Where you could have lived… *shudder* (Photo: “The Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland” by Giuseppe Milo via Flickr)
Looks like British officials got a little bit desperate in the 80s ahead of the 1997 handover…
Newly released government documents have revealed that the UK discussed the idea of lifting all 5.5 million Hong Kong people and plopping them down in Northern Ireland.
In the 80s, a sociologist suggested that all Hong Kong Chinese be relocated to a brand new city-state in Northern Ireland since they would “have no political future” after the city reverted to Chinese rule, reports the Guardian.
A Northern Ireland civil servant, a chap by the name of George Fergusson, jumped on this novel idea and became its enthusiastic cheerleader, discussing the proposal with the UK foreign office.
The exchanges, which were recorded in a file called “The Replantation of N. Ireland from Hong Kong”, do not appear to have ever reached ministers.
“If the plantation were undertaken,” Fergusson wrote, “it would have evident advantages in reassuring Unionist opinion of the open-ended nature of the Union.” (In Ireland, unionists were for the political union between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.)
D.R. Snoxell, who worked for the UK Foreign Office’s Republic of Ireland department, responded: “My initial reaction, however, is that the proposal could be useful to the extent that 5.5 million Chinese may induce the indigenous peoples to forsake their homeland for a future elsewhere. Arrangements would, of course, have to be made for [the Chinese] to retain their UK nationality.”
Snoxell was already thinking ahead, taking into account our love of the ocean and seafood, and was worried about a lake in the area where the Hong Kong Chinese would hypothetically be relocated.
“The Chinese people of Hong Kong are essentially a fishing and maritime people.”
“I am sure you would share our view that it would be unwise to settle the people of Hong Kong in the vicinity until we had established our claims on the lough [that would be ‘lake’ in weird Irish-speak] and whether these extended to high or low-water mark.”
Another FCO official reacted pretty much the same way we did: “My mind will be boggling for the rest of the day”.
Now enjoy the rest of your day wondering what it would have been like if you suddenly became Irish in 1983… We imagine it’d be something like the Scotch-Koreans in this Skittles commercial:
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