In reading and hearing about the history of Finland, I am observing more and more parallels in the histories of our two countries.
We have each undergone centuries of occupation by our more powerful neighbours. Ireland was under English rule for about 700 years and Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden from the 13th century until 1809. After the Finnish War in 1809, Finland was ceded to the Russian Empire.
Finnish nationalism emerged in the 19th century. You could argue that Irish nationalism was emerging before then, but we all learned the list in primary school of the various rebellions of 1798, 1803 (Robert Emmet), 1848 (Young Irelanders), 1867 (the Fenians), the ongoing Land War which began in 1879, through to the Parnell era, Home Rule and, eventually, the 1916 Rising.
Our devastating Irish famine of 1845-1848 resulted in a million deaths and a million people leaving Ireland. Potatoes and other root vegetables rotted in the fields during the catastrophic Finnish famine of 1866-1868 when about 8.5% of the entire population died of hunger.
And then, of course, when we eventually gained independence, we went on to fight among ourselves with the Finnish Civil War in 1918 and the Irish Civil War from 1922-1923.
By an accident of geography, Ireland is lucky to be a small island to the west of Europe. In contrast, Finland has a 1,340 km border with Russia. It was interesting and instructive then to listen to the speech by the President of Finland, President Alexander Stubb, in Kyiv on February 24th last, the third anniversary of the beginning of the Russian war with Ukraine. He talked about how the existence of nationhood is based on a triangle with the three principles of independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. In terms of territory, in Ireland we accepted less than complete independence for all of Ireland (26 counties instead of 32) in order to bring about peace. Finland had to accept a peace with Stalin in World War II and, at that time, they lost 10% of their territory. As for sovereignty, only in 1995 could Finland join the EU after the Soviet Union had collapsed.
It is well worth the eight minutes of your time to listen to President Stubb’s full speech and to make up your own mind as to whether the Free World should stand with and support Ukraine. I found it utterly fascinating to see that our Taoiseach Micheál Martin was listening intently (albeit remotely) to President Stubb in the image above that I have copied from the President's website.
I don't envy our Taoiseach in the difficult balancing act he has next week when he visits the White House for St Patrick's Day, but I wish him well.
Great article Kathryn. Very interesting the parallels we share, never knew that. Helsinki must be a very interesting place to be living in right now given the unsettled political climate we're experiencing now and it's proximity to Russia. Thanks!