Clare Short was the Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood for 27 years and made headlines globally in 2003 when she resigned from Tony Blair’s Cabinet over the illegal invasion of Iraq. Throughout her years of political activism, she championed peace in Ireland and advocated for the cause of Irish unification.
Joe Dwyer: It feels like every interview and article I’ve read about you mentions that your father, Frank Short, was born in Crossmaglen and your mother, Joan O’Loughlin, was a descendant of emigrants who fled the Great Hunger. Your father was the first National Secretary of the Anti-Partition league, later the United Island Association. So just how ‘Irish’ was the Short household?
Clare Short: We were born in Birmingham but all sang the Irish songs. Dad was a great one at singing when he put you to bed. We went to Irish dancing; we did a bit of Irish lessons – but I don’t think we got much beyond the prayers! Of course, we went fairly often to Ireland. My dad was one of eleven, and most of them had six or seven children; so, we had sixty odd first cousins! And most of them live around Crossmaglen or on the other side of the border. I mean, the family naturally comes from both sides of the border. So Irish politics was part of our life.
The history of Ireland also helps you understand the British Empire. It helps to shape the way you look at the world. My father, was born in 1904. He was angry when Island was partitioned. His village ended up 3 miles north of the border. He was pretty cross about the Boundary Commission because that excluded Crossmaglen. He carried that with him all his life. He was a teacher in Birmingham in a quite poor area. So, we also knew about inequality in Britain. So, yes, we had quite an Irish heritage.
Joe Dwyer: Being Irish in Britain, and in particular following the Birmingham pub bombings, it wouldn’t have been the easiest time to be Irish. When you hear the current narrative and rhetoric from this British Government around “an island of strangers” and the negative media tone specifically toward the Muslim community, do you recognise that experience?
Clare Short: After the pub bombings the whole atmosphere changed considerably. The two bombs were awful. For example, when we were younger, there had been an Irish parade on Saint Patrick’s Day. My dad was involved in that and people marched under the County banners. After the bombings it didn’t run for years. It was eventually reinstated. So there was that backlash. And of course, it was only much later that it became clear that the wrong people had been blamed for it!
When we were young we used to give out leaflets for the Labour Party and knock on doors in local elections for local councillors and so on. When some Irish people said racist things, because this was the beginning of a considerable influx of people from the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent, my Dad would tell them off. Tell them about Irish history! We knew that racism has to always be opposed.
So, this “island of strangers” remarks by the Prime Minister were disgraceful. Thinking you can defeat the Reform Party by competing on their ground is both reprehensible and foolish.
Joe Dwyer: So, obviously you come from this political household and you’re leafletting from an early age and so on, and yet you chose to begin a career in the Civil Service? You were Private Secretary to a Minister in the Home Office?
Clare Short: I went to Leeds University. During my studies I realised how the Senior Civil Service was the British establishment and it was running the country. So, I thought I’d take the Civil Service exams and have a look at the British establishment at work. This was in 1970. So, I went to have a look. I didn’t think I’d be there forever, but it was very interesting.
Joe Dwyer: So, did you plan on always going into elected politics?
Clare Short: No. In truth I didn’t have any idea that someone like me could be a Member of Parliament until I was a Private Secretary, first to a Tory Minister and then later when the Labour government came in. As I briefed MPs in Parliament I realised, ‘Good heavens, I could do that!’ That was when I decided to go into electoral politics.
Joe Dwyer: As an MP you were frequently associated with the cause of Ireland in Westminster. Indeed, from my research, you were on the first Executive of the Labour Committee on Ireland; you were an editorial adviser on the ‘Labour and Ireland’ magazine; you were honorary President of the Labour Party Irish Section; you shared panels with the Irish in Britain Representation Group; and you memorably helped to launch the Time To Go Campaign.
You also spoke out on the use of plastic bullets and strip searching in Armagh Women’s Gaol. Undoubtedly you invited a backlash from the Labour establishment and the media. What motivated you to put your head above the parapet on the issue of Ireland?
Clare Short: There was also my resignation in 1988 over the Prevention of Terrorism Act under Neil Kinnock. Labour used to vote against renewal and then our position was changed without consultation! I also did other things, on race, immigration, women’s rights, constituency work and so on. But yes, I remember I got particularly attacked by The Sun and others for daring to suggest the people convicted for the Birmingham pub bombings weren’t the right people.
But I think, when we got to the stage of a possible peace process things shifted. I got to know John Hume quite well. I also met Gerry Adams. I became very keen on assisting the peace process and finding some means of resolving the situation.
Joe Dwyer: You mentioned previously the Birmingham Six campaign. Why do you think it essentially took English Members of Parliament to raise such cases of British miscarriages of justice, rather than Irish Members of Parliament?
Clare Short: I’ve always felt it took a long time for some people to even believe that they could have possibly convicted the wrong people. Even suggesting that seemed to some as if you were saying the bombings were ok. Often when you put your head above the parapet people take a shot at you. Chris Mullin, of course, took a lot of it!
Joe Dwyer: In one of the interviews I read, it suggested that you were something of ‘a bridge’ on the issue of Ireland between the ‘hardline’ Ken Livingstone and the more ‘moderate’ Kevin McNamara’s. Obviously within the labour movement, you were identified as part of the ‘soft left’ grouping, between the Bennites and the traditional left.
Clare Short: Yes, that’s exactly where I belong. It’s where intellectually and politically I sat. And I think that was true when it came to peace in Ireland, as well as many other issues. Because Sinn Féin made the famous moves to talk and I think they were dead right to do so. I think it led to considerable progress.
Joe Dwyer: So that bridging tendency, was it a calculated strategy or was that just innately where your politics fell, just sort of common sense?
Clare Short: I think it’s just the right place to be. Whether emotionally, intellectually or politically it’s where I belong still. I mean, currently everything has moved to the right. But I’m still where I was, even now.
For example, when the Socialist Campaign Group, inside the Labour Party, was established; it had split from the Tribune Group. In those days the Tribune Group was a significant force, not like now. I decided to join both. Because I thought that the split was a mistake.
Joe Dwyer: It’s fair to say you’re probably most remembered, in popular memory at least, for your principled stand against the Iraq war. When you resigned as Secretary of State for International Development in 2003, as well as over the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1988, how did you decide when it was the right time to take a stand?
Clare Short: In politics, there are always compromises. In a political party there will always be things that you don’t 100% agree with. But most of the time you can sort of swallow it because you can’t have your own way on everything. But there’s some things that just are too much. As I said, the change around the Prevention of Terrorism Act came out of the blue, without any consultation. So, it was both the decision itself and the way in which it was just laid down.
In terms of the first Gulf War, that was different from the subsequent Iraq War because there had been the invasion of Kuwait. I simply said that they had bombed a bunker that was full of women and children. And that lots of them had died. There had been all these terrible pictures. And they claimed that they didn’t know that there were people in there. So, I did a local media interview saying, ‘Well, I’m willing to believe that they didn’t know that there were people in there, but why are they bombing all the water sources and provision across Iraq? There’s no need to do that to take over Kuwait.’ That was when Neil Kinnock sent for me! And said that I had to apologise. I refused. And that’s how I ended up resigning from the Shadow Cabinet in 1990. I didn’t start off planning to do it.
Joe Dwyer: Did you sort of feel vindicated when the Good Friday Agreement did come about?
Clare Short: I was so happy about it. It was just such a good development, and it took a lot of courage from a lot of people. I think John Hume doesn’t get enough praise. Because when he started talking to Sinn Féin he got massive flak.
Kevin McNamara was a good man. Very much on the soft left, but he stuck with Ireland right through and never gave in. He did become Shadow Secretary of State, but he never got the credit he deserved. So, there were a lot of people who plugged away and it was a very big achievement. Yes, everything’s not perfect but that was a big step forward and I’m glad I contributed a bit.
Joe Dwyer: Turning to current events, does it concern you that there isn’t that same space within British politics at the moment for dissenting voices? Particularly when we look at current conflicts like Palestine, it seems to be there’s a much more top-down approach than there was before?
Clare Short: Under Tony Blair, things became less tolerant of dissent but nothing like it is now! Nothing! I mean, it’s always been the case that if you weren’t on the front bench or in the government, you could speak freely. But they can’t do that now! They got rid of anyone who they thought might have left-wing views – they just weren’t allowed to stand. How do you get new ideas? How do you get discussion of ways forward if no one is allowed to speak?
Joe Dwyer: We recently saw in the Life and Times survey in the North of Ireland that the gap between supporters for Irish unity is at 36% and those favouring the Union is 42%. And that gap has halved in the last year. Throughout your career, you regularly argued that democracy was key to resolving the Anglo-Irish question. With recent developments, the debacle of Brexit, the election of a Sinn Féin First Minister etc. do you hope, or better yet do you believe, that you will see a referendum on Irish unity in your lifetime?
Clare Short: In my lifetime? I’m getting quite old now! But I do think it’s inevitable. I actually think Brexit, and this complicated deal on Northern Ireland’s economic status, which actually will improve investment in the North because there’ll be more North-South economic integration which is going on anyway, I think it’s a matter of time.
I think it just needs to be handled with care and it’s achievable. You see that already from Sinn Féin spokespeople. It’s the work of saying quite kind things towards the Unionist community, to reassure them and say, ‘yes of course you’ll have to be accommodated and so on.’ So, it’s a matter of time. Just have to keep going on, like now, carefully. Governing well. Not being sectarian. That’s the right way to go. It would be very nice if it happens in my lifetime, but even if it doesn’t, I’m sure it will be shortly thereafter.
