Ireland and the United Kingdom are increasingly being seen as “safe zones” by international investors because of global turmoil, business leaders told Taoiseach Micheál Martin and British prime minister Keir Starmer last month.
Speaking in Dublin Castle, Mr Martin said the opinion was shared even before the eruption of President Donald Trump’s tariff wars during meetings in Liverpool last month “with a number of big companies” after the Irish/UK summit.
“They said one of the safe zones that investors are looking at is the Irish-British area, with two governments, a lot of stability, and hope for investment. This area is a safer bet in terms of long-term investment,” he said.
Mr Starmer’s determination to put Ireland and UK relationships on a new footing has cleared the way for “substantive” co-operation on renewable energy and other subjects, he said.
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Mr Martin was speaking at the fourth Shared Island forum, which concentrated on the cultural heritage of both parts of the island of Ireland and how that could be used to strengthen ties.
Repeating the Government’s declaration that it will spend an extra €1 billion on Shared Island cross-Border projects over the next decade, the Taoiseach said major opportunities lay ahead.
Reaching a “more reconciled future”, however, would pose challenging questions for us all”, especially surrounding how we could “be more accommodating of our different identities and traditions across this island – Irish, British, both or neither”, he said.
A new storytelling project across all parts of the island would reveal the often-complicated histories of individual towns and townlands to the people living there today, he told the gathering.
Borrowing former SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon’s phrase, “shared home place”, Mr Martin said the work would reveal stories that “may well be different” from those long understood.
“If we really listen and truly engage, I am sure that we will find that they can be all the richer for that,” said Mr Martin, who established the now-successful Shared Island project nearly five years ago.
The project “will be open to people across every town on this island” to build new connections and it would engage, too, with Irish communities in Britain and elsewhere, but also the Anglo-Irish and Ulster-Scots traditions on the island.
“Irishness – in all its variety – does not stop at the Border, neither does Britishness – in all of its [variety]. Nor is there a county on this island that has not been shaped by both, and more besides,” he told the Dublin Castle gathering.
Meanwhile, a €20 million budget has been created to pay for “a flourishing of arts and cultural exchange across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain” over the next five years, he said.
On the disagreements between Dublin and London over unsolved Troubles killings, Mr Martin said “adequate mechanisms for justice and truth” must be found to “meet the legitimate expectations of victims’ families”.
Negotiations have been under way for months between Irish and British officials on the issue, and there are indications that matters could come to a head in the next fortnight, sources have told The Irish Times.
Welcoming “the fresh consideration” being given by London, Mr Martin said the Government “stands ready to consider any approach” that offers “a comprehensive and significant way” forward.
