Some conversations stick with you. Decades ago now, when the peace process was still no more than a hope, I was chatting to one of the Northern Ireland Office’s press team.
We shared an interest in late romantic orchestral music, and he helpfully corrected my pronunciation of Beim Schlafengehen, one of the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss.
Strauss was tainted by association with the Nazis, but in the dying years of the war he wrote Metamorphosen for 23 strings – a lament for the downfall of a great civilisation which had been brought to the brink of destruction by Hitler.
Creative artists understand better than most of us what is happening in the world. Note to self, listen to artists more and politicians less.
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Anyway, back to the press guy. It wasn’t my embarrassment at getting tongue-tied that stuck in my mind (though clearly it still rankles), it was what he had to say about his political masters.
We have all worked for people who are, let’s put it politely, as thick as champ – or ‘poundies’, as they say in Derry. And this guy had been handling the press for poundies aplenty.
He told me: “Republicans have a narrative which portrays UK ministers as out-of-touch colonial masters.
“And the British government does all it can to reinforce that image by sending that type here as ministers.”
This was the era of Peter Brooke and Sir Patrick Mayhew – some of the other ministers’ names will be familiar to older readers (trigger alert): the Earl of Gowrie, Dr Rhodes Boyson, John Stanley, Robert Atkins, Michael Mates and Michael Ancram (13th Marquis of Lothian), among others.
Brook was a decent old cove; he was famous for singing Oh My Darling, Clementine on The Late Late Show on the day seven died in an IRA bomb. But, more importantly, he was responsible for noting that the British Government had no “selfish strategic or economic interest” in Northern Ireland, and that it would accept unification, were that to be the wish of people here.
However, he would not have looked out of place in a white suit and a pith helmet. Neither would Sir Patrick. Both were descended from Anglo-Irish gentry and in another age they might have been High Commissioners in a British colony.
But, of course, what was Northern Ireland? It’s just their title was different.
Every time they opened their mouths – and in the era of direct rule, that was quite often – they reinforced the message that Northern Ireland was an outpost of empire. In truth, none of them really believed that it was an integral part of the United Kingdom – because it wasn’t, and isn’t.
Brooke’s statement says it all.
It’s just a pity that the current mob in the Northern Ireland Office don’t appear to have read what he said. Neither do they appear to have been briefed on the succession of initiatives which brought us to where we are now. Sunningdale, the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the Downing Street Declaration (which affirmed that only the people of Ireland had the right to determine their future), and the Good Friday Agreement.
There is something nauseating about the current colonial regime’s inability to grasp the nuances. Chris Heaton-Harris’s appalling treatment of the Taoiseach earlier this week demonstrates he is unfit for office.
It takes some gall for a minor English minister to lecture Ireland’s head of government on whether or not he should espouse Irish unity.
At the same time his Minister of State, Steve Baker, was tying himself in knots over his support for the union. Baker is entitled to his private views, but as a Northern Ireland Office minister he has a responsibility to all here – nationalist and unionist.
He should shut up about his love for the union, and get on with the job in hand – creating the conditions for the return of a devolved administration, establishing effective all-Ireland bodies that make a difference to people’s lives, and leveraging the economic benefits of the Windsor Framework.
Given their government has no selfish strategic or economic interest here (I assume Brooke’s declaration still stands), the primary goal of Heaton-Harris and Baker should be to work themselves out of their jobs.
The same lesson needs to be learned by Keir Starmer. Wrapping himself in the union flag might get him votes in Little England. It will do nothing to help the cause of peace and reconciliation here.
Irish unity is a legitimate aspiration. The days when it took second place to the union with Britain are long gone. Will someone please tell the NIO?
