It Could Be Said #42 President Biden's Jolly Boy Outing
Joe Biden having the best three days of his life demonstrates Ireland's remarkable soft power
Joe Biden has finished a three-day visit to Ireland with a reception in County Mayo that was his Wrestlemania moment. An avuncular veteran who revels in the reality that he will never inspire the rage or adulation that his two larger than life predecessors inspired, received a reaction he’s never encountered before in a career in public service that entered its sixth decade this year. Nearly thirty-thousand people roared their approval as he celebrated not only his personal links with Ireland, but the broader relationship between the two English-speaking Republics that sit outside The Commonwealth.
That a nation of 5 million could command the undivided attention of the most powerful man in the world for three days gives the lie to a frequent Remainer trope. At the height of the Brexit psychodrama, you would not have to look very hard to find British or European commentators that credited the geopolitical muscles supplied by Brussels for Ireland getting the better of an argument with Britain for the first time in both countries history.
This not only misread the situation as an argument between Ireland and Britain, when the real problem was that the British House of Commons had become so badly divided, it could not agree a coherent negotiating position when it came to what it wanted from Brexit. But it also didn’t give Ireland enough credit for the repeated victories it has achieved over Britain.
Obviously, Ireland famously fought Britain at the height of its imperial power and prestige to a stalemate in the Anglo-Irish War, securing far greater autonomy than the Government of Ireland Act 1920 had begrudgingly conceded. Ireland would over the next thirty years cleverly work to enhance this autonomy until it was formally recognised by everyone as an independent republic in 1949. These gambits included:
Engaging in various forms of protectionism, which whilst impoverishing in the short term, did help to lessen interdependence with Britain
Escaping its commitments to pay back its share of the British national debt in return for dropping demands for any adjustment to the border with Northern Ireland
Using the 1931 Statute of Westminster that strengthened the autonomy of all British Dominions as an opportunity to further distance itself from Britain in various ways, including creating a separate Irish citizenship in 1935.
Exploiting the fact that Britain needed Ireland to acknowledge Edward VIII’s abdication as King-Emperor and replacement by his brother George VI in 1936 to reduce references to the British monarch’s authority in Irish law to the bare minimum.
Successfully asserting its right to remain neutral during the war against Nazi Germany, so confirming that Ireland genuinely had a separate foreign and military policy. Note that both South Africa and Iraq saw their governments overthrown by Britain when they tried to do something similar.
Suddenly announcing its desire to become a Republic whilst Britain was stretched with domestic economic crisis and the withdrawal from India.
But Ireland’s greatest diplomatic victory over Britain during this period actually had nothing to do with its future but Britain’s. At the end of World War Two, Northern Ireland was praised by many in Great Britain as ‘loyal Ulster’ who unlike its southern neighbour had played a full role in the war effort. And the Protestant cadre that ran the province wondered how they may best spend this newly acquired political capital. After briefly considering going for Dominion status themselves (which would have given them greater freedom to entrench their political hegemony without having to pay lip service to mainlander qualms about anti-Catholic discrimination) they settled on asking for Britain’s formal name to be changed to that of “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ulster”. The British Government actually agreed with the proposal and started preparing to make that change.
There was however a problem. The Irish Government was furious at the suggestion, believing that it was tantamount to a claim on three counties of Ulster that Sir James Craig had agreed would not stay part of Britain in 1920. It also suspected that such a move was an attempt to further harden the divide between the two Irish states by renouncing Northern Ireland’s Irishness and giving it a national story separate from the rest of the island of Ireland.
Britain may have been a power in rapid decline by the late 1940s, but it was still a genuine world power, which ruled great swathes of Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. But something strange happened. Key allies of Britain sided with Ireland rather than its more powerful neighbour, with Canada and Australia being particularly outspoken about their objections to the move. Their concerns carried greater weight than most, because any change to Britain’s formal name would have implications for the title of the monarch it shared with its former dominions. Both nations threatened to formally protest at the newly-formed United Nations if Britain pushed the issue further. Britain ultimately had to drop the idea with Northern Ireland continuing to be the province’s formal name, even if most British people regularly called it Ulster until early this century.
And this of course brings us back to Joe Biden seemingly having the best three days of his life whilst visiting Ireland. Because both Canada and Australia cited that their concerns was largely motivated by the impact such a name change would have on the Irish diaspora, with Canada particularly concerned that angering Irish-Americans would harm their relations with the United States. This dynamic would also repeatedly trip Britain up during the Troubles, as its overwhelming protestant ruling class struggled to explain dracionian security measures to Americans primed to suspect Britain’s motives towards Irish Catholics. If people think Joe Biden hates Britain because he only spent one day in Belfast or wouldn’t do an informal walkabout in a country that had a senior police officer gun downed by paramilitaries only last month, they should remember that Ted Kennedy managed to impose an arms embargo on the Royal Ulster Constabulary at the height of the Cold War!
There is an attitude amongst some in Britain that Ireland being able to marshal its kith and kin overseas to advocate for it is an unfair advantage cruelly denied to Britain. It is obviously annoying for Britain to repeatedly find its allies side with a smaller nation, in part due to tenuous familial connections. And I’ve seen many an Irish person agree there is something silly at Joe Biden’s Irish joy, and maybe even something demeaning at how the Irish state has mobilised to indulge the fantasies of an old man. But the affection that he and many other people share for the land of their forefathers has been an enduring strength of a country that over the past 100 years has repeatedly played a weak hand exceptionally well. And it’s not fallen into Ireland’s lap - its political and cultural elite has cultivated those links, and encouraged those feelings, indeed Biden’s trip included an announcement of greater funder for a genealogy centre that would help those overseas better trace their Irish heritage. Nor is Ireland a one-trick pony, as best demonstrated by its staggeringly successful outreach to France in the 1950s to assure them that despite its close relationship with Britain, and neurtality in the Cold War, it would play a full role in Europe if it became a member of what was then the European Economic Community.
If we in Britain feel envious about Ireland’s latest moment in the sun, we would do well to remember the cultural links that we exploit. After all our King not only serves as monarch in fourteen other countries but plays an elevated role across the broader Commonwealth, an organisation that despite its claims to be post-imperial has quietly accepted primogeniture. And thanks to the global reach of English, our tradespeople, athletes and artists have greater reach than any country of comparable size.
If we now worry those links are decaying, maybe we need to become more attentive to building soft power through greater investment in tourism, diplomacy, and cultural exports. And what better place to start by trying to be a better neighbour to the nation that is both our closest contemporary friend and most egregious historic victim1.
There are obviously peoples overseas Britain treated far worse than the Irish, but those crimes are consistent with how other European nations treated people across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Whereas I think its genuinely hard to find a maiinstream European nation (i.e. not Russia or Turkey) that ruled a neighbour as long as Britain did Ireland, and treated it so badly. So our cruelty towards Ireland really is a most exceptional blunder and crime.