Oration honouring John Bruton

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Ten days ago John Bruton spoke to the British Tory party in Blackpool on the subject of the European Union’s Constitutional Treaty (in which he had a major role) and on the place of Britain in European affairs over the last millennium. It is a little odd to think of an Irishman speaking on British history to a Tory party conference, let alone speaking on the virtues of European union to an audience of whom a high proportion suffer from terminal Europhobia. But our candidate has never been one to shirk a challenge. Entering the Irish parliament, the Dáil, just out of university in 1969, he was twice appointed minister of finance and each time had the joy of watching his budget bring down the government. Now, Mr. Chancellor, you have had that experience yourself but you should know that Irish governments are quite unlike ours in Canada. Extraordinarily indecorous arrangements, they are generally coalitions of parties and persons clawing at each others’ throats for power and position. So such blistering defeat is not necessarily a judgement on the merits of a Bruton budget but on the politics of the day on which it was delivered.

A member of Fine Gael, Ireland’s conservative party, John Bruton has spent his life in opposition to or coalition with Fianna Fáil, Ireland’s more conservative party. Leader of Fine Gael from 1990 to 2001, he was Ireland’s prime minister during a very crucial period: 1994-97. His first challenge was the issue of divorce — long a curse and a concern for Irish politicians and the Irish people. Even though a conservative (he leads Fine Gael’s Christian Democratic wing) he removed the constitutional barriers to divorce. His other challenge was peace in the North. A vocal opponent of the IRA, he was able, because of his respect for the aspirations of both Unionist and Republican communities, to bring about the current climate of suspended hostility — that necessary but troubled prelude to what one hopes will be a lasting peace. He also presided over the most remarkable growth the Irish economy has seen in two centuries.

It is this last aspect that most links him with Newfoundland. A visitor here first in 1976, he later discovered (through John Mannion as one would expect) a connection between his family’s farm in Meath and Philip Francis Little, Newfoundland’s first Prime Minister. Little’s father, Cornelius, had owned what is now the Bruton farm until forced to flee Ireland after the United Irish Uprising in 1798. Con Little fetched up in PEI but his son, like many Maritimers, made his way to Newfoundland in 1844 and established himself here. John Bruton discovered in Newfoundland a lost Irish culture and community which he has brought to the attention of Ireland. It was he who established the Ireland Newfoundland Partnership; it was he who, his government defeated, asked that this aspect of his programs be sustained by his successors; it was he who found Irish money to support a Memorial Geography summer school in Ireland. It was he who led our politicians and business leaders to think seriously about the value of education in the development of the economy.

Now an ordinary member of the Dáil, he has a significant role in Europe where he is vice-president of the European People’s Party and co-chairs the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. If Memorial owes this man much; Newfoundland owes him more and so, for his role in rediscovering our place in the Irish cultural diaspora; for his role in the redirection of modern Ireland, vice-chancellor I present to you for the degree of doctor of laws (honoris causa), John Bruton.

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