Blair book puts focus back on Donegal
In his recent memoirs and just last weekend on the Late Late Show the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair has been reminiscing on his Irish roots and in particular the influence of his childhood memories of Donegal.
The British Prime Minister who dedicated the latter part of his career to bringing a peaceful solution to Northern Ireland has described his Irish mother as an “almost saintly woman” whose death when he was 22 changed his life forever and hardened him for the experiences ahead.
Factors peculiar to him rendered him perfect for the role: influences ranging from a Donegal Protestant mother, Hazel Corscadden from Ballyshannon and childhood holidays around Rossnowlagh, to his famously Catholic wife, Cherie and his instinct for the human touch which repeatedly sent him into Ulster to meet victims of the Troubles.
On the Late, Late Show, Blair remarked that it was his childhood and early teen experiences in Donegal that "probably influenced " him to grasp the nettle that was Northern Ireland.
Blair had an innate grasp of the situation few of his predecessors shared or troubled to learn. He was patient in the face of impasse after impasse, the default setting in Northern politics. He developed a rapport with Bertie Ahern both of whom sang from the same hymn sheet in urging the politics of compromise. Compromise may be a dirty word in some circles but it's the diplomacy which oils negotiation.
In his address to the Joint Houses of the Oireachtas in November, 1998, Blair said, “ Ireland, as you may know, is in my blood.
“My mother was born in the flat above her grandmother's hardware shop in the Main Street of Ballyshannon in Donegal. She lived there as a child, started school there and only moved when her father died, her mother remarried and they crossed the water to Glasgow.
“We spent virtually every childhood summer holiday, up to when the troubles really took hold, in Ireland, usually at Rossnowlagh in the Sandhouse Hotel.
“We would travel in the beautiful countryside of Donegal. It was there, in the seas off the Irish coast, that I learnt to swim and it was there that my father took me to my first pub, a remote little house in the country, for a Guinness, a taste I have never forgotten and which it is always a pleasure to repeat.”
In his memoir, “My Journey” which have just been published talks about his mother and the Donegal connection and his early encounters with the effects of the “Troubles”
“My mother Hazel Blair (ne Corscadden) who was brought up in Ballyshannon was from a Protestant family.
“Her father had been a Grand Master of one of the Orange Lodges and the family were ‘fiercely Protestant’ Blair says in his memoir.
“She was a decent, lovely woman who was shy and a little withdrawn in company, but my maternal grandmother was infected by bigotry which was unfortunately accepted as the norm”.
He also revealed that his grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s in later life, had a moment of lucidity when he started to date Cherie Booth, who was a Catholic.
“Whatever else you do, son, never marry a Catholic,” she told her grandson.
Not only did Blair marry a Catholic he also joined the Catholic Church but in fact, was only following in a family tradition of switching religions.
Mr Blair’s grandmother, Sara Lipsett, is listed as a member of the Methodist Church in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, but listed in other records when she stayed with extended family as being a member of the Church of Ireland.
“When she was at home she was Protestant but elsewhere, Methodist. So it was a la carte religion,” National Archives expert Caitriona Crowe confirmed.
In the book, Mr Blair said he loved going on holiday to Donegal every year and they would usually stay at the Sandhouse Hotel in Rossnowlagh, near Ballyshannon.
“At that beach I learned to swim in the freezing Atlantic Ocean. I had my first go at chasing girls, aged about 11. I was taught my first chords on the guitar. I drank my first Guinness,” he wrote echoing a statement he made in the Dil.
Speaking of his Donegal relatives he said, “The relatives were slightly strange, truth be told.
“There was Aunt Mabel, with one tooth. For some bizarre reason I associate her with Fox’s Glacier Mints but heaven knows why.”Then there was the even older Great-Aunt Lizzie who lived in a house at the top of the hill and was a miser.
“She wasn’t just tight-fisted, she was the authentic miser who was apparently rich beyond the dreams of avarice but kept it all hoarded away.
“A large part of the extended family’s time and energy was spent in devising ways to part Great-Aunt Lizzie from her wealth without success.
”I remember Mum taking my brother and I to see her-I was overcome with excitement as I had never met a real life miser.”
Before we entered the house we were warned by my mother, “Look, Aunt Lizzie’s house has a bit of a smell in it-you are not to comment on it”
“What’s more she will be giving us tea and cakes-just eat them and say nothing.”
“To this day, I mean honestly to this day, I can get neither the pong nor the cake out of my mind-the odour overwhelmed the senses illuminating the true meaning of the word ‘decay’
On a more serious note he recalled, “ Ireland was not just in my blood but part of my experience growing up. We had friends in Rossnowlagh and Ballyshannon which we saw every year.. Then in 1969 we suddenly stopped going.
“It was not safe, Mum decided-the Troubles had begun.
“I kept in correspondence with the friends and their letters told me of how bitterness was entering the stream of public sentiment.
“They were Protestants of course. They described with increasing venom the gradual deterioration of their relations with, and their view of their Catholic neighbours, so I had some small but nevertheless direct understanding of the dispute.”
Mr. Blair has been invited by members of Ballyshannon Town Council to visit the birthplace of his ancestors but time constraints prevented him from accepting the invitation but it is hoped that he will now be in a position to visit in the not too distant future.
The former Prime Minister has also been in touch with the Sandhouse Hotel by letter in which he spoke of his very “fond memories” for the resort.
A treasured original copy of the Good Friday Agreement which has been signed by all the negotiating parties including Blair, Ahern, Adams and George Mitchell and others occupy pride of place behind the reception in the Sandhouse Hotel to this day.
Paul Diver of the Sandhouse Hotel said, "No sooner had Tony Blair and Ryan Tubridy uttered the words 'Sandhouse Hotel' than the phones started to ring.
"It has given us a great boost from a publicity perspective as his book where he speaks at length about Rossnowlagh and Ballyshannon.
"Whatever about him not getting a great welcome from certain factions in Dublin, he can rest assured he will get a truly great Donegal welcome here in Rossnowlagh."
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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