PRESENT TENSE:THE OLD CHESTNUT of an Irish honours system came up again this week, although this time it might possibly happen. Maybe. Eventually. So far, the reaction to the proposals by the Office of Active Citizenship has been quiet. Perhaps it's because it's not being described as an honours system but as "national presidential citizen awards", which is disarmingly unwieldy. Even its acronym, NPCA, doesn't work. It sounds like something created to help unfortunate animals.
It is one of a number of recommendations originally made two years ago by a taskforce. If it happens at all, it might not do so for three years. Maybe the first person to get an honour should be the person who figures out how to get things done a bit quicker around here.
We’ve been talking about some kind of honours system for years on this island, but each time it’s been scuppered by the oppressive fear that the idea is just a little too British. It’s muddied by class, politics, royalty. It’s riddled with sirs and knights and dames and orders. This is not what our wonderfully egalitarian society is about; Ireland is about a nod and a wink, not a bow. Nor would it sit well with our notions of humility, or at least the idea that you don’t get too ahead of yourself.
There’s recently been an interesting debate in New Zealand – whose head of state remains the British queen – following a decision made to reinstate knights and dames into that country’s honours system. The country’s former prime minister Helen Clark remarked this week: “I deeply detest social distinction and snobbery, and in that lies my strong aversion to titular honours. To me they relate to another era, from which our nation has largely, but obviously still not completely, freed itself.” That argument is only a blade’s edge away from one that could be made by an Irish citizen.
And a handful of the queen’s British subjects, of course, are not always so impressed either. Several hundred have turned down honours, including the English writer JG Ballard, who passed away this week, and in 2003 remarked that the British system is a “Ruritanian charade that helps to prop up our top-heavy monarchy”.
The official website for the UK honours system puts things rather differently. “The British honours system is one of the oldest in the world. It has evolved over 650 years as the country has found alternative means of recognising merit, gallantry and service.” Ah, “gallantry”. That really is a notion that seems utterly British. We just haven’t fought enough stupid wars to worry about it. (Unless, as one definition goes, it relates to “courteous attention to a lady”. Now that would be an honour to be awarded – the Order of the Opened Door.)
For all its attempts to present itself as recognising all classes, the British system does remain as an opportunity for political reward, and for the privileged classes to adorn themselves with titles. It has also become increasingly tokenistic. When the English rugby team won the 2003 world cup, the entire 31-man squad was included on the subsequent honours list. Every last man got themselves an honour, and this may have been a nice gensture, but it was not given out of pure gratitude for what they did, but because of an ongoing row over how the 1966 soccer world cup winning team had been given honours in piecemeal fashion. A lesson was learned: just throw honours at the whole lot.
The Irish system, should we ever get it, will no doubt learn from across the water. Although the plans are vague, it’s likely there will be no titles (“arise, Sir Bertie...”). And it appears that it would be controlled in order to make it a democratic award, rather than a meritocratic one; an independent process with nominations by the public. But that is no guarantee that it will avoid trouble. In this country, people can be discredited just as quickly as they’re feted. Some are both at the same time.
The irony is that we are usually proud of those who are honoured abroad. Whether it’s the Irish who have recently been awarded honours in France, or, more so, those such as Bob Geldof who have gone to Buckingham Palace to receive an honour from a woman who is hereditary head of a state and a church.
It is increasingly daft that there is no official State recognition for the sporting, artistic or local heroes annually recognised by the likes of the People of the Year Awards. We haven’t been able to shake off the past in an attempt to reward the present.
