A Farewell to London
Here is a version of remarks I made at a farewell function at which I was saying goodbye to the Embassy's political and media contacts. I am due to leave London on 22 August when I will transfer to Washington to serve as Ireland’s Ambassador to the United States.
It is with a heavy heart that Greta and I will leave London eight weeks from now. We have greatly enjoyed our time in London and will miss this country and the people we have met here.
It has been an eventful four years.
Not long after my arrival in September 2013, I came to realise that I would have the honour of being Ireland's Ambassador here during the historic first Irish State Visit. That was a momentous occasion.
The visit of President Michael D. Higgins, and the powerful words he spoke throughout his time here, put a high-level seal on the friendly partnership that had developed between our two countries during the preceding decades. No one who was associated with the visit will ever forget that experience.
Our refreshed, renewed relationship has been nurtured by the success of the Northern Ireland peace process, by our mutually-beneficial economic relationship (trade flows of £50 billion a year sustaining 200,000 jobs in each of our countries), and by our shared membership of the EU since 1973.
I have also had the honour of being the first Irish Ambassador to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday and have been proud to take part in a series of World War 1 commemorations recalling the sacrifice of the 35,000 Irishmen, from all parts of Ireland and all political and religious backgrounds, who perished during that terrible conflict.
I have tried during my time here to commemorate all aspects of our political and cultural history, paying tribute to W.B. Yeats in 2015 on the 150th anniversary of his birth including through a daily tweet of his poetry!
There is absolutely no contradiction between commemorating those like the nationalist MPs Tom Kettle and Willie Redmond, who died on the Western Front and honouring those like Pearse, McDonagh and Plunkett (all of who had close connections with Britain) who fought in Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916 and in the struggle for independence that ensued.
They all form part of the rich, complex palette that is Irish and British history. It was a particular pleasure for me last month to accompany the Prince of Wales to Glasnevin Ceremony in Dublin where he took part in separate wreath-laying ceremonies at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cross of Sacrifice and at the 1916 commemorative wall which remembers all who died during the Easter Rising.
And just as we might have felt ready to sit back and admire the great progress made in Irish-UK relations, along comes Brexit, casting its shadow across our affairs and introducing an unwelcome element of uncertainty.
I need hardly say that in Ireland we were not very happy about your move to leave a Union in which we have been partners for more than four decades, but that is clearly your decision.
We will remain at the heart of the EU and our priority now is to minimise the impact of your decision to leave on the furtherance of Ireland's interests as an EU member closely linked to this country. We have a number of clear priorities.
We must maintain our open border in Ireland which has conferred such benefit on people on both sides and which is one of the props of the political progress that has been made in recent years - and that needs to continue.
We also want to preserve the immensely fruitful economic relationship we have built with Britain in recent decades. For that reason, it is our fervent hope that the UK will be able create the closest possible relationship with the EU after it leaves.
That is clearly the outcome we want, but it is not one that we alone can deliver. We will be on the EU side of the negotiating table, but with a keen interest in a positive outcome. Success in these negotiations will require a spirit of give and take in the negotiations and the dogged pursuit of compromise solutions.
We hope that the UK, in its approach to the negotiations as they evolve, will be able to demonstrate the flexibility required to arrive at the kind of close partnership that will facilitate the continued smooth evolution of Ireland’s bilateral relations with our nearest neighbour.
I am delighted that the British Government has now confirmed that Irish people will retain their unique status in Britain post-Brexit as provided for under the Common Travel Area and that they will not need to apply for residence status.
Whatever happens in the world of Brexit, quite a few things will not and cannot change. We will continue to be your nearest neighbour. We will continue to share a linguistic and cultural space. We will continue to play each other at rugby and to play together as Lions. At some stage, we might even manage to beat the All Blacks! Irish people will continue to come to premier league matches and to display our tricolour in support of their favourite English teams! Irish people will continue to come to live and work in Britain, thus creating continued living links between us. British people will also continue to play an important part in Irish society.
Our two Governments will continue to have huge responsibilities as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement which remains the fundamental framework for relations in Northern Ireland, between north and south in Ireland and between our two neighbouring islands.
Whatever happens, we must apply ourselves to these responsibilities as we have done for decades past.
The future will be different from the past, but it needs to be a future shaped by mutual respect and a recognition of the shared interests that bind us. The strengths we have built in recent decades will be tested in the period ahead as the UK leaves the EU, but we must spare no effort in ensuring that we pass that test.
Thank you for your friendship and your support this past four years.
Daniel Mulhall is Ireland's Ambassador in London