An excellent piece of writing which does a deep dive on Irish sovereignity and what it actually means.
I would argue though that the founders of the Irish state were fully aware of the dangers of Fanon's oppositional identity and sought to cultivate a sense of Gaelic identity. It is easy to scoff at the cosplaying of Celtic identity and mythic Irish heroes like Cu Culainn by the likes of Pearse and Gonne, but at least they were aware that being 'not English' was an insufficient ground for Irish identiry.
Michael Collins was even more asute, correctly diagnosing the economic underpinnings of the British empire and the need to develop an independent economic base for Ireland.
Alas, in the last 50 years we have recklessly thrown all of their painfully hard won achievements away.
The decimation of the fighting capacity of the Irish army (in a nation previously renowned for the martial prowess of its soldiers)is just the tip of the iceberg. As Sinead correctly points out in this wonderful essay the policy of Irish neutrality (rooted in De Valera’s tenacious decision to stay out of WWII) has morphed into an ill thought through, economically expedient and morally ambiguous stance.
This is downstream of being marinated for the last 50 years in a toxic soup of consumerism, materialism,US cosplaying and allowing our landscape, education, infrastructure and institutions to be almost entirely captured by global capitalism.
It's not surprising that Ireland is now the data centre capital of Europe,because we are stupid enough to believe that makes us indispensable to vast US corporations who cynically view our island as a trans Atlantic raft for thinly staffed empty engines of capitalism and the rest of us as a bunch of useful, if quaint, idiots.
Sinead, you brilliantly articulate and break down Ireland, putting your research, thought and words to my feelings and intuition. You are a truly modern Irish patriot in my view. Keep doing what you do please and hopefully Ireland will hear you, understand your words and move to better decisions. I despair to know where the politicians are, who will take your work on board, but your words do give me hope.
You are rummaging in the soul of the Irish State, which is a unique occupation of yours and it makes for uncomfortable reading. As you have highlighted the sinews are weak, and the will to transform is absent. This is all fine whilst we are awash with money but doesn’t look good for the next 25 years or for the next generation. How can the state be shaken out of its stasis. As the K shaped economy continues into the future, more people will become disaffected with the system, which undermines the foundations of our democracy. What you highlight is that we need a new vision for the country, something more than Boston or Berlin.
You're so close, but you still repeat this idea that Ireland is "freeloading". It suits Britain just fine to have a militarily impotent neighbour.
The existence of the Irish Republic depends on the UK respecting Irish sovereignty, and doing so voluntarily, forever. For a country that suffered under their yoke for centuries, that's an astonishingly risky bet.
When the far right inevitably comes to power in the UK, when the US inevitably recedes from it's role as global hegemon, history will resume, and when it does, we will wonder how we wasted precious time debating a mostly hypothetical Russian threat, and not the country on our doorstep, for whom controlling Ireland has always been a geopolitical necessity.
Britain has only ever paid attention to Ireland when it really needed to, because waging war here was expensive, distant and yielded little beyond security at their back - we’ve no natural resources worth taking. If we did our part in defending our airspace, undersea infrastructure and cooperated with Britain and European navies in policing and defending the western approaches, they’d be happier and not need to stretch their already thin defence budget to pay our way too.
The Falkland islands also has no natural resources, is not at all crucial to Britain's security, and is practically on the other side of the world. But Britain went to war with Argentina to maintain control of them. Regaining control over Ireland would be a walk in the park by comparison.
Britain never truly accepted Irish independence (see the Republic of Ireland act 1948, the CTA, their insistence on using the term "British isles"). We are fortunate that the US vassalised them after Suez, but the US is no longer reliable or predictable. We must be the guarantors of our own sovereignty.
I know you're probably rolling your eyes right now but please realize it is not the 90's anymore. Go back in time 30 years, if you said the president of the US would talk openly about annexing Greenland, who would have believed you? Ireland is Britain's Ukraine/Taiwan/Cyprus. We urgently needs to start seeing ourselves that way.
I’m not saying they pose no threat, Darragh, I do think they’re way down the list at the moment. They can barely defend themselves, their politics and economy are in bits. Security in the North is as much an issue for them as for us, as the recent race riots showed. I guess we’re in violent agreement, besides, perhaps, the order of priority of current threats 🤷♂️
I think you’re drawing an equivalence between the prestige hit of potentially losing the (useless) Falklands and the stubbornly British inhabitants of those islands and Ireland as a whole, but I don’t think that’s quite right. Britain was actively planning to hand the Falklands and its inhabitants to Argentina when the war started. The Good Friday agreement encapsulates all the considerations they feel are due to their Northern subjects in Ireland, Brexit shows how little they care or understand the Irish situation. We are invisible unless there’s an immediate threat, I’d contend, and perfidious Albion is 99% a boogey man 🤷♂️
That exact same "invisibility" is a big part of the reason their government and military got away with committing atrocities and great injustices here (as recently as the Troubles). So forgive me if I don't exactly feel reassured by the by their lack of concern for us.
It's frankly astonishing that you can describe Britain as a "boogy man" when it is the only country that has ever invaded, conquered, or colonised us, and did so repeatedly, and brutally. Pax America has truly lobotomised us.
I’m from Derry, I grew up there during the troubles. Being stopped and searched by an army patrol was a regular feature of daily life for teenage me. I saw the provos bomb the main shopping streets into rubble, walked to school through the hunger strike riots. I’ve seen it first hand.
What I object to, is the lack of agency a lot of arguments about Britain and Ireland give to Ireland. We have choices to make, relationships to cast or recast and we’ve largely abdicated that responsibility. If we look to you like supine victims of perfidious Albion, then my next question is ‘What can we do about it as a small country?’ The answer should not be ‘Nothing’, but I think that has been our answer to date. I like this article because it takes the spotlight off the Brits, for a change, and shines it on us and asks that question - ‘What you gonna do?’ I think that’s a reframing we need to regain agency, and start asking what we want here, and stop being the body washed up and down the beach in Britain’s tide 🤷♂️
I have read countless articles, listen to god knows how many mind numbing debates about Irish security. 99 times of out 100, the discussion devolves into a debate about the threat of Russian meddling. *Not once* have I heard anyone seriously discuss a hypothetical scenario where Britain, or another allied country violate our sovereignty, and that includes this article. Our dependence is never framed as an existential risk. It is at most seen as an embarrassment (see the constant use of the term "freeloading"). So I agree with everything you say about agency, but I disagree about "taking the spotlight off the Brits for a change" because it hasn't been on them in decades. The idea that they would ever violate our sovereignty has somehow become unthinkable. Sooner or later, the Irish will get a geopolitical wakeup call similar to the ones the Danish got earlier this year.
way back, a similar argument was made: during the appropriations hearings for Fermilab, some politico across the Atlantic asked how Fermilab would contribute to the defense of the country
the project lead answered that Fermilab will help “make the country worth defending”
A powerful, thoughful and passionate article of real importance. The statement that 'a country that a hundred years later is still so busy not being Britain that it never got around to becoming itself' is spot on. It is interesting that a President (and Commander in Chief) who speaks of decolonising our minds reflects exactly the need for such a process when it comes to discussions of neutrality and defence. It is worth reading Claire Wills excellent book 'That Neutral Island - A history of Ireland during the second world war' to gain insight into the mix of pragmatism and principles that shaped our neutrality; including the threats from within the state.
An excellent piece, you cut to the heart of the matter, Sinéad! The fact we know what we are against and can’t say what we are for is the starting place for the defence and foreign policies of all of our political parties, such as they are. I also love the concept of the expressive state, the retreat into grievance, which explains so much. Thank you 🙏
This is an excellent article. It does beg the question that having defined "what we are" do we have the politicians capable of creating the institutions to match the vision?
Another inspiring piece. The framing of post colonialism as a sort of victimhood that can't move on from blaming the oppressor for all of it's ills, is an underexplored theme.
It's not just restricted to former colonies either. Here in the UK, we still can't move on from the old mindset of " projecting worldwide power" while deluding ourselves that we have the capability to do so ( aircraft carriers without aircraft for God's sake.) The public is in a similar mindset to Ireland: largely anti war after the disastrous interventions of the last 25 years, yet vocal in support of causes ( Ukraine, Gaza) that it thinks are risk free. We too lack serious debate about what kind of country we want to be and what the trade offs mightbe. There is a growing understanding that Russia is a threat, but policymakers are still way behind understanding that our power and communications networks are where our frontline needs to be.
These articles are so well thought out and reasoned and therefore I am so disappointed that the argument here so often defaults to simply Russia being the dangerous threat which we need to protect ourselves from.
The UN security council, admittedly often flawed, is the supreme guarantor of international law and order.
Not the US + EU rules based arbitrary system.
The 'Russian shadow fleet' referenced is entirely legal however much the unelected and increasingly unaccountable EU/Ursula VDL wish otherwise.
Defense of our neutrality is so much much more than big guns and tanks and aircraft, but I suppose that's where all the profitability comes from.
Wikileaks has revealed just how supine elected officials are.
The US spying on Merkel's mobile phone, the elected leader of the top US military ally in Europe.
The US ambassador intervening in domestic policy warning against passing the occupied territories bill.
Who are we actually defending ourselves against?
US is threatening to invade Greenland, to attack a fellow NATO member.
Which side would we be expected to take?
The Biden administration, according to the Polish Government, blew up Nordstream resulting in the inevitable deindustrialization of Germany.
Should we join NATO and invoke article 5?
Would that improve our security?
Maybe our neutrality discussion should start with the transparency, responsibility and accountability of our elected officials and the unelected ones in the background too.
It's a lot cheaper and would allow the state to better step up and provide the requisite housing, transport and healthcare that it's citizens expect.
Such great analysis and great reading, thank you Sinéad! You're so right that you are "the exact embodiment of what pockets of people in Ireland have feared arriving for a long time to Ireland’s shores". You are intelligently analysing Ireland in a way that is probably uncomfortable for some while it has been easier for them to just ignore these fundamental problems while laughing all the way to the bank, saying 'ah shure it's grand', with a pint in hand.
Now it seems these failures and inadequacies of the Irish state are impossible to ignore. Furthermore, in my opinion, Ireland has not been a "neutral" country for a long time, particularly regarding Shannon, and as you pointed out, the Russian factory in Limerick!! Where does Ireland stand?! Do we have any backbone?!...I think it's the duplicitousness, deviousness and the two-faced/bare-faced lying of the political class that is so galling, where it seems like personal gain and profit is the main motivator for the people in "power"...like you say, if the state cannot protect it's people, in a 'hard' or 'soft' way, then what is the State for? Does Ireland exist purely to create profit for American companies and the small amount of Irish people who help them?...it's so great seeing your writing and you being able to pinpoint all this with hard facts and irrefutable data...it's like your articulating what everyone's feeling! Many thanks again! Seán
This is an extraordinary piece of writing.
Sinéad for Taoiseach, anyone?
Minister for Defense, if not Taoiseach! Or to have maximum impact, Minister for Public Expenditure, who really holds all the purse-strings...
An excellent piece of writing which does a deep dive on Irish sovereignity and what it actually means.
I would argue though that the founders of the Irish state were fully aware of the dangers of Fanon's oppositional identity and sought to cultivate a sense of Gaelic identity. It is easy to scoff at the cosplaying of Celtic identity and mythic Irish heroes like Cu Culainn by the likes of Pearse and Gonne, but at least they were aware that being 'not English' was an insufficient ground for Irish identiry.
Michael Collins was even more asute, correctly diagnosing the economic underpinnings of the British empire and the need to develop an independent economic base for Ireland.
Alas, in the last 50 years we have recklessly thrown all of their painfully hard won achievements away.
The decimation of the fighting capacity of the Irish army (in a nation previously renowned for the martial prowess of its soldiers)is just the tip of the iceberg. As Sinead correctly points out in this wonderful essay the policy of Irish neutrality (rooted in De Valera’s tenacious decision to stay out of WWII) has morphed into an ill thought through, economically expedient and morally ambiguous stance.
This is downstream of being marinated for the last 50 years in a toxic soup of consumerism, materialism,US cosplaying and allowing our landscape, education, infrastructure and institutions to be almost entirely captured by global capitalism.
It's not surprising that Ireland is now the data centre capital of Europe,because we are stupid enough to believe that makes us indispensable to vast US corporations who cynically view our island as a trans Atlantic raft for thinly staffed empty engines of capitalism and the rest of us as a bunch of useful, if quaint, idiots.
Sinead, you brilliantly articulate and break down Ireland, putting your research, thought and words to my feelings and intuition. You are a truly modern Irish patriot in my view. Keep doing what you do please and hopefully Ireland will hear you, understand your words and move to better decisions. I despair to know where the politicians are, who will take your work on board, but your words do give me hope.
Sinead
You are rummaging in the soul of the Irish State, which is a unique occupation of yours and it makes for uncomfortable reading. As you have highlighted the sinews are weak, and the will to transform is absent. This is all fine whilst we are awash with money but doesn’t look good for the next 25 years or for the next generation. How can the state be shaken out of its stasis. As the K shaped economy continues into the future, more people will become disaffected with the system, which undermines the foundations of our democracy. What you highlight is that we need a new vision for the country, something more than Boston or Berlin.
Keep up the great incisive, stimulating work.
Gerry Sheehan
You're so close, but you still repeat this idea that Ireland is "freeloading". It suits Britain just fine to have a militarily impotent neighbour.
The existence of the Irish Republic depends on the UK respecting Irish sovereignty, and doing so voluntarily, forever. For a country that suffered under their yoke for centuries, that's an astonishingly risky bet.
When the far right inevitably comes to power in the UK, when the US inevitably recedes from it's role as global hegemon, history will resume, and when it does, we will wonder how we wasted precious time debating a mostly hypothetical Russian threat, and not the country on our doorstep, for whom controlling Ireland has always been a geopolitical necessity.
Britain has only ever paid attention to Ireland when it really needed to, because waging war here was expensive, distant and yielded little beyond security at their back - we’ve no natural resources worth taking. If we did our part in defending our airspace, undersea infrastructure and cooperated with Britain and European navies in policing and defending the western approaches, they’d be happier and not need to stretch their already thin defence budget to pay our way too.
The Falkland islands also has no natural resources, is not at all crucial to Britain's security, and is practically on the other side of the world. But Britain went to war with Argentina to maintain control of them. Regaining control over Ireland would be a walk in the park by comparison.
Britain never truly accepted Irish independence (see the Republic of Ireland act 1948, the CTA, their insistence on using the term "British isles"). We are fortunate that the US vassalised them after Suez, but the US is no longer reliable or predictable. We must be the guarantors of our own sovereignty.
I know you're probably rolling your eyes right now but please realize it is not the 90's anymore. Go back in time 30 years, if you said the president of the US would talk openly about annexing Greenland, who would have believed you? Ireland is Britain's Ukraine/Taiwan/Cyprus. We urgently needs to start seeing ourselves that way.
I’m not saying they pose no threat, Darragh, I do think they’re way down the list at the moment. They can barely defend themselves, their politics and economy are in bits. Security in the North is as much an issue for them as for us, as the recent race riots showed. I guess we’re in violent agreement, besides, perhaps, the order of priority of current threats 🤷♂️
I think you’re drawing an equivalence between the prestige hit of potentially losing the (useless) Falklands and the stubbornly British inhabitants of those islands and Ireland as a whole, but I don’t think that’s quite right. Britain was actively planning to hand the Falklands and its inhabitants to Argentina when the war started. The Good Friday agreement encapsulates all the considerations they feel are due to their Northern subjects in Ireland, Brexit shows how little they care or understand the Irish situation. We are invisible unless there’s an immediate threat, I’d contend, and perfidious Albion is 99% a boogey man 🤷♂️
That exact same "invisibility" is a big part of the reason their government and military got away with committing atrocities and great injustices here (as recently as the Troubles). So forgive me if I don't exactly feel reassured by the by their lack of concern for us.
It's frankly astonishing that you can describe Britain as a "boogy man" when it is the only country that has ever invaded, conquered, or colonised us, and did so repeatedly, and brutally. Pax America has truly lobotomised us.
I’m from Derry, I grew up there during the troubles. Being stopped and searched by an army patrol was a regular feature of daily life for teenage me. I saw the provos bomb the main shopping streets into rubble, walked to school through the hunger strike riots. I’ve seen it first hand.
What I object to, is the lack of agency a lot of arguments about Britain and Ireland give to Ireland. We have choices to make, relationships to cast or recast and we’ve largely abdicated that responsibility. If we look to you like supine victims of perfidious Albion, then my next question is ‘What can we do about it as a small country?’ The answer should not be ‘Nothing’, but I think that has been our answer to date. I like this article because it takes the spotlight off the Brits, for a change, and shines it on us and asks that question - ‘What you gonna do?’ I think that’s a reframing we need to regain agency, and start asking what we want here, and stop being the body washed up and down the beach in Britain’s tide 🤷♂️
I have read countless articles, listen to god knows how many mind numbing debates about Irish security. 99 times of out 100, the discussion devolves into a debate about the threat of Russian meddling. *Not once* have I heard anyone seriously discuss a hypothetical scenario where Britain, or another allied country violate our sovereignty, and that includes this article. Our dependence is never framed as an existential risk. It is at most seen as an embarrassment (see the constant use of the term "freeloading"). So I agree with everything you say about agency, but I disagree about "taking the spotlight off the Brits for a change" because it hasn't been on them in decades. The idea that they would ever violate our sovereignty has somehow become unthinkable. Sooner or later, the Irish will get a geopolitical wakeup call similar to the ones the Danish got earlier this year.
Geography huh. It matters that Ireland is behind Europe's last redoubt.... and its Atlantic sentinel.
But your arguments are as silly as the brexit bunch. You are suffering under cliches.
These islands'importance is underlined by their listing on the hybrid war itinenary.
Defending the echr from Russia and getting UK back into the EU should be your priority
So... a KGB dictatorship fuelled by machismo trying to destroy law is hypothetical... ?
Ok.
Perhaps you should take a look at a map.
way back, a similar argument was made: during the appropriations hearings for Fermilab, some politico across the Atlantic asked how Fermilab would contribute to the defense of the country
the project lead answered that Fermilab will help “make the country worth defending”
i find the similarity striking: https://history.fnal.gov/historical/people/wilson_testimony.html
A powerful, thoughful and passionate article of real importance. The statement that 'a country that a hundred years later is still so busy not being Britain that it never got around to becoming itself' is spot on. It is interesting that a President (and Commander in Chief) who speaks of decolonising our minds reflects exactly the need for such a process when it comes to discussions of neutrality and defence. It is worth reading Claire Wills excellent book 'That Neutral Island - A history of Ireland during the second world war' to gain insight into the mix of pragmatism and principles that shaped our neutrality; including the threats from within the state.
An excellent piece, you cut to the heart of the matter, Sinéad! The fact we know what we are against and can’t say what we are for is the starting place for the defence and foreign policies of all of our political parties, such as they are. I also love the concept of the expressive state, the retreat into grievance, which explains so much. Thank you 🙏
As usual, thought-provoking, unsettling and sobering. Compliments on the granularity!
This is an excellent article. It does beg the question that having defined "what we are" do we have the politicians capable of creating the institutions to match the vision?
This is an excellent piece.
Totally hits the nail on the head with regard to political position, strategic position and the idea of self.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
Another inspiring piece. The framing of post colonialism as a sort of victimhood that can't move on from blaming the oppressor for all of it's ills, is an underexplored theme.
It's not just restricted to former colonies either. Here in the UK, we still can't move on from the old mindset of " projecting worldwide power" while deluding ourselves that we have the capability to do so ( aircraft carriers without aircraft for God's sake.) The public is in a similar mindset to Ireland: largely anti war after the disastrous interventions of the last 25 years, yet vocal in support of causes ( Ukraine, Gaza) that it thinks are risk free. We too lack serious debate about what kind of country we want to be and what the trade offs mightbe. There is a growing understanding that Russia is a threat, but policymakers are still way behind understanding that our power and communications networks are where our frontline needs to be.
Not an easy read. Not easy to understand, that as a state or a people we have no raision d'etre, no idea of what we want.
I wonder is it so complicated? Who is supposed to do all this philosophyising for us?g
Michael Martin? Simon Harris? Danny Healy-Rae? Robert Watt? In the whole history of the state how many such people have we had - a dozen?
These articles are so well thought out and reasoned and therefore I am so disappointed that the argument here so often defaults to simply Russia being the dangerous threat which we need to protect ourselves from.
The UN security council, admittedly often flawed, is the supreme guarantor of international law and order.
Not the US + EU rules based arbitrary system.
The 'Russian shadow fleet' referenced is entirely legal however much the unelected and increasingly unaccountable EU/Ursula VDL wish otherwise.
Defense of our neutrality is so much much more than big guns and tanks and aircraft, but I suppose that's where all the profitability comes from.
Wikileaks has revealed just how supine elected officials are.
The US spying on Merkel's mobile phone, the elected leader of the top US military ally in Europe.
The US ambassador intervening in domestic policy warning against passing the occupied territories bill.
Who are we actually defending ourselves against?
US is threatening to invade Greenland, to attack a fellow NATO member.
Which side would we be expected to take?
The Biden administration, according to the Polish Government, blew up Nordstream resulting in the inevitable deindustrialization of Germany.
Should we join NATO and invoke article 5?
Would that improve our security?
Maybe our neutrality discussion should start with the transparency, responsibility and accountability of our elected officials and the unelected ones in the background too.
It's a lot cheaper and would allow the state to better step up and provide the requisite housing, transport and healthcare that it's citizens expect.
Such great analysis and great reading, thank you Sinéad! You're so right that you are "the exact embodiment of what pockets of people in Ireland have feared arriving for a long time to Ireland’s shores". You are intelligently analysing Ireland in a way that is probably uncomfortable for some while it has been easier for them to just ignore these fundamental problems while laughing all the way to the bank, saying 'ah shure it's grand', with a pint in hand.
Now it seems these failures and inadequacies of the Irish state are impossible to ignore. Furthermore, in my opinion, Ireland has not been a "neutral" country for a long time, particularly regarding Shannon, and as you pointed out, the Russian factory in Limerick!! Where does Ireland stand?! Do we have any backbone?!...I think it's the duplicitousness, deviousness and the two-faced/bare-faced lying of the political class that is so galling, where it seems like personal gain and profit is the main motivator for the people in "power"...like you say, if the state cannot protect it's people, in a 'hard' or 'soft' way, then what is the State for? Does Ireland exist purely to create profit for American companies and the small amount of Irish people who help them?...it's so great seeing your writing and you being able to pinpoint all this with hard facts and irrefutable data...it's like your articulating what everyone's feeling! Many thanks again! Seán