Sir, – It would be a mistake to view President Higgins’s thoughtful remarks in London – and similar sentiments expressed during the queen’s visit – as signalling something radically new in the “deep and enduring friendship” between Ireland and Britain.
Back in 1965 when the British government returned the remains of Roger Casement, Taoiseach Sean Lemass told TDs this would be “universally welcomed as yet another step towards the establishment of the closest and most friendly relations between the two countries”. Around the same time Britain’s foreign secretary, George Brown, said that in applying to join the Common Market, the UK would support “our friend Ireland” in its parallel application.
Within a few years Bloody Sunday and the Birmingham bombings made it impossible for Irish and British politicians to speak so warmly. The Troubles should now be seen as an aberration in modern relations between the two islands. Yet those emotionally charged decades contributed to a dubious narrative that continues. This depicted the Irish in Britain as suffering discrimination to the same degree as Commonwealth immigrants. Thus it is commonplace for successful Irish people in today’s Britain to assert that their achievements would have been “unthinkable” in earlier years. This is nonsense. By the 1960s 10 per cent of Labour MPs were of Irish origin; Irish shop stewards, according to the Connolly Association at the time, were at the forefront of Britain’s trade unions; among the best-known faces on British television were Eamonn Andrews, Val Doonican and Milo O’Shea. Postwar St Patrick’s Day parades in London and Birmingham (shamrocks and a tricolour presented to the lord mayor) were huge.
Many Irish immigrants, of course, found life tough. And yes, I too know people who claim to have seen the mythical “No Blacks No Dogs No Irish” signs, a phrase coined only in the late 1980s. In fact, you will try in vain to find references to those words in earlier Irish or British sources – mocked-up “images” on the Internet do not count!
Paul Foot's influential 1965 book Immigration and Race in British Politics explains the reality that anti-immigrant prejudice did not affect the Irish – because they had white skin. The images this week in Windsor were real — streets lined with tricolours and union jacks. Those "most-friendly relations" aspired to by Lemass were set back by the Troubles, but are now happily restored. Yours, etc,
JOHN DRAPER,
Hardwicke Road,
London N13
Sir, – Your correspondent Keith Nolan (Letters, April 10th) makes a very good point, albeit for the wrong reasons. A debate on re entering the Commonwealth should take place based on the commercial realities of today’s business environment and the opportunities for growth that might ensue. I am sure such a debate would be energetic and at times apoplectic particularly when Mr Nolan’ s fellow travellers enter the fray.
Nevertheless the new and more mature Ireland could countenance such a discussion and a possible positive outcome at a future date and on our own terms. His reference to wearing the poppy is quite pathetic in the current climate where both governments, the queen and our own current and past presidents have comprehensively put this issue behind us. The announcement of a prospective royal presence at the 1916 commemorations further cements this position. I would submit that the world your correspondent tries to evoke has been comprehensively consigned, not to history, but to the dustbin, where it belongs. Yours, etc,
DEREK MacHUGH,
Westminster Lawns,
Foxrock,
Dublin 18
Sir, - The State visit , as well as Brian Murphy’s article (April 10th) on President Seán T O’Kelly’s transit through southwest England in 1959, recalls a political anecdote which deserves to be true. In accepting the credentials of the British ambassador, Sir Gilbert Laithwaite, a mischievous Seán T spoke of the historical chains binding “my country to yours”. “Links, sir, links!” hissed a frantic presidential aide. From chains to links is as succinct and appropriate a manner as any to describe the remarkable transformation in British-Irish relationships. Yours, etc,
JOHN A MURPHY,
Rosebank,
Douglas Road,
Cork
Sir, – As a former student and lifelong supporter of President Michael D Higgins I am immensely proud of the success of his imaginative visit to the UK. Perhaps the Saw Doctors should consider revising the lyrics of their song “Michael D. Rockin’ In The Dáil” to “Michael D Rockin’ in the (Albert) Hall”. Yours, etc,
DR EOIN DEVEREUX,
Department of Sociology,
University of Limerick
Sir, – I hope I may be forgiven for placing that powerful phrase of Rudyard Kipling’s in a context he might not have intended – “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs” – in order to single out one RTÉ commentator, Myles Dungan, for recognising the need to maintain some semblance of national self-respect and dignity by invoking the memory of the executed 1916 leader John MacBride and reminding us that he had previously fought on the anti-imperialist side of the Boer War.
As the band of the British army’s Irish Guards regiment was playing at Windsor Castle, Dungan informed viewers that it had been formed shortly after the South African war, adding “in which war, of course, Irishmen fought on both sides, the Irish Brigade being led by Major John MacBride”. Togha fir! Yours, etc,
MANUS O’RIORDAN,
Finglas Road
Dublin 11
Sir, – If I hear another word about the new relationship between the peoples of these islands, the forging of new links between us, cherishing our shared traditions, respecting our past but building on what has been achieved going forward, not to mention the diaspora, I will slowly but surely go out of my mind. Yours, etc,
DES O’CARROLL,
Monasterboice,
Co Louth