Irish viewpoint
The Dublin preference
Frank Delaney
It is a matter of fact that Ireland, North and South, now plays a bigger part in the politics and administration of Britain than at any previous time. Before the 1916 insurrection in Dublin superior military strength dismissed Ireland with ease. Even the Home Rule debate may with hindsight be regarded as little more than a training-ground for demagogues from both sides of the Irish Sea. The guerrilla war which followed 1916 was overshadowed in Britain by European affairs. The first world war and its aftermath were matters of colossal preoccupation, which precluded intensive concentration on the Irish Question. But now it is .different. The cold light of commun 'cations has shone down the alleys of Belfast. The commonroom of Brussels has forced. Britain 'and Ireland to eat from the same European table and in such .a context a veto can be a powerful instrument. Certainly it gives the Republic's government a say in all European affairs to the same degree as Britain. There is now a Russian Embassy in Dublin, a mere sixty miles from the Welsh coast. And massive subventions are poured into Ulster, a province more geographically close to Ireland than to its beloved Loyalist 'mainland.' Dublin's regard and opinion, like it or not, has become a matter of considerable importance to Westminster —
the reverse has been true since 1169. •
But any adumbration of Irish political regard to a new government, of whatever hue, at VVeStminster must be preceded by a brief comparison of respective demographies; in electoral terms, that is. And, to begin with, there are the purely historical factors. The Republic of Ireland has only existed for fifty-two years; the British system, for all the faults which natives may attribute to it, bears the hallmark of tidiness found only in a country which has never, for all Practical and modern consideration, seen invasion or alien domination. An Englishman's home is his castle — for many years the Irishman's home was the Englishman's castle too, whether as steward or serf.
Nationalism and republicanism were long equated with hatred of Britain as an institution. Now that hatred has, by and large, faded into the romantic valleys of misty times remembered — Northern miltary policy excepted — but a degree of distrust lives on. (Indeed what would any nationalism be without distrust? Talk to a man in Scunthorpe or Melton Mowbray about the French or the Belgians — or even the Welsh
— and see whether he spontaneously clasPs them to his bosom). So, as with the British. administration, the thinking man as constituent is the lawmaker, but with a distinctive difference.The legislating John Bull will also be a policy-making trade unionist or commodities broker, whereas in Ireland, in the dominating rural, constituencies, the more personal, less faceless voter is the one who matters.
There are 144 seats in the Dublin parliament, or Dail. Every Dail member represents, on average, 20,500 constituents. There are fortytwo constituencies serving just under three million people. Thus it is far easier for the member from South Tipperary to know what his voters are thinking than it is for, say, the member for Huyton. (Whether such members do know or not is not the subject of this article.) There is a greater flexibility within the Dail and the Irish constituency system than there can ever be within the Commons. It is rather like a comparison between the BBC World Service and the BBC MidlandsService. (This comparison must be reasonably apposite with the rise of parliamentary regionalisation in Scotland add Wales.) And one consequence of the smaller stage is that every attitude looms larger, so that the larger the matter the larger the looming, so to speak.
Because of the permutations and combinations which have been a part of this general election and because of the fact that all shades of opinion have had to consider the possibilitY of some sort of coalesced admixture in the emergent Commons it is not possible to say accurately what sort.of regard Liam Cosgrave . and his Cabinet are going to have for the future incumbent. He knew Mr Heath at Su nn ingdale, he has met Mr Wilson quite recently, Mr Thorpe's informal contacts with Dublin are of fairly recent origin. So it is possible to indulge in the Irishman's delight, political speculation, and attempt a realistic inventory of the manners between Mr Cosgrave and the next Prime Minister.
Liam Cosgrave has been a leader of the Eire government since March 1973, when he formed his Cabinet after a clear-cut general election victory. The new coalition of Fine Gael (Mr Cosgrave'S own party) and Labour offered a suitable electable alternative to a one-party Fianna Fail government which was seeking its fifth successive term in office. Where Fianna Fail led by Mr Lynch was composed.mainly of a rural and big business elite, Fine Gael and
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