Sir, - What in heaven's name is all the fuss about? On December 31st I opened The Irish Times to find the tops of two facing pages dedicated to that perennial dinosaur of the long-lost empire, Britain's New Year's Honours List. I can well understand why such tributes can make the news pages in England, but was it really necessary for The Irish Times to devote two pages, including listings and commentary? I think not.
Baffled by the extensive coverage publication of the Honours List received in the Irish media, and being the keen Internet surfer that I am, I accessed large circulation European newspapers to see how they reported this event. None of the websites I visited, including Die Welt, Figaro, Le Monde, Dagens Nyheter (Sweden), Helsingin Sanomat (Finland), De Telegraaf (Holland), Kronen Zeitung (Austria) or El Pais (Spain) carried any coverage of the list at all.
Why on earth should we in Ireland be baffled, let alone concerned, that individuals would want to turn down knighthoods more appropriate to the feudal systems in which they originated, just 12 months short of a new millennium? What is strange about people, be they Irish or otherwise, not wanting to accept fellowship of that most obsolete of creatures, the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire?
I have nothing against a system which recognises and pays tribute to the good deeds and services rendered by citizens of the State. I could even stomach Britain's honours list if it displayed the modernity of our times, instead of looking backwards to a feudal and medieval period in its mixed history, much of which is wholly at odds with New Labour's great new devolutionary vision for England, Scotland and Wales.
On January 1st the Republic of Ireland, along with 10 other partners in the European Union, entered Euroland. I believe Britain's decision to remain outside the euro zone was made for outdated political reasons. Its decision failed to impress the German, French, American and Japanese multinationals which control key segments of the British economy.
I say this to illustrate my point that Britain, and England in particular, has a long journey still to travel before it genuinely enters the new age of modern enlightenment much sought by Tony Blair. The existence of a medieval honours list only confirms fears among its European partners of the antiquated "fog in the Channel, Europe cut off" mentality which still persists in some quarters in England, and which is shown in such passe conceptions as the honours list. -Yours, etc., Diarmuid MacKenna,
Ennistymon Road, Ennis, Co Clare.