Michael Collins and the Brexit Protocols

There’s an interesting link between Brexit and Michael Collins. In planning its withdrawal from the European Union, Britain is dusting down the old documents of procedures followed when Ireland – the 26 counties of the Irish Free State – left the United Kingdom in 1922-23, as a template of how it was done. As we recall, Michael Collins presided over the ceremonial handover from the Imperial power at Dublin Castle in 1922.

Although the ceremony was accompanied by a joking exchange between Collins and the Lord-Lieutenant, the withdrawal process between the Free State and the UK in the 1920s was a model of orderliness and common sense, according to the historians. Ireland inherited the laws that had been in place when we’d been part of the UK, gradually discarding or replacing those which were judged not applicable, and gradually adding on Irish sovereign law.

Benefit

We had the benefit of an excellent civil service, and many experienced Irish people who had lived overseas were inspired to return to the country now that it was to govern itself. Having a reliable (and uncorrupt) civil service was one of the most vital building-bricks in constructing the new state.

Some of the laws inherited from the UK have surely stood the test of time. That a person is innocent until proved guilty is one of the finest legacies of British common law, and I sometimes think it should be constantly re-iterated in the public realm – so that it is fully understood in our era, when individuals are sometimes considered guilty simply by being accused of wrong-doing.

Some of the British laws were superseded by the Free State. We brought in a new law prohibiting divorce fairly soon, eventually to be abrogated in 1995.

The 1923 law disallowing divorce reflected the values of the time, even if it seems illiberal now in that it didn’t sufficiently maintain the separation of Church and state.

The UK had just ushered in the right of women to sit on juries, which the Free State inherited and initially put into practice. But so many women pleaded to be excused jury service that Kevin O’Higgins abrogated it in 1927.

Looking back, it might have been better to get the message across to Irishwomen that they were duty-bound to take up their responsibilities as citizens. Jury service can be time-consuming and even tedious, but it’s a valued part of the rule of law.

And now, Britain will have to trawl through over 7,000 pieces of legislation to disentangle itself from the EU and its institutions.

Let’s hope that wise counsels will prevail and the good legislation will be retained (workers’ protection, sensible environmental laws – and free movement between Britain and Ireland), while the sillier can be jettisoned (enforcement of the metric system so that grocers are barred from using pounds and ounces, over-regulation by red tape for small businesses).

Perhaps they should name the exit procedure the Michael Collins protocols.

Twitter is akin to medieval stocks

As Holy Week looms, I’m aware that I’ve failed to maintain my Lenten discipline of rationing my participation on Twitter. Yet, I’ve learned a Lenten lesson from its twitterings, as many have before me. It can be a bit like being in the medieval stocks, with people throwing rotten vegetables at you – if you dare express almost any counter-cultural thinking. This experience has provided me with a degree of Lenten shriving.

I’ve also learned that Twitter acts like any lure, temptation or addiction. “I’ll just look – looking never did any harm,” says the Tempter in your ear. Such a challenge to self-restraint and self-control!

Albania may be a rewarding challenge for the nuncio

Archbishop Charles Brown – sometimes colloquially known as “Charlie Brown”, after the engaging Peanuts cartoon (a soubriquet the archbishop does not eschew, I believe) – will be missed when he leaves Ireland. His affable New York sense of humour was much appreciated and people found him very approachable. As Pope Benedict’s envoy, he had his critics (some within the Church) but anyone of substance has critics.

The Holy See is now despatching him to Albania. That really will be a challenge and maybe a rewarding one too. It’s a strange country – greatly shaped by its long experience of Ottoman rule, followed by one of the sternest Communist dictatorships ever known.

Hospitality

But fascinating terrain – a coast describe as ‘Virgilian’ – and deep, almost Bedouin tribal traditions, whereby the visitor is given any amount of hospitality within the clan’s territory, but regarded as fair game to predators once outside of it.

There was a fearless Victorian spinster called Edith Durham who sallied off to Albania in 1900, accompanied only by a native guide and a mule, and wrote what is still possibly the best book of anthropology about the country, High Albania. Someone should present Dr Brown with a leather-bound copy.