[1] When World War I broke out, de Courcy Ireland's father joined his regiment in an Anglo-Japanese expeditionary force that besieged the German-controlled Chinese port of Tsingtao (Qingdao).

[1] Fascinated by the sea from an early age, de Courcy Ireland left Marlborough College at 17 to work as a steward on a Dutch cargo ship bound for Buenos Aires.

[4][2] He found life aboard the ship more civilised than his English public school experience and spent the next year sailing between Europe and South America.

[1] After graduating, de Courcy Ireland and his wife moved to Manchester, where he taught at Bury Grammar School between 1934 and 1937 as well as engaging in freelance journalism and political activism.

A summer 1935 visit to Dublin, where he met James Larkin, profoundly influenced de Courcy Ireland, reinforcing his socialism and shaping his view of Irish nationalism.

Although initially enamoured with the Soviet Russian model, Larkin's disillusionment with Stalinism gradually affected de Courcy Ireland's thinking.

During the wartime Emergency, he patrolled the border and coast with the Local Security Force and worked on the US naval base construction in Lough Foyle.

[3] After being dismissed for trade union activities, he applied for and secured a position as a history teacher at St Patrick's Cathedral Grammar School in Dublin, where he would be employed from 1942 until 1949.

[1] Joining the Irish Labour Party, de Courcy Ireland played a key role in its significant growth in Dublin during the early 1940s.

This period saw an expansion of membership and branches, increased electoral success (such as a majority on Dublin Corporation in August 1942) and a rise in radicalism and militancy within the party.

de Courcy Ireland contributed to Torch, the party's radical socialist publication, and became secretary of the Dublin Central branch, which brought together various leftist groups in a time of political and social upheaval.

[1] As a protégé of both Larkins, de Courcy Ireland was deeply involved in the factional conflict with William O’Brien, general secretary of the ITGWU.

Disillusioned by Labour's coalition with Fine Gael and its stance on Northern Ireland, he joined Socialists Against Nationalism (1980) and supported independent TD Jim Kemmy's call for the repeal of articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution.

[1] A pacificist who opposed all forms of war, de Courcy Ireland was a vocal left-wing opponent of the Provisional IRA and other Irish republican paramilitary groups.

[2] Early in his career, de Courcy Ireland advocated for the development of Irish marine resources, inspired by Poland's maritime success.

[1] An avid traveller, Ireland used his language skills to explore countries of political and scholarly interest, including Yugoslavia, Algeria, and France.

[1] In 1932 de Courcy Ireland married Beatrice 'Bet' Haigh, an Englishwoman of half-Irish descent who was a nurse in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.