Will the Irish state use their time in the hot seat of the UN power nexus to promote peace & justice in the world – or will they be mere cheerleaders for Anglo-American imperialism?
While there has been quite a lot of media spin, some bordering on hysterical over-congratulation, a quick glance at Ireland’s recent foreign policy record suggests that some of the media commentary and overreaction about how ‘The Global Island’ will be a voice of reason, peace and stability at the security council – is all part of the same vanity project. The cost in monetary terms of said vanity project is so far at €840,000 – while the cost to the dignity of a nation which fought off one empire only to become the Foreign Policy lapdog of another is beyond measurement.
Indeed, Terence MacSwiney the Lord Mayor of Cork before he died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison, long ago forewarned of such dangers, of the ethical and moral emptiness of freedom for any nation, if it comes at the cost and expense of subjugating others.
“…I have heard it argued that we ought to make foreign alliance….even if our foreign allies engaged in crushing freedom elsewhere. If Ireland were to win freedom by helping to directly or indirectly to crush another people she would earn the execration she has herself poured out on tyranny for ages…”This prophetic warning has long since been discarded by the new masters of Ireland and its power brokers in the 26 county ‘republic’. Should we take Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Right Honourable Mr. Simon Coveney, and his government’s refusal to legislate the Occupied Territories Bill (passed by majorities in both the Seanad and the Dáil) as a harbinger of what behaviour to expect once Ireland takes it’s seat at the UN Security Council?
What should we make of Ireland’s pitiful subservience to British foreign policy diktats when recently expelling the Russian Ambassador at the behest of Westminister and the most sinister of spy-games & intrigue coming out of Whitehall?
What should we expect from Irish Foreign Policy at the UN security council in the wake of Simon Coveney’s recognition of the criminal interloper and CIA stooge Mr. Juan Guaido as un-elected and self-installed president of Venezuela?
Finally, should we expect the Irish Government to push the case for a referendum on Irish Unity and the re-establishment of full Irish sovereignty over its own territory?
Unsurprisingly, the answers to these questions will unfold in episodes of farce and tragedy. As the representatives of the Irish bourgeoisie line up their interests beside that of Anglo-American power, expect Shannon Airport to continue to be used as a staging post for mass murder, and a shameful stain on the dignity of a nation.
While we will inevitably be told and reminded by those in power, and those who deign to represent the people – that our Foreign Policy goals must match up with our goals of Economic Development – a point illuminated by the fact that government department for Foreign Affairs is also the department responsible for Trade. We ask the people of Ireland, and the working class to remain steadfast in the knowledge that the calls for foreign & economic policy alignment are in fact a call for capitulation. An abandonment of all righteous positions and ideas that do not fit the discourse of the powerful.
