“Digging for truth: the uses and abuses of language”

I was honoured to be invited to the Nobel Museum on Friday by my friend and colleague, the Irish Ambassador, James Carroll, to take part in a celebration of the life and work of the Nobel prize winning poet Seamus Heaney.

The poem I chose to read was “Digging”, in which the young poet expresses his admiration for his father’s athleticism, while the only tool that he can master is the pen. As someone from a family of manual workers, but almost completely lacking in manual skills myself, I’ve always had a special affection for that poem.

James was kind enough to note that the British Ambassador’s presence was appropriate because of Heaney’s great commitment to the peace process in Northern Ireland.

The relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland, never stronger than it is now, takes a further historic step next month when the Irish President makes the first ever State Visit from Ireland to the UK.

At the other end of our continent, however, things are going backwards.

Last week was another reminder of how language can be abused in the wrong hands, with speeches and propaganda from Moscow distorting the facts of the situation in Ukraine to seek to justify unjustifiable intimidation and aggression.

At last week’s European Council, 28 Heads of State and Government were united in declaring that “there is no place for the use of force and coercion to change borders in Europe in the 21st century”.

Only words, cynics might say. But the words are being reinforced by action, to support the government of Ukraine and to seize the assets and limit the travel of those behind the aggression in Crimea.

And words matter in themselves.  As Heaney put it, “Between my finger and my thumb the squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it”.