Anglo-Irish relations have always been a source of bemusement. Both countries can point to atrocities perpetrated on them by the other over the years but finally it seems Ireland and England have settled their differences.
The visit by the Queen to the Republic of Ireland, the first visit by a British monarch for 100 years, will hopefully continue this process and her laying of the wreath to commemorate the Irish who died fighting for their independence from the English shows great humility and recognition of past behaviour.
One forgotten person who should be feeling rather proud of himself today is former British Prime Minister John Major who took the historic step of attempting to normalise relations with the Republic and to reach out to the IRA which led directly to his successors signing the Good Friday Agreement.
Margaret Thatcher balked at the idea of discussions with Sein Fein and the IRA but Major and his Irish counterpart, Albert Reynolds, took a huge political risk that the status quo could not continue and searched for an agreement, a decision that could easily have backfired as the Irish Republican Army were inflicting carnage on England at the time.
Seen largely as a makeweight prime minister between two prime ministerial heavyweights, John Major did very little else that was creditable during his time in Number 10 but he deserves most credit of all for taking that initial gamble of starting the ball rolling with no real support from his own party.
Major, i believe, acted out of a genuine belief in an agreement with a lasting, peaceful political legacy being good for both countries and the relative political calm in Northern Ireland compared to pre-1998 would not have been possible without his contribution.
Hopefully there are people in the many current conflict areas in the World with the vision of John Major and Albert Reynolds who decide that just sitting down and talking through your differences is a preferable method of conflict resolution than bombs and bullets.
4 comments:
Like you, Lucy, I wish there was more talking. But talking doesn't make money and peace doesn't feed the maw of the armament industries or allow you to grab resources belonging to other nations.
Peace seems to be something that will be talked about a lot but will never eventuate, not while oligarchs and plutocrats run the world.
Actually the Irish question as it stands now has very little to do with oligarchs and plutocrats (or even olicrats and plutogarchs). Admittedly in years gone by it was all about empire. Nowadays it's more about national pride and different ideas about identity. Nowadays the Irish who want a united island nation are in a minority but some of them are prepared to kill to get their way.
I don't think Major did such a bad job as PM, not really. He inherited an economy that had been f&cked into a cocked hat by 1990, but by 1997 it was rebounding in a very big way. Notwithstanding the E.R.M. disaster, you can't criticise too much his administration did in the economic sphere. Even Gordon Brown clearly didn't have too many problems with it, because he basically retained the Tory spending plan after Labour took over. Major's main problem during his tenure was political; that being 'sleaze'. So many of the Cabinet and other hangers on were personally despicable/arrogant people. All those years of being in power is highly corrupting, and that Tory administration was starting to rot from the inside.
Caveat: Maybe I'm being a bit easy on old John cos he's a big cricket fan :)
It seems to me that the talking always come after everything else has been tried first David.
When i think fo the Major years i mostly recall David Mellor and his Chelsea kit. What an image that is. Apart from Ireland, i couldn't think of much else he did but possibly that's a good thing between Thatcher and Blair who it seemed did too much.
That's a good point. In some ways governments are like football referees. They're only doing a good job when you don't really notice them :)
(Actually I don't think Major was a great leader; but I believe he was/is a generally decent man, notwithstanding the odd Edwina-Currie-based faux pas).
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