era of Basque-Irish relations was characterised by the fitful contacts and friendships — hostage to volatile personal circumstance — rather than formal organisational relations. This lends the work to exploring these personal stories, bridging a cast of more familiar republican figures such as de Valera and Ernie O’Malley with obscure but key ‘nexus brokers’ (p. 61), such as Irish-Argentinian activist Ambrose Martin. Cullen additionally notes a one-sided nature which would endure for most of the history of Basque-Irish relations. In general, the Basque attention to Ireland was to receive less reciprocation and, at times, was met with serious misunderstandings of the Basque Country.

For the generation of Basque nationalists that emerged in post-war years, Ireland was one of several reference points alongside the likes of Cuba and Algeria. The main task of this monograph becomes significantly more complicated moving through the 1970s and 1980s, with radical Basque nationalism and Irish republicanism splitting along different ideological lines at different points. The matter of describing relations becomes one of ‘untangling’ the knot of links between the multiple E.T.A.s, I.R.A.s and political parties. Cullen is attentive to the political complexities and individual personalities on both sides, presenting a nuanced analysis of the admittedly labyrinthian network of connections. Distinguishing this analysis are his interviews with political figures, activists, former I.R.A. and E.T.A. members and other confidential sources, offering a trove of revealing anecdotes and a new level of insight into the subject.

With regard to co-operation between E.T.A. and the I.R.A., the evidence suggests a more limited relationship than what is frequently speculated. Several sources indicate that there were contacts and exchanges but little in the way of operational ties. Cullen underscores the practical factors that tend to inhibit collaboration between non-state militant groups and describes E.T.A.-I.R.A. links as ‘essentially unstructured and ad hoc’ (p. 181), but withholds a confident judgement on the matter.

The book arrives at one of its key objectives in the final two chapters, in which the author details how these two political cultures became increasingly enmeshed in the 1980s and 1990s, and assesses the degree to which the Northern Ireland peace process influenced the cessation of E.T.A.’s armed campaign in 2011. Cullen examines how the Irish republican movement’s ‘strategic shift’ (p. 288) culminating in the Good Friday Agreement served as a primary point of reference and comparison for the Basques. This offers a valuable study into the thinking of various key players in the Basque peace process — both radical Basque nationalists and Sinn Féin interceders alike. Concluding with a theme recurrent throughout the book, a more critical analysis finds a transnational influence that could ‘galvanise’ or ‘inspire’ pre-existing tendencies but not fundamentally reshape domestic political dynamics.