Scholars on both sides of the Irish Sea and around the world grapple with massacre, famine and forced migration, but it is hard to assess frankly the central role played by violence in the relationship between these islands. Past actions offend modern sensibilities; we have an aversion to seeing the worst in each other. Writing Irish history also presents the challenge of balancing opinions rooted in polarised politics and sharply differing visions for future Irish states, including the constitutional status of Northern Ireland.
I have uncovered house burnings, intimidation and assault, fuelled by sectarianism and anti-British-loyalism. There was, furthermore, no official peace accord to end the fighting that killed around 1, people.
Similarly, much remains unknown about the Troubles that claimed over 3, lives. Reparation has been conducted ad hoc by independent bodies, not via the criminal justice system. In these volatile times, then, it is understandable, if not excusable, that maintaining stable political institutions takes precedence over re making old accusations. The notion that Irishness might be defined in opposition to England hardly comes as a surprise. The Anglo-Irish relationship has been the dominant theme of most Irish historical writing.
It is difficult to understand modern Ireland without understanding modern Britain, too. In contrast, as Linda Colley and others have shown, a sense of British national identity developed during the 18th century in opposition to the French or, more generally, to Catholic Europe. Later, Britons imagined themselves as pragmatic and liberal, unlike militaristic, idealistic or excitable Europeans.
When I speak of Britain here, I really mean England. The second reason concerns political legitimacy. Until recently, the English have enjoyed a sense of identity so secure as to be almost subconscious.
They have tended to conflate being English with being normal. The problem was to explain why other nations had diverged from this orderly processes of constitutional development. These were areas in which Britain was a world-leader and in which Ireland was marginal. The actions of the Irish Free State were more violent than the British three times the number of republican insurgents were executed , but it survived because it was the Irish Free State.
Current discussions around Brexit bear out the adage that the Irish never forget their history and the English never remember it. Having negotiated with dignity the centenary commemoration of the outbreak of the First World War and the Easter Rising , Brexit now provides the backdrop to some particularly contested anniversaries: the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement ; the 50th of the outbreak of the Troubles ; and the th of the political partition of the island and the outbreak of civil war The full consequences of Brexit remain to be seen.
Sharing a common European agenda has provided Ireland, north and south, with great scope to work together, to find common cause and to play down our differences.
It is also critical to remember how fragile the Peace Process is. Anxieties around Brexit are already firing up nationalism, tribalism and sectarianism and could well take us back to the inhumanity that characterised the s and s.
I write as someone who grew up in Belfast during these years. She made a point of educating herself, and now brings visitors from England to Kilmainham Gaol. In England in the s Murray was struck by that same knowledge gap. I was quite astounded by how little English people knew about Ireland and the history of the two countries.
When he first moved to Ireland, Stafford says, he was struck by the friendliness of Irish people and their desire to form a connection. Matabaro felt the same about the desire to make a connection.
They want to make a connection. One of the byproducts of being English in Ireland is that everyone wants to talk about Brexit. It has completely ruined its international standing. And then Brexit happened, and that absolute ignorance of Irish affairs really started to show itself, especially amongst ordinary British people — not knowing, and celebrating not wanting to know.
And other people just not understanding the nature of [the] Border. I feel very annoyed that [the] British political elite has allowed that ignorance to happen. Brexit has left many of the people we spoke to grappling with questions of identity. What does it mean to be British now, and at what point does their Irishness become the defining part of their identity? Thompson would feel presumptuous describing himself as Irish, despite having an Irish wife and children.
For Murray, the question of identity is as complex as ever. But I feel now that they are too English. Their accents would put them firmly in the English camp as soon as they walked through the door of a new school. And I worry about the historical crimes they might be blamed for. Please update your payment details to keep enjoying your Irish Times subscription. When something big like Brexit happens, that knowledge gap is revealed Katie da Gama, a business and executive coach from Southampton , says she knew nothing about Irish history before she arrived here in Commenting on The Irish Times has changed.
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