Mary Robinson served as the first female President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997. She went on to become the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights until 2002.
The following extract from her book Everybody Matters: A Memoir details her opinion of Ireland joining the European Economic Community (EEC) (the body that the European Union developed out of) in 1973. She reflects on the challenges facing Ireland at this time, and explains why she felt Ireland should become a member of the EEC.
Everybody Matters
I felt strongly that it was in Ireland’s interests to become part of a wider European grouping of states. This would help us to stop seeing ourselves always refl ected in the mirror of Britain, next door. Even then Ireland still had some of the feeling of inferiority of a post- colonial country. There had long been the sense that the English looked down on or tried to ignore Northern Ireland and didn’t really think very highly of Ireland or Irish society, whereas the French were interested in our culture, the Germans were interested in our writers, the Italians were interested in the beauty of our landscape. I thought that joining the EEC and becoming part of a community of nine would help Ireland come out of the shadow of its more dominant neighbour and negotiate with the other member states in the context of EEC regulations and directives. I believed we could fi nd common ground with France, for example, in agriculture, and with Britain on other aspects of legislation where we would have a common tradition, so that instead of a post-colonial semi-dependency, we would be more mature. I felt that it would actually reinforce our sense of identity, because we would take our place proudly as one of the members of the EEC.
post-colonial after colonial rule (e.g. British rule in Ireland)
