Britain’s view of Leo Varadkar

Sir, – Finn McRedmond’s article repeating the old suggestion that Britain doesn’t understand Ireland seemed a little one-sided (“Britain’s narrow stereotype of the Irish could not make sense of Leo Varadkar”, Opinion & Analysis, March 28th).

It’s true that many on this side of the water don’t know much detail about Irish politics or attitudes, but some of us try to keep informed, not least by reading The Irish Times with great enjoyment.

Even for those who don’t follow Irish affairs much, I very much doubt there are many thinking that Ireland is “too small when it comes to the big questions of the world”.

There are those that saw Irish policy after Brexit as difficult for the UK – which it was – but not, I think, because those people underrated the significance of Ireland on the European and world stage. They simply thought that Ireland, and the EU, were being awkward because its political class was keen to make Brexit less easy than it might have been. But the idea that the British establishment somehow sneered at Ireland for being a small country with little influence is way off the mark.

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On the contrary, the last 100 years have made it perfectly clear that Ireland’s influence on Britain and the world is hugely out of proportion to that which its size might suggest.

And incidentally, I’d also say that most British people both welcome and admire at least part of that influence. One of the continuities of Irish-Anglo relations is that while the governments are sometimes at loggerheads, the people invariably seem to get on very well together.

One other thing: if Finn McRedmond is suggesting that it was a big political error of Britain’s to misunderstand Leo Varadkar, the recent referendums would seem to suggest that Mr Varadkar (whom I admire) had some problems understanding his own countryfolk.

If the Irish prime minister can’t fully understand his own people, then surely any shortcomings in foreign analysis should be treated gently. – Yours, etc,

DAVID HARRIS,

London.