Eamonn McKee is Ireland’s ambassador to Canada.
There’s a story of a guide at the National Museum of Ireland who tells visitors that a Bronze Age shield on display is 4,014 years old.
“Amazing,” says one museum-goer. “How so precise?” The guide replies: “Well, when I started here 14 years ago, it was 4,000 years old.”
This year, Ireland and Canada are celebrating 85 years of diplomatic relations. But that’s too precise – adding 300 more years to the relationship gives a truer measure of what the two countries share.
The contributions of Irish people have been many, if mostly unknown, in Canada. As an army officer, and governor-general of British North America, Ulster’s own Guy Carleton twice defended Quebec from American invasion during the Revolutionary War. Henry Caldwell, born in County Fermanagh, kick-started Canada’s lumber industry when, in 1804, he persuaded the British Admiralty to source their timber here. Dublin’s John Palliser conducted some of the earliest geographical surveys of Canada from Lake Superior to the southern Rocky Mountains.
Many know of Thomas D’Arcy McGee (and his Irish origins) as a founding father of Confederation, but how many have heard of County Wexford’s James Robert Gowan, architect of Canadian jurisprudence? As Confederation was bedding down, three governors-general in a row were Irish: Sir Charles Monck, John Young (1st Baron Lisgar), and Lord Dufferin. Of course, it’s necessary to present the context of these early contributions: Both willingly and unwillingly, the Irish were part of Britain’s project of colonial settlement in North America. One willing participant, at Sir John A. Macdonald’s request, was Nicholas Flood Davin, from County Limerick, who wrote a report in 1879 that formed the basis of Indian residential schools.
The British historian, David Olusoga, speaks of a generational shift in attitudes. On visits to stately homes in Britain, he noted on an episode of the podcast Empire, parents will admire the elegant architecture of the estate while their teenagers Google where the money came from to build it. The young members of the family, notes Mr. Olusoga, are prepared to see history not as a recreational activity or for its comforting stories, but as difficult and challenging. They have a more appropriate relationship with history and the “grubby, difficult, contradictory realities of the past.” In the case of the British aristocracy, their wealth-building often involved the trans-Atlantic slave trade and/or the further subjugation of people and pillaging of foreign lands the world over. This search for truth, for a more appropriate relationship with the past, is happening in Ireland, too.
As Canada has shown signs of progression, so too have the contributions of the Irish here. Three of the Famous Five suffragettes were of Irish descent, as was one of Canada’s most famous soldiers of the First World War, Sir Arthur Currie. Timothy Eaton, from Ballymena, ushered in the era of the modern department store in Canada. Patrick (Paddy) Reid from Belfast led the team that designed the modern Canadian flag, emblazoned with its red maple leaf.
In turn, Canada has contributed to Ireland’s development. The help British North Americans provided to about 100,000 Irish famine refugees in 1847 was astonishing. More broadly, Canada’s Parliament and dominion status served for decades as an aspiration for mainstream Irish nationalists. Yet Canada was the future that Ireland never had. Long frustrated by London, we wanted out of the Empire and to have our own republic. What followed was the Easter Rising of 1916, the War of Independence, and partition, all of which altered our aspirations.
In Northern Ireland, the outcome was a rough and often violent binary force field between nationalists and unionists. Canadians such as Justice Peter Cory and General John de Chastelain played noble and key roles in our search for peace. Today, the historic Irish contribution to Canada as a colony and dominion demonstrates that far less divides nationalists from unionists than extremists would have us believe.
The censorious, poor and depopulated Ireland in which I grew up is no more. Ireland today is immeasurably better, culturally vibrant, economically robust and our population is growing. We have a younger, more confident and clear-eyed generation that wants to know how the past has shaped our present, all the better to solve problems and build for the future. After 100 years of independence and a successful peace process, the exploration of our complex past is essential to reconciliation.
Canada and Ireland took different routes out of the British Empire. Yet our convergence has been remarkable. Internationally, we share and promote the same values: human rights, rule of law, the multilateral system, and the tripartite pillars of peace, security and development. At home, we welcome immigrants, their talents and their energy. Our societies are open, tolerant and diverse, and looking to be more so.
In my fourth and final year as ambassador to Canada, I will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day here with Micheál Martin, Ireland’s Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Foreign Affairs. That he has chosen to come to Canada for our national day on March 17 is a point of great pride for the Irish community. Celebrating 85 years of relations, as well as 300 years of a relationship, will be just a part of the visit. We’ll also be looking to the future and investing in our political, economic, community and cultural relations with Canada. If our past is anything to go by, that future is full of promise. And so, in celebrating our past, present, and future relations, here’s wishing you a happy St. Patrick’s Day.