The first thing the DJ, podcaster and author Annie Macmanus said she did when she was approached about accepting an honorary MBE “for services to radio” last summer was google which Irish people had turned down such awards. There isn’t an awful lot of information around, but the playwright Seán O’Casey and the artist Francis Bacon are two other Irish people who, like the London-based Dubliner, will go down in the history as honours refuseniks.
These days, to avoid the embarrassment of a public refusal, potential recipients are contacted in advance to see if they would be amenable to accepting the honour. Macmanus received one such scoping-out email from the British foreign office. Having discussed the idea with family, the former BBC Radio 1 presenter decided to politely turn down the offer of becoming an MBE, or member of the Order of the British Empire. Macmanus, whose latest novel, The Mess We’re In, explores the Irish diaspora in London, has an issue with the idea of “empire”, she said, and believes the concept of monarchy is absurd.
We only hear of declined honours if the person who is contacted decides, as Macmanus did, to talk about why they turned it down. The honours are awarded “on merit for exceptional achievement or service to British interests”. The British embassy in Dublin says it does not reveal who has turned down honours from the British monarch: “This is information we do not and would not make public, for reasons of confidentiality.”
We do know that Seán O’Casey, the playwright, was approached in 1963, a year before he died, and offered a CBE, an honour just below that of a knighthood. (CBE stands for commander of the Order of the British Empire). An ardent republican and antimonarchist, O’Casey said no despite having made Britain his home since the 1920s. Bacon turned down an award in 1960.
‘We moved in with each other after seven days. We got engaged after eight months’
Lessons from an Airbnb host: ‘Two sisters insisted we call the Bord Gáis emergency services because the radiator was too hot’
Loneliness in your 40s: ‘As a parent, your friends are often other parents ... they’re not your tribe or people you’d choose’
A Dane in Dublin: ‘In Denmark death is taboo but in Dublin I’ve been met with a different warmth’
Bacon and O’Casey’s names appeared on a list of people who had turned down honours that the BBC obtained after a freedom of information request in 2012.
Irish people who have accepted honours include the campaigner and musician Bob Geldof, the broadcaster Terry Wogan, the scientist Teresa Lambe, the boxing trainer Brendan Ingle – this writer’s uncle – and the musical siblings The Corrs.
Geldof was given an honorary knighthood in 1986. Because he is not a British citizen he is not allowed to call himself Sir Bob (although the British media often does); the honour did make him Bob Geldof KBE, however. Wogan, who worked for the BBC from the late 1960s until shortly before his death, in 2016, also received an honorary knighthood – but this one became “substantive” when he took British nationality, in addition to his Irish citizenship, in 2005. That made him, officially, Sir Terry Wogan.
Ingle, a Dubliner, accepted an honorary MBE in 1998 for services to boxing and for his community work in his adopted home of Sheffield. In 2021, the Co Kildare scientist and Oxford professor Teresa Lambe was given an honorary OBE – it stands for officer of the Order of the British Empire – for her work developing the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
[ Irish designer of Oxford vaccine: ‘I’ve never worked so hard in my life’Opens in new window ]
In 2005, when the Corr siblings, from Dundalk, were given honorary MBEs, Andrea Corr said: “We are honoured ... We have had such support from the British people for our albums, concerts and charity work that to receive this award is the icing on the cake.” Bertie Ahern, who was taoiseach at the time, said he was delighted for the band.
Turning down an honour, as Macmanus did, does not necessarily mean you won’t be asked again. Irish people who at first declined honours include the boxer Barry McGuigan, who said no when he was offered an MBE in 1986. He went on to accept it the second time around, eight years later.
There is even a select group of people who are known to have turned down lower honours only to accept higher honours later: arise, Sir Kenneth Branagh. The Belfast-born actor and director declined a CBE in 1994 but accepted a knighthood in 2012, saying it was “a great honour and a great privilege”.