IN IRELAND, people might say that this is a mighty book: mighty in the way in which it addresses a period in which both parts of Ireland changed beyond recognition; and mighty also in the exhaustive detail in which it recounts what happened.
Ironically, Diarmaid Ferriter begins his account by reminding us that Irish political culture involved “little discussion of ideology” until the rise of Sinn Fein. Politics was more getting “out and about” among the electorate — what used to be called the “rubber-chicken circuit”.
But all that was to change in response to the struggle to find a settlement of the Northern Ireland conflict, the period of the “Celtic Tiger” economic boom, bust and boom again, and the need to redefine Ireland’s place in Europe in response to the pressures brought by Brexit.
He provides an admirably succinct description of the tasks involved in bringing peace to Northern Ireland: “creating and sustaining dialogue between adversaries; closing Anglo-Irish gaps and misunderstandings; getting rid of weapons; persuading internal nationalist and unionist constituencies that the peace process path was the correct one and giving communities a chance to recover from the trauma”.
After 6636 deaths, it was time to address the challenge of peacebuilding. I lived through this period in Northern Ireland — it was quite simply the most remarkable piece of political process any of us is likely to see — Blair, Ahern, Clinton, Trimble, Hume, Adams. Ferriter describes the seven-month dialogue between the SDLP leader John Hume and the Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams. It was “loaded with risk” and “in the long run for Hume involved sacrificing his party for the bigger goal of peace.”
In the background was the continuing Drumcree dispute about Orange Order parades. I was one of the local clergy in Portadown at that time, and many of the main actors were my parishioners.
Ferriter is sensitive to the shortcomings of the Belfast Agreement. He mentions the “irony of the squeezing of the moderates” as Sinn Fein joined the political process. No conflict of this complexity could ever be resolved quickly. The Brexit period then “did serious damage to Anglo-Irish relations”. It also affirmed the importance of EU membership as Ireland’s primary external relationship.
Any account of this period must explore the “Celtic Tiger” years that led to the economic crash of 2008. Many factors created this boom: taxation policy, EU membership, international investment in information technology, and Ireland’s position as a gateway for US trade with the EU. Alongside this positive story, there developed a bubble in bank lending, regulatory failures, and, above all, a property boom that consumed Ireland and “was ultimately to be its undoing”. What followed was “abject humiliation”, as Ireland had to submit to an €85-billion bailout, “which would ultimately end Ireland’s economic sovereignty”.
One of the most significant changes in this period took place in the area of migration. Ireland had traditionally exported many of its young people. Ireland itself now became a magnet, drawing people from many parts of the world. Between 2002 and 2006, the population rose by eight per cent.
But the most shocking story is that of the “collapse of the authority, credibility and influence of the Catholic Church”. Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, it was given added momentum by “the revelations from the 1990s of historic abuse, physical, sexual and emotional”.
An unprecedented period of social change followed. Contraception was widely and legally available. Divorce was legalised in 1995, marriage equality followed in 2016, and the Eighth Amendment was repealed in 2018 — thus ending the constitutional ban on abortion.
This is a remarkable book. The scale, pace, and complexity of the processes of change in both parts of Ireland were extraordinary. Ferriter writes about as history events that are still relatively close in time and keenly felt. It is a tour de force.
The Rt Revd David Chillingworth is a former Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
The Revelation of Ireland: 1995-2020
Diarmaid Ferriter
Profile £25
(978-1-80081-094-5)
Church Times Bookshop £22.50
