England, we need to talk about the empire

IFEEL conflicted about St Patrick’s Day. I love being Irish, bank holidays and pints but since I’ve lived in England, and especially since Brexit, I feel weird about celebrating it in the time-honoured way (drinking too much in a packed pub with a bad Thin Lizzy tribute act). I think the real reason is I’m over explaining Ireland to people. It feels relentless and there’s no avoiding it — every time I open my mouth the accent gives me away and it starts. “Oh you’re Irish! What part? Cork! No, never been but I was in Dublin once... but my granny is from Cork.” That’s the nice reaction. You also get the “North or south?” one (or as one moron asked my friend when he told him he was from Cork, “is that in the good or the bad part?”). You’ll get the odd unimaginative idiot who’ll do the whole potato thing but it would be unkind to challenge these simple folk, they know not what they do.

The vast majority of people over here don’t have the foggiest about, nor do they give a fig about, Ireland unless it’s causing them issues — like that pesky border. And I understand why: they aren’t taught that chapter of history in school, and most of the time when they hear about it in the news it seems complex and even though geographically close, far removed from their lives.

But my problem is not with the English, it’s with the empire. If there was more honesty about its history (let’s start with the partition of India) everyone would benefit. I don’t want to rake over a painful past — as someone who knows a little but cares a lot I find it complicated and raw — but maybe if people were given the facts they would understand why the longing to return to the ‘good ol’ days of the British empire’ feels so scary to immigrants who have made homes here.