FCO files reveal top British diplomat's take on "unhappy" Ireland

Newly-released historical papers from the Foreign Office show Britain’s decidedly undiplomatic take on the state of Ireland

Margaret Thatcher shakes hands with the then-Irish Taoiseach Dr Garret Fitzgerald, the Northern Ireland Secretary Tom King (right) and Commonwealth Secretary Geoffrey Howe (second from right) at the signing of the Anglo-Irish agreement in 1985. Image: PA

By Jonathan Owen

25 Aug 2016

Britain’s former Ambassador to Dublin described Ireland as an “unhappy island” dominated by “social taboos and hang-ups”, with politicians incapable of attending to detail.

The decidedly undiplomatic remarks, made by Alan Goodison in a report to foreign secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe in December 1983, are revealed in new papers released by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the National Archives this week.

The British ambassador told Howe: “This unhappy island’s problems are complex enough to defy superficial examination.”

He had “hesitated” to write to Howe partly due to “the assurances I have received from a number of Irishmen that I must never believe what an Irishman says, and the logical confusion this engenders.”

The notion of a united Ireland is one which is regarded as a “a figment of politicians’ fantasy” by a substantial number of people in Ireland, with the economic costs of such a move “unacceptable” he said.

“Life in the Republic is filled with taboos and hang-ups other English-speaking people do not share,” Goodison added.

He criticised the approach of his Irish counterparts to complicated issues.

“The trouble is that joint sovereignty is the most elusive and impractical of concepts. This does not matter to the Irish. It is their habit to look for a commitment in principle, leaving the details to be looked at later. They would not understand us if we said that the value of a proposal could only be judged if its details were known.”

Goodison commented: “They think that if they press us heard enough – and they don’t even know how to do that – we shall tell them what the answer is. I do not believe that we know what the answer is either.”