Throwing Anglo-Irish relations under the banjaxed Brexit bus has caused untold hurt and harm. Anna Soubry’s apology to the Irish people yesterday, though welcome, cannot assuage the damage that Tory Brexit has caused.
Nestled between bog and gorse, infused with the ubiquitous aroma of burning peat, is my family home in the West of Ireland. The Connaught landscape is dotted with almost indiscernible white crosses on high, inaccessible land. The un-consecrated burial grounds where famine victims, like my ancestors, were buried.
When Priti Patel threatened to starve Irish people into Brexit submission, she picked at a scab that has taken centuries to heal. My family’s reaction echoed that of the nation, as the tearful emojis flooded my Whatsapp threads this week.
Over 1 million people starved and another 1 million emigrated on "coffin ships" to escape starvation. In 1847, when the potato crop failed for two consecutive years, the famished Irish, whose land was appropriated under British rule, were evicted by their absentee English landlords. Instead of providing relief, Charles Trevelyan, assistant secretary to HM Treasury, continued to export food from Ireland, abandoning the poor to the ravages of the free market.
The scars of the famine run deep and are immortalised in the balled, “The fields of Athenry”. If you’ve ever walked into a pub in Ireland with a trad session in full flow, you’ll have sung along to the haunting chorus. Even if you can’t discern the lyrics, there’s a melancholy that descends the room as we close our eyes and sing the saddest song in homage to our ancestors.
Note to Tory Brexiters: There is no context in which it is ever acceptable to threaten, hint or joke about using food as a weapon against the Irish. Or anyone.
Meanwhile, also this week, the Belfast Telegraph published a survey which revealed that 65% in Northern Ireland would now vote Remain -(a dramatic increase on the 57% in 2016) and 60% think a united Ireland is more likely after Brexit.
As a (protestant) friend of mine from Belfast said, “Theresa May bangs on about the will of the English people, ignoring entirely the will of the Scottish and Northern Irish people who voted to Remain in the EU”.
Who could’ve imagined that a united Ireland would be delivered, albeit accidentally, by a hapless Tory government.
