A long-overdue and fascinating examination of the career of Ireland's longest serving general secretary of Foreign Affairs. Joseph Walshe's initial involvement in Irish foreign affairs happened by chance. While on holiday in France in 1919, he met Seán T. O'Kelly who made a speculative offer to Walshe to join the cause of Irish nation building. Walshe's subsequent diplomatic apprenticeship in Paris was short-lived as he was recalled to Ireland in 1922 when the Treaty split the country. With onl