We are the Artful Dodgers of the globalised world, experts at ducking and diving - but even the Dodger gets caught in the end
has been neither here nor there. Its position was calculated by a repeated process of triangulation in which the three sides are. The precise shape of this triangle was always changeable but the broad geometry has been constant. Ireland was not a centre – it was a centroid, the point where the medians of a triangle intersect.
Ireland is improv. We were an unscripted reality show long before the genre was invented. We had to be. The deep histories of colonisation and mass emigration forced us to be amphibious creatures, able to survive on the dry land of empire or the rough seas of exile. We loved our homeland most from a safe distance. And the burden of being closely intertwined with Britain, not least through the sharing of a common popular culture.
It is striking that the grand narrative of Micheál Martin’s visit to the Oval Office was the familiar theme of evasion. Phew. We got away with it again But even the Dodger, for all his artistry, gets caught in the end. And so have we. Our triple somersault is falling flat on its face. Our delightful love triangle is ending in a nasty divorce.
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