BRITAIN AND ME by Anthony J Jordan

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Few countries in the world have such close links as Ireland does with Britain. Many of these are real, tangible and positive, and are to be celebrated, yet they also involve unhealthy relationships. I have been to Old Trafford and love the Proms. I like English people but…

A former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, described Britain as a “Rogue State and a danger in the world and a State prepared to go to war to make a few people wealthy”. He was speaking in the context of the invasion of Iraq.  It is commonplace for larger countries to feel able to bully their smaller neighbours with impunity. James Joyce wrote that colonising countries are rarely driven by purely Christian motives when they take over foreign shores. They despoil the country economically, divide the people and persecute their religion. The coloniser can be described as a ‘Rogue State’. Many countries have acted as Rogue States in the past. Some which have such a history often yearn for such power again, as can be seen from their reluctance to abandon entirely their colonial past. They explain that they owe it to ‘their people’ who colonised and whose descendants remain living in those foreign places centuries later, still pledging allegiance to the ‘Mother Country’. Some of these latter countries are now long time democracies and pillars of international associations dedicated to the rule of law and justice. Yet if they feel discomforted in these roles they can be tempted to strike out on an individual path, they feel is their right and destiny.             

 Britain has demonstrated this in the war with Argentina and in the thirty year guerrilla war in Ireland fought to retain a South American colony and to maintain its power in a provincial corner of Ireland. In 1609, Protestant Scottish and English settlers were given land confiscated from the native Irish in the Plantation of Ulster. Britain bolsters the economy there with billions of pounds annually.     

The most recent example of Britain’s disdain for its neighbours was the Brexit campaign held as a result of internal Conservative Party manoeuvres. Ireland over its first 50 years of independence has been a mendicant, going to London to seek better access to the UK market for Irish goods. One of the lessons of the first 50 years of independence was that, when you are small don’t find yourself in a room negotiating with a large nation on your own. Our negotiation table with the UK is reversed by Brexit.

Another issue Brexit has ignored is the potential reopening of scarcely healed war-wounds along the border and within Northern Ireland. Yet because Britain remains such a powerful country we in Ireland, which is still affected by its continued colonisations, must remain subservient and strive to remain ‘best friends’ with our powerful neighbour. While cherishing our good relationships with Britain we must always keep a real politique view of same.

6 Responses to         BRITAIN AND ME by Anthony J Jordan

  1. Seán McGouran September 21, 2016 at 10:25 am #

    Surely the Irish peoples relationship is with the people of the Other Island, the English, Scots and Welsh not to mention Cornish, Geordies, Channel Islanders….
    It’s worth remembering that what Ireland sells to ‘England’ is mostly food. Not even Mrs May’s Government of (None of) the Talents is gormless enough to ask their electorate to pay double or quadruple the amount for food imported from Canada – or Russia (I can see the smirk on the TYRANT – elected in a Presidential race with a number of other political parties, and at least two credible opponents) – Putin’s evil kisser.
    Practically everything we buy from GB can be bought from China – and cheaper, or the US, or the rest of Europe.
    This isn’t Anglophobia (the last Mortal Sin, according the Dublin 4 – leaving the impression ye can hate the above-noted Scots etc., to your heart’s content), it is commercial common sense. Why spend your money in a musty emporium that hasn’t tidied up its act for generations, when fresh kid on the block really, really wants your custom?

  2. Donal Kennedy September 21, 2016 at 10:42 am #

    I’ve lived in England for the past 52 years and slept with an English woman for the past 45.
    I like, love and respect most people I’ve met in England, from many backgrounds.
    But I hold many of the ruling politicians of their countries in various stages of contempt and
    dislike.

    I’m as incorrigible an Irishman as ever stood on the Pont Neuf, Westminster Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge or the Rialto.

    Liking English people does not require me to lick John Bull’s Jackboots, nor do my English
    friends expect it of me.

    The correspondence in THE IRISH TIMES recently on Irish/British relationships is mostly
    sycophantic drivel

  3. ANOTHER JUDE September 21, 2016 at 12:30 pm #

    English/British music, football, comedy, I love them and more besides. I also love Italian football and American music and Chinese food. I do not want to be ruled by English, British, Italian, American or Chinese politicians. Sounds reasonable to me.

  4. Antaine de Brún September 21, 2016 at 1:07 pm #

    “…One of the lessons of the first 50 years of independence was that, when you are small don’t find yourself in a room negotiating with a large nation on your own…”

    Talking of rooms and a spy who come in from the cold, perhaps Tommy Gorman and Ms O’Leary did not read Spy Catcher (1987).

    “…We should devise a system of tapping the telephone lines of the Irish Republic…from the attic of the British Embassy in Dublin…(p358)

  5. fiosrach September 21, 2016 at 1:42 pm #

    Have yous not got bedsores, Donal?

  6. Donal Kennedy September 21, 2016 at 7:58 pm #

    I do, occasionally, stay awake.