President Woodrow Wilson’s insistent policy of keeping the Irish Question at arm’s length would come to define the official U.S. Government reaction to the 1916 Rising and to the cause of Irish Independence in general. Wilson himself was of Irish ancestry, though his people came from the Protestant north, and he often used this fact to try and gain support from Irish Americans, who at that time made up a substantial part of the electorate. Early on in his political career he was was openly in favor of Home Rule for Ireland, but as time went on he became more and more abstract in his statements about what he thought should be done in Ireland and increasingly less substantive in terms of policy. As president, Wilson appointed Joseph Patrick Tumulty, an Irishman, his private secretary and close personal adviser. Tumulty was responsible for keeping Wilson updated on the general sentiments of Irish Americans throughout his presidency. As war was being waged throughout Europe, Wilson was firm in his belief that America should stay neutral. While he did keep America from officially taking sides in the war it was well known that he certainly leaned pro-British which complicated his relationship with Irish Americans greatly. This was dangerous for Wilson, a democrat, because at that time the Irish vote was of crucial importance to the Democratic party. As a result, he was even more hesitant to take any substantive stance on the Irish Question, hoping not to anger either the British government or the Irish living in America whose votes he knew he needed for reelection in 1916.
Find out more about U.S. Public Opinion on pre-Rising Ireland here.
When the Rising broke out in 1916, there were no reports from any of the three U.S. consuls in Ireland. It was not until December, almost eight months later, that they began to send in reports, at which point they were all but useless. This served to greatly slow the U.S. response. Even if he had had those reports though, it seems unlikely Wilson would have taken any concrete action. Throughout his reelection campaign, Wilson continued implementing his strategy of showing great abstract sympathy for the Irish people while never actually taking a policy stance on the issue. When Roger Casement was put on trial and subsequently executed, there was increased pressure on Wilson to step in to save his life. Wilson yet again took no official action. In entering the Peace Conferences in Paris, Wilson appears to have resolved not to bring the Irish Question into the discussions. This seems contradictory for the president, considering one of the major points of the philosophy he continually espoused was that “small states of the world have the right to enjoy the same respect for their sovereignty and for their territorial integrity that great and powerful nations expect and insist upon,” but it became clear that he saw Ireland not as a colony living under foreign tyranny but instead simply as one of the many British Isles. As such, he considered what to do with Ireland to be nothing more than a domestic issue for the British to deal with.
Find out more about U.S. Public Opinion on post-Rising Ireland here.