Philip Johnson: Could Ireland Really Rejoin the Commonwealth?
[Philip Johnson is the Daily Telegraph's Assistant Editor for Home News.]
Easter holds a special place in the history of Ireland. In 1916, the insurrection known as the Easter Rising paved the way for the country's partition and a bloody civil conflict. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement marked the end of the Provisional IRA's war with the British state and the beginnings of a process that has resulted in the two extremes in Ulster politics coming together to share power....
Unlikely as it may sound, there is a growing campaign for Ireland to rejoin the Commonwealth. A pamphlet launched today by The Reform Group argues that such a move would be seen as a significant gesture of reconciliation towards the Unionist community of Northern Ireland. The Reform Group describes itself as a Unionist movement in the tradition of John Redmond, the Irish leader whose efforts to secure home rule within the British Empire were thwarted by the onset of the First World War....
Inevitably, there will be the old Fenian suspicions of anything that smacks of a British institution, though the Commonwealth has changed irrevocably since 1949, when it was reconstituted at a London summit into the organisation it is today. The summit replaced allegiance to the Crown as the criterion of Commonwealth membership with a more modest acceptance of the King, and now the Queen, as Head of the Commonwealth. This removed the legal objection that had ostensibly caused the new Irish Republic's withdrawal a week earlier – though whether it would have made continued membership likely had it come in time is debatable. While the Queen remains the Commonwealth's head, most of its 54 members are republics – including the largest, India – and there is a precedent for a country rejoining, as South Africa did in 1994 after leaving when it became a republic in 1961....
However, there is one more hurdle to overcome before such a step would even be contemplated – and that is a visit by the Queen. The last monarch to venture into what is now the Irish republic was George V, on his accession tour of the empire in 1911. For years, there has been talk of the Queen visiting Dublin, but nothing has come of it. But a few weeks ago, Mary MacAleese, Ireland's president, was reported as saying she hoped the state visit would take place during her term in office, which ends next year....
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
Easter holds a special place in the history of Ireland. In 1916, the insurrection known as the Easter Rising paved the way for the country's partition and a bloody civil conflict. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement marked the end of the Provisional IRA's war with the British state and the beginnings of a process that has resulted in the two extremes in Ulster politics coming together to share power....
Unlikely as it may sound, there is a growing campaign for Ireland to rejoin the Commonwealth. A pamphlet launched today by The Reform Group argues that such a move would be seen as a significant gesture of reconciliation towards the Unionist community of Northern Ireland. The Reform Group describes itself as a Unionist movement in the tradition of John Redmond, the Irish leader whose efforts to secure home rule within the British Empire were thwarted by the onset of the First World War....
Inevitably, there will be the old Fenian suspicions of anything that smacks of a British institution, though the Commonwealth has changed irrevocably since 1949, when it was reconstituted at a London summit into the organisation it is today. The summit replaced allegiance to the Crown as the criterion of Commonwealth membership with a more modest acceptance of the King, and now the Queen, as Head of the Commonwealth. This removed the legal objection that had ostensibly caused the new Irish Republic's withdrawal a week earlier – though whether it would have made continued membership likely had it come in time is debatable. While the Queen remains the Commonwealth's head, most of its 54 members are republics – including the largest, India – and there is a precedent for a country rejoining, as South Africa did in 1994 after leaving when it became a republic in 1961....
However, there is one more hurdle to overcome before such a step would even be contemplated – and that is a visit by the Queen. The last monarch to venture into what is now the Irish republic was George V, on his accession tour of the empire in 1911. For years, there has been talk of the Queen visiting Dublin, but nothing has come of it. But a few weeks ago, Mary MacAleese, Ireland's president, was reported as saying she hoped the state visit would take place during her term in office, which ends next year....