Keynote address by Tánaiste Micheál Martin at Shared Island Dialogue on accommodating national identities

Abbey Theatre, Dublin

25 October 2023

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Thank you, Miriam for the introduction and for moderating today’s discussion.

I am pleased to contribute to this dialogue on a subject which is fundamental to how we share this island today and in the future.

I want to thank the Abbey Theatre Co-Directors, Mark O’Brien and Caitriona McLaughlin, for co-hosting this event.

Is léiriú eile é imeacht an lae inniu ar an spás a chuireann ár nAmharclann Náisiúnta ar fáil le ceisteanna móra na linne, a bhaineann le gach duine againn, a phlé.

The Abbey Theatre was famously a fulcrum in the Irish literary revival - a cultural movement which both reflected and shaped a particular expression of Irish identity at the turn of the twentieth century, and as part of the tumultuous journey to independence.

And for more than a century the Abbey has lived up impressively to its mission - to engage through theatre with Irish society on the big ideas that are most relevant to the times.

Even, and in particular, as those times and those big ideas have changed, and changed utterly (to borrow a phrase) in the ensuing period.

And overcoming the divisions that remain on this island - including in how we accommodate different national identities - is one of the great challenges of our time.

I have spoken widely on this in different settings in recent years, particularly as part of the landmark Decade of Centenaries programme, which will soon draw to a close.

I have also had the opportunity, over a longer period, to listen to the experiences and viewpoints of others including those who - by virtue of community or personal experience - don’t see Irish identity as expressed by others as inclusive of them.

Or at least not fully, or comfortably so, today. Some may, legitimately, not want Irishness to include them.

These voices - of some unionists and loyalists in Northern Ireland, and also of some in minority communities in the South - have influenced how my own views have developed over the years on who we are, and who we can be, collectively - Irish, British, both and neither.

I want to raise three themes that I see as central for today’s dialogue, and for achieving a deeper reconciliation of our national identities on this island in the time ahead:

• the significance and complexity of history in shaping national narratives
• the evolution of Irish identity and dynamics today; and
• the missed opportunities of the Good Friday Agreement so far, and how we can respond

Turning first to history -

We are not yet at the point of drawing together the full legacy of the remarkable and wide-ranging activity of the centenary commemorations over the last 10 years.

But the approach taken and the experience gained have borne out important principles and lessons on the interplay of history, identity and politics, that can now help inform how we look to the future.

I want to acknowledge the important role played by the Expert Advisory Group on Centenary Commemorations, who have done so much to guide, foster and deepen the remembrance.

The commemorations programme has seen wide participation, in a positive spirit and with a general willingness to look anew.

Among the steps forward achieved through the Decade of Centenaries programme have been:

• including in our national remembrance the terrible losses of the first World War
• better recognition of the roles of and treatment of women during that period and since; and
• more considered scholarship and public discussion of the drivers, dynamics and legacy of the Civil War - including the significance of the wider European and colonial context

These developments are hugely significant; moving us beyond one-dimensional, partial or partisan pictures and acknowledging the more complex dynamics of our past and, by extension, our present.

I know that the Chair of the Expert Advisory Group, Dr. Maurice Manning, will participate in the first panel session today and will be able to share more perspectives.

It was important that we sought to achieve a balance in the centenary commemorations between the right of every country to mark its formative events, with the fact that no liberal democracy can ever insist on a uniform national narrative.

In one view, this is obvious but it contrasts with the harsh reality today that, around the world, exclusionary, skewed constructions of national history and identity are becoming more common.

We see power-driven attempts to close out the space for questioning and debate, and to de-legitimise or even dominate others.

It is vital to support an open and challenging approach to history, that is plural, rigorous, and not afraid to evolve, or to recognise previous blindspots.

This is the only way we can properly understand the complexity of the shared but contested history of this island, and the identities that it informs.

The more we look, the more we see how little our past conforms to any credible reading of it as a single and solitary pathway to the present.

Many diverging, intersecting and parallel paths have led those of us who call this island home to the point at which we are today – and none of those paths is at its end. They will continue to wend their way collectively mapping out the Ireland of tomorrow and the longer term.

For instance, we may know, but do we really acknowledge enough, that the Irish language was preserved in many important respects by Presbyterian churchmen in Ulster, who saved manuscripts, and spoke, taught and published in Irish from the 17th century onwards?

Likewise, foundational music and song collections for the Irish traditional music canon - not least for the harp, our national symbol - were saved from loss by Protestant and Anglo-Irish collectors, like Edward Bunting, George Petrie and Canon James Goodman. How could we recognise the significance of this more in our musical and national heritage?

Céard gur féidir linn a dhéanamh le cinntiú go n-aithnítear agus go dtuigtear cultúr shaibhir ilghnéitheach an oileáin seo mar achmhainn roinnte?

And, how well do we take account of the diversity of background, perspective and political objectives of some of the great figures of Irish nationalism?

Figures like Daniel O’Connell and Charles Stuart Parnell, are often presented on the margins, because it is difficult to incorporate them in - for some - an idealised seamless pathway to revolution and of a people always and at once distinct and apart.

Right through our history, there are important cultural, social and political elements often understood as a fixed part of the story of one type of Irish identity, which are actually far more dynamic or where the very fore-grounding of those elements deliberately downplays other elements.

Equally, how can our narratives accommodate those whose traditions are distinct, but also part of the warp and weft of this island? The Orange tradition is not mine, but understanding and respecting that tradition informs my sense of the complex, overlapping or distinct identities of those who call this place home.

We could draw far more on the mutuality of heritage and experience that is an under-told part of the story of this island.

With more sophisticated, developed narratives of our history, we can better recognise that identity is not a pre-determined coding, passed on by our forebears.

It is always a composite mix of inheritance, experience and environment.

Think of all of the playwrights, whose words have resonated in this theatre for more than a century, and as part of Ireland’s acclaimed literary and dramatic heritage: Yeats; Gregory; Friel; O’Brien; Carr; McDonagh, to name but a few. Do any of their plays engage with national or personal identity as a monochrome?

Of course not. That is why they are so powerful. Their characters and stories affect us, because they render and explore, so incisively, who we are - in all of its colour, diversity, tensions and flux.

And the evolution of national identity is something that we should be much more upfront about.

This isn’t saying that there are no defining dimensions of Irishness, or any other nationality.

But it is to recognise that collective identity, and national stories - are by no means closed or fixed. This is apparent however you focus the lens:

• look, over the last hundred years, at how Irishness has changed from being defined internationally, for instance, by features such as poverty or emigration; to an international profile today more associated with music, prosperity, and a success founded on education and connection to the global economy
• and, how through 50 years of EU membership, not only our economy but also our State and society has been transformed. Now for many, many people in Ireland, European citizenship and identity is part and parcel with how they identify; entirely complementing other identity markers
• what we think of as Irishness has changed too to be more inclusive of the diaspora. When President Robinson put a candle in the window of Áras an Uachtaráin in 1990, she started an important conversation about our relationship with (as she put it) “our exiles and our emigrants”
• and over the last 10 years, Irish society has taken significant steps forward in embracing diversity and equality. We are rightly proud, for instance, to be the first country in the world to introduce marriage equality through a referendum
• clearly too, the more than 20% of residents today who were born abroad, have helped to make Ireland a more successful and vibrant society. Their contributions play a significant role in the emergence of a more diverse Irish identity, for which we are better and stronger

Because Irishness is not necessarily something based on ethnicity or religion or even on a single nationality. It is both a civic and a personal concept which continues to evolve.

And, as individuals, any reflection shows that our identity develops over time and through experience. That too is a strength. To have the confidence and conviction to change.

What is most important in my Irish identity has certainly developed over the years. I will always be a Gaeilgeor, a GAA fanatic, and have a grá for traditional music.

I will always be deeply moved and feel great pride in the journey we have taken and the progress we have made as a nation. I will always have a profound interest in the history of the places and people of Ireland that have shaped me.

But what means even more to me as an Irish person are the values and qualities that best define and guide our communities - like equality, empathy, creativity, respect, conservation, and capacity to change.

I believe that we need to bring the experience of positive change over recent decades, and a broader conception of what really underpins our identity to the continuing challenge of accommodating each other on this island.

Because, while there has been immense progress, clearly the vision of the Good Friday Agreement for a reconciliation of all communities and traditions has not yet been achieved.

Perhaps most problematically, politics in Northern Ireland is still largely defined by green and orange and a zero-sum framing of community competition on almost every issue - even though that doesn’t reflect the day-to-day reality of life and often doesn’t reflect broader definitions of Britishness or Irishness.

This complicates the achievement of parity of esteem, and the creation of political space in which the people of Northern Ireland have a right to identify and be accepted as British, or Irish or both.

And, both North and South, there are persistent, often mindless, instances of abuse of others’ identity, beliefs, culture, or experience. Every day on social media, and marring sports grounds, community halls, concerts and events across this island.

There is little discussion, and even less consensus, on recognising and responding to the hurt and alienation that some songs, chants or traditions, cause others.

Moving beyond this, will require broad-based and sustained leadership to effect a positive change.

To rectify the blindspots that conflict, tension and disdain have created over generations in conceptions of others, and obscuring how much actually binds us all together.

I am not suggesting that the successful navigation of these issues is easy. Or, that accommodation and compromise should fall to one group, or another.

But it is time to find ways to move our respective cultures and identities fully on from dichotomy and rivalry to symbiosis and respect.

The Good Friday Agreement provides the basis for doing that, as it does the indispensable framework for governing relations between these islands, on this island and in deciding on constitutional questions.

Resoundingly endorsed by the people North and South in 1998, the Agreement challenges us all to get on with the hard, practical work of building connections and understanding.

And to take sustained action to heal the social, economic and psychological scars left by thirty years of conflict - violence that was always and repeatedly rejected by the majority of the people, North and South.

Through the Agreement, we have consolidated an enduring peace. That is of utmost importance and it gives me great hope for what can achieved be in the years ahead.

But too much time has been squandered over the last 25 years without fulfilling the potential of peace:

• connected to that, there has never been sufficient, sustained focus on tackling entrenched sectarianism and disadvantage in Northern Ireland
• and, we have simply not done enough to get to know and understand each other more since 1998

To build new connections over the barriers that grew up over centuries and during the Troubles.

Beyond family relationships and individual connections, the fact is that we know too little of each other across the border and our different communities.

Reconciliation has been the great miss in the twenty-five years since the Agreement. Many communities are as far apart today as they were in 1998. It is only by recognising this failure, by calling it out, that we can make the efforts to address it.

That is why the Shared Island initiative - which I established as Taoiseach three years ago - is such a political priority for me.

For the first time ever, we are undertaking a comprehensive programme of published research about the whole island, in economic, social, cultural and political terms.

And this dialogue series, has so far brought together over 3,000 citizens and representatives from across all communities.

With a priority on hearing from new and underrepresented voices, on how in practical ways we can better share this island.

The conversation is also being developed through the new Youth Forum which commenced in September, with 80 young civic representatives aged 18 to 25.

The Forum reflects the community, ethnic, faith and other identity diversities of this island.

And its members are meeting over the next year to set out their vision and values for a shared future on this island - something which, I hope, can be an inspiring statement for us all.

And the research and civic interactions are informing the largest programme of cross-border investment cooperation undertaken by any Irish Government in history, enabled through our €1 billion Shared Island Fund.

For instance, we are now moving forward with major cross-border projects that have been talked about for decades, like the iconic Narrow Water Bridge and the Ulster Canal restoration.

And in June, we announced €44.5 million in funding for construction of a new teaching block at Ulster University’s campus in Derry, to increase higher education places and deepen institutional cooperation across the North-West region.

We also want to take a step change in cooperation with a new Executive including overdue work to help tackle ingrained educational underachievement and to do more to support enterprise development on a cross-border basis.

We need collectively to make the Good Friday Agreement work as the charter for reconciliation that the people of this island mandated in 1998.

We are supporting a flourishing of new connections between people across this island.

And through the Dialogue series, the Youth Forum and in my interaction with people right across this island - the message comes through again and again on how we build consensus for the future:

• work on practical issues and common concerns
• help civic and community connections to flourish
• engage with people, respectfully, where they are at
• and recognise, that identities and relationships aren’t one dimensional or fixed; they do evolve and they can change

Today’s dialogue is necessarily challenging. It poses questions on matters that can been intensely personal and intensely political.

So my ask is that we are authentic and kind to each other as we set to the task and strive to find generous, inclusive answers to questions such as:

• how do we take undimmed pride in our own traditions and culture, while making it unacceptable that they are ever used to exclude, diminish or divide people?
• can we do better at highlighting the common values and connected heritage of our distinct traditions?
• can we be confident enough to encompass in our respective national identities, symbols and traditions that at this moment in time seem challenging, but matter for others?
• how do we harness our greater ethnic and cultural diversity today, so it is an integral part of Irish identity?
• and, how can we affirm a collective identity for all on this island - Irish, British, both and neither - that is deeper and broader than any community, creed or political aspiration?

Through the Decade of Centenaries, North and South, we sought and found better, more inclusive ways to remember who we were, at a pivotal and tragically divisive times in the history of this island.

Now, with commitment and generosity, we have a chance to look to tomorrow,

to take a similar approach and to accommodate diverse identities on this island,

in ways that are truly transformational for all, and transformational for our country.

I believe that we can.

I believe that we will.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh.