Ambassador's Speech at the University of Notre Dame Seminar
University of Notre Dame Seminar, Rome, 16 June 2017
Ireland and Italy, partners in Europe
A dhaoine Uaisle, a cháirde, Irish friends and friends of Ireland,
It is an honour and a personal pleasure to have been invited to open this Notre Dame seminar. The programme which has been drawn up for the coming days is an exciting one both in depth and variety.
It was probably six months ago that Barry McCrea asked me to choose a title for my address this evening. At that stage, not yet having a clear idea of what I might say, I opted for a pretty broad theme: “Ireland and Italy, partners in Europe”. I have to say that, as today has drawn closer, I have been increasingly comfortable that my chosen theme captures pretty well what I want to say to you this evening. Please forgive me, however, if my approach to the subject may appear, at least at the outset, to be somewhat obtuse.
This evening is a significant one for me. Not just because I’m delighted to support the activities of a great American university which has strong links with Ireland. And not only because I’m an admirer of Barry McCrea both as an academic and as a writer. This evening is also important for me personally because this speech will be my last formal address as an Ambassador after nearly 40 years as a diplomat. I will be making a number of more informal speeches before I leave Rome next month; and, when I return to my Department in Dublin, I will have further speaking engagements over the next few years. But tonight’s address, my last as an Ambassador, is for me milestone.
I hope therefore you will indulge me, especially as I approach the age when I may normally be allowed to meander a little, if my train of thought does not appear - at least at the outset - to be setting out on a direct track towards its destination. However, I can assure you that there is at least some method in my madness and that I will get there eventually.
I thought, if you allow me, that I would tell you this evening about one of my regular morning walks here in the Eternal City. Almost every morning since we arrived in Rome four years ago, I have left the house early, at about a quarter to seven, for a walk around this the most beautiful city in the world. Before the previous evening’s mess has been cleared up. And before the tourists are out and about.
At this stage I have a few favourite Roman walks. The one I want to tell you about, which I have now done perhaps a hundred times, takes me from the Gianicolo where I live to the Campidoglio and then back home via a decent coffee and perhaps the lighting of a candle in a beautiful church.
Leaving my residence, the Villa Spada on the Gianicolo, I go down the steps beside the church of San Pietro in Montorio, through Trastevere, across the Isola Tiburina and then up the steps to the Campidoglio. I walk through the Michaelangelo’s piazza, past the statue of Marcus Aurelius, to a vantage point from which I can look down at the Roman Forum, with the Colosseum looming in the distance. I allow myself a couple of minutes there, not so much to think as to switch off my brain; perhaps to contemplate and to muse. I feel that being in the presence of so much beauty and so much history has to be good for me in some way although I would be reluctant to try to define the experience in words; maybe it has something to do with perspective.
Then retracing my steps down I turn into to the Piazza Venezia, skirting the Vittor Emmanuel monument, I make my way home past the Giacomo della Porta fountain with Bernini’s Turtles in Piazza Mattei, through the Jewish quarter and back home to the Gianicolo.
Why am I telling you this and what does it have to do with “Ireland and Italy, partners in Europe”? Don’t worry. I’m getting there.
As I was on this favourite walk a few weeks ago, reflecting on what I might say to you this evening, a thought struck me quite suddenly and very forcefully. Namely the reminders of death, destruction and suffering which haunt almost every step of the journey.
The Embassy itself was the headquarters of Garibaldi for several weeks in 1849 as he defended the Roman Republic. During that bloody campaign, many men were killed in the very house where I now live, including Garibaldi’s Chief-of-Staff, Luciano Manara, who was shot through the window of our library.
Just a few steps down Via Garibaldi is the Memorial to all those who died in various defences of Rome in the 19th century, an ossuary containing the bones of people of every age, including an 11 year old drummer boy.
Then immediately on the left is the church of San Pietro in Montorio which contains the remains of Hugh O’Neill, the Great O’Neill, who led Irish forces in the Nine year War against Queen Elizabeth I at the end of the 16th century in which 130,000 people are estimated to have died.
When I get down to Trastevere, on one side of Piazza Santa Maria there is a plaque to the many locals who died with the Italian resistance to German occupation; and on the other side of the piazza the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, which witnessed both Christian persecutions and bloody in-fighting within the early church itself.
As one crosses the Isola Tiburina and head towards the former Roman citadel of the Campidoglio one thinks of the many times Rome was sacked - by Vandals, Visigoths and Gauls - and the destruction they wrought. Walking up the steps to the Campidoglio, there is barely time to note the small statue of Cola di Rienzo on the left and to remember the casualties of his 14th century revolt. Then looking down over the Roman Forum one can see the Via Sacra running from the triumphal arch of Titus, built in honour of his defeat of the Jewish people, to the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus whose military adventures stretched from the Tigris River to Scotland. And one thinks also of all the other dictators and generals who over the centuries “Cried havoc and let slip the dogs of war” before walking in triumph along the Via Sacra, parading their prisoners and their spoils; not least Julius Caesar after his victory in the Gallic wars in which - according to the lowest estimates - hundreds of thousands of people died. Looking at the scene, one might also spare a passing thought for the 400,000 people who died for other people’s entertainment in the Colosseum and the great enemies of Rome who were executed or starved to death in the Mamertine Prison.
Descending from the Campidoglio, from the edge of the Piazza Venezia one can see on the right the eternal flame burning in memory of the unknown soldier and, to my left, the balcony from which Mussolini stirred up more trouble; reminders of the two great wars of the last century in which countless people lost their lives. On the far side of the Piazza, Trajan’s Column, commemorating the Dacian wars in which hundreds of thousands more young men went out to “break their strength and die”, barely rates a passing thought. And straight ahead the house where Napoleon’s mother lived. I wonder did she occasionally spare a thought for Austerlitz and Marengo and Moscow and Waterloo. Was she aware, I wonder, of the Duke of Wellington’s comment as he surveyed the dead and those dying in agony on the battlefield of Waterloo the day after the battle that “the next worst thing to a great defeat is a great victory”.
And then home through the Jewish quarter. There is nothing more to add except that I sometimes stop to look at the small gold cobblestones which have been placed into the footpath to commemorate specific houses from which individual Jews were rounded up and transported to the gas chambers.
To remind us that each person who died in the holocaust and indeed in all the wars across the centuries was not a statistic but an individual, last week I noted what was written on just one of the gold cobblestones in Via Arenula: Georgina Guiglerma Coen. Born 1888. Arrested 17 October 1943. Deported to Auschwitz. Murdered 23 October 1943.
The sad layers of history I have described are not, of course, a reflection on this great city or country. On the contrary, the fact that memories of such suffering are embroidered into the history of the Eternal City, synonymous with great art and great faith, seared into the history this great country - the cradle of civilization - merely underlines the universal nature of the human capacity for destruction, a capacity which has so often reached its greatest tragic expression on this European continent.
So what has this to do with “Ireland and Italy, partners in Europe”? It is a simple reminder that to be “partners in Europe” today, to be partners in the European Union at the outset of the 21st century, is not a bland description of a matter-of-fact state of affairs. It is both a profound reality and a call to action.
The European Union which has brought peace to our continent, which projects consistently decent values beyond its borders, which rightly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012, has not emerged by casual happenstance but through political wisdom and brave leadership. The European Union is a necessarily complex, necessarily delicate, necessarily imperfect construction. Defending it, while seeking of course to improve it, is not a whimsical option amongst others but one of the great moral imperatives of our day.
There is only one European Union. The imperfect and extraordinary one that we have today. If this European Union were to disappear under the onslaught of scepticism or - equally dangerous – burdened by the unrealistic expectations of well-meaning perfectionists, there will be no European Union in its place. If anyone has the slightest doubt about what, over time, would take the place the European Union I suggest you join me on my morning walk.
The fact that Ireland and Italy can today describe ourselves as “partners” in Europe is no mean thing. The fact that the importance of the European Union is so obvious does not mean it was inevitable. The fact that we take it for granted does not mean its future is guaranteed.
I could go into detail about today’s excellent bilateral relationship between Ireland and Italy as I often do in speeches. But this evening I just want to offer you a quick snapshot. Mutual admiration for each other’s cultures, a deep and growing trading relationship, a rapidly increasing number of visitors in both directions. The central fact which I want to emphasise is that Ireland and Italy are closer today than we have ever been before, no longer distant admirers but close partners. And the fundamental reason for this, the necessary basis for this, is our shared membership of the European Union.
The single market, the largest market in the world, plays an important part. But there is so much more than the European market: Irish and Italian Ministers and officials sitting around the same table day-in day-out. Common institutions. The election of democratic representatives to the same parliament. Acceptance of the same rule of law. Working together to promote consistently decent values in the wider world. Support for the same objectives when we agree; reaching mutually respectful compromises when necessary; and, on the small number of occasions when Ireland and Italy don’t agree, settling our differences through agreed procedures and rules.
The Irish/Italian relationship, although modest in global terms, is a significant and important one in a world which knows more hostility than friendship, more confrontation than compromise, more conflict than partnership. The closest relationship enjoyed by our two countries at any time in history, a relationship made possible by the European Union.
I would like to say one more thing about the close bilateral relationship between Italy and Ireland. In a world in which increasingly so many, looking to the choices offered in the Book of Ecclesiastes, see this as a time to pull down rather than a time to build up, the Irish-Italian relationship is a modest but significant building block in constructing a safer and more interconnected world.
And fortunately in the European Union we have many more such building blocks. Ireland has 26 other such bilateral relationships with our other EU partners; and Italy has 26 other such relationships. In total, between all of the individual EU Member States, there are 377 bilateral relationships, a rich and complex tapestry of friendships in a world much of which often seems to be unravelling; a tapestry of treaties and laws, of respect and accommodation, that provides the basis for continued stability, peace and relative prosperity on our continent and that allows us together to play a constructive role in the wider world in support of human rights, the rule of law, free trade, conflict prevention and in the vital struggles against climate change and development challenges.
This is the background against which the Irish people, with according to the latest opinion poll 86% favouring continued membership of the European Union, and an even higher percentage amongst young people, this is the background against which we in Ireland are opting to maintain our commitment to the European project. Yes it is obviously in our economic interests. But it is about more than that. It is about recognizing our responsibility to history at this challenging time. And it is about our role and position in the world.
I don’t intend this evening to set out chapter and verse about the difficult Brexit negotiations ahead, which will pose major challenges for Ireland, except - in the context of the theme of my address - to acknowledge the immense support which Ireland has received and is continuing to receive from Italy as well as from our other partners in relation to our concerns; support which is both instinctive and at the same time carefully thought through. In particular, the support of our European partners to find creative solutions to ensure that Brexit does not undermine in any way the Northern Ireland peace process for which the European Union has for so many years provided both generous support and the necessary context. As one senior Italian said to me: “your red lines are our red lines”. Partnership doesn’t come much stronger than that.
Ireland’s continued commitment to Europe is, in my view, an important further step in the assertion of Ireland’s psychological independence. As a small island dominated for so long, both before and after independence, by a larger neighbour, our accession to the European Union provided us, to a greater extent than ever before, with a wider international stage. It deepened the sense that we were taking “our place among the nations of the earth”, as Robert Emmet had famously wished more than two centuries earlier.
Psychologically, shared membership of the EU placed Ireland and the UK on a more equal footing as nations than at any time in our history. Access for Ireland to significant influence in a world beyond our nearest neighbour was good for us as well as for our relationship with our nearest neighbour. And the fact that from the outset Ireland coped with EU membership at least as well as Britain in terms of negotiating skills, alliance-building and personal impact was also very important psychologically.
Later our decision to join the euro, breaking the link with sterling, represented another important step in asserting our independence of thought and action.
But developments in Ireland over the past year, since the Brexit referendum last June, represent in my view perhaps the most important step yet taken by Ireland in the assertion of its political maturity and national identity. Ireland will, of course, be affected by Brexit. Affected more than any other Member State apart, needless to say, from the UK itself. However, despite our geographic proximity to the UK and the significant overlap in our media sources, the Irish people have been almost entirely unaffected by the Brexit debate; unaffected by the xenophobia, insularity and lack of self-confidence which characterised so many of the arguments put forward by those who argued that Britain should go it alone.
I have little doubt that Britain and Ireland can maintain the good relations we have developed over the last few decades, largely due to our shared membership of the EU, and protect our shared achievements. However, it would be wrong to pretend that things will be the same. It is not just that our two countries have made different choices in the past year. It is that, underlying those choices, we now find in Ireland that our way of seeing the world and interacting with it is – suddenly, surprisingly and strikingly – diverging more significantly than ever before from that of our British friends.
Paradoxically, the reasons that make an overwhelming majority of Irish people strongly supportive of Ireland’s continued EU membership are precisely the very same reasons that a majority of British people voted to leave. Let me give you briefly some examples of how the same reasons have led to radically different conclusions on our two islands.
Many Brexit voters were influenced by the argument that leaving the European Union would make their own country more “independent”; some of the Brexiteers going so far as to call 23 June “Independence Day”. Indeed you have probably seen it argued by some Brexiteers that the British are the only Europeans who truly value their independence. While such myopia may be regarded as just plain silly when one thinks of the fierce attachment of say Finland or Lithuania to their independence, it reaches the level of unprecedented historical amnesia that any British person might believe that Ireland needs to be reminded of the importance of independence. The real difference on this matter between Britain and Ireland is that whereas many Brexit supporters seem to view independence as a delicate flame to be hidden away in a sacred temple like one of those in the Roman Forum, protected by the Vestal Virgins of UKIP, for Ireland independence is something which defines our very place in, and interaction with, the wider world.
Another argument deployed by the Brexiteers has been about sovereignty. Sovereignty for many of them, like independence, is also apparently something to be hidden under a bushel. To be stored up for a rainy day. To be protected from the sunlight. In Ireland, in common with Italy our other EU partners, we view sovereignty in the 21st century as something to be shared; appropriately and effectively.
Perhaps the strangest reason some Brexiteers give for their choice of Britain’s future path is that Britain should “go global”. But again it is precisely for the very same reason, namely our wish to be as global as possible, that the Irish people remain absolutely committed to the European Union. We believe in Ireland that that there is no contradiction between developing the closest contractual relations with our natural neighbourhood and market and developing deeper links with the wider world. On the contrary, the European Union in our view has the international reach and negotiating heft to make global reach most effective.
It is in vogue in many countries now to speak of “putting one’s country first”. It is a slogan which has apparently impressed many Brexiteers. But the simple fact is that pretty well every Government in every country puts its country first; I know that mine does. What is at issue in each case is not whether to prioritize national interests but rather how to prioritise them. Are national interests to be defined narrowly and pursued as if the ambition is to be the masters of our own little world? Or are national interests to be defined broadly and pursued intelligently taking account of the interests of others, recognizing that the world we live in, the Europe we live in, is necessarily one of interdependence, compromise and shared interests.
Perhaps the most often stated aim of those leading the Brexit campaign was that they wanted to “take control”. Indeed it was their main slogan. Funnily enough, in Ireland - in common with Italy and our other partners - we also want to have maximum control in relation to the issues that affect us; and that is precisely why we are opting overwhelmingly to stay in the European Union. Many issues from education to health to policing will, of course, continue to be controlled largely at national level since the EU only has the powers which all Member States have conferred on it. But if we also want to have control of the issues which by definition do not stop at borders - from trade to the environment to energy to crime - we must obviously address them on a cross border basis; and the European Union remains the most effective cross border mechanism the world has seen.
And the biggest fear of all stoked by those arguing for Brexit was about the free movement of people, fear of the number of foreigners living in and entering the UK. Not many people may know that the percentage of foreign born people in Ireland is now higher than the percentage in the United Kingdom. But these visitors including many Italians who have come to live in Ireland in recent times, somewhat as the millions of Irish travelled to the United States over the centuries and became involved in building up that country, including with the establishment of great institutions such as Notre Dame University, these “new Irish” as we call them, are welcomed because they build up our economy, enrich our culture, strengthen our sports teams, fill our churches and our mosques, diversify our tastes and make us proud to be Europeans. And, as this very week has shown, the “new Irish” also now provide Ireland with Prime Ministers.
Finally, the new wave of populism is, I believe, a rejection of four things: complexity, compromise, diversity and the inevitability of imperfection. The populists preach that there are simple and perfect solutions, that they can have their cake and eat it, and that those who are different from them are to be feared and rejected. No wonder they can’t stand the European Union. The European Union which is and will always be complex because the simple ways of the past consistently and tragically failed. The European Union which knows in its bones that compromise is not a dirty word. The European Union which is forged out of diversity. The European Union which recognizes the imperfection at the heart of every human enterprise and has constructed delicate, subtle institutions and mechanisms which are capable of softening and reconciling those imperfections.
I am delighted, as I prepare to leave Rome, that Ireland and Italy remain committed partners in this great European enterprise. I am pleased also that our Union as a whole, and our two countries in particular, remain at a deep level close friends of the United States despite some passing challenges.
Thank you for your patience. I hope that all of you, whether you live in Rome or are visiting, will enjoy this exciting conference. And I hope that maybe the next time you glance at some of the historical sites in this great city you will recall for a moment that if some day in Europe our dearly won ploughshares are to be beaten back into swords, the fault will lie not in our stars but in ourselves.