State visit to Britain - History’s chains can be broken

Living under suspicion

It is a measure of the great progress made in Anglo-Irish relations that someone born in 1981, the year our national, 32-county treasure Paul Brady released ‘Nothing But the Same Old Story’ might not recognise the song’s powerful back story.

Brady’s commentary on the lack of opportunity in 1980s Ireland, on emigration, and the difficult life of an emigrant in a country under attack by terrorists from their place of birth, might still resonate on an economic level but the evil darkness behind it, the terrorists in the shadows waiting to bomb and murder, and the terrible difficulties their crimes created for millions of people of Irish ancestry building lives in Britain are thankfully a memory, even if a relatively recent and raw one.

Conversely, those old enough to know or who have experienced the anti-Irish hatred Brady was pointing to cannot but be moved to something approaching incredulity by an event occurring as part of this week’s state visit to Britain by President Michael D Higgins. Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister and a former IRA commander, will attend a banquet hosted by the Queen at Windsor Castle. Mr McGuinness did not attend the banquet held for the queen in Dublin three years ago. Rather than be amazed by all this we should celebrate it. These are, in terms of a more-often-than-not disastrous relationship between the oppressed and their oppressor stretching over many centuries, momentous events that seemed as remote as the far side of the moon even 33 years ago when Brady wrote ‘Nothing But the Same Old Story’.

They are, as we approach the moment when we will mark the centenary of physical force nationalism’s apogee, a reminder of the reality, no matter when the point in history, no matter the issue, no matter the depth of division, no matter who the protagonists, that conflict can only be resolved to the point that peace prevails by negotiation, concession, and consensus.

The four-day visit that begins tomorrow is, as Taoiseach Enda Kenny said yesterday, of enormous significance even if it means far more to us than it does to the majority of British people, many of whom may not be aware it is happening.

The legacy of violent events nearly a century ago linger on in this country today, especially in the utterly contrived and faux division between an equally conservative and moderate Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. This outdated undermining of the potential of politics persists because of something as remote and redundant as Civil War politics. As we have redefined our relationship with our nearest neighbours, maybe we should make a real effort to redefine our relationships with each other and, as Mr Kenny said in relation to this week’s welcome events, we should not be “blocked in by history”. Once again it seems we are unable to do ourselves what we energetically encourage others to do. Once again we are the only people to suffer because of our own intransigence and reluctance to break history’s chains.