A Chara, - Commenting on recent responses to Tony Blair's statement on the British role in the Irish Famine, Mary Holland writes: "The Prime Minister was reprimanded by the Daily Telegraph for encouraging `the self pitying nature of Irish nationalism'. There was a real danger, the paper warned, that Mr Blair's letter would simply feed `the grievance culture which allows Nationalist Ireland to place the blame for all the country's ills at the door of the Brits, ultimately justifying terrorism'. It was a theme taken up in the London Independent, which referred to the Irish `culture of victimhood'.
This brought to mind Richard Kearney's excellent work, Post Nationalist Ireland: Politics, Culture, Philosophy (1997), in which he reminds us of the existence of the often forgotten, yet very real, phenomenon of British nationalism. A lesson for the British press might be that in their disapproval of Irish nationalism (whatever they construe it to be) they should not forget their own and its legacy.
Dare I say, Tony Blair has recognised this fact and taken the first steps to "outing" it. Reconciliation will be impossible so long as all the cards are not on the table. Indeed, we have a few skeletons to shed ourselves. This is certainly no bad thing. In ridding all of ourselves of guilt, we restore another's innocence.
The attitude of the British press is at best short on substance. Ms Holland's comments display a far greater deal of meaningful insight when she states: "We have seen, from our own experience in the North, that an expression of obviously sincere contrition for having inflicted suffering can make trust seem possible in even the grimmest situation". - Is mise le Incas,
Montreal,
Canada.