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Wednesday, June 30, 2010
A visit from the Queen
By Fr Brendan Hoban
IN THE recent push against Enda Kenny as leader of Fine Gael, an unnamed backbencher was quoted as describing the struggle as a conflict between the cappuccino brigade and those who eat their dinner in the middle of the day.
I suspect that the quote was the product of a journalist’s imagination rather than a prescient reflection by a Fine Gael backbencher. It was sharp, read well and tapped into one of the great rivalries of Irish life – Ireland old versus Ireland new, city against country, the jackeens versus the culchies.
What copperfastened its seeming authenticity was the yell of ‘Up Mayo’ outside the Upper Room in Dáil Éireann, that greeted the news of Kenny’s survival. As a letter to the Irish Times commented a few days later: “At long last Mayo has won a significant match in Dublin”.
In times of conflict, everything is black and white. We don’t allow ourselves the luxury of pondering the many shades of grey. When the enemy is at the gate, we make a clear distinction between who’s for us and against us.
So, along with the luxury of seeing life in primary colours, we are easily sucked into old rivalries. The unimpressive performances of England in the World Cup have caused no little delight to hardened soccer ‘republicans’ who often give the impression that success in soccer has as much to do with England’s failures as with the Republic of Ireland’s successes.
And whatever delight has been gleaned from the timid efforts of Fabio’s squad, it doesn’t compare with the sense of national gratitude that has greeted the languid endeavours of the French team. It is as if God had directly intervened on behalf of the disappointed Irish fans and evened the score against the sleight-of-hand Thierry Henry and his French co-conspirators.
It’s inevitable, I suppose, that despite whatever self-confidence we have as individuals or as a people, deep-seated antipathies continue to simmer under the surface of our lives and can suddenly erupt to unearth rivalries and prejudices that we might have imagined or hoped had been long forgotten.
Sometimes too, significant experiences can put such irrational antipathies into a proper context. Like the Saville Report on Bloody Sunday and the news that the Queen of England is to be invited to visit Ireland.
It was hoped that the long-awaited Saville Report would help the relatives of the victims of Bloody Sunday draw a line under almost 40 years of lingering bitterness due to a refusal by the authorities to name an obvious truth, that the 30 or so killed or wounded were innocent of any wrongdoing and were gunned down by soldiers.
Saville’s report vindicated the victims, unambiguously and unconditionally: the Parachute Regiment had fired first and repeatedly without provocation. The findings of the Widgery Tribunal, in the wake of Bloody Sunday, were effectively and embarrassingly for the British government found to be a cover-up.
The findings of the report were fully accepted by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, whose words were sincere and unambiguous. The shootings, he said, were “unjustified and unjustifiable”.
The clear statements were graciously received by the relatives of the victims and there was a clear sense that the report and the prime minister’s acceptance and endorsement of it would help the relatives towards closure. The truth can indeed set us all free.
Maybe the Queen’s visit will help to free us a bit more from the weight of our prejudices.
While Taoiseach Brian Cowan, all too aware of the implications of the visit, set it in the context of the improving relationship between the two countries in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement, there’s no denying its importance.
For ourselves, especially. It is, for us, a declaration that we have the confidence as a people to integrate centuries of bitterness and conflict into a new order, that we have the courage (while not denying the past) to build a future in terms of what we are for rather than allow ourselves to be defined by who or what we are against. It is also a declaration that an inbred obsession with the past imperils our future on this island.
Cowen is only partly right when he said that “it is timely now that we move on and have these normal courtesies observed between neighbouring friendly stares”. It isn’t just timely, it’s necessary if we want to continue to inoculate ourselves against the primal prejudices that stunt our growth as a people.
One of the gratifying features of Irish life is how quickly we can move on as a people. A few years ago, in a fit of national frustration the British Embassy was burned down in Dublin. A few decades later and the Queen of England is on her way. The pace of life is emphasised by how quickly some approaches can become dated and irrelevant.
An example of this was the recent effort by Martin Ferris, Sinn Féin TD, to argue against the wisdom of the proposed visit. All the predictable kneejerk ‘republican’ rhetoric was presented to us for our edification and the more Ferris spoke the greater the hole he seemed to dig for himself. It all sounded so old-fashioned, cliched and irrelevant.
The simple and obvious truth is that an adult, mature approach is to deal with grievances and difficulties between Ireland and Britain in a civilised and respectful way.
We have begun to do that and in the process the extremists have been effectively isolated and rendered redundant. The image of beached whales comes to mind.
Of course, the Queen should come and should be made welcome as we would graciously welcome any head of state we invite to our shores. We own it not to her or our nearest neighbours, but to ourselves.
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