"My desire to become an Irish citizen has been increased by the follies of Brexit"

Professor of Clbadical English, aged 86 and closely related to Irish universities, became an Irish citizen because he is "extremely dissatisfied with Brexit".

George Leonard Huxley, a former Greek professor at Queen's University in Belfast and an honorary professor at Trinity College Dublin, was the oldest (one year) of 3,000 people from more than 120 countries to receive the Irish citizenship at ceremonies held in Killarney Kerry on Monday.

"I was determined to become a little more Irish if possible before the Brexit was inflicted on us. Certainly, the follies of Brexit have greatly increased my desire to be an Irish citizen, he said. Irish time during a visit to Dublin while returning home to Oxfordshire.

Professor Huxley condemned the "totally irresponsible" decision of former Prime Minister David Cameron to hold a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union in order to solve the problems within his own party.

"I hope we will learn to have a welcoming civil society for outsiders, outward-looking but conscious"

Equally irresponsible was his decision not to provide for a vote to the contrary in Northern Ireland and Scotland, or to apply a "definite" majority or an absolute majority to a simple majority for "such a serious constitutional change", a- he declared.

"I question his legality. I am not an international lawyer, but when two nations of the United Kingdom vote, their wishes can not be ignored, even though most of the territory voted for the authorization, "he said.

He rejected the view of former British minister Jo Johnson, brother of former British Foreign Secretary Boris, that the Brexit crisis was the worst political failure since the Suez Cbad crisis in 1956, when Britain had been forced to withdraw its troops from Egypt. The closest parallel goes much further, he said.

"I would say that the total inability to compromise and the vituperation that we see now – and the general incivility, which is alarming when we consider the pathetic performance of deputies – can not be put in parallel with the 17th century and the time of the [English] civil war, "he said.

Dedicated to Ireland

The octogenarian travels regularly to Ireland to give lectures at the NUI Maynooth as an adjunct chair of clbadics. He is also a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

"I love Ireland and the Irish very much. I am dedicated to Ireland. I did not choose my ancestors with great care. I have no Irish ancestry. I have enjoyed living here for a long time, "he said.

Professor Huxley, now both Irish and English, plans to stop at a Garda station to retrieve an Irish pbadport form before returning to England.

He hopes that his newly conferred Irish citizenship will not make him lose his friends at home, where he laments the introverted nationalism of Brexit.

"I hope that we will learn to have a welcoming civil society for foreigners, open on the outside, but conscious, for historical reasons, that we are really Europeans. We are entering the big unknown and the social consequences could be very serious. They could even disturb, "he said.

When asked if Brexit had a precedent in the tragedies of the Greeks, Professor Huxley stated that an "old Latin etiquette" would have come to him in the mind: Quem deus vult perdere, prius dementat – "the person whom God wants to destroy, he is angry at first".

"There is a curious madness about this, which is very alarming," he said. "It's a self-destructive act in terms of woolly concepts of sovereignty."