Belgium

RESEARCH in the archives of the Belgian Foreign Ministry and the National Archives in Dublin reveal that, historically, most Irish- Belgian contacts were between Ireland and Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, and far less with Wallonia, the French-speaking region. This chapter will first give an overview of relations until the end of the Second World War, then it will focus on the post-1945 period until Ireland's entry into the European Community (EC) in 1973. Belgians did not perceive Ireland to be terra incognita. In Flanders, Ireland was much admired by people anxious to break the connection with Wallonia and set up their own independent Flemish state. Belgian newspaper articles also give an insight into how Ireland was perceived. Diplomatic archives reveal how Brussels responded to the beginning of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and, of course, how it reacted to Ireland's applications for EEC membership throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.