Tánaiste’s Address at the University of the Western Cape

Speech

17 July 2023

Vice Chancellor,

It is a great pleasure to join you this afternoon and to deliver the inaugural Charlotte Maxeke-Mary Robinson lecture.

The Government of Ireland is proud to support the Maxeke-Robinson Chair of Irish Studies in partnership with the University of the Western Cape. It is fitting that the first Irish Studies Chair in Africa is based here in South Africa, where we have such close historical ties, and a vibrant Irish diaspora. I am particularly pleased that this chair has been established in an institution like UWC, known for its resistance to Apartheid. It is the University where Kader Asmal lectured when he returned from exile in Ireland, and I am privileged to honour his courage and achievements today.

The Maxeke-Robinson Chair will promote greater understanding of Irish history, culture, and literature, and will provide a platform for the study of Irish language, music and art. It will also facilitate valuable academic exchanges between our two countries.

I am delighted to visit South Africa as we celebrate 30 years of diplomatic relations between our two countries. We have a partnership forged in shared experiences of colonialism, struggle and challenge - experiences which inform similar perspectives on history and its influence on our world today.

Our histories have intertwined at crucial moments. Irish soldiers fought on both sides in the Anglo-Boer Wars and some brought that military experience home to the struggle for Irish independence.

The South African statesman, Jan Smuts, helped to broker the truce that ended the Irish war of Independence and led to the creation of the Irish Free State.

And Ireland can claim to have had some impact on the history of South Africa through the work of Irish missionaries, most notably those who supported the fight against Apartheid.

The Irish Anti-Apartheid movement, which was led with determination and imagination by Kader Asmal and his wife Louise, was also influential in bringing international pressure to bear on the Apartheid Government.

For thirty years, the movement successfully organised academic, artistic and sporting boycotts, keeping alive public awareness of the evil of Apartheid.

This vocal and visible Irish solidarity was felt by those struggling on the frontline here in South Africa, and laid the foundations for the warm and deep relationship between our two Republics.

On the eve of Mandela Day, which I will be honoured to mark tomorrow, alongside Foreign Minister Pandor in Pretoria, I fondly recall Nelson Mandela's first visit to Ireland in July 1990 when, as then Deputy President of the African National Congress, he addressed the Irish parliament.

I recall that remarkable address. I was spellbound, as a young, recently elected T.D., or Member of Parliament, listening to this giant of a man in our midst. His wisdom, but most especially his generosity, is what stayed with me from that day.

He recalled that day in Dublin that, "For more than a quarter of a century your country has had one of the most energetic and effective anti-apartheid movements in the world. Irishmen and women have given wholehearted and often sacrificial support for our struggle in the fields of economic, cultural and sports relations. We, therefore, salute your sportspeople, especially the rugby players, your writers and artists and the Dunnes' and other workers. They will not be forgotten by the masses of our people."

More recently, South African support for the Northern Irish peace process has been a vital contribution to the work of building and sustaining peace and prosperity on the island of Ireland.

I would like to reflect a bit more on that development pathway for Ireland. I think it tells us something about the many challenges and false dawns in the process of casting off the burden of colonial rule.

Ireland's own post-colonial experience suggests that economic, social and political development is rarely a linear, even process. Ireland is now a prosperous country - not without its economic and social challenges - but our route to prosperity was decades in the making and beset by multiple challenges. Some of these were external, and some of our own making.

Ireland's first decade of independence was marked by a combination of euphoria as we asserted our nationhood and despondency and division in the wake of civil war. The new State was determined to take our rightful place internationally and we began our long commitment to multilateralism by joining the League of Nations in 1923.

Our cultural confidence was boosted by the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature to WB Yeats in 1923, and - for those resisting the temptation to inward-looking cultural isolation - by the publication of Joyce's Ulysses in 1922. Ireland's most significant infrastructure project, the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric dam on the river Shannon, was opened in 1929. It cost one fifth of GDP at the time, provided for 80% of the State's electricity needs, and proved that the new nation could provide for its people, despite economic hardship.

The next twenty years saw progress stall in the face of global depression and the turmoil of the Second World War. In attempting to assert economic sovereignty, the Government embarked on a policy of protectionism to try to stimulate local industries and decouple the Irish economy from its overwhelming reliance on Britain.

Outstanding issues around land reform and annuities led to a trade war with Britain in the 1930s, which in reality harmed the Irish economy much more than it did the British.

While the focus on self-sufficiency helped the country survive World War Two, it did so at the expense of our economic development. Our long standing policy of military neutrality was also developed in this period. It was not without some immediate costs, however, as Ireland's applications to join the newly formed United Nations were vetoed repeatedly between 1945 and 1955 by the Soviet Union.

This was a heavy blow, and the pointed response from the then Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, makes for interesting reading in the light of more recent events.

He stated:
"The Russian view of the qualities required in a nation for entry into the United Nations Organisation is a strange one. If Russia, which attacked Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, can be regarded as qualifying as a peace-loving nation, it is difficult to see how a nation which kept the peace and scrupulously fulfilled all its obligations as a member of the League of Nations can rightly be regarded as not qualifying."

So it was, that after 30 years of independence, Ireland stood in relative isolation and stagnation in the 1950s, while the rest of Europe was rebuilding. The economy was defined by unemployment and emigration.

So how did Ireland's transformation happen?
A key pivot point for Ireland was the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1959, the newly appointed Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, stated the ambition "to secure the economic foundations of independence". New State Agencies were established to promote inward foreign investment and to help Irish companies to export overseas.

Both of these priorities were supported by fiscal and industrial policies. The IDA and Enterprise Ireland, with their focus on inward investment and export promotion, remain pillars of Ireland's economic model today.

The policy changes of the 1960s also set the scene for Ireland to join the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, a move which infused our people with a new sense of confidence in their European identity. This greatly increased Ireland's ability to attract foreign direct investment, and it provided the engine for the modernisation not just of our economy, but also of our society.

The bold decision to introduce free secondary school education to all in 1967 was vital in heralding a forward-looking education policy and a self-confident young population. Together with the embrace of regional economic integration, it had an enormous impact within one generation. While Irish people were still emigrating in large numbers, they were now better equipped to succeed overseas, and to return home in later years, injecting new ideas and approaches into the economy.

Successive Irish governments have seen the importance of aligned domestic and foreign policies.
For a small open, trading economy, with a huge diaspora, it is clear that our prosperity lies in peace, security, openness, and the international rule of law. These principles represent our national values and our national interests - and they define our foreign policy approach.

Ireland's embrace of multilateralism, at the UN and in the EU, is the cornerstone of our foreign policy. EU membership opened up access to the European continent and gave us an equal say in the rules we operate under. For Ireland, to sit at the same table with larger European nations, including-until recently-the UK, and negotiate common frameworks on everything from agriculture and fisheries to cyber security, has had a profound effect on our economy and our confidence as a nation. When I look at the African Continental Free Trade Area today, I am therefore excited by the possibilities it brings.

Ireland also has an unbroken record of service in UN peacekeeping missions since 1958, and in participation in EU military and civilian crisis management missions over the almost two decades. We fundamentally see that global insecurity, wherever it manifests, is a threat to our wellbeing and to the wellbeing of the world in which we engage. Together with South Africa, we have a long record of support for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation manifested in our joint leadership of the New Agenda Coalition.

We are steadfast partners also in the fight against global poverty, hunger and inequality - and on the need for a just approach to the existential threat of climate change. We share too South Africa's strong and vocal support for the promotion and protection of human rights - which is reflected in your progressive and forward-looking Constitution and Bill of Rights. Together we work cooperatively in multilateral fora from the Human Rights Council to the UN General Assembly to ensure that the rights of all are respected.

I am proud that Ireland and South Africa share an unwavering position on the right of peoples to self-determination. These positions are born out of our national experiences and have guided us - and continue to guide us - in our principled positions and actions. For us, this right to self-determination applies equally, whether that be in Timor Leste, Palestine, or Ukraine.

The lens of our own history still inevitably informs our understanding of the world. When we look, for instance, at the illegal and immoral Russian invasion of Ukraine, in blatant violation of the UN Charter, we think of the many nations which have asserted their freedom from empire and colonialism.

The idea that former empires could seek to reassert dominion over their former colonies - now their sovereign and independent neighbours - through invasion and force of arms is abhorrent to us, both because of the impact on the people who suffer under this aggression, and the corrosive impact on the international rule of law that we all rely on.

While Ireland is a militarily neutral country, we have not been politically or morally neutral in the face of Russia's abhorrent aggression. We speak up for our values and we act upon them. We have provided almost €200 million in bilateral support for Ukraine since February 2022. We have welcomed almost 90,000 Ukrainians, equivalent to 1.8% of our population. They have been welcomed with open arms and open hearts by the Irish people, and they have enriched our communities.

We are fully committed to our partnership, and the EU's partnership, with Africa. We are fulfilling our obligations to Ukraine, yes. But in doing so, we have not diverted a single cent from our international development programme away from Africa. We view our obligations to Ukraine and to Africa as mutually reinforcing, not mutually exclusive.

And we will continue to speak robustly in favour of the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, which Russia has now withdrawn support from, despite its essential role in supporting food security across the Middle East and Africa, and predictability in global food prices.

Multilateralism and international law are the main bulwarks against a return to the evils of war, colonialism and imperialism. It is clear to us that our multilateral systems are not what they should be for a 193-member United Nations family in the third decade of the 21st Century. Ireland stands with South Africa in support of reform of the United Nations and particularly the Security Council, which needs to be a broader and more representative body and a more African body, if it is to fulfil its mandate. We have stated that clearly and will continue to advocate for meaningful reform.

Let me turn now to the progress we have made towards peace and reconciliation on our own Island. The divisions in Northern Ireland and the conflict from the late 1960s to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 claimed over 3,500 lives, left tens of thousands more injured, and did huge damage to society and the economy of the whole island.

The work of building peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland and between Ireland and Great Britain has been, and remains, the number one foreign policy objective of Irish governments.

We have benefited from strong support from our friends internationally along the way, including from the United States, the EU and others.

South Africa also played a vital role at a critical moment. As the prospect of real peace negotiations looked more likely in the 1990s, the negotiated transition from Apartheid to democracy in South Africa served as a real inspiration. Mediators in Ireland began to look to South Africa for support and a period of sustained engagement began with a visit to Northern Ireland by Cyril Ramaphosa and Roelf Meyer in 1996.

In 1997, parties in Northern Ireland travelled to a retreat outside Cape Town to hear directly from Nelson Mandela and the parties involved in the negotiations here. The organisers had to arrange separate travel routes for the two delegations so they wouldn't accidentally meet in an airport along the way and separate buses and arrival times. The accommodation and meeting rooms had to be separate and two bars were provided so they would not have to drink together.

The South African hosts-no strangers to the impact of divisions in society-went to extraordinary lengths to accommodate their guests. When one bar was discovered to be smaller than the other, it had to be completely rebuilt. But the effort paid off. I have heard directly from people like Peter Robinson-who succeeded Ian Paisley as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party-of the moral weight that that visit carried for the Northern Ireland leaders. They returned home with a sense of challenge to match the political bravery shown by South Africa.

Following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the whole issue of the decommissioning paramilitary weapons remained unresolved. It threatened to collapse the young peace agreement. Once again, South Africa helped us. Cyril Ramaphosa, who had established a relationship of trust and respect with Northern Ireland's parties, was asked to serve alongside the former Finnish President, Martti Ahtisaari to oversee the decommissioning of the weapons. This was a hands-on role. I have read descriptions of your current President tramping through cold forests, scrambling down ladders underneath barns and farmhouses, overseeing the putting beyond use of weapons which had brought such destruction to Northern Ireland.

This work was priceless. The Irish people will not forget this contribution.

Peace on our island remains a work in progress. But it has helped to bring new prosperity on both sides of the border. And it has transformed relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

This year we mark 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and I invite you all to spend some time at the exhibition next door which celebrates this important milestone.

We are keenly aware of the debt we owe to South Africa for your role in that process. It stands as a testament to the strength, endurance and vitality of our relationship and as a significant contribution to the development of our country.

In concluding, I can only reflect that Ireland's path from independence to prosperity has faced many of the challenges which many new countries, including countries on the African continent have had to grapple with.

I am conscious that South Africa, a much larger country, faces similar challenges and perhaps more difficult headwinds.

While every country operates in distinct circumstances, there are a few key principles worth highlighting, which helped in the trajectory of Ireland's modern history:

1. The first is alignment between foreign policy and domestic values and interests. As a small, open economy, Ireland relies enormously on a stable and rules-based world. Our foreign policy supports that objective as a key national interest.
2. Second is the transformative impact of regional economic integration, though our membership of the EEC, which has become the European Union. This opened up opportunities for Ireland and greatly reduced our dependence on Britain in a way that self-sufficiency and protectionist policies never succeeded in doing.
3. Lastly, I would point to investment in education. It has driven our ability to attract foreign direct investment, but, perhaps more importantly, it has liberated mindsets. And, vitally, it has been central to the empowerment of women and girls in Ireland and a societal commitment to gender equality.

When I look at South Africa today I see the importance of all these issues here. This morning, I opened the new office of an Irish engineering firm-the Kirby Group-here in Cape Town. They were drawn here by the availability of skilled engineering graduates from South African universities. Last year, one of our biggest companies, Kerry Group, established a new, high-end food ingredients plant in Kwa-Zulu Natal. And ICON, a high-tech Irish clinical research company, has a strong presence here, with an office in Johannesburg and over 200 employees.

At the same time, we are also seeing a series of investments by South African companies in Ireland, such as TriggerFish, an animation firm, and Investec, a financial services company. I am certain that there is huge scope for the further development of this mutually beneficial two way economic, trade and investment relationship.

The growing economic connections between Ireland and South Africa, which now see South Africa as Ireland's largest market on the African continent for goods exports, mirror our historical and political ties.

As we celebrate 30 years of diplomatic relations, they add another important strand of cooperation and provide opportunities for the deepening of our long-standing friendship. Together we have a great deal to build on.

As Nelson Mandela put it so eloquently when addressing the Irish people 33 years ago, "The warm feeling that envelops us as we stand here is therefore but the affinity which belongs to peoples who have suffered in common and who are tied together by unbreakable bonds of friendship and solidarity."

In the face of global crises and tensions, I remain convinced that the partnership between Europe and Africa will be central to the development of both of our continents.

The enduring links between the people and governments of Ireland and South Africa will be vital to the partnership. Our countries' histories, our endurance in the face of challenge, give us reason for hope and optimism for a better world. I pledge our strengthened friendship and support in the years and decades to come.

Thank you.

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