Current Affairs: Garret FitzGerald is that rarest of human beings: a career politician and public intellectual, writes Brigid Laffan
Ireland in the World is a sequel to Garret FitzGerald's Reflections on the Irish State, published in 2002. Once again, we are indebted to his continuing interest in and engagement with the history, culture, politics and society of this small island on the fringes of Europe. In chapter 16 of the new volume, he recalls that when asked one time what quality he would most wish his children to possess, he replied without hesitation or thought: "Vitality". That quality he wished for his children, he possesses to an extraordinary extent himself.
During the second Nice campaign, I experienced that energy and vigour at close hand. I have a particularly vivid memory of standing with him outside Lansdowne Road before an autumn Irish international. He revelled in meeting people and engaging them on the issues. His very presence on the campaign persuaded a large segment of the electorate to reverse the outcome of the first referendum.
As he approaches his 80th birthday, the pages of this volume remind us that his lively engagement with ideas and issues is undimmed. He is that rarest of human beings: a career politician and a public intellectual.
Four themes dominate the book: Irish history; Northern Ireland; Irish society; and Ireland and the wider world. Garret FitzGerald brings to all four themes a passionate interest in the development of an independent Irish State, its society and place in the world. The historical section spans the Act of Union in 1800, the difficult birth and early years of the State and the evolution of Irish neutrality. The opening chapter, an analysis of the decline of the Irish language, is a gem that should be compulsory reading for all young historians, geographers and social scientists. It is truly interdisciplinary in reach and ambition.
The historical chapters grapple with the consequences of the Treaty settlement and the subsequent policies and actions of Irish governments regarding Northern Ireland. The policies and actions of Lloyd George, WT Cosgrave and Eamon de Valera are scrutinised. The core of the argument is that the attention and focus of Irish leaders in the post-independence period was on securing the stability of the State and legitimising it in the eyes of its population. However, the author suggests that in so doing, the prospect of political unification was undermined. The State pursued a policy of official nationalism that reified the Irish language and constitutionalised the special position of the Catholic Church rather than adopting a more pluralist approach to State identity.
The concern with Northern Ireland that runs through the historical chapters is elaborated on in the three chapters dedicated to the subject. FitzGerald offers his personal insights and account of the origins and negotiations of the Belfast Agreement and the normalisation of British-Irish relations. Interestingly, he argues that without economic catch-up, the British would not have developed a relationship of relative psychological equality with their smaller neighbour.
The final sections of the volume offer two very different perspectives. One section explores the dynamics of contemporary geopolitics and the other the character of Irish political culture and Irish society. The author compares the multilateralism of the EU with the unilateralism of the US and makes a cogent case for the European strategy of managing the challenges of world politics.
The final three chapters turn inwards to Ireland. FitzGerald grapples with the shifting sexual mores of the Irish, the breakdown of the moral authority of the Catholic Church and the rise of individualism. There is a deep concern about the weakening of social solidarity and the absence of a civic morality. He draws on my colleague, Dr Iseult Honohan's seminal work on civic republicanism to make the case for a pluralist Ireland based on social solidarity. Not for Garret FitzGerald the Thatcher dictum "there is no such thing as society".
This volume elaborates the moral precepts that informed his political life and his hopes for this island. FitzGerald's ideal Ireland is a republic based on pluralism, civic engagement and social justice. This brand of civic republicanism should be reclaimed by Irish society.
Liberties Press is to be congratulated for producing such a handsome volume. The painting by FitzGerald's daughter, Mary, which adorns the cover - Garret Reflecting with Friends - is particularly appropriate, as it helps one to imagine the conversations and debates he would have had on the topics covered in the book.
Prof Brigid Laffan is principal of the college of human sciences in UCD
Ireland in the World: Further Reflections. By Garret FitzGerald, Liberties Press, 254pp. €25