July 16 1924
What is Ireland?
The letter of the Northern Minister of Commerce to the Newry Chamber of Commerce indicates that the question is becoming of such commercial importance that it may eventually reach the law courts and be treated on a level with such exciting conundrums as “What are sardines?” and “What is whiskey?”
The chairman of the Newry Chamber is president of the Northern Ireland Association of Chambers of Commerce, but apparently the intimation of the ministry was news to him. Briefly, it was that some of the Free State’s customs officials have been refusing to allow consignments from Northern Ireland bearing the description “Irish manufacture” or “Made in Ireland” to enter Free State territory.
The ministry doubts the legality of the action, but does not intend to do anything about it unless and until it becomes general.
What will be done in that case we are left to guess, but the chairman of the Newry Chamber has an idea. He said:
“What the Free State apparently wanted was that goods coming from the Six Counties should be labelled ‘Manufactured in Northern Ireland’ instead of ‘Ireland’. The Northern Government and the British Government could retaliate by insisting that all goods exported out of the Free State into Northern Ireland or Great Britain should be labelled ‘Manufactured in the Irish Free State’ instead of ‘Manufactured in Ireland’, as at present”.
At this rate of going the style and title of “Ireland” would soon vanish from our trade, and only some old-fashioned folk would remember that there ever existed a country of that name once known and esteemed all over the world for the high quality of her products.
With the Irish Free State insisting that “Northern Ireland” was not Ireland, and with Northern Ireland stoutly contending that the “Irish Free State” was not Ireland, customers abroad might well be excused for believing that it would not be exactly safe to deal on the ordinary business terms with such a pack of lunatics.
Who started this dispute?
We confess this is the first we have heard of any serious attempt to deprive traders in the Six Counties of the privilege of claiming that, although cut off from the rest of the country by an artificial British-drawn line, they are Irishmen living in Ireland.
