Do you “cherish all the children of the nation equally” or pledge to “stand by one another in defending for ourselves and our children our cherished position of equal citizenship”? What’s the difference, you may fairly ask. Well, the former are well known words from the 1916 Proclamation, but you may not know that the latter words are contained in the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant. These two documents are often considered the sacred texts of two opposing traditions on this island, but perhaps the values underlying them are more similar than their staunch adherents would care to admit. If so, perhaps we on both sides of the Border are more similar than some of us believe.
Consider the above exercise something of a North-South constitutional blind taste test. You may have undertaken a similar taste test with Tayto crisps or Dairy Milk chocolate from North and South of the Border, probably at the insistence of a gastronomic partisan who militantly maintains that their chosen foodstuff is superior in one of the two jurisdictions. Regardless of the outcome, the premise is that the two are different and one must prevail. Answering that you detect little difference but are pleased to have two treats to eat rather than one seems as though you are not being a good sport.
Waistlines aside, such taste tests are a harmless exercise in themselves, but they illustrate a wider phenomenon: that we spend too much time on this island fixating upon our differences, far too little on identifying our similarities. Lisa McGee captured this through the famous scene in Derry Girls where the students are asked to write on a blackboard the similarities and differences between the two communities in Northern Ireland. Tellingly, it was the blackboard describing the many differences that became iconic and has since been displayed in the Ulster Museum.
Reimagining Irish identity would allow us to reclaim this concept and provide a convincing answer to the far right. It is patriotic work
If we are to create an Ireland where all on this island feel comfortable describing themselves as Irish, we must begin the work of identifying what we have in common. This work must involve looking beyond the superficial and symbolic to find the shared values and ideas that are strong enough to hold us together. I believe that if we succeed in this work Ireland can become a nation founded on shared values, rather than history or ethnicity: an enlightened republic.
I use the word “enlightened” as the idea of founding national identity on shared values can be traced back to the political outworkings of the Enlightenment in the late 18th century, where both the United States of America and France emerged in their modern form as nations founded upon a set of values held to be self-evident among their citizens.
On returning from a trip to the United States, the late John Hume reportedly quipped that the thing that impressed him most about it was that it is one country. By this he was expressing his admiration for the strength of the country’s founding ideals, encapsulated in the shorthand of the American dream, which held together a nation far more diverse than Ireland. As for France, Charles de Gaulle famously despaired that a country with 246 different types of cheese was ungovernable (imagine the taste tests there ...) yet its founding creed of liberté, égalité and fraternité has remained a unifying rallying cry through multiple wars and constitutional revisions.
A cynic may fairly argue that the present conditions of the United States and France show that establishing a nation on shared values is no guarantee of patriotic harmony. That is true, but I would contend that much of the polarisation that characterises those nations today is a product of having departed from their founding ideals and embraced a nationalism defined along ethnocultural lines. This temptation will always be present, for humans are hard-wired to embrace tribalism and it is far easier to define the tribe through tangible cultural markers than intangible shared values: the price of an enlightened republic is eternal vigilance.
So if we were to create an enlightened republic in Ireland, what values might we found it upon?
The excerpts I have drawn from the 1916 Proclamation and the Ulster Covenant suggest a commitment to equality across both of the main traditions on this island, although both traditions can fairly be accused of failing to honour that commitment in practice. Establishing equality as a founding ideal of an enlightened republic may leave less space for quietly resiling from such commitments in future.
There is also a deep and distinctive commitment to community across this island. The young person who makes the weekly journey from Belfast to band practice at their local Orange Lodge and their counterpart in Dublin who makes the journey back to their parish GAA club for training may appear to be engaging in divergent cultural practices. Yet at heart both are performing rituals laced with a love of community, heritage and place.
Ireland is also an island of innovators. Tractors, the Titanic and the ejector seat are testaments to Northern industrial heft. Hypodermic syringes, stethoscopes and colour photography are testaments to Ireland’s place at the cutting edge of pharmaceutical and technological development. And yes, flavoured crisps belong on the list of Irish innovations too. So you might say that the blind taste test itself is an Irish invention.
Immigrants may also play a role in identifying our shared values, as they may be better able to recognise what makes Ireland distinctive
I offer the above values by way of example, and I hope that reading this essay prompts you to think of more. For the identification of shared values must be a democratic process in the hands of citizens as much as political leaders. Moreover, it can be an iterative process: our shared values can evolve as we are exposed to new ideas and encounters; we should not be afraid, as in the WB Yeats poem, to hear the call of Plato’s ghost and ask “what then?”.
Those who comfortably call themselves Irish today may ask why all this work matters. Yet I believe it is vital to confront three of the defining challenges facing Ireland in the 21st century: the possibility of a Border poll; integrating immigrants; and overcoming the far right.
The results of the recent ARINS/Irish Times survey show that a clear majority of voters in both jurisdictions favour making preparations for the possibility of Irish unity regardless of whether it comes about. Much of this preparation focuses on accommodating cultural differences, asking what each tradition is prepared to sacrifice or compromise upon. The more that national identity is defined by shared values, the less that both sides will need to dilute the cultural aspects of their traditions in order to find a shared identity. A myriad of cultural traditions can sit under the banner of an Irishness defined by shared values. This is no panacea – messy compromises will be required to make a united Ireland work – but such compromises may be easier to achieve if there is a reservoir of shared values to draw upon.
Tying any future unity project to the reshaping of Irish identity can also make it both more inspiring to the agnostic and less threatening to its opponents. The many on both sides of the Border who are quietly comfortable with the status quo may rightly ask what is in it for them. The opportunity to build an entirely new conception of Irishness offers a more inspiring vision than tired nationalist cliches dressed in slick marketing. Similarly, unionists who have so far boycotted Border poll preparations need not shy away from this work: developing shared values across this island can encourage mutual understanding and ensure that any future Border poll is conducted in a healthier atmosphere without making unity more likely.
Even if a Border poll never comes, rapid immigration over recent decades means that Ireland today is an island of many national and ethnic minorities. An Ireland whose identity is defined by history, culture or language may be one in which they cannot feel they fully belong. An Ireland where Irishness in defined by values may prove much easier to integrate into. The United States’ erstwhile success in integrating immigrants stemmed from its ability to create “hyphenated Americans” who could maintain aspects of their own culture while pursuing the American dream. We should aspire to a nation of “hyphenated Irish” who subscribe to Irish values but still bring their distinctive culture to the rich tapestry of Irish identity. Immigrants may also play a role in identifying our shared values, as they may be better able to recognise what makes Ireland distinctive than those of us who have always called this island home.
A failure to engage with the meaning of Irishness today also risks placing the future of Irish identity in the hands of malign actors. Many far-right groups in Ireland now appropriate traditional symbols of Irishness and present themselves as guardians of a “pure” Irish nation. Those in the centre ground of western democracies have become squeamish about expressing patriotism in recent years, but national identity remains a source of pride and inspiration to many people. Reimagining Irish identity would allow us to reclaim this concept and provide a convincing answer to the far right. It is patriotic work.
I will conclude with one more constitutional blind taste test: “I undertake to faithfully observe the laws of the State and to respect its democratic values”. These vanilla words form the substantial part of the declaration of fidelity to the Irish nation that is sworn by new Irish citizens, but their very sparseness betrays a nation that does not truly know what it stands for. If we are ambitious about what Ireland can achieve in the 21st century, and wish to harness the energies and talents of all on this island towards the fulfilment of those ambitions, we must begin the work of unearthing the shared values that bring us together and spur us on. If we commit ourselves to such work, Irish citizens – both old and new – may one day say that we live in an enlightened republic.
Ross Neill is a solicitor from Belfast practising in Dublin
