What does it mean to be Irish?... Mary Lou McDonald

To me, being Irish means so many different things. There is no one way to be Irish or to feel Irish, any more than there is one way to be human.

For me, what it has meant to be Irish has changed over time. My experience of being an Irish woman began as an Irish girl born into a very different Ireland. In many ways Ireland at that time could be quite an austere and judgmental place to live if you were seen as being ‘other’. Ireland overstepped into peoples’ lives and choices in too many ways particularly when it came to peoples’ families, their sexuality or how they chose to live their lives.

My parents separated in 1979 as the Pope was preparing to come to Ireland. There was an ugly social stigma at that time, a certain harshness towards families which were ‘othered’ or seen as different. I’m relieved that Ireland has collectively owned up to that past now and that we have shown how we can make room for what we might have previously seen as ‘otherness’.

Throughout my lifetime, Ireland has embraced many changes which have improved our society for the better. I am so proud of our country legalising marriage equality and the huge progress we have made on women’s rights in recent years. Such changes would have been unthinkable and perhaps impossible at a certain point in time, but these changes became unstoppable.

I have no doubt that greater change is still to come for Ireland. This year marks the centenary of the partition of our country. What happened a hundred years ago was a collective trauma for the island. In the north, a discriminatory, theocratic state was imposed while in the south too often Home Rule really did mean Rome Rule.

It has taken generations, but we are now on the cusp of finding our way back and healing from this trauma. The prospect of Irish unity is a necessary, normalising change which needs to happen for all of the island. This change is happening, and I believe that all of us need to begin preparing for Irish unity and to prepare ourselves for the changes ahead.

Extract taken from 'Being Irish, 101 views on Irish Identity, what it means to be Irish in a modern world' by Marie-Claire Logue

Published by Liffey Press, RRP €19.99, £17.95