Seán MacBride

MacBride was born in Paris in 1904, the son of Maud Gonne and Major John MacBride.Saturday Evening Post; 23 April 1949, Vol. 221 Issue 43, pp. 31–174, 5p As a founding member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann and Cumann na mBan, his mother was to become a prominent figure in Irish nationalist and republican circles.{{Cite web |title=MacBride, (Edith) Maud Gonne {{!}} Dictionary of Irish Biography |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/macbride-edith-maud-gonne-a5110 |access-date=14 June 2021 |website=www.dib.ie}}{{Cite book |last=Bendheim |first=Kim |url=https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-fascination-of-whats-difficult/ |title=The Fascination of What's Difficult: A Life of Maud Gonne |publisher=OR Books |year=2021 |isbn=978-1682192061}} Later, in the thirties, she became a devotee of the social credit ideas of Major C.H. Douglas{{Cite journal |last=Warren |first=Gordon |date=24 November 2020 |title=Maud Gonne and the 1930s' movement for basic income in Ireland |url=https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/1124/1180189-maud-gonne-basic-income-irish-social-credit-party-ireland-1930s/ |language=en}} and was "noisily anti-Semitic".{{Cite book |last=Boyce |first=David George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NkRdDwAAQBAJ&dq=maud+gonne+anti+semitic&pg=PA108 |title=Revolution in Ireland, 1879–1923 |date=1 January 1988 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |isbn=978-1-349-18985-4 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Garvin |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2fb4AwAAQBAJ&dq=maud+gonne+anti+semitic&pg=PT170 |title=Nationalist Revolutionaries in Ireland 1858–1928: Patriots, Priests and the Roots of the Irish Revolution |date=13 September 2005 |publisher=Gill & Macmillan Ltd |isbn=978-0-7171-6362-5 |language=en}} His father had led the Irish Transvaal Brigade against the British in the Second Boer War. Within a year of MacBride's birth, he returned to Dublin where, following his participation in the Easter Rising, John MacBride was court-martialed by the British and executed in May 1916.{{Cite book |last=McCarthy |first=Mark |url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-319-62905-6.pdf |title=Secular Martyrdom in Britain and Ireland |date=2018 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-319-62905-6 |editor1-last=Outram |editor1-first=Quentin |page=171 |chapter=Making Irish Martyrs: The Impact and Legacy of the Execution of the Leaders of the Easter Rising, 1916 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-62905-6 |lccn=2017947721 |editor2-last=Laybourn |editor2-first=Keith |editor2-link=Keith Laybourn}}{{cite news |last=McEvoy |first=Dermot |date=18 April 2021 |title=Arbour Hill, Dublin's forgotten memorial to the men of 1916 |work= |publisher=Irish Central |url=https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/arbour-hill-dublin-leaders-1916-easter-rising |access-date=6 November 2022}}Jordan Anthony J. The Yeats Gonne MacBride Triangle (Westport Books 2000) pp. 49–104

MacBride's first language was French, and he retained, or, as some would claim, affected, a French accent in the English language for the rest of his life.{{cite book |last1=Dungan |first1=Myles |title=Speaking ill of the dead |date=2007 |publisher=New Island Books|page=156}}{{cite book |last1=Delaney |first1=Eamon |title=An Accidental Diplomat |date=2001 |publisher=New Island Books |page=391}}{{Citation|title=Ireland – A Television History – Part 10 of 13 – 'Civil War 1921–1923'|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxp9OVvqDuE|language=en|access-date=28 August 2019|archive-date=29 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229061217/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxp9OVvqDuE&list=PL-NlJbmY3woh0SDUIy2ION2-DWyoz8oxY&index=11|url-status=live}} MacBride first studied at the Jesuit Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, and remained in Paris until his father's execution by the British for his involvement in the 1916 Easter Rising, when he was sent to school at Mount St Benedict's, Gorey, County Wexford in Ireland, and briefly at the Downside School.{{Cite web|url=http://craanfordmonaseedhollyfort.com/mount-st-benedict|title = Mount St Benedict – Craanford Monaseed Hollyfort}}

MacBride first became involved in politics during the 1918 Irish general election in which he was active for Sinn Féin. The following year in 1919, aged 15, he lied about his age to join the Irish Volunteers, which fought as part of the Irish Republican Army, and took part in the Irish War of Independence. He opposed the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and was imprisoned by the Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War.{{cite book|last=Jordan|first=Anthony J.|year=1993|pages=26–35|title=Seán MacBride: A Biography|location=Dublin|publisher=Blackwater Press|isbn=0-86121-453-6}}

On his release in 1924, MacBride studied law at University College Dublin and resumed his IRA activities.Jordan (1993), p. 41. 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.Jordan (1993), p. 42. 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.Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), Decoding the IRA, Mercier Press, Cork City. Page 251. The messages further reveal that MacBride, before becoming IRA Director of Intelligence, was involved in the espionage activities in Great Britain of GRU spymaster Walter Krivitsky, whom ciphered IRA communications referred to only by the code name "James".Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), Decoding the IRA, Mercier Press, Cork City. Pages 253–262.

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.Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), Decoding the IRA, Mercier Press, Cork City. Pages 253–254. MacBride also assisted the GRU by providing forged passports to Soviet intelligence operatives who were at risk of capture.Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), Decoding the IRA, Mercier Press, Cork City. Page 254.

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."Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), Decoding the IRA, Mercier Press, Cork City. Page 256.

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 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.Jordan (1993), p. 47.

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.Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly (2008), Decoding the IRA, Mercier Press, Cork City. Page 262.

In 1929 an Irish section of the League Against Imperialism was formed and MacBride served as its secretary.{{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}} Aimed at creating a "mass anti-imperialist movement", the organization was founded with the support of the Comintern.{{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}}

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.Jordan (1993), p. 57.

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 was appointed chief of staff to head up a military operation against the British, an action with which MacBride did not agree.Jordan (1993), p. 70.

In 1937, MacBride was called to the 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 Hart & 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 Detective Sergeant 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.{{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}}

{{main|Clann na Poblachta}}

File:Seán MacBride circa 1947.jpg

In 1946, MacBride founded the republican/socialist party Clann na Poblachta. He hoped it would replace Fianna Fáil as Ireland's major political party. In October 1947, he won a seat in Dáil Éireann at a by-election in the Dublin County constituency.{{cite web|url=http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=2263|title=Seán MacBride|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=22 December 2009|archive-date=30 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130174445/http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=2263|url-status=live}} On the same day, Patrick Kinane also won the Tipperary by-election for Clann na Poblachta.Jordan (1993), pp. 86–98

However, at the 1948 general election Clann na Poblachta won only ten seats. The party joined with Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the National Labour Party, Clann na Talmhan and several independents to form the First Inter-Party Government with Fine Gael TD John A. Costello as Taoiseach. Richard Mulcahy was the Leader of Fine Gael, but MacBride and many other Irish Republicans had never forgiven Mulcahy for his role in carrying out 77 executions under the government of the Irish Free State in the 1920s during the Irish Civil War. To gain the support of Clann na Poblachta, Mulcahy stepped aside in favour of Costello. Two Clann na Poblachta TDs joined the cabinet; MacBride became Minister for External Affairs while Noël Browne became Minister for Health.

On his ministerial accession, MacBride sent a telegram to Pope Pius XII offering:

...to repose at the feet of Your Holiness the assurance of our filial loyalty and our devotion to Your August Person, as well as our firm resolve to be guided in all our work by the teaching of Christ and to strive for the attainment of a social order in Ireland based on Christian principles.{{cite news | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/previous-generations-would-be-astounded-at-attitudes-to-churches-in-ireland-today-1.2004480 | newspaper=Irish Times | date=18 November 2014 | first=Patrick | last=Semple | title=Previous generations would be astounded at attitudes to churches in Ireland today A 60-year journey from obsequious conformity | access-date=25 September 2018 | archive-date=27 October 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027220724/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/previous-generations-would-be-astounded-at-attitudes-to-churches-in-ireland-today-1.2004480 | url-status=live }}

At MacBride's suggestion, Costello nominated the northern Protestant Denis Ireland to Seanad Éireann,{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Denis-L-Ireland.S.1950-06-16/|title=Denis Ireland|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=15 July 2013|archive-date=7 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107224843/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Denis-L-Ireland.S.1950-06-16|url-status=live}} the first resident of Northern Ireland to be appointed as a member of the Oireachtas. While a Senator (1948–1951), Ireland was Irish representative to the Council of Europe assisting MacBride in the leading role he was to play in securing acceptance of the European Convention on Human Rights—signed in Rome on 4 November 1950.William Schabas (2012). "Ireland, The European Convention on Human Rights, and the Personal Contribution of Seán MacBride," in Judges, Transition, and Human Rights, John Morison, Kieran McEvoy, and Gordon Anthony eds., Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2012 In 1950, MacBride was president of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Council of Europe, and he was vice-president of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC, later OECD) in 1948–1951. He was responsible for Ireland not joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).Jordan (1993), p. 115

He was instrumental in the repeal of the External Relations Act and the passing of the Republic of Ireland Act which came into force in 1949. It declared that Ireland may officially be described as the Republic of Ireland and that the President of Ireland had the executive authority of the state in its external relations.

In 1951, MacBride controversially ordered Noël Browne to resign as a minister over the Mother and Child Scheme after it was attacked by the Irish Catholic hierarchy and the Irish medical establishment.Jordan (1993), pp. 125–140{{Cite book |last=Blanshard |first=Paul |title=The Irish and Catholic Power: an American Interpretation |publisher=Derek Verschoyle |year=1954 |location=London |pages=78–79}} Whatever the merits of the scheme, or of Browne, MacBride concluded in a Cabinet memorandum:

Even if, as Catholics, we were prepared to take the responsibility of disregarding [the Hierarchy's] views, which I do not think we can do, it would be politically impossible to do so . . . We are dealing with the considered views of the leaders of the Catholic Church to which the vast majority of our people belong; these views cannot be ignored.Ronan Fanning (6 December 2009) [http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-age-of-our-craven-deference-is-finally-over-1965621.html The age of our craven deference is finally over] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023184943/http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-age-of-our-craven-deference-is-finally-over-1965621.html |date=23 October 2012 }}. The Independent.

Also in 1951, Clann na Poblachta was reduced to two seats after the general election. MacBride kept his seat and was re-elected again in 1954. Opposing the internment of IRA suspects during the Border Campaign (1956–1962), he contested both the 1957 and 1961 general elections but failed to be elected both times. He then retired from politics and continued practising as a barrister.

File:Seán MacBride 1986.jpg

After retiring from politics in Ireland, MacBride assumed various international commissions and roles. He was among a group of lawyers who founded JUSTICE—the UK-based human rights and law reform organisation—initially to monitor the show trials after the 1956 Budapest uprising. Later it became the UK section of the International Commission of Jurists for which MacBride, from 1963 to 1971, was Secretary-General. In 1966, his standing on the Commission was unsuccessfully challenged by US claims that he had been involved with a Central Intelligence Agency funding operation.{{Cite web |date=28 February 2005 |title=Peter Benenson |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/peter-benenson-13233.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030134615/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/peter-benenson-13233.html |archive-date=30 October 2020 |access-date=24 October 2020 |website=The Independent |language=en}}

In 1961, MacBride was a co-founder of Amnesty International, and he served as its International Chairman until 1975.{{Cite web |title=Peace Prize Laureates: Seán MacBride 1974 |url=https://peaceprizelaureates.nobelpeacecenter.org/en/laureate/undefined |access-date=24 August 2023 |website=peaceprizelaureates.nobelpeacecenter.org |language=en}}

In 1963, he had helped draft the constitution of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU); following consultations on the constitutions of newly-independent Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania.{{Cite web |date=21 February 2013 |title=Seán MacBride and Namibia |url=https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/sean-macbride-and-namibia/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819060809/https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/sean-macbride-and-namibia/ |archive-date=19 August 2019 |access-date=28 August 2019 |website=History Ireland}}

In 1968, MacBride was elected Chair and, in 1975, President of the International Peace Bureau in Geneva, a position he retained until 1985.{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Peace Prize 1974 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1974/macbride/biographical/ |access-date=24 August 2023 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}} He was also involved in the International Prisoners of Conscience Fund.Jordan (1993), pp. 157–165{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sean-MacBride|title=Seán MacBride {{!}} Irish statesman|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=28 August 2019|archive-date=29 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629235541/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sean-MacBride|url-status=live}}

In the course of the 1970s, he held various positions with the United Nations. In 1973, he was elected by the UN General Assembly to the post of High Commissioner for Namibia, with the rank of Assistant Secretary-General. It was thought that, represented by man whose father had volunteered to fight alongside their forefathers, the Afrikaner leadership of Apartheid South Africa would find the UN's assurances in return for a withdrawal from Namibia more credible.

In 1977, MacBride was appointed president of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, set up by UNESCO. In 1980, this produced the controversial MacBride Report which called for policies to reduce the international dominance of the Western media.{{Cite web |title=The MacBride Report |url=https://archive.ccrvoices.org/articles/the-macbride-report.html |access-date=24 August 2023 |website=archive.ccrvoices.org |language=en-us}}

During the 1980s, he initiated the Appeal by Lawyers against Nuclear War[http://i-p-o.org/na.htm Appeal by Lawyers against Nuclear War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021063906/http://www.i-p-o.org/Na.htm|date=21 October 2006}}. I-p-o.org. Retrieved 30 July 2012. which was jointly sponsored by the International Peace Bureau and the International Progress Organization. In close cooperation with Francis Boyle and Hans Köchler of the International Progress Organization he lobbied the General Assembly for a resolution demanding an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legality of nuclear arms. The Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons was eventually handed down by the ICJ in 1996.

In 1982, MacBride was chairman of the International Commission to enquire into reported violations of International Law by Israel during its invasion of the Lebanon. The other members were Richard Falk, Kader Asmal, Brian Bercusson, Géraud de la Pradelle, and Stefan Wild. The commission's report, which concluded that "the government of Israel has committed acts of aggression contrary to international law", was published in 1983 under the title Israel in Lebanon.{{cite book |last=MacBride |first=Seán |title=Israel in Lebanon: The Report of International Commission to enquire into reported violations of International Law by Israel during its invasion of the Lebanon |author2=A. K. Asmal |author3=B. Bercusson |author4=R. A. Falk |author5=G. de la Pradelle |author6=S. Wild |publisher=Ithaca Press |year=1983 |isbn=0-903729-96-2 |location=London |page=191}}

MacBride's work was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1974)United Nations Chronicle, Sep95, Vol. 32 Issue 3, p. 14, 2/5p, 1c; (AN 9511075547) as a man who "mobilised the conscience of the world in the fight against injustice". He shared the prize with Eisaku Sato, the former Japanese Prime Minister acknowledged for his commitment to peace and non-proliferation.{{cite web |title=Eisaku Sato |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1974/sato-facts.html |access-date=21 January 2015 |website=Nobel Prize |publisher=The Norwegian Nobel Institute}}

Other international honours followed: the Lenin Peace Prize in 1975; the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1978;{{cite web |title=Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#public-service |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161215023909/https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#public-service |archive-date=15 December 2016 |access-date=4 November 2020 |website=www.achievement.org |publisher=American Academy of Achievement}} and the UNESCO Silver Medal for Service (1980). He received the Lenin Peace Prize for his opposition to what MacBride referred to as "this absolutely obscene arms race." He was one of only two to win both the Lenin and Nobel peace prizes, the other being Linus Pauling.{{Cite news |last=Blair |first=William G. |date=16 January 1988 |title=Sean MacBride of Ireland Is Dead at 83 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/16/obituaries/sean-macbride-of-ireland-is-dead-at-83.html |url-status=live |access-date=28 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819111126/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/16/obituaries/sean-macbride-of-ireland-is-dead-at-83.html |archive-date=19 August 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}

In 1977, in the midst of the Northern Ireland Troubles, MacBride co-operating with Desmond Boal (QC and former chairman of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party) as joint mediator in confidential negotiations between the Provisional IRA (PIRA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force about a federal settlement for Ireland.{{Cite web |last=Maune |first=Patrick |date=2022 |title=Boal, Desmond Norman Orr {{!}} Dictionary of Irish Biography |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/boal-desmond-norman-orr-a10229 |access-date=21 August 2023 |website=www.dib.ie}} Their efforts included a meeting, brokered by West Belfast priest Des Wilson, between Boal and Gerry Adams. Inasmuch as their exchange was "frank", Adams found the discussion "constructive", but it failed to identify common political ground.Sharrock and Devenport (1997), p. 155

In 1984, MacBride was one of four well-known Irish activists, two Catholic and two Protestants, who endorsed a set of fair-employment guidelines for American investment in Northern Ireland, intended to redress a history of sectarian discrimination.{{Cite web |date=7 October 2022 |title=The MacBride Principles {{!}} Irish America |url=https://www.irishamerica.com/2022/10/the-macbride-principles/ |access-date=12 May 2023 |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |date=2 March 1996 |title=The Nine MacBride Principles |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/the-nine-macbride-principles-1.32756 |access-date=18 August 2023 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}} The campaign for what became known as the MacBride Principles resulted in both British and American legislation.{{Cite web |author=Staff Reporter |date=16 February 2011 |title=Editorial MacBride's triumph |url=https://group.irishecho.com/2011/02/editorial-macbrides-triumph-2/ |access-date=24 August 2023 |website=Irish Echo}}

In the Irish Republic, MacBride edited a 1981 report of a Commission of Enquiry into the Irish Penal System. Crime and Punishment broadly condemned the country's prisons, unreformed since independence, for failing to address the task of offender rehabilitation and consequently for its high degree of recidivism.Sean MacBride ed. (1982). Crime and Punishment: Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the Irish Penal System. Dublin: Ward River Press.

In 1983, MacBride voted yes to the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, enshrining the legal ban on abortion, and wrote a newspaper article two days before stating his position.{{Cite news |last=O'Brien |first=Breda |date=23 April 2016 |title=Amnesty abandons values of Seán MacBride |newspaper=The Irish Times |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/amnesty-abandons-values-of-sean-macbride-1.2621162}} In 1985, he supported the largely female workforce in the Dunnes Stores Strike and attended at least one of their rallies.

In his later years, MacBride lived in his mother's home, Roebuck House, which served as a meeting place for many years for Irish nationalists, as well as in the Parisian arrondissement where he grew up with his mother.

Seán MacBride died in Dublin on 15 January 1988, eleven days before his 84th birthday. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery alongside his mother, and his wife, who died in 1976.

On the occasion of MacBride's death, Oliver Tambo of the African National Congress (ANC), stated "Seán MacBride will always be remembered for the concrete leadership he provided to the liberation movement and people of Namibia and South Africa. Driven by his own personal and political insight arising out of the cause of national freedom in Ireland ... our debt to him can never be repaid."

Streets in Windhoek, Namibia and Amsterdam are named after him. The Headquarters of Amnesty International Ireland is called 'Seán MacBride House' in his honour.Seán MacBride: A Republican Life, 1904–1946 By Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid and the International Peace Bureau likewise named the 'Seán MacBride Prize' in his name.{{Cite web |url=https://www.irishnews.com/news/politicalnews/2017/12/15/news/media-s-lack-of-interest-in-jeremy-corbyn-s-sean-macbride-peace-prize-win-not-biased--1211201/ |title=Media's lack of interest in Jeremy Corbyn's Seán MacBride Peace Prize not biased, www.irishnews.com |date=15 December 2017 |access-date=10 September 2020 |archive-date=6 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606153739/https://www.irishnews.com/news/politicalnews/2017/12/15/news/media-s-lack-of-interest-in-jeremy-corbyn-s-sean-macbride-peace-prize-win-not-biased--1211201/ |url-status=live }}

A bust of MacBride was unveiled in Iveagh House, headquarters of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs in 1995.{{cite book |last1=Delaney |first1=Eamon |title=An Accidental Diplomat My Years in the Irish Foreign Service 1987–1995 |date=2001 |publisher=New Island Books |location=Dublin |isbn=1-902602-39-0 |page=391}}

A novel, The Casting of Mr O'Shaughnessy, was published in 1995 (revised edition 2002) by Éamon Delaney in which the eponymous Mr O'Shaughnessy was, in the author's own words "partly, but quite obviously, based on the career of the colourful Seán MacBride".{{cite book |title=An Accidental Diplomat |page=382}}

• 1946–1965 Leader of Clann na Poblachta
• 1947–1958 Member of Dáil Éireann
• 1948–1951 Minister for External Affairs of Ireland in Inter-Party Government
• 1948–1951 Vice-president of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC)
• 1950 President, Committee of Ministers of Council of Europe
• 1954 Offered but declined, Ministerial office in Irish Government
• 1963–1971 Secretary-General, International Commission of Jurists
• 1966 Consultant to the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace
• 1961–1975 Chairman Amnesty International Executive
• 1968–1974 Chairman of the Executive International Peace Bureau
• 1975–1985 President of the Executive International Peace Bureau
• 1968–1974 Chairman Special Committee of International NGOs on Human Rights (Geneva)
• 1973 Vice-chairman, Congress of World Peace Forces (Moscow, October 1973)
• 1973 Vice-president, World Federation of United Nations Associations
• 1973–1977 Elected by the General Assembly of the United Nations to the post of United Nations Commissioner for Namibia with the rank of Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations
• 1977–1980 Chairman, Commission on International Communication for UNESCO
• 1982 Chairman of the International Commission to enquire into reported violations of International Law by Israel during its invasion of Lebanon

• {{Cite book |first=Elizabeth |last=Keane |title=An Irish Statesman and Revolutionary: The Nationalist and Internationalist Politics of Seán MacBride |publisher=Tauris |year=2006}}
• Jordan, Anthony J, (1993), Seán A biography of Seán MacBride, Blackwater Press

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{{s-bef|before = Éamon de Valera}}

{{s-ttl|title = Minister for External Affairs

|years = 1948–1951}}

{{s-aft|after = Frank Aiken}}

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{{s-new|party}}

{{s-ttl|title = Leader of Clann na Poblachta

|years = 1946–1965}}

{{s-aft|after = Party disbanded}}

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{{5th Government of Ireland}}

{{Dublin County (Dáil constituency)/TDs}}

{{Dublin South-West (Dáil constituency)/TDs}}

{{Clann na Poblachta}}

{{Ministers for foreign affairs of Ireland}}

{{Nobel Peace Prize laureates}}

{{1974 Nobel Prize winners}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Macbride, Sean}}

Category:1904 births

Category:1988 deaths

Category:Alumni of University College Dublin

Category:Amnesty International people

Category:Anti-apartheid activists

Category:Burials at Glasnevin Cemetery

Category:Clann na Poblachta TDs

Category:Interwar-period spies

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Category:Recipients of the Lenin Peace Prize

Category:Ministers for foreign affairs of Ireland

Sean

Category:Members of the 12th Dáil

Category:Members of the 13th Dáil

Category:Members of the 14th Dáil

Category:Members of the 15th Dáil

Category:Nobel Peace Prize laureates

Category:People of the Irish Civil War (Anti-Treaty side)

Category:People educated at Downside School