Summary
Voters and politicians in Britain claim to be perplexed that economic and political relations between the UK and the Republic of Ireland seem to be decisive in determining the course of Brexit. They shouldn't be, argues Edward Stourton. A glance at the history of the countries' relations since the Acts of Union in 1800 helps to explain the situation. From at least the time of Catholic Emancipation in the 1820s, political, social, cultural and economic issues on the island of Ireland have influenced and shaped politics at Westminster. The point is that MPs and others at Westminster have seldom appreciated this and therefore underestimated the power of that history to affect the course of a contemporary issue like Brexit. Looking at a range of issues from Emancipation, the 1840s Irish potato famine, Catholic clerical education, the campaign for Home Rule leading ultimately to the War of Irish Independence in the twentieth century and the bloody establishment of the Irish Free State, as well as the Troubles and the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Edward Stourton explores the way in which issues in Ireland have determined British politics. He considers especially what lessons these episodes may hold for today's Westminster politicians and how to imagine the Anglo-Irish future. Among those taking part: Lady Antonia Fraser, Professor The Lord Bew, Professor Sir David Cannadine, Professor Roy Foster, Professor Marianne Elliott, Fintan O'Toole and Declan Kiberd. Producer: Simon Coates
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.2 | Thanks for downloading analysis, the podcast about the ideas behind the news. |
| 0:40.9 | You may have noticed that the Brexit process, if we can call it that, has founded on a single |
| 0:45.7 | issue, Ireland. |
| 0:48.2 | Many British politicians seem to find that surprising, but should they? |
| 0:52.3 | Edward Sturtin asks whether they should have looked a little harder at the history of relations between the UK and Ireland, |
| 0:58.0 | and he starts at Westminster. |
| 1:02.0 | The Brexit debates brought life to Parliament Square. |
| 1:06.0 | MPs arrive here to face phalanxes of campaigners championing both sides of this great question. |
| 1:12.0 | The focus for the current parliamentary |
| 1:14.3 | struggle is the so-called backstop that's designed to avoid the return of a |
| 1:18.2 | hard border on the island of Ireland. And at least one of the former Prime Ministers memorialised in a statue here, learnt |
| 1:26.9 | to his great cost that Ireland can have an unexpected and profound impact on British politics. |
| 1:34.2 | The early 19th century Tory leader Robert Peel, and here he is in his frock coat, faced not one but |
| 1:40.1 | two crises when a Benson Ireland dictated policy in London and divided the Tory Party in the |
| 1:46.5 | process. |
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