Growing Up Irish in Britain and British in Ireland

by Patrick Duffy

An early taste of industrial warfare - the General Strike of 1926 - and my experiences during the Second World War set me on a political path that led to the House of Commons. My Irishness had been no more than an awareness arising from parental influence, faith, and early visits to Ireland. Like my parents, I was firm in my Britishness and the obligations it entailed. However, brief visits to Northern Ireland during active wartime service revealed to me serious problems for which Britain was ultimately responsible. A greater understanding saw my Britishness gradually tempered by a growing sense of Irishness. My Parliamentary career introduced me to the field of international security during the Cold War, and I participated in this at Ministerial level in London and as President of the NATO Assembly in Brussels. If I had grown up Irish in Britain, I was now proudly exercising a British presence and authority on missions to capitals as various as Washington, Rome, Moscow, Sydney, and Dublin. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, economic and global change saw the collapse of special steels and heavy engineering in Sheffield, and changed the political complexion of the city. I wish to pay especial tribute in this book to those fine people in my constituency of Attercliffe who stood firm during turbulent times, and gave me staunch support in my search, nationally and internationally, for a credible nuclear defence posture for Britain. I wish also to pay tribute to the varied and various Irish influences that have not only helped shape Britain's culture and infrastructure, but have greatly contributed to the recent transformation of her relationship with Ireland. Finally, I should like to remind those second-generation Irish who, like me, may have had their Irishness thrust upon them, and are perhaps uncertain of their identity, that the ties uniting the Irish and the British are far stronger than their historical animosities, and thankfully continue to strengthen.

380 pages, Paperback

Published January 13, 2014