An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin TD
Opening of West Cork History Festival
Friday 7th August 2026
It is a real pleasure to be with you today to mark the opening of Ireland’s most successful public event dedicated to discussing history. So let me start by congratulating everyone involved in organising this excellent programme and the full range of events which accompany the Festival.
I particularly welcome the Festival’s commitment to broadening discussions beyond simple narratives and challenging us all to understand how historical knowledge is evolving all of the time.
At its best, public engagement with history can inspire and provide the foundation for a vibrant, democratic discourse. At its worst, it can be used to keep alive and expand prejudices and grievances.
This Festival has always had at its heart the idea that challenging yourself is far more important than once again singing the old tunes and sending people away reinforced in the idea that they have always been right.
Providing space for a genuine diversity of opinion, and inviting tough but respectful debate, is a tradition this Festival should always be proud of. It is also an approach which we should all value and promote.
When you look at events internationally, both within and between countries, an assault on the right to dissent from a group or regime-defined narrative of history is one of the most consistent things you find. More than at any time in the past 80 years, history as an area of free expression is under-pressure.
This is predominantly, though very far from exclusively, found with those committed to extreme ideologies and authoritarianism.
You find this at a state level where, in the most obvious example, the very core of Russian aggression against its neighbours and the wider world is a historical revanchism which will not allow any dissent from the idea of a noble and pure Russian history.
In those parts of Ukraine which they have so brutally occupied over the last 12 years, you can no longer talk, read or learn about the mass starvation of the Ukrainian people by the Soviet regime in Moscow. You cannot learn about the unique Tartar culture of Crimea or the separate religious and cultural histories of the region.
Within Russia itself, the archives have been closed for over two decades. Comprehensive intimidation, criminalisation and imprisonment has been implemented against the Memorial organisation – a group dedicated to documenting the crimes of the regimes of Lenin and Stalin.
What is less commented on, but is deeply serious, is the way in which new waves of right-wing nationalism are demanding loyalty to superficial historical narratives. The number of significant political controversies about challenging national histories has escalated dramatically with the rise of reactionary and populist politics.
If there is one thing we should be able to agree on, it is that history shows us that demanding the enforcement of a single narrative about the past, whether it be nationalist or ideological, is always destructive. The use of dismissive labels against those who come to different conclusions feeds division and undermines understanding.
Equally, the rush to judge and dismiss those who look at things differently, brings nothing positive.
This is why I particularly welcome the Festival’s decision to adopt “Boundaries: setting them and crossing them” as this year’s theme.
In various sessions throughout this weekend, a diverse range of scholars will explore different approaches to looking at the role of boundaries through a range of different perspectives. They will look at their importance in shaping not just events but more importantly how we see ourselves and the wider world.
Lewis Baston, who will speak to the Festival tomorrow, has, in his book “Borderlines” about 29 borders in Europe, made a very important contribution to understand Europe’s complex histories. He has done this through exploring the continued impact of often arbitrary and always formative drawing of boundaries between and within complex societies.
This work links very directly with the work of the great new generation of historians in our own universities who have explored issues of conflict, division and peace in many different contexts. It is a mark of the excellence of this work that it has often led international debate about the dramatic period of state dissolution and formation which took place just over a century ago.
When I look at this work I see an enormous relevance to immediate challenges facing Europe. In fact, I see direct and significant importance for us during our Presidency of the Council.
While anti-EU movements obsessively attack the Union, its core success in stopping the historic, destructive cycle of conflict between member states is undeniable.
A decade ago, in the aftermath of the Brexit vote and the rise of populism, newspapers and journals alike were full of stories based on the idea that Europe was over as an idea. Yet today people far more readily understand that it is the very strength of the idea of Europe that leads to the often fevered attacks and attempts to undermine it.
And to see proof of this all you have to look at the long list of countries who seek to promote their prosperity and secure their sovereignty through becoming members of the European Union.
I for one find it inspiring to see how often those who seek freedom, democracy and hope for their countries do so waving the flag of Europe.
At the meeting of the European Political Community which we will host, we will again be stressing the shared values which should embody cooperation in Europe. We will also continue to actively support the further enlargement of the Union.
As we continue to enlarge, and as we deal with the complexities of regions which have been defined throughout the ages by the movement of people, we should be more conscious of the challenge of overcoming historic suspicions between different cultures within and across national boundaries.
Because of political, social, environmental and economic reasons, the cultural boundaries of much of Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans have never been neatly divided. National minorities have always been the reality of states formed out of the large empires which dominated the region.
I very much understand the concerns which state often have about protecting their political and cultural integrity. This is particularly true when we continue to see examples of states attempting to use cultural differences to cause division and disruption in other countries.
However, everyone should do more to understand that cultural diversity need not be seen as a threat.
It is possible to respect and support diverse national cultures in a peaceful and sustainable way.
There is a lot of unfinished business from the last century in terms of how we respect national minorities within our borders and support them outside our borders in a way which is constructive.
In fact, I think we need to be more systematic in showing how we can respect and support national or cultural minorities while respecting the integrity of agreed borders.
While I instinctively try to resist telling others to follow Irish examples, I do think that we have shown that it is possible to grow understanding and engagement to overcome historic suspicion.
The Fleadh Ceol in Belfast this week is a perfect example of this.
The Fleadh is a joyous event which is about celebrating culture. And in a city which has so often been defined by sectarian conflict, this week we saw deep engagement across traditional divides.
I don’t believe that thirty years ago anyone would have imagined that the Fleadh would include traditional loyalist bands in its programme.
Perhaps the single most important element of the Good Friday Agreement is how it very directly insists that we must respect different cultures and national allegiances.
Throughout my time as Taoiseach I have worked to show different communities that we share interests and that we respect difference. We can honour our different understandings of history without reinforcing division. We can relearn the habits of engagement and understanding which we lost due to a new division introduced a little over a century ago. Within this, we can combine cooperation on shared interests with genuine political differences.
Throughout Europe countries are looking for ways of finally getting beyond the 20th century agenda that culture can only be seen through the lens of narrow national aspirations.
This year marked the centenary of a report which fixed in place a boundary on this island which has had a profound impact on our identities, culture, society and economy.
Tomorrow Cormac Moore will participate in the Festival through discussing his excellent study of the Boundary Commission. It’s hard to read that study without seeing the division and long-term damage caused by a process which had no real interest in the welfare of the people of this island. Its outcome may have been inevitable given how the levers of power were controlled, but it created a rightful sense of injustice.
Communities which had developed together through recorded history were separated, and each became less diverse and less dynamic.
This has been followed by a century of significant change – where we continue to share much but have also diverged in important ways.
For me the first challenge as we look forward is to rebuild a core foundation of understanding and engagement. Tremendous damage has been caused in our history by people making assumptions or refusing to renew their understanding of others.
That is why I have pushed forward with the first ever programme of detailed research on the differences and similarities between North and South – and also why my government has funded the first ever major programme for developing shared projects.
Under the Shared Island Initiative, 53 separate pieces of research has so far explored the economic, educational, health, environmental, social care and other realities of the different parts of our island.
These have, in turn, pointed to major issues we need to understand in much greater detail.
For me, if we want to have policies which serve the interests of all of the people – and which overcome the impact of historic divisions – then the irreplaceable foundation for this is an objective, independent and trusted knowledge base.
During the Festival a range of different approaches to the topic of boundaries will be seen.
In the session which follows this the issue of changing boundaries in the area of security and sovereignty will be discussed. This is a difficult area which all too often sees debate filled with a lot of heat and very little light.
This has particularly been the case here, where the tendency to denounce in the most aggressive terms anyone who suggests changing past policies has actually got worse over the years.
One of our most important values is that we believe in directly supporting efforts to protect peace in the most difficult places in the world. Yet in reality the model of peacekeeping which we supported over the last sixty years is likely to disappear unless we are willing to evolve our policies.
Reforming the broken triple-lock mechanism for authorising peacekeeping operations has already been subject to wild misrepresentations and demagoguery. Yet the only alternative we have been offered is to do nothing and stand by as Russia and others continues to destroy international peacekeeping.
Without the practical ability to participate in peacekeeping, our neutrality would be exposed as actually involving nothing more than turning our back on the values of supporting peace and human rights which should define our approach.
A final dimension to the Festival’s exploration of boundaries are the boundaries crossed by the creativity and determination of individuals challenging society.
Sonja Tiernan’s work on Eva Gore-Booth has already broadened the appreciation of the passion, creativity and innovation of brilliant women to our cultural and political history.
On Sunday, the importance and legacy of one of our greatest cultural innovators and the 300th anniversary of his most important work will be celebrated. In writing Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift did far more than give a new fantasy tale to the world. He systematically tore-through every group in society which he felt was hypocritical, or self-obsessed, of simply ridiculous.
In this he addressed a lot of issues which remain deeply relevant. The most important of these was how much we can learn by adopting the perspectives of others. Seeing ourselves through their eyes.
Crossing boundaries he never knew existed, Gulliver learned the damage which comes from making assumptions of others. He came to see how assuming that you and your tribe have a monopoly on wisdom always leads to a bad place.
It is ultimately a loud, aggressive, and often insulting, attack on tribalism and closed minds. Truly a test which speaks to our times.
Once again, congratulations on putting together such a broad and challenging programme and I wish you well for the rest of the Festival.