OPINION:A new generation of Anglo-Irish descent are represented at all levels of British society
MY GRANDFATHER Noel Collins was born in Dublin two years after the last official visit by a British monarch to Ireland, and were he still with us today, the near century of his life, he would have witnessed the complete transformation of relations between the two countries – from the Curragh mutiny through the Good Friday agreement and to the recent approval of the loan to Ireland by the House of Commons.
But the Queen’s four-day visit to Ireland later this month will feel less like the closing of the book, but instead the start of a new chapter in the story of the British and Irish people.
We not only have new governments in Dublin and London, each tackling the common problems caused by the financial crisis that has gripped the world, but a large change in the personnel of our parliaments, that has brought with it a new generation of representatives, a generation to which I believe this visit means a great deal.
My great-grandfather was an aspirational middle-class Catholic, with a printing business and a home in Donnybrook. A century ago he would have been hopeful for the opportunities that self-government could bring for self-made Irishmen like himself.
My grandfather Noel remembered carrying messages on his bicycle in Dublin as a young boy during the War of Independence, and the family owned an army belt that had belonged to Michael Collins.
I am often asked, but as far as I am aware, there is no family connection to the Big Fella, although by coincidence, if you believe in that, the first flat I owned in London was where he lived with his sisters between 1914 and 1916.
Relations between Britain and Ireland during and between the world wars will be marked as we start in 2014 on a series of centenary anniversaries. I was impressed with the speech made by Brian Cowen last year in Dublin to the Institute for British-Irish Studies in which he stressed the importance of marking in 2016 not just the lives of those Irishmen who died in the Easter Rising, but also those who died in battles like the Somme.
During the second World War, my grandfather, like many Irish citizens, volunteered for the Allied cause working as a member of the ground crew for the Royal Air Force. In the 1950s he left Donnybrook, where my father was born in 1948, looking for factory work and found it in Northampton, sending for his family once he was settled.
So when I took my seat in the House of Commons a year ago, I did so as a grandson and son of the post-war Irish disapora, a generation you will see represented at all levels of some of the leading professions, trades and businesses in the UK.
When I was at university at Oxford I had friends who had been to Irish schools, and in my career in the advertising industry at MC Saatchi in London, we regularly hired graduates from Trinity and UCD. All of this marks the legacy of our common values, language and literature and geographic proximity.
The financial crisis and recessions have also shown just how interdependent the UK and Irish economies are, a fact that underpinned the good sense and good spirit of the recent loan agreed between our governments.
Looking forward, both our economies will be working to strengthen through exports and the application of skill and innovation in the creative industries, pharma, low-carbon technology and information and communications technology.
I’m sure this will increase the traffic of people and products back and forth over the Irish Sea, and unlike my grandfather’s generation who left looking for work, those moving from Ireland to London now are much more likely to return home, bringing contacts and expertise with them.
I hope the Queen’s visit allows us not just to pay respect to the past, but also to look forward to a future partnership based not just on peace and security, but also on mutual economic opportunities that come from our closely aligned interests and values.
Damian Collins is Conservative Party MP for Folkestone and Hythe