| Inbox | “We, the people of Ireland, seeking to promote the common good, and with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured, true social order attained, the unity of our country restored, and concord established with other nations, Do hereby adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution” Bunreacht na hEireann. I’m pretty sure that the electorate of 1937, most of whom never attended secondary school, much less University, was more aware of Ireland’s history, and her interests, than today’selectorate. Nineteen years earlier, at the Conclusion of the Great War, whose winners proclaimed themselves champions on the Self Determination of Nations, Irish Voters very determinedly established a National Parliament in Dublin and a Republic which over the next few years established Law Courts, Government Departments and went about theirbusiness. In Municipal, County Councils and other Local Elections Republicans triumphed and most Local Authorities gave their allegiance to the Republic and to Dail Eireann, its Parliament. This was no Government in Exile such as those of “Free France” or Poland. Nor were its defenders foreigners parachuted in by an “Ally” who had skedaddled homeafter a phoney war. The Republic’s defenders were the people themselves, very few of them armed. Those few who were armed had wrested the arms from their British enemies and Irish collaborators. Those running the show in Dublin today have not the support of the people. Not since the Irish Parliamentary Party was, quite rightly, consigned to the dustbin in 1918, has there been an election like that of February. Fianna Fail once had a statement of fundamental aims. So had Labour, which endorsed the Constitutional claim on the Island of Ireland, its islands and territorial seas. I’venever seen a statement of Fine Gael principles. (Has anybody?) I raise these questions because I cannot reconcile the actions of Cabinet Ministers and Departments of State with the intentions of the voters who founded the State. I’ve been looking up official postings on the Irish Defence Forces. Whilst the Americans and the British tell you straight what their soldiers swear or affirm on enlistment Oglaigh na hEireann would appear to be a Secret Society. Have the Bishops not noticed? Citizens of the EU and of the European Economic Area may join the Irish Defence Forces. Will Brits be acceptable after Brexit? I joined the FCA (part-time reserves) in 1957 and swore I’d serve Ireland faithfully. As an Irish citizen I was already obliged by my compatriots in their Constitution to fidelity to the Nation, not exactly an onerous duty. So the Irish Government today may employ soldiers with no commitment to Ireland? Considering some who have held Cabinet Office it would not surprise me. Loyalty to the State is twinned with fidelity to the Nation. When, in front of officers and men of theArmy, a Minister of Defence described a President as “a thundering Ballocks” you’d expect the Orderly Officer to have had the disorderly Minister arrested and locked in the Guard House. The then Taoiseach stood by his loutish colleague ,and the President, to defend the dignity of the Office (and his own) resigned. The grotesque project tohonour the RIC and the appointment of a Garda Commissioner bound by the British Official Secrets Act are mind boggling, but hardly unprecedented.. When Germany was no longer a threat to Britain, the British hanged William Joyce, a mere propagandist. The Brits had less of an excuse for doing so, than one which might be given to Irish people who would tar and feather many of the Irish Establishment. Ireland, her people and her territory and assets, were for centuries treated as the Congo’s people were by King Leopold of Belgium. Ireland’s forests, which once covered 80% of the country, had been reduced to 0.5% by 1920. By 1989, mainly under de Valera, it had grown almost nine-fold to 4.3% . Today, thanks mainly to Charlie Haughey, some 11% of the country is under forest. The EU average is over 30%. The Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, published a potted history of itself, and a very potty history of Ireland -“Irish Forests -A Brief History” in 2008 which is available on the web. It blames the common people for wasting the wood whilst the landlords were planting trees to prettify their homes. In fact landlords had the forests levelled, exporting them to England and elsewhere and making fortunes, and did nothing to preserve or conserve the forests. Philip O’Connor, in a five page Article (The First of Two) “Revisionists and Trees” in this month’s Irish Political Review demolishes the Revisionist nonsense and the credibility of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food’s publicists. |
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