Born European

There was a very interesting and timely article by Garrett Fitzgerald in the Irish Times yesterday about how the Irish state only managed to achieve unequivocal sovereignty after joining the EEC in 1973. Before joining the European project the Republic of Ireland had been almost entirely dependent on the British export market. The EEC allowed the Republic to finally engage with the rest of the world economically and to move away from considering every political issue with reference to the British position.
There was quite an interesting discussion on Three Thousand Versts in relation to this. Chekov brought up the fact that the Republic of Ireland has a very ambivalent attitude towards the EU especially now that the days of large monetary transfers are over. I argued against this notion as follows:
"I am a nationalist that was brought up in Ireland as a European. Ireland has always had historical links to the rest of Europe and people of my generation were delighted that the EU gave us the chance to escape from the Irish self-definitions exclusively based on not being England. You are looking at things like the monetary transfers from the EU but many Irish people would talk about the Erasmus exchange schemes, the right to travel and work in other EU countries and liberating laws on things like homosexuality which are reasons for the ROI to be glad for having joined the EU."
I was born in 1972 and was maybe part of the first generation of Irish people who thought of themselves as the ' young Europeans'. For me there was never any question but that I was European just like a French or a German person. It was quite a shock when I lived in England to hear people talking about 'Europeans' as a group apart when I never doubted my own identity as an Irish European.
I won't say that I am a typical Irish person but my attitudes were certainly formed by my Irish upbringing. I was brought up to speak as much of another person's language as you possibly can. From a young age I can remember trying to speak French when there were visitors around from our twin town. Again the attitude of British people to other European languages was a major shock when I lived there. Many people I knew in England could not speak any other language than English because they had only done two years of languages at school whereas every Irish person I knew took three languages at school.
I saw so many Irish people go to different European countries to study on Erasmus exchange schemes or to work. At the age of 19 I went to do a year's internship at Philips in The Netherlands which I arranged myself. I took a year off my studies at Sheffield University to do this and what was driving me was the desire for more European experience. Like many Irish peers I wanted to embrace the EU and the opportunities it had to offer. Later the European Social Fund paid for my MSc at Queen's so I did actually benefit financially too from the EU.
The funny thing in debating the merits of Irish nationalism with northern unionists is how similar my thinking is to their's. The difference is that I see that Irishness is something that can prosper in a European Union context whereas they see that their Irishness can only be protected in a United Kingdom context. As I said on Chekov's blog:
"You have a very consistent message on how you feel Britishness can encompass a plurality of (changing) identities.  Almost all Irish people are unionists but they are mostly European unionists and not British unionists. The very same plurality of identities you prize in the UK is something that the Republic of Ireland has embraced as a sovereign state in the EU. If Irish nationalism were as prescriptive as you believe then I could not have had the upbringing that I had in Ireland."
Garrett Fitzgerald's article puts the Ireland I was brought up in eloquently into context.