UN General Assembly
1956

111. I speak here with a certain hesitation, because I do not wish to put my own country forward as endowed with some peculiar intuition into what should be the right solution for all these complex problems. There are many nations represented here which have a much more detailed knowledge of these problems than we can have. But we have a historical background which may, perhaps, qualify us to make a relevant intervention in this matter. 112. Ireland is unique in that it is the only Western European country which has the long experience of having been treated as a colony — not just of having been temporarily occupied during a war, but of having been governed, during many generations, by a foreign country whose rule our people rejected and strove to shake off. The Foreign Minister of Tunisia referred to that fact in a very friendly fashion from this rostrum the other day.