Tomorrow my husband Pádraig and I will hold a reception in our home to mark the occasion of the State Visit last week to the United Kingdom of the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.
Our situation is an unusual one. I am Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy here in Warsaw, and he is Deputy Head at the Embassy of Ireland. We have three children with Irish names, who carry both passports. They consider themselves more Irish than English, but sound more English than Irish. In our own way, our family exemplifies the ties that bind Ireland and the UK, and since Pádraig and I first met in India in 1997 we have experienced in so many ways how those ties have improved.
On a personal note, I was the first ever Foreign Office secondee to the Irish Government, just 14 years ago. The arrangements were fraught with sensitivities, including how to identify a “safe” policy area for a British secondee. Last year I returned to support the Irish Government during Ireland’s recent EU Presidency. And this time I was just one of a cohort of British secondees in a whole range of Irish Ministries, completely integrated into the development of Irish policy (and in so many areas of Europe’s agenda our shared interests mean that our policies are close).
For me, on a small scale, this epitomises the maturity of our relationship and the distance we have travelled.
At an infinitely more elevated level, President Higgins’ visit was the first ever State Visit by an Irish head of state to the United Kingdom since Ireland became independent. Long overdue perhaps, but we all know the barriers, political, historical and social, that have delayed this momentous occasion.
At the state banquet in Windsor Castle last week, President Higgins stressed the importance of remembering a troubled past, but also of moving beyond it, transforming it. “History evolves,” he said, “if we are fortunate, into greater mutual understanding between peoples.”
Pádraig and I were living in Dublin in 2011 when The Queen visited Ireland for the first time, and we were lucky enough to play a small bit part in the events (including sharing her first experience of both Westlife and Riverdance!). We saw the warm welcome extended to her – a welcome whose warmth caught even many of the people of Ireland by surprise. We saw the evident delight of The Queen at being in Ireland for the first time.
And we saw the great impact of The Queen’s symbolic actions – speaking in Irish at the State banquet in Dublin Castle, laying a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance in honour of those who died fighting for Irish freedom, wearing green. It was one of those rare moments when the world palpably shifts for the better, and we felt honoured to witness it.
President Higgins’ very successful visit is the latest stage in the transformation of the relationship between the peoples of Ireland and of the United Kingdom.
President Higgins, in his speech to the Houses of Parliament in London last week, pointed out that the first woman to be elected to that Parliament was Irish. Constance Markiewicz was the daughter of an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, and she was also an Irish nationalist. She was married to a Pole, Casimir Markiewicz from near Kiev, whom she met in France. A woman whose life and marriage exemplify the tangled ties that bind neighbours, and the personal dilemmas which those caught up in turmoil must face.
But at last it feels as though that turmoil is largely behind us. The warm welcome accorded to The Queen when she visited Ireland was matched by the warmth of the welcome received by President Higgins in Britain – a warm welcome from The Queen and her government, but also from the Irish community in Britain.
The stream of emigration from Ireland to Britain has been flowing for hundreds of years, not least from Pádraig’s home county of Donegal in the far north of the island. There are millions of British people with Irish heritage, and proud of it.
Some of the icons of British culture and history have Irish roots, perhaps unknown to most. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were of course of Irish heritage. And in this year of commemoration of the start of the First World War, how many of us remember that Lord Kitchener was a Kerryman?
Irish culture has drawn on British culture, transformed it, and in turn enriched British culture. As the Irish say, Britain gave Ireland a language, and Ireland gave Britain a literature (though I would argue that Britain has also managed a few literary exploits of its own!)
The Irish are not of course the only people prepared to get up and go looking for a better life. Moving here from Dublin, we have both seen the ways in which our relatively new Polish populations are enriching both Irish and British culture. And the ways in which EU membership is transforming the lives of Poles, as it has that of the Irish and of the British.
Like any two nationalities, the Brits and the Irish are not the same – and the world would be a more boring place if they were. For example, at our wedding we realised that the Brits sing lustily in church and go to bed when the band stops playing, while the Irish stay quiet in church, but sing lustily in the hotel bar until sunrise! Today we can celebrate our differences, and enjoy our similarities.
Relations between Ireland and Britain have never been better. We are closely bound by ties of culture, trade, policy, family, affection. And Pádraig and I are confident that our children can and will carry their dual heritage as a badge of honour, and a source of pride.