Vaclav Havel used to have a job in a brewery loading barrels of beer but now he works in a castle. His dramatic rise from rioter to ruler, from dissident satirical playwright to President of the Czech Republic is well-chronicled. Considering some of those who did receive it, the fact that he was never chosen for the Nobel Peace Prize seems a little odd. But he has been given just about every other award going and is arguably the best-known and most widely admired of all living intellectuals.
Unlike many other leading thinkers, he has chosen to test his abstract ideas in the crucible of practical politics. Had he stopped writing and giving speeches after the collapse of the Berlin Wall he would probably still have the kind of near-universal popularity he then enjoyed. But he has chosen to continue speaking and writing and to serve his country as head of state. Refusing to retreat into bland generalities, he continues to provoke, stimulate and challenge.
It is fair to say that not all of those in Ireland who admired his crusade for individual freedom in the communist days would agree with everything he has to say nowadays about the state of the world in general and Europe in particular. He is a great believer in the enlargement of the European Union and naturally supports the Czech application for membership. He points out that the Czech Republic, situated in the very centre of Europe, has always been a crossroads where different interests, spiritual currents and political developments bumped into one another. He believes the Czechs "have no other alternative but to participate in this great integration effort".
But Havel also considers enlargement to be in the best interests of Ireland and other existing member-states. "I cannot imagine Europe remaining divided in the long run by some kind of psychological remnant of the Iron Curtain . . . if that were to happen it would be an expression of a shortsighted, excessive caution that is clearly untenable in the long run. Eventually I think everybody would pay the price for that." An ancient map of the Czech Lands hangs on the wall behind him. He understands all my questions, which are in English, but an interpreter translates the replies from Czech into English. His hand twirls in the characteristic Havel manner as he makes his points. He speaks in a sober, low-key fashion without the slightest hesitation, as with someone who has long dwelt on the subjects in question and thought his position out in detail. He looks well - despite reports of bad health - although he coughs periodically during the conversation.
Havel's office is remarkable to anyone accustomed to the rather Spartan environs of senior politicians, although it reflects his quirky if fundamentally serious approach. Pantomime clowns cavort in a mural that fills an entire wall. A grinning, surreal cat holds aloft a glass of wine. Mr Havel points out with a smile that the balding man in the picture taking notes of everything that happens in the presidential office is an agent of the KGB - indeed he resembles the notorious Lavrenti Beria, one-time head of the Soviet secret service. Sculptures and other cultural artefacts abound. The Havel-type hat on a stand outside the door is not the real thing but a bronze representation done by an artist friend. The windows at his suite of rooms in Prague Castle afford a truly international vista, including the US and German embassies and a 60-metre replica of the Eiffel Tower.
I point out that, unlike the landlocked Czech Republic, Ireland is an island on the edge of Europe and some elements of public opinion are apprehensive about our involvement in the project for European integration: fearful of becoming part of a militarised European superstate and having to fight in somebody else's war.
"I do not see much of a rational element in such thought," says Havel.
"It appears to be a remnant of traditional stereotyped thinking from those times when there used to be blocs opposing each other and certain countries remained neutral such as Finland, Austria or Ireland. But the world of today is different: we no longer have two major blocs opposing each other, with neutral countries watching the ball fly between the two sides. The defence, security, political and economic groupings of today are regional structures that constitute a level between nation-states and the global community. Their purpose is to engage in a common defence of certain shared values and a common effort to con front a wide variety of contemporary threats." He denies that being part of such a collective effort "would automatically draw anybody into enmity against any adversary - that is no longer the case in the world of today".
Further, he believes this does not apply just to the European Union, which is only in the early stages of defence integration: "It would ultimately also apply to NATO , which is an al ready developed and functioning defence system." He used to believe that, when the Warsaw Pact military grouping of communist countries dissolved, there would be no further basis for the existence of NATO. But he now considers NATO should be transformed, because replacing it would take too long and cost too much. The Czechs joined NATO in 1999 and Havel has been known to quote Bismarck's dictum that "Who ever controls Prague controls Europe". He draws my attention to a recent speech he made in Bratislava where he claimed the mutual defence alliance was beginning to change into "a security organisation of a truly regional character, one of the many components of a future multi-polar world order".
The region in question is the one traditionally known as the West and extends, in Havel's words, "from Alaska in the west to Tallinn in the east". He believes the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia should be granted their wish to become part of NATO and points out that, although they were annexed against their will by the former Soviet Union during the second World War, they were previously independent states.
Havel's perspective on NATO would probably find few takers on the Irish political scene but one is conscious that, on the streets outside, Russian tanks rolled in during 1968 to crush the "Prague Spring" and the idea of socialism with a human face. Thirty years earlier Prague, along with the rest of what was then Czechoslovakia, was thrown to the wolves by the West under the motto, "Peace in our time". Against this background it is easier to understand why Havel is so attracted to multilateral bodies such as NATO and the European Union.
He is keen that Irish people should vote Yes to the Nice Treaty on June 7th. "If I was a citizen of Ireland, I certainly would approve it in a referendum and, more than that, I would also approve all the other reforms that will inevitably have to come in future years in order that the EU be a truly functioning, transparent, understandable organisation that brings benefit to all nations and allows them to join forces in areas in which they desire to do so - perhaps it is not necessary for them to join forces in other areas.
This process clearly represents a great chance for Europe, which has never had such an opportunity in its history until now, and I would certainly support such a process as an Irish man, just as I do so as a Czech. More specifically it might bring to Ireland also some short-term advantages in the economic field." He has visited both parts of Ireland briefly in the last five years.
He seems slightly be mused by his short trip to Belfast in October 1998: "Rather than arriving at a better under standing of the situation after this visit, I found I understood it even less than before. I met nice gentlemen from both sides, they all spoke about reconciliation, they were together in parliament, they made jokes about one another: so I was even less able to understand afterwards why others, under either a Catholic or a unionist banner, were able to launch terrorist attacks." But "at least Ireland is no longer on Page One of every newspaper and that seems to be a good thing." The late Samuel Beckett wrote his play, Catastrophe, especially for Vaclav Havel and he tells me Beckett and James Joyce are his two favourite Irish writers.
Since Czech presidents are limited to two five-year terms, Havel will leave office in 2003. He has pledged to return "with great appetite" to his original profession as a writer but it will be surprising if he does not continue to speak out on international political issues as he sees fit.
While his opinions do not always find favour, his moral perspective and history, including five years in jail, make him fairly unique among contemporary leaders. Meeting him you have to wonder if the Czech Republic is joining the European Union - or is it the other way round?
