I REMEMBER standing in the middle of Charles Bridge the only time I visited Prague and having this overwhelming sensation of being in the very heart of Europe.
It was somewhat disconcerting experience as it called into question my conception of Ireland’s status within the EU and indeed within European History. While we were struggling to discover our sense of civilisation, emperors were building castles here. Ireland was nought but a small inconsequential island on the western tip of the continent. Here in Prague was the seat of an empire whose vast wars made our feeble efforts to achieve independence seem like mere sordid squabbles, one of which ended in a widow’s cabbage patch.
Parallel with this humbling course of thought came the realisation that we had nothing to match the grandeur that was around me. Yet with our self perception as European aristocrats, we had a tendency to look down on the Czechs, and indeed all of the peoples of middle and eastern Europe, as souls lost somewhere in the desert of civilisation, as uneducated illiterate peasants.
In the introduction to his book Don’t Mention The Wars - A Journey Through European Stereotypes (New Island Press ) Tony Connelly asserts “we as Irish people are confused about how much we should think about our Europeaness. Joining the EEC in 1973 allowed us to arch elegantly over Britain towards the continent enjoying new money and an elevated sense of importance. But our view of Europeans over the ages was probably shaped by the British influence”.
Hence our tendency to see our new neighbours as stereotypes such as the stolid German, the full-blooded Spaniard, the amorous Frenchman, or the taciturn Finn. With regards to Eastern Europe, our stereotypes, through ignorance of the different nationalities that inhabit or have inhabited the territory becomes even more vague. We tend to place the Poles under the same umbrella as Czechs, Latvians, or Hungarians.
Connelly sets out on a journey of 10 countries through the highs and lows of European manners and mannerisms, to explore how these stereotypes evolved historically, how valid they still are, and “what light they shed – in the brave new frontierless Europe of the 21st century – on what it means to be a modern European.”
It is a fascinating, not to say ambitious, journey, and one worth taking.
Beginning in Germany and working his way through France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland Connelly brings us on something of a whistle stop tour of European cultures.
It is enlightening, informing, entertaining with a lively, though sometimes poorly edited, narration and introduces us to a wonderful myriad of characters. It is necessarily subjective but – and here is the real value of the book - nonetheless inclusive in a curious but effective way.
Initially Connelly explores the history of the country in question and then introduces to some of the individuals who he feels typify the purported stereotypical image we have of the people. As we work our way through the book, we come to realise that the more these wonderful people are meant to be typical of their country the more they come across as ordinary human beings with the same down to earth aspirations and fears we ourselves have and their main aim in life is to live full decent and fulfilling lives.
Tony Connelly’s Don’t Mention the Wars is an intriguing book and one that should be read by anybody who wants to understand the Europe we live in. They will certainly be all the richer for it.
