AS a wee Catholic lad in school, I was introduced to the concept of eternity.
There were stark warnings that if you committed a mortal sin your soul would be sent to Hell forever, unless of course you went to confession in time and received absolution. It certainly ensured I was on my best behaviour, afraid to commit even venial sins, never mind what in Dublin-speak is nervously called “a mortaller”.
Another version of eternity has been playing on my mind lately. Would this pandemic go on forever and a day? With the advent of various vaccines, my outlook has thankfully become more optimistic. Another source of concern, as negotiations dragged on, was the possibility of a chaotic no-deal United Kingdom exit from the European Union.
Boris Johnson comes in for a fair amount of flak but even his critics must concede that he plays a clever game at times. In a similar way to the talks leading to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the Brexit trade deal negotiations were conducted on two levels. Each side had to take the practicalities of the situation into account and recognise that the others at the table could only go so far in making concessions. At the same time, key players needed to keep their hardliners reasonably calm.
Apart from French President Macron’s tough stance on fisheries, most of the hard-line sentiment has come from the British camp. Indeed the UK prime minister’s speech on Christmas Eve had certain similarities to orations from nationalists on this island down through the years: “We’ve taken back control of our laws and our destiny . . . From January the 1st, we are outside the customs union and outside the single market. British laws will be made solely by the British Parliament, interpreted by UK judges sitting in UK courts, and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice will come to an end.”
Hold on a minute, BoJo! If the words ‘British’ and ‘UK’ were replaced by ‘Irish’, that kind of rhetoric might have come from Patrick Pearse or one of his successors. We Hibernians are meant to be the real nationalists: not you, old boy.
You have to wonder what has precipitated the rise in British, or more properly English, nationalism in recent years. It seems to be a consequence of the UK’s decline as a world power. The three big players now are the US, China and the EU. In the European context, Germany and France have been the pivotal entities, with Britain having an important but not altogether central role.
As an impressionable schoolboy I was constantly warned against Satan, a.k.a. Lucifer, who was said to be everywhere at all times, seeking to draw one into the ways of sin. It is consoling therefore to be told in relation to the Brexit compromise that “the Devil is in the detail”. I hope he stays there.
For all the advance rhetoric, coming mostly from the British, the broad terms of the trade deal announced last week are moderate and reasonable in tone. Importantly, there will be no additional charges on goods being traded between the UK and the EU and no limit in terms of quantity on any item passing in either direction. There will be no shortage of red tape, however, at least initially.
Ireland joined the European Economic Community, later to become the European Union, on the same day as the British in January 1973 and there was a strong view at the time that, in economic terms, we couldn’t afford to stay outside if the UK was becoming a member.
If the British had decided to pull out within the first twenty years or so, many would have expected Ireland to follow suit. But not any more. It’s a significant reflection of the way our paths have diverged. A close economic and trading link with the UK is still very important for the Irish, but not quite so much as in the past. Generally speaking, Ireland has been a more enthusiastic participant in the EEC/EU than her nearest neighbour.
It seems a bit naïve on the part of the Brexiteers to believe that a bright new day is dawning, but hopefully London, Brussels, Dublin and Belfast as well as other places will find that, in this case, an amicable divorce is better than a tetchy marriage.
Email: Ddebre1@aol.com; Twitter: @DdeBreadun
