Opinion

Fionnuala O Connor: Brexit and Arlene Foster have revived the united Ireland dream

The departing UK has imagined it can dictate terms as it leaves
The departing UK has imagined it can dictate terms as it leaves The departing UK has imagined it can dictate terms as it leaves

THE wary but real respect that developed late last century between British and Irish officials – and some politicians - has gone underground, if it still exists at all.

The passions of Brexit are too raw to smooth. Whatever the real threat to peace, the clash and mis-reading of self-interest by politicians has relegated Anglo-Irish diplomacy to a dimly-heard backroom.

Think how exasperation seeped through after Theresa May's gormless ‘presentation’ in Salzburg, walloped home by that stagy speech to camera, sealed-off from reporters.

The most anti-Brexit British media reported it fairly straight, though still a bit light on recognition that of course the rest of the EU were at one with Ireland, a member in good standing unlike the fleeing, chaotic UK.

She had suffered disrespect from the EU, May complained, apparently baffled by rejection of the line she has been told repeatedly is unacceptable. But it was belatedly noted in London that `the Irish' had been saying this for months. Foreign Minister and Tánaiste Simon Coveney spelled out that the DUP could not be allowed a veto. Fine Gael and Dáil priorities, alas, made him twin that with a swipe at Sinn Féin, who had `spread fear' amongst unionists by calling for a border poll.

May's government was beholden to the DUP while his government talked to all parties, said Coveney. He omitted any mention of the Irish in the north. Instead anti-Brexit and Brexit passions here were characterised as divided now into `green and orange'. Dublin foreign ministers, as representing Irish governments, once spoke proudly for the northern Irish. Different times.

In a golden age now gone politicians and civil servants from the two Anglophone nations on Europe's outer edge recognised their mutual interest Better yet, from the Irish point of view, the performance of their officials abroad boosted the diplomatic service's sense of itself. Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and Home Office, steeped in assurance many have always experienced as arrogance, came to see their Dublin counterparts as equals in sophistication, subtlety, intelligence. Any lingering Irish lack of confidence melted.

Joining the European Union at the same time made bonds. Relationships carried forward into building a peace process through thick and thin. Thatcher/Haughey, FitzGerald, Albert Reynolds, John Major, Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern; Good Friday negotiations were bruising and a long time coming. Ahern famously arrived back to the table between his mother's death and burial.

A common purpose held. The DUP, of course, despised and denounced the entire business from beginning to end.

And one entire strand of present-day Conservatism is instinctively out of sympathy with made-over Irish-British relations and an agreement they had no part in making.

Many never knew anything of Ireland but IRA violence. Conservative behaviour and careless, cavalier decisions, accompanied by empty and contradictory assertions of support, have undermined the spirit and structures of the Good Friday Agreement.

Brighter Tories must look across the chamber at David Simpson (who?), Sammy Wilson, the ineffable Paisley Junior et al and wonder how did we end up in hock to this crew, bowing and scraping to Arlene `Good Governance' Foster, lectured by Nigel Dodds?

Mutual respect is replaced by fury that Ireland is obstructing the Brexit fantasy. Who cares about Ireland's interests? Who cares that the vote in Northern Ireland rejected Brexit (despite Sinn Féin's lazy campaign) more decisively than Britain voted Leave?

Like May, many were not listening. Ireland, their small and long-subordinated neighbour, turns out to be in good standing in Europe. The Irish, good Europeans whose EU membership transformed their state, are securely with the majority.

A restored Stormont Executive and Assembly, it is said, is needed so that Northern Ireland's voice can be heard. But that `voice' said no to Brexit. The DUP speaks for a minority not the majority, a position that has unionist psychology severely discombobulated. (Much as the SF vote in the Republic disturbs southern parties.) In its belief that only their desires matter, the party led by Foster or perhaps by Dodds resembles Brexiteers and some wider public opinion in Britain.

The departing UK has imagined it can dictate terms as it leaves though it cannot agree those terms. The Tory leader and the DUP's nominal leader are in a similar state of disrepair.

The Republic's minister for foreign affairs should not feed unionist denial. Devalued as today's diplomats may be, they should be feeding him realism.

Sinn Féin, short on northern talent, are struggling to reflect mainstream northern nationalism. Brexit and the hapless Foster, not republicans, have revived the united Ireland dream.