Building on a shared experience

The Irish Association for Cultural, Economic and Social Relations, to give it its full title, was launched in 1938 by unionists and nationalists who were alarmed at the increasing bitterness and widening divisions of the 1930s. They agreed to differ on partition and to concentrate on promoting co-operation and friendship through social, economic and cultural relations.

They were, in the 1930s, somewhat ahead of their time. A preliminary document suggested the aims of the proposed association should be to further better relations between "(a) Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland: (b) the people of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, and (c) the people of Great Britain and Ireland", a formula to become fashionable half a century later as the Three Strands approach.

The association was not always regarded as so mainstream. In 1961, when it was holding its annual conference in Belfast, it sought permission to pay a visit to Hillsborough Castle, then Government House. Lord Brookeborough's cabinet considered the request but turned it down because of `the general background of the association" and the fact that some of its objectives were "suspect on political grounds".

In changed times, the association this May co-hosted a 1798 seminar in that same Hillsborough Castle. On March 17th, its jubilee dinner brought more than 100 guests to Parliament Buildings, Stormont.

The first moves towards forming the association began in 1936, with a modest controversy involving students at Queen's University. The university's debating club invited Mr Frank MacDermot, then a member of Dail Eireann, to deliver an address on "The Future of Unionism".

Some sections of the Unionist Party took exception to his visit and the students found themselves involved in public controversy. The vice-chancellor was not amused and reminded the students of the dangers of alienating the support of those who had the power to assist the university financially.

The row caught the attention of Maj Gen Hugh Montgomery, of Blessingbourne, Co Tyrone, a distinguished veteran of the Boer and Great Wars, a landowner, and an unusually liberal unionist member of Tyrone County Council, with a lively interest in improving community relations, and in finding others of like mind with whom he could work.

Montgomery wrote to the students, congratulating them on their initiative, and eventually met them. That meeting, together with contacts with other small groups and individuals anxious to improve relations between Catholics and Protestants, and unionists and nationalists, resulted in the foundation of the association in 1938.

Its first president was Lord Charlemont, who had served for many years as Craigavon's education minister. Its vice-presidents were Gen Sir Hubert Gough, Maj Gen Sir George Franks, and the by then senator Frank MacDermot. Montgomery took the post of honorary treasurer.

Since then the association has functioned under two committees, one in Belfast, one in Dublin, and a council drawn from both, its presidency alternating between North and South. Senator Mary Henry is the current president.

Though working mostly within its own membership, the association has also contributed to the wider debate in Ireland. It was a study sponsored by the association which led to the publishing in 1962 of The North- ern Ireland Problem: A Study in Group Relations, the book by Charles Carter and Denis Barritt which is still considered a major contribution to the understanding of the situation.

In recent years, leaders of the main constitutional parties, North and South, have found the association a suitable forum for the presentation of their viewpoints.

Today, the association has to face a world very different from that of 1938. Then it was the only body working for better North-South relations and improved unionist-nationalist understanding. Now everyone is busy in that field.

Then, a small group of articulate, well-connected individuals could exercise an influence out of all proportion to their numbers. Today, a voluntary grouping with scant resources and a total active membership of several hundred, calling itself the Irish Association for Cultural, Economic and Social Relations, might seem an anachronism.

In recent years, the association has sought to transform itself by employing a professional director and by expanding its activities. It is now hoping also to transform the concept of its membership to include a wider community which can be involved through the Internet and publications.

As the association says in its fund-raising and membership drive: "At a time when increasing emphasis is placed on diversity and distinct traditions in Ireland, the association remains an Irish association, convinced that the shared experience of living on the island is bond enough upon which to building understanding and reconciliation.

"It is in exploring and building on that shared experience and identity, regardless of political orientation, that the Irish Association sees for itself a continuing and unique role."

The Irish Association may no longer be unique, but there are still few organisations which can count members of both the Orange Order and Fianna Fail in their ranks.

Dr Dennis Kennedy is vice-president of the Irish Association and chairman of its Northern committee