Me and my friend Ruth

I was on BBC Radio Foyle this morning with my old university class-mate Ruth Dudley Edwards, talking about That Visit. The discussion opened with a clip of Karen Patterson with Norman Tebbitt, who complained that republicans had never apologised for the hurt they’d inflicted on him.  I pointed out that Martin McGuinness, Gerry Adams and even Queen Elizabeth had expressed regret for what had happened and sympathised with those who suffered. When the matter of Martin McGuinness’s presence at Windsor was raised, I made the point yet again that this was an effort by Sinn Féin, in the mouth of elections, to counterbalance the south’s incessant harping on the IRA thirty or forty years ago and replace it with these more positive images. It also was, of course, yet another gesture of reconciliation towards unionism.

And what of President Higgins’s speeches?  I accepted that they were delivered in a thoughtful and intelligent manner but that I had a slight uneasiness about his ready equation of ‘Ireland’ with the twenty-six southern counties of Ireland. There are hundreds of thousands of us north of the border who think we’re living in Ireland too – pace the BBC presenter who once spoke, thus provoking widespread merriment, of ‘driving into Ireland’.  The right of Britain to jurisdiction is at the heart of the differences between the two countries for centuries, so it didn’t really make sense to glide over that as if it didn’t exist.  I was told we wouldn’t solve that problem this morning, which was hard to disagree with.

Finally, it was suggested that Sinn Féin might take ‘the next logical step’ and take up their seats in Westminster. I said that if that happened – IF – and actually I doubt they will – it would be a matter of tactics rather than philosophy or principle. Ruth conceded that she agreed with me – adding it was something she rarely did. And no, Virginia, I didn’t breathe ‘Thank God!’ in response.

Radio interviews are frustrating affairs. They do allow people the opportunity to present their views – hence the long embargo on Sinn Féin voices for so long – but interviews tend to get reduced to near-sound-bites. I wanted to talk about the precision and self-confidence of the pomp and splendour, to ask if Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was paying for this herself or was it coming out of the hard-pressed public’s pocket. And I wanted to add that while it was good to see the affirmation of Irish people living and working in Britain (I have a vested interest of two sons living and working there), there was a danger that the rosy picture painted of their acceptance and standing might suggest that it was actually a Good Thing that the hundreds of thousands were forced into emigration by corrupt and incompetent Irish governments.

 First thought – When it comes to pomp and ritual, few do it with the precision and self -confidence of the British. The length of That table, the size of those tapestries, the number of those flunkies to right of them, flunkies…’Have I just turned on’?

Second thought – is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary paying for all this herself, or is it coming out of the pocket of the hard-pressed tax-payer? The rich are indeed different from us…

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BRIAN

Good to see + hear both Pres Higgins and Queen Eliz reaffirm the contribution of the Irish in Britain – I’ve two sons living and working there, have English wives – not untypical of many ties.

Wouldn’t want  picture of Irish in Britain painted SO rosy, that people’d think all those tens of thousands of emigrants were really a good thing. 

M McG  + SF:  pol motives – better to accept than reject. In North: another gesture of reconciliation towards unionism – Encourage unionism to get to work on Haass proposals, and not start talking about Draught No 8.  In South: provide counterweight image  – SF at gala dinner – to replace media’s obsession with IRA activities of 30, 40 years ago.  

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Uneasy  at talking about Ireland =  26 southern counties of Ireland.Hundreds of thousands of us in 6 counties to N of border believe we’re Irish too. 

Talk of sovereignty /normal relations: as if partition had definitively answered the question of Britain jurisdiction in Ireland. Irish independence -all of  Ireland – independence – source of centuries-old grievance; continued British jurisdiction: still the central dividing issue between    nationalists + unionists, between Ireland + Britain. 

Good if outcome is increased attention to peace process – Haass e.g. – of both governments to the north. Needs to keep moving forward or fall off.