Writer Shaun Kavanagh explores historically complicated ties between Britain and Ireland and welcomes a closer relationship with Scotland
FIRST MINISTER Nicola Sturgeon spoke at the upper house of the Irish Parliament on Tuesday – the Seanad – marking the end of a two-day visit to Ireland to further political, economic and cultural links between Scotland and Ireland.
There is no doubt that this was a historic event. However, Tory MSP Murdo Fraser derided the visit on Twitter. "Ah, Ireland, always such a great ally," he wrote, with a link from a History Ireland article that outlined Éamon de Valera’s (one of the 1916 Easter uprising leaders) offer of condolence after Hitler’s death in 1945.
It caused a minor stooshie on the Twittersphere, though it’s a common viewpoint that I’ve seen time and again: "They’ve never been our friends; those pesky Irish … Troublesome, rebellious, a thorn in the side the Great British imperial project, and forever broke the Union of Great Britain and Ireland of 1801 after a treacherous Rising in 1916. Not only that, but they were friends of Hitler!"
In Scotland, a complex process has prevented explicit acknowledgment of the service of Irishmen in the war effort.
Yet it is blind prejudice to link what an Irish politician did in 1945 to what a nation does today. Many countries had evidence of split opinions within their populations over Hitler, not least the UK – just look at reports contained in the 1930s in the Daily Mail. People should think twice before they chuck the boulder in the glass house.
In Scotland, a complex process has prevented explicit acknowledgment of the service of Irishmen in the war effort. For many Scots during the 1920s, the bitter war of independence in Ireland and the fragile relationship between Dublin and Westminster eclipsed memories of shared service during the wars.
Ireland did not fight as a nation during the Second World War, which it referred to as "The Emergency". Despite this, more than 100,000 men and women from all over the country joined the British Army to fight the Nazis.
Irish Catholics contributed up to 16.4 per cent of Scotland's recruiting total of 82,957 for the first three months of the Great War. The army retained practical attractions for the heavily urbanised Irish population in Scotland. Poverty, unemployment and desperate domestic circumstances had long proved the best impetuses, with most British army enlistments coming from the least skilled sections of the working population – of which the Irish were over-represented.
The manner in which the Irish contributions to the wars have become marginalised in popular memory and in historiography itself tells us something of the difficult conceptual territory which the Irish in Scotland have inhabited.
The manner in which the Irish contributions to the wars have become marginalised in popular memory and in historiography itself tells us something of the difficult conceptual territory which the Irish in Scotland have inhabited – the 'curious middle place' between their country of origin and place of settlement. This, however, is only a relatively recent phenomenon which ignores centuries of social, cultural and political links.
In the first millennium, a series of Irish tribes, known as the Scoti, invaded the western Highlands of Scotland and established a strong presence in Dal Riata, around the present-day county of Argyll.
This area soon became of seminal importance in the history of Scotland as it became in later centuries the dynamic heart of an expanding kingdom, which in time united most of the country under a single dynasty.
The religious bond between the two countries was as significant as the ethnic connection.
Saint Columba left Ireland in the year 563 to live as a pilgrim for Christ in Iona. The legacy of Columba lasted for over 600 years, forging a dynamic religious cooperation between the Irish and Scottish people.
The reaction in Scotland to the famine was less than communal. Those who misunderstand the legacy of sectarianism in Scotland would do well to use the famine as a good historical starting point.
Nevertheless, the Reformation had profoundly different effects in each country. Scotland had become an overwhelmingly protestant nation by the 17th century. The native Irish, however, continued to remain loyal to catholicism.
The interrelation between religion and politics was a major factor in the different connections each country developed with England. Through subjugation and penal legislation, Ireland was colonised and used as the forecourt for imperial expansion in what would later become the British Empire.
Scotland, however, had managed to secure its freedom during prolonged conflict with England. When a full parliamentary union between the two nations was achieved in 1707 – despite the notable level of protest against it – it was seen as a partnership by agreement between two independent nations – an incorporating union, rather than an assimilating one.
In return for conceding their parliament the Scots were granted free access to all English domestic and colonial markets. Scotland also retained control of the key institutions of civil society – law, education, the presbyterian religion, and the burgh system.
The influence of racist thought that was endorsed by Victorian intellectuals provided validation to anti-Irish racism that was intensified during the famine catastrophe.
Over time, the Scottish landed, mercantile and professional classes became significant elements in the British imperial project. Success in empire in turn strengthened the nation's loyalty to the Anglo-Scottish union.
A hundred years later, the two societies had experienced dramatically different development. Scotland’s rapid industrialisation coincided with its urbanisation. Ireland had entered the 19th century crippled by poverty, de-industrialisation and overpopulation.
These profound differences were magnified in the 1840s. Ireland suffered at the same time the horrors of the Great Famine, by far the worst human catastrophe in Europe of that age.
The reaction in Scotland to the famine was less than communal. Those who misunderstand the legacy of sectarianism in Scotland would do well to use the famine as a good historical starting point.
Between the beginning of the Irish famine and its end in 1855/1856, the Irish moving into Scotland was the equivalent of eight new towns of 16,000 persons a piece – all centred around Glasgow and the west.
These factors all contributed to the Irish occupying a difficult place in Scottish society, and in the imperial mindset – that is, that they have typically been defined by their 'otherness'.
The Irish were blamed for bringing the famine upon themselves, and distrusted for inducing immorality and degeneracy amongst the lower orders of the population.
Contemporary attitudes to the Irish migrant poor were permeated with notions of racial superiority. Victorian Lowland Scots vociferously projected an Aryan racial identity that shared vital characteristics with the Anglican and Saxon peoples of England.
Many of the 19th century intelligentsia believed in the absolute superiority of the Teutonic stock of Lowland Scotland and England over the unenlightened Celts of Ireland and the Highlands.
The influence of racist thought that was endorsed by Victorian intellectuals provided validation to anti-Irish racism that was intensified during the famine catastrophe.
These factors all contributed to the Irish occupying a difficult place in Scottish society, and in the imperial mindset – that is, that they have typically been defined by their 'otherness'.
The first minister’s visit to Ireland, and the show of solidarity and goodwill from the Irish as a result, offers huge opportunities to Scotland.
Yet the Irish played a crucial role in Scotland's industrialisation – and had a significant effect on the shaping of Scottish society for the better.
Thus, while the Twitter musings of Murdo Fraser and the like may seem fairly innocuous – a wee dig towards the Irish, and all that – scratch the surface and something slightly uglier appears.
It is reminiscent of a viewpoint towards the Irish that is permeated with superiority that is unbecoming of someone in his position. It is difficult to imagine Nicola Sturgeon taking such a petulant view towards another nation or its people.
Indeed, would Murdo Fraser ever have a pop at Angela Merkel for Hitler or the Nazis, simply because she is German? I highly doubt it. The Irish, however, seem fair game.
Scotland is positioning itself as a pro-European, internationalist nation – expressing a different set of traditions to that of the post-imperial delusions of Brexit Britain. Our relationship with Ireland should be celebrated.
The first minister’s visit to Ireland, and the show of solidarity and goodwill from the Irish as a result, offers huge opportunities to Scotland.
Scotland is positioning itself as a pro-European, internationalist nation – expressing a different set of traditions to that of the post-imperial delusions of Brexit Britain. Our relationship with Ireland should be celebrated.
As stated by the first minister on Tuesday: "My hope is that Scotland and Ireland … will work even more closely together in the years ahead. And I hope we will make new works, new meanings, new impacts from our ancient ties and our shared values."
To that, I say: Sláinte.
Picture courtesy of ReflectedSerendipity
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