Michael Portillo’s admission that even as a British Cabinet Minister he was ignorant about Irish history is interesting, but not surprising.
The main problem for Irish diplomats in most of their negotiations with the British is lack of their knowledge or understanding about the relationship between the two countries.
It continues to this day, as evidenced by Boris Johnson’s gaffe when he said crossing the Irish border was like crossing from Camden to Islington in London.
I know both borders very well. At the height of The Troubles in the North my car has been stopped several times and searched by armed security forces from both countries at the Irish border.
On the northern side, heavily camouflaged British soldiers lay with blackened faces in ditches at the roadside while their colleagues, or members of the RUC (as the police service in the North was known at the time), questioned me about my business.
I experienced none of this when I crossed the London boundary between Islington and Camden many times. To be quite frank, I wasn’t even aware I was moving from one borough into another. There were no police or soldiers and even the pavement and tarred road-tops didn’t change from grey to dark-grey or black to deeper black like they do on the Irish border.
But I digress!
Michael Portillo’s highlighting of his ignorance about Irish history is refreshing.
After all, he was a Cabinet minister under John Major at a vital time in British-Irish relations.
To hear a Cabinet minister from those days, a man who also had a first-class degree in history from Cambridge University, admit he was a dunce in Ireland might give others from his background the courage to reflect that they should have been better informed in school.
They might more easily understand the next 10 years or so when, despite their past ignorance, Ireland is likely to be reunited.
Brexit has virtually guaranteed that!
I look forward to seeing Michael Portillo’s next tv documentary on RTE on Wednesday – Hawks and Doves: The Crown and Ireland’s War of Independence.
His series on travelling by rail in many countries around the world were riveting. I loved them. I particularly loved the way he delved into Bradshaw’s guide to consider how the places he visited have changed over more than a century.
For Hawks and Doves, he will be looking into a long trail of documents by the British administration.
It appears that’s when he realised how little Britain knew about Ireland compared with how much Irish people know about British history.
“Ignorance of Ireland among the British is rather shocking”, he says. “I’m afraid it’s a theme that occurs again and again.”
If he applies the very high standards of accuracy in his rail series to the documentary on the Irish war of independence, I have no doubt it could help remove some of the British ignorance of Ireland.
At the very least some of them might consider there’s no way crossing from one London borough to the other is the same as crossing the Irish border.
