Sir,—Re Ian McCabe’s article ‘Leaving the Commonwealth’ in the last issue (HI Winter 1998). In the course of an interview, an esteemed retired practitioner of diplomacy insisted that the Republic of Ireland never, in so many words, procedurally left the Commonwealth. She was locked out by a peppery Britain still trailing clouds of empire grandeur. It took a lot of persuasion from the old Commonwealth countries to dissuade it from more draconian measures such as deportation. As far-seeing de Valera had signposted (for the benefit of India and Pakistan) declaring a republic was not synonymous with Commonwealth rejection.
Ergo, the thesis ran, the Republic never formally, procedurally, specifically tangented, it remains concentrically within the Commonwealth circle ingeniously squared by de Valera in 1937. John A. Costello found the clever-dickery of that External Relations Act demeaning and it presented an irresistible cock shot for that other brilliant lawyer, republican Seán MacBride. Its repeal however did not specify leaving the Commonwealth. If Australia, correspondingly, declares a republic, that does not automatically bring about a Commonwealth lockout. So what?
The point is that we never left the Commonwealth: it left us. That action was invalid. Britain had no right to act ex-cathedra for the Commonwealth. She would not get away with it today: she is now just another member with no more rights than any other member. The most forceful inspiration transforming the archaic British Empire into a modern Commonwealth came from the dynamic youthful Irish Free State. Irish brawn and brain made a major contribution to building the old Commonwealth. We should reclaim our heritage.—Yours etc.,
J.P. DUGGAN
Mount Merrion
County Dublin
