Ireland Through European Eyes: Western Europe, the EEC and Ireland, 1945-1973

CHAPTER SIX - Luxembourg

The relations between the small landlocked Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Ireland, an island on the periphery of western Europe, are not immediately discernible,1 but there are historical parallels. Both were small powers relative to their neighbours. Luxembourg’s independence was affirmed in 1815 and confirmed in 1839 in the wake of Belgium’s independence struggle against the Netherlands. However, the new Belgian state was successful in incorporating an important part of Luxembourg’s western territory. Economically, the Grand Duchy was closely linked to Belgium throughout the latter part of the 19th century. Dating from 1880, an arrangement between Luxembourg and the Netherlands placed Dutch diplomatic representatives in charge of the Grand Duchy’s diplomatic relations in countries where Luxembourg had no representative. This was underpinned by an understanding that Dutch ministers were not allowed to deal with Luxembourg’s political affairs.2 In 1921, the Union Economique Belgo-Luxembourgeoise (UEBL) was signed between Luxembourg and Belgium, which stated that Belgium would represent the Grand Duchy at consular level wherever there was no Luxembourg diplomatic representation.3 As a result of this the Belgians represented Luxembourg in Dublin. The Irish government, in turn, accredited its ambassador in Brussels to represent its interests in Luxembourg. An Irish embassy was opened in the Grand Duchy in 1974, one year after Ireland’s entry into the European Community (EC). On that occasion, the Luxembourg embassy in London reported: ‘the presence of a certain number of European institutions in Luxembourg City had made this step necessary [for the Irish]’.4 Documents available in the National Archives in Dublin, combined with those found in Luxembourg, help sketch the evolution of diplomatic relations between the two small powers. Those sources are supplemented by 291 CHAPTER SIX Luxembourg Jérôme aan de Wiel findings in the archives of the European Commission and Council of Ministers, and also by those of the other member states of the European Union (EU). The combined archives make it possible to trace the evolution of Luxembourg’s position towards the Irish applications for membership of the European Economic Community (EEC) during the 1960s and early 1970s. Also an important new source is the digitalisation of Luxembourg’s (historic) newspapers by the Bibliothèque Nationale de Luxembourg.5 It is with this source that the chapter begins, as direct and close interaction between Luxembourg and Ireland were lacking until the latter half of the 20th century. In the absence of direct diplomatic interaction between independent Ireland and Luxembourg until 1974, combined with the scarcity of economic and social exchanges except those concerned with EC matters, a survey of newspapers gives a sense of Luxembourg’s perceptions of Ireland. The Luxembourg press and Ireland, 1900–39 Luxembourg’s newspapers did not devote detailed or extended coverage to Ireland, reflecting the lack of close interconnections between the two. However, some perceptions of Irish society are immediately apparent from a review of those newspapers. One of the first to mention Ireland was the Social-Democratic Der arme Teufel. In October 1909, it published an article entitled ‘War against Drink!’ which portrayed the efforts of several countries to combat the evils of heavy drinking. It mentioned the prodigious efforts of Father Theobald Mathew to curb alcohol consumption in Ireland, just as some Dutch authors did (see Chapter on the Netherlands).6 A few years later, in 1913, unsurprisingly the newspaper reported on the Dublin lock-out, when the workers in a tram company in Dublin went on strike and were effectively starved into submission.7 (Indeed large elements of the Dublin working classes lived in shocking conditions generally.) When some English philanthropists proposed to take some of the starving children to England to look after them, the Catholic Church vehemently objected, fearing English Protestant proselytising. Der arme Teufel wrote about Ireland’s ‘virtually omnipotent Roman clergy’ and commented ironically that ‘the Irish clergy does not allow a decrease in the number of its healthy little sheep!’8 The power of the Catholic Church in Ireland had been noticed. However, it was the Irish Home Rule crisis on the eve of the First World War that caught most of the press’ attention in Luxembourg. The 292 Ireland through European Eyes, 1945–1973 Luxemburger Bürger-Zeitung (local/liberal) took the side of Irish nationalists and English Liberals against the Ulster unionists and the British Conservative Party. It wrote that after the ‘“crusade” of the...