Four Irish Anniversaries
Blog
01 August 2022During a recent visit to San Francisco, I spoke at Ireland’s Consulate General there on the subject of four anniversaries – a 100th, a 50th, 25th - and another 100th. Here is the gist of what I said that day on the West Coast.
As a keen student of history, I have a fondness for commemorations, which encourage us to reflect on our past. I am intrigued with the conjunction of four anniversaries that occur this year and in the opening months of 2023, which between them capture so many things about Ireland, past and present.
The first anniversary I want to talk about is the centenary of the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. In Ireland, we have been marking centenaries since 1912, the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Home Rule Bill, which kicked off a period of political turbulence in Ireland that eventually led to the achievement of Irish independence. I can understand why the establishment of the Irish Free State is a more awkward anniversary than some of its recent Irish predecessors (the Easter Rising, the inaugural meeting of the First Dáil in 1919), for the form of independence that was achieved in 1922 was not what many Irish nationalists had yearned for. It was also preceded by the partition of Ireland and, before the year was out, a civil war had begun that drove a bitter wedge through a once formidably united national movement that had extracted independence from a reluctant British Government. Despite those commemorative complications, as someone with 44 years in our public service, I do believe that the centenary of our state is worthy of celebration.
Now I know that I will be criticised for having an overdose of optimism, but when looking back it is impossible to have anything other than a positive assessment of the record of the Irish State. This does not mean that it is an essence of perfection for, in my opinion, there is no gold standard for nation states. All are required to do an amount of improvisational muddling through and there is plenty to regret about the record of the Irish State in dealing with the needs of its more vulnerable elements.
I want to point to a couple of notable achievements over the past 100 years. First, the Irish State has an unbroken record of democratic government. That was no small accomplishment for a country born in strife and that had to navigate a global recession, the rise of fascism and communism, war in Europe and renewed conflict in Ireland that lasted a generation between 1970 and 1994. A savvy observer looking at Ireland’s outlook in the early 1920s would have had every reason to be skeptical about its prospects. Instead, in 1932, less than 10 years after the end of the civil war, its victors handed over the reins of power peacefully to those they had vanquished a decade before.
Second, after a difficult start in an era of economic depression and global conflict, Ireland has established itself in recent decades as a cutting-edge economy, open and competitive, powered by a highly educated workforce. This economic transformation has been accompanied by greater openness and social liberalism.
Third, Ireland has been a committed and constructive member of the International community, stepping forward with an effective programme of development aid and active involvement in UN peacekeeping operations. Our performance on the UN Security Council (2021-22) is the latest expression of effective international activism through which we do our best as a small country to improve the state of the world.
The second anniversary I want to address is next January’s 50th anniversary of Ireland’s accession to what is now the European Union. That move, which occurred almost exactly at the halfway point of our first century of independence, turned out to be a game changer for Ireland. EU membership provided opportunities and support systems that enabled Ireland to expand our economic connections and broaden our international horizons. We began as an outlier among EU countries in 1973, as our level of development was well behind that of the then eight other member States. I take pride in the manner in which Ireland adjusted to the challenges and opportunities of EU membership and quickly found ourselves at home as EU members. As a young diplomat in 1979, I recall being duty officer at the Department of Foreign Affairs and being the first to receive word that we had joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and thus breaking the link with sterling just 6 years after joining the EU. The fruits of our longstanding constructive membership have become evident in the past few years as our EU partners have stood four square with us in insisting on maintaining an open border in Ireland in the face of the risks posed by Britain’s departure from the EU.
That brings me to my third anniversary, next April’s 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. As someone who was in Belfast on that historic day, and who can recall the dire years of conflict that preceded it, I cherish what was achieved at that time with huge input from the USA. To measure the impact of that agreement, you only need to compare the past 25 years with the period between 1970 and the announcement of the paramilitary ceasefires in 1994. In the earlier period, more than 3,000 people lost their lives. Peace has an inestimable value in avoiding such tragic loss of life. Like many others, I have concerns about the current situation and the tensions generated by the fallout from Brexit. I hope that we can use next year’s 25th anniversary to remind ourselves of how far we have come and of how vitally important it is that that journey should continue.
The final anniversary I want to mention is the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, which was probably the greatest single achievement by an Irish person throughout the 20th century. I have always been intrigued by the fact that Ulysses, the premier modernist novel, is the same age as the state I have been proud to represent these past 44 years. This prompted me to put pen to paper to publish Ulysses: A Reader’s Odyssey (New Island Press 2022). I did so because of a conviction that Ulysses is no literary museum piece but a book that continues to have things to say to us today. In particular, I have been mulling over the words Joyce gave to his masterly character, Leopold Bloom, when he is being goaded by some more narrow-minded individuals in the ‘Cyclops’ episode. Bloom, whose national identity is questioned on account of his Hungarian Jewish background, eventually cuts loose and puts forward his liberal credo.
‘But it’s no use, says he. Force, hatred, history, all that. That’s not life for men and women, insult and hatred. And everybody knows that it’s the very opposite of that that is really life.
What? says Alf
Love, says Bloom. I mean the opposite of hatred.’
At a time when force, hatred and the abuse of history are on the rampage with Russia’s illegal, immoral invasion of Ukraine and when the democratic world is being called upon to bond together and push back strongly, Joyce’s words seem both prescient and powerful.
Daniel Mulhall is Ireland’s Ambassador to the USA.