by Neil Hegarty
The response of the Irish government was unprecedented: the actions of the Holy See were condemned repeatedly by senior ministers and by the taoiseach himself, who referred in the Dáil to the ‘disconnected, dysfunctional, elitist and narcissistic’ nature of Vatican culture. In response, the Vatican publicly recalled its representative in Ireland: ostensibly for ‘consultations’, but also to signal its displeasure at an ‘excessive’ response by the Irish state. Viewed in an historical context – the records, after all, are thronged with images of Irish government ministers kneeling before bishops and cardinals and declaring that their nationality at all times came second to their Catholicism – this very public divergence of opinion was truly startling.
There were other indicators too of a changing culture and society. In particular, the four-day state visit of Queen Elizabeth II in May 2011 was charged with significance. The event had been envisaged for years: with the signing of the Belfast (or Good Friday) Agreement in 1997, it had entered the realm of the possible; and with the conclusions of the Saville Report into the events of Bloody Sunday accepted in full by the British government, it became inevitable. Nor was anything left to chance, least of all the monarch’s security: from the moment she landed in Ireland and stepped, emerald-clad, from the plane, Dublin was in virtual lockdown, with the capital’s roads and bridges closed, its skies patrolled by plane and helicopter; television viewers looked upon a capital city that seemed to have been deserted by its inhabitants.
The royal visit – it was generally agreed – passed flawlessly. In its after-math, commentators and political leaders suggested that a line had been drawn under the past: that the disharmony that had characterized the Anglo–Irish relationship over the course of centuries was now ended, once and for all; and that a new partnership of equal sovereign nations had been forged. These are understandable wishes and sentiments, particularly given both the historic nature of the connection between Ireland and the neighbouring island, and the inevitable wish to focus attention on the country’s own present economic and social difficulties. Yet history can never be wished to a conclusion: rather, its legacies must be acknowledged before they can be set aside. Queen Elizabeth’s visit, indeed, demonstrated this simple lesson in actions, symbols and a handful of words: the mere action of squaring up to a troubled past brought with it a sense of release.
Such acknowledgements, however, are not always to be had. Days after the state visit ended, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, announced that government files relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974 could not for legal reasons be opened for inspection. The full story of these atrocities – in which thirty-three people were killed – remains to be told, and without the co-operation of the British government it is highly unlikely that it ever will.
In Northern Ireland too, the consequences of history continue to unfold – most brutally, perhaps, in the murder in April 2011 of a police constable in County Tyrone. Ronan Kerr died at Omagh when a bomb, planted by dissident republicans, exploded under his car: the impact of his death was felt more keenly, maybe, because Kerr was young, a Catholic and a member of the Gaelic Athletic Association – a powerful emblem, in other words, of the new order evolving in Northern Ireland. His death was an indication of the limits of the success of this new order – and conversely, his funeral was accompanied by a proliferation of symbols which highlighted the changes that had already taken root. Members both of the GAA and of the police service flanked Kerr’s funeral cortege; prominent Unionist politicians and members of the Orange Order participated in the funeral Mass – in some cases, for the first time in their lives. In the still abnormal society of Northern Ireland these were remarkable sights, and indicators of progress towards the creation of a new society.
There have also been warnings, however, of a developing disillusionment with politics as it exists in the province. In the local elections and election to the Northern Ireland Assembly held on 5 May 2011, turnout fell to a historically low level – this in a society which had traditionally boasted extremely high levels of voter participation. It could be argued that this was a good thing: that normal politics were bedding down; that voters were accordingly switching off; that the Northern Ireland public, in failing to vote, was simply following habits established across the mature democracies of the Western world. Yet there is a rather more disturbing lesson to be taken from such trends.
The systems of government and administration established by the Belfast Agreement do not allow for the concept of parliamentary opposition as it exists in other democracies: instead, the governance of Northern Ireland is by enforced consensus, embodied in the province’s five-party Executive or cabinet. While such structures were certainly necessary to break the political freeze that had existed during the Troubles, they have by no means led to nimble or responsive government in the longer term: indeed, the Executive has been not so much sure-footed as lumbering, discordant and procrastinating in the matter of everyday politics. It cannot be positive or healthy if voters are turning their backs on politics, preferring to linger (as local wits put it) in the garden centre rather than the polling booth; and it is an indication that the structures of government established by the Belfast Agreement will in the longer term require adjustment.
Set against this are signs of a wider vision of cultural and political plurality. The splendidly rebuilt Lyric Theatre – the province’s de facto national theatre – was inaugurated at Belfast in 2011, its twin stages and modern facilities providing the shared spaces that such a divided society urgently requires. Similarly, the sinuous new footbridge across the river Foyle in Derry has provided both a striking symbolic connection between the two halves of an often fractured city; and an excellent backdrop to Derry’s year as inaugural UK City of Culture in 2013. In fact, it is evident that the city’s bid was successful in part because it undertook to confront and explore the fraught issues of identity that pass like geological fault lines across the terrain of Northern Ireland society.
The identity of Ireland as a whole, indeed, appears malleable as never before. This island’s exposure to the influence and currents of the wider world has in recent decades been emphasized consistently, and in a variety of (not always straightforward) ways: from the stake taken by the White House in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations of the 1990s to the enthusiastic openness of the Republic to the European single currency at the turn of the millennium – and now, to the country’s problematic bail-out by European and international institutions. This internationalism is not likely to diminish in the foreseeable future, particularly while Ireland as a whole grows increasingly dependent on foreign investment and the export trade.
Yet the local texture and rhythms of Irish life have by no means disappeared. Former Irish President Mary Robinson has spoken in moving terms of the Irish tradition of meitheal: the acknowledgement of the essential interdependence of Irish communities, and of a willingness to work together in order to achieve common goals; a value system that has proved its worth in times of economic and social difficulty. It is to be hoped that balance and harmony can be found between Ireland’s necessary internationalism and these potent local ties that bind its people together. And one must also hope – perhaps with an even greater sense of urgency – that the political institutions and the leaders that serve this island will not, in the future, be found wanting.
Timeline
BC
c.10,000
Ice sheets retreat from Ireland
c.8000
First human presence in Ireland
c.5500
Neolithic farmers work the Céide Fields
c.3000
Construction of Newgrange
AD
43
Roman legions occupy southern Britain
c.77
Agricola studies a possible Roman invasion of Ireland
c.370
Irish settlement of western Britain begins
c.400
First Christian
communities in southeastern Ireland
c.430
Palladius sent from Rome to minister to the Christian Irish; Patrick begins his ministry
563
Foundation of Iona by Colum Cille
575
Kingdom of Dál Ríata reaches its height
590
Columbanus departs for France
612
Foundation of Bobbio by Columbanus
615
Death of Columbanus at Bobbio
635
Foundation of Lindisfarne by Irish monks
c.650
Compilation of Antiphonary of Bangor
c.700
Completion of Lindisfarne Gospels; Tírechán and Muirchú produce hagiographical works on Patrick
c.750
Compilation of the Book of Kells, probably on Iona
793
Beginning of the Viking age: Lindisfarne raided
795
First Viking raids on Ireland: monastery on Rathlin Island destroyed
802
Iona burned by the Vikings
837
Vikings settle at Dublin
c.840
Iona is abandoned
902
Viking leaders expelled from Dublin
917
Vikings return to Dublin
976
Dalcassians under Brian Boru capture Limerick
1002
Brian Boru rules as high king
1014
Battle of Clontarf; death of Brian Boru
1035
Foundation of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin
1066
Battle of Hastings – Norman conquest of England
1132
Malachy appointed Archbishop of Armagh; papacy asserts its control over Irish Church
1152
Henry Plantagenet marries Eleanor of Aquitaine
1154
Henry II crowned at Westminster Abbey
1155
Laudabiliter
1166
Rory O’Connor appointed high king in Dublin. Dermot MacMurrough flees overseas
1169
Anglo–Norman capture of Wexford
1170
Anglo–Norman capture of Waterford and Dublin; Thomas Becket assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral
1171
Death of MacMurrough; Henry II comes to Ireland
1176
Death of Strongbow
1177
Anglo–Norman conquest of eastern Ulster begins
1185
King John in Ireland
1189
Giraldus Cambrensis’s Expugnatio Hibernica
1204
Foundation of Dublin Castle; French conquest of Normandy
1210
King John campaigns in Ireland and subdues Anglo–Norman rebels
1215
Magna Carta
1216
Death of King John
1284
Formal English subjugation of Wales
1314
Battle of Bannockburn
1315
Edward Bruce lands in Ireland with a Scottish army
1316
Robert Bruce in Ireland
1317
Dublin repels a Scottish army; much of the city burned
1318
Edward Bruce killed at Dundalk; Scots leave Ireland; Remonstrance of the Princes
1337–1453
Hundred Years War
1348
Black Death
1351
Statute of Labourers in England
1367
Statutes of Kilkenny
1399
Richard II visits Ireland; in his absence, his throne is usurped by Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV)
1455–85
Wars of the Roses
1485
Henry VII becomes first Tudor monarch
1487
Lambert Simnel claims Irish throne; battle of Stoke Field
1494
Poynings’ Laws
1509
Accession of Henry VIII
1517
Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses; beginning of the Reformation
1533
Marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
1534
Rebellion of ‘Silken Thomas’ is defeated
1537
‘Silken’ Thomas Fitzgerald executed
1539
Dissolution of the Irish monasteries
1541
Henry VIII proclaimed King of Ireland; ‘Surrender and Regrant’ policy begins
1547
Accession of Edward VI
1553
Accession of Mary I
1557
Plantation of King’s and Queen’s Counties
1558
Accession of Elizabeth I
1569–73
First Munster Rebellion; Catholic uprising in England defeated
1570
Elizabeth I excommunicated
1572
St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
1575
English massacre of Scots settlers on Rathlin Island
1578
Irish collegiate mission – forerunner of the Irish College – established in Paris
1579–83
Second Munster Rebellion; unrest spreads across Ireland
1585
Plantation of Munster
1587
Execution of Mary Stuart
1588
Defeat of Spanish Armada; many ships run aground off the Irish coast
1592
Foundation of Trinity College Dublin
1595
Hugh O’Neill rebels against the Crown
1596
Edmund Spenser’s A View of the Present State of Ireland
1598
Battle of the Yellow Ford; rebellion extends to Munster
1600
An English garrison lands at Derry
1601
Battle of Kinsale
1603
Surrender of O’Neill; death of Elizabeth and accession of James I
1606
Private plantation of Antrim and Down begins; foundation of Irish College at Louvain
1607
Flight of the Earls; foundation of Jamestown colony in Virginia
1608
Plantation of Ulster begins
1613
Foundation of Londonderry
1620
Mayflower anchors off Cape Cod
1625
Accession of Charles I
1628
‘Graces’ agreed between Charles and the Old English in Ireland
1641
Outbreak of rebellion in Ulster; English government begins assembling ‘depositions’
1642
English Civil War begins; Charles signs Adventurers’ Act
1649
Execution of Charles; Oliver Cromwell lands in Ireland; sack of Drogheda and Wexford
1650
Cromwell leaves Ireland
1652
Cromwellian Settlement
1658
Death of Cromwell
1660
Restoration of monarchy; accession of Charles II
1685
Accession of James II; revocation of Edict of Nantes
1688
Birth of a son to James II and Mary of Modena; William of Orange lands in England and James flees to France; Londonderry closes its gates to James’s supporters
1689
James lands at Kinsale and travels north; siege of Derry ends
1690
Battle of the Boyne; James returns to France
1691
Battle of Aughrim; Treaty of Limerick
1697
First penal legislation enacted
1699
Woollen Act
1707
Union of Scotland and England
1713
Jonathan Swift settles in Dublin
1724
Swift’s Drapier Letters
1729
Foundation of Parliament House in Dublin
1740–1
Severe famine in Ireland
1742
First performance of Handel’s Messiah in Dublin
1745
The ‘Forty-Five’: Jacobite uprising in Scotland
1746
Battle of Culloden
1756–63
Seven Years War
1776
American Declaration of Independence
1781