Ireland would be a natural member of the Commonwealth, and an application from the State to join would be greatly welcomed, according to the organisation's Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku.
Chief Anyaoku, who is on a three-day visit to Ireland at the invitation of the Irish Association, said yesterday that many Commonwealth members who had fought nationalist struggles against Britain "would not understand an Irish decision not to join on nationalist grounds".
While he would not take a direct role in any internal Irish debate on the matter, he said, he had a duty "to put the facts about the modern Commonwealth". He welcomed the discussion that followed the Taoiseach's prediction two weeks ago that the Irish people would consider rejoining. "Firstly it would give Ireland an avenue to special relationships with 54 other Commonwealth countries", he said yesterday in an interview with The Irish Times. "The whole point of foreign policy is to seek avenues for pursuing national interests.
"The 54 Commonwealth countries are in all major regions of the world, embracing the diversity of the world community. That would be good for Ireland in terms of trade, commerce and pursuing Irish relations with the outside world.
"Ireland has been genuinely internationalist in its outlook, and Irish citizens have had special relations with many states particularly in my continent [Africa]."
While regional groupings such as the EU were important, members of such groups all understood they needed to conduct international relations through wider inter-regional groups as well. The Commonwealth would provide Ireland with such a wider group.
While the United Nations did offer scope for such inter-regional contacts, it did not provide the same depth of relationships. There was not an "either/or" choice: Ireland could be a member of all these organisations, he said.
He rejected arguments that Commonwealth membership would dilute independent Ireland's sense of national identity by putting it into an Anglocentric organisation. "I don't think you would get many people in Canada, New Zealand, Australia or India who would say it diminishes their identity."
The fact that Queen Elizabeth was head of the Commonwealth need not conflict with Irish nationalism, he said. "The Commonwealth is full of countries that went through nationalist struggles, many of whose leaders were the queen's tenants in prisons during the colonial period. Commonwealth membership does not detract from nationalist sentiments in those countries.
"Can you imagine the position of Robert Mugabe, whose only child, his son, died while he was in prison and he was not allowed to go to the funeral? No less than 40,000 of his people died in the liberation struggle which ended only 18 years ago. Yet Zimbabwe is a member of the Commonwealth."
Members no longer had to swear allegiance to the queen, he says. The majority of members (33) were republics, and it was no longer seen as an Anglocentric organisation.
Chief Anyaoku holds a traditional Nigerian chieftainship of the Obosi people. He was also briefly Nigeria's minister for foreign Affairs in 1983 in a civilian government which was ejected in a military coup. He declined an offer from the military regime to remain as a minister and has made the development of democracy one of the themes of his secretary-generalship.