Britain gave Ireland common law and the Premiership; we returned the favour with Shaw and 'Father Ted', writes MARK HENNESSY
SEAMUS HEANEY once wrote, in his poem An Open Letter, that neither he nor any of his people had ever raised a glass to toast the Queen. Last night, in a week when many historic ghosts have been laid to rest, the Nobel Laureate did so with a smile, standing next to Prince Philip.
And it was a long and detailed toast, called for by President Mary McAleese in the resplendent grandeur of St Patrick’s Hall in Dublin Castle, the seat of British imperial power for centuries in Ireland.
In it, the guests wished for the health and happiness of Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip; the wellbeing and prosperity of the British; the cause of peace in Ireland, and for “continued friendship and kinship” between the islands.
Heaney had a place at the best table, alongside the Queen, President McAleese and Taoiseach Enda Kenny, and was sitting between prime minister David Cameron and Prince Philip. “The prince would have asked for that. He doesn’t like fiction, but he likes poetry,” said a British reporter.
Musing over the often dark past between Ireland and Britain, President McAleese said it had been “long, complex and often turbulent”, but that this had been backed by the blood ties that have bound the islands together for centuries.
Britain had given Ireland its common law, parliamentary traditions, an independent Civil Service, gracious Georgian architecture, love of English literature and “our obsession with the Premiership”, said the President.
Britain, in turn, benefited from Wilde, Shaw, the Duke of Wellington and “Father Ted”.
“Even Shaw might not have dared to imagine that this cultural conquest would come in time to include rugby and cricket,” she said.
Looking out towards guests that included former taoisigh Albert Reynolds, Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen, she said many had worked to ensure that “the appalling toxic harvest” left by old hatreds no longer poisoned the future, and that there was compromise “enough to let a new future in”.
For some, perhaps far fewer in number than was the case on Monday in the hours before she touched down at Baldonnel, Queen Elizabeth should simply have apologised for colonial rule – or never have come at all.
As expected, she was more nuanced, focusing on the “fair share of heartache, turbulence and loss” left by history, and the efforts of more recent years to ensure both countries “can bow to the past, but not be bound by it”.
The heartache, she made clear, though Lord Louis Mountbatten’s name was not mentioned, went both ways: “These events have touched us all, many of us personally, and are a painful legacy. We can never forget those who have died or been injured.”
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson looked nervous as he arrived with his wife, Iris, who resigned from Westminster and the Stormont Assembly last year after controversy over financial and personal matters.
Word had spread hours earlier that Dublin Castle would mark the return to the public stage of Mrs Robinson, who eventually sat between Chief Justice John Murray and British ambassador Julian King.
Her appearance had been carefully considered for weeks by the Democratic Unionist Party, though it reflects the Robinsons’ confidence that the results of a House of Commons inquiry next week will clear her of wrongdoing.
In her speech, the Queen had reflected that “the world moves on quickly”, where old challenges are replaced by new ones, each demanding “the same imagination and courage” if they are to be solved in their turn.
The guest-list, equally, vividly showed that politics moves quickest of all, with influential Fine Gael and Labour backroom figures such as Frank Flannery and Greg Sparks occupying chairs that just months ago would have been held by Fianna Fail loyalists.
Personal loyalty, too, had its reward. Mayo Senator Paddy Burke, Enda Kenny’s staunchest ally in good times and bad, particularly during last year’s Fine Gael leadership heave, was there, sitting next to former president Mary Robinson.