I note that Senator Gerard Craughwell is to seek a nomination to contest the next presidential election should current incumbent Michael D Higgins stand unopposed for a second term of office. In a statement issued from the Seanad Senator Craughwell said democracy demands that all presidents should be elected. Article 12. 5 of Bunreacht na hEireann holds a different view. It states “Where only one candidate is nominated for the office of President it shall not be necessary to proceed to a ballot for his election”. Unlike Senator Craughwell, I have no issue with President Higgins’s candidature for a second term, even on his own nomination, but I do have a concern about Senator Craughwell standing for the presidency.
Is it not the case that as a former British soldier Senator Craughwell, in swearing the mandatory oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II, surrendered his Irish citizenship and became a British subject?. Those who enlist in the British army take an oath to the reigning monarch as follows. “I swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, her heirs and successors, and that I will, as in duty bound, honestly and faithfully defend Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, in Person, Crown and Dignity against all enemies, and will observe and obey all orders of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, and of the generals and officers set over me. So help me God”. I believe that by taking this oath Senator Craughwell’s allegiance lay with those who tried to prevent the establishment of this state and not with those who fought for independence.
This controversy reminded me of an RTE ‘Nationwide’ programme on the life and times of ‘Irishmen in British uniform’ on their day to day life in Aldershot army barracks in England as they prepare for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and perhaps even to the country that gave them birth. RTE peddled a pro-British pro-unionist line that implied both the Irish and British armies are synonymous with each other. Despite the fact that the British army has been engaged in the blatant murder of Irish citizens since colonisation right up to recent times, RTE, in the making of this programme, acted like a recruiting agency for a foreign army that continues to colonise six counties of this island. The behaviour of RTE in this matter was both unsavoury and sordid and acted against the national interest.
The programme dealt with the growing number of Irish people joining the British armed forces. The twenty minute long feature was filmed inside the garrison base of the Irish Guards Regiment at Aldershot in England. The Guards are a front line infantry formation that has experienced “action” in Iraq and Afghanistan. A number of officers and soldiers, mostly from the Republic of Ireland, were interviewed about their reasons for joining. However, no hard questions were asked and the interview style can only be described as “fawning”.The RTÉ documentary portrayed life in today’s British army as challenging but rewarding, even favourable rates of pay were mentioned as an incentive to join. This is the type of message that might be well received by impressionable Irish youth, some experiencing economic difficulties at home. Furthermore, the showing of this programme by RTÉ amounts, in my view, to tacit encouragement of recruitment into the British army. This is a new and serious development within RTÉ, and I wonder whether senior management had given any thought to possible future implications.
As an Irish citizen, a taxpayer, and a payer of the mandatory TV license fee, I strongly protest the making of the “Nationwide” feature. I do so for the following reasons: Firstly, because of the appalling record of the British army in this country from 1970 until very recently, a record that needs no retelling here. No self respecting Irish person or institution should have any direct dealings with the British military given such a record. Secondly, because of Britain’s foreign wars and warmongering. The invasion of Iraq was clearly illegal under international law. The war in Afghanistan, although more complex, is also of dubious legality. The latter war is developing into a classic colonial struggle, which is in danger of spreading into neighbouring Pakistan and threatens to become a full scale regional conflict involving India also. Is this the type of business Irish youth are to be encouraged to become involved in? Today, even the youth of Britain are not enlisting in sufficient numbers, very sensibly. Are Irish youth now being asked to make up the shortfall? RTÉ has a duty of care towards the people of Ireland, being a publicly funded institution. Due to continued British state warmongering, any Irish person joining the British forces can expect at an early stage to be placed in harms way. Already, two citizens of the Republic have been killed in Afghanistan. More can be expected. I want to see no more Irish killed, and no more intrusive and unwelcome British military funerals in this state. RTÉ can do its part by ensuring that there will be no more propaganda of this nature which is now, unfortunately, becoming an issue and a serious problem in the southern Irish mainstream media. Given the facts as outlined, RTÉ had absolutely no business being inside a British army barracks. If it was felt necessary to cover the issue of increased Irish enlistment into the British armed forces, RTÉ should have chosen a neutral venue in the Aldershot area. The broadcast, presented by Tommie Gorman, came across as blatant propaganda and PR spin. I trust the Irish people will not be exposed to any further recruitment “Specials” by the national broadcaster.
What a nasty embittered article.
RTÉ is an instrument of the Irish bourgeoisie – a section of which is keen to bring the whole of Ireland back under the political sphere of influence of imperialism. Unfortunately, they have now been joined by a host of ‘liberal’ and ‘nationalist’ commentators who have become cheerleaders for EU imperialism and for closer integration of the Irish state into EU/NATO military structures.
Tell us Tam , with all youur worldly knowledge , what annoyed you about tis article…..Is it that an Irishman has the gall and temerity to complain about one of the biggest and ruthless murder machines in the world getting free publicity from our national broadcaster or are you just ignorant f their sordid and inglorious history !. They , have been responsible for millions of Irish deaths and billions worldwide. In the recent conflct here they were complicit in the Monaghan and Dublin bombings , The Glenanne murders , Bloody Sunday , Ballymurphy etc etc…..the list is endless and their despicable atrocities too numerous for print.
The venom with which it was written, the personal nature of the attack on the senator, the anti-British xenophobia, the racist presumption that any Irish person who has served in the British forces should not be allowed to be a ROI citizen, the chauvinistic presumption that RTE should be a vehicle for churning out an extreme nationalist worldview and that any other perspective should be censored.
It seems there is a small sector of extreme Irish nationalists who are embittered by their own state. It’s not just Britain that they hate but the majority of their own countrymen whose confident, liberal outlook is anathema to them. They want a nation of ethnic ‘blood and soil’ violence fetishists who define themselves by anti-Britishness.
I would have thought you would have enjoyed that factual and comprehensive article,team. You know nasty and embittered.
Jude,I think it’s time this “Tam” charachter was given his p45. If I wanted to read views like his ,I’d go to Willie Frazer’s site.
Michael
Why do you want to shut down debate? Do you want a site where everyone tells each other how right they are and aren’t unionists simply awful?
Tam’s views are different from yours but he makes his point without personal abuse and unlike some (I’m looking at you Joe) he is willing to debate.
What is the problem?
Ironically he mentions Willie Fraser’s site, which I can only guess is the loyalist equivalent to this site. Full of extremists who prefer an echo chamber to a forum where their own views might come under scrutiny.
If the posters on this site attempted to have their views aired on a loyalist site,it would not be long until they were shown the door. That’s why I think Jude should continue to show tolerance for all opinions and only remove personal abuse. I also think that it would be impossible for a person who has sworn allegiance to another state or ruler to be acceptable as a president of Éire. One cannot ride two horses. Especially when one of the horses still claims ownership of another country.
You could hardly have picked a more apt headline for your cockroach-cruncher of a contribution, TC, than ‘Uniform’.
For if nobody but Nobody quite fawns with the same panache as the Goldie Fawn of the ‘public sector’ RTE, (gulp) Tommy O’Gorman, who comes across like nothing so much as a lashed spaniel when mirocrophoning tashed members of HM Forces, nonethless there are other ‘private sector ’ stations which also have their own bawn-again Gold Card Fawners.
One is thinking especially of Matt (gasp) Cooper of Today fm which is part and farcical of the DOBland Media Cartel.
You might say, therefore, TC, that while RTE takes care of the T-element, Today fm does ditto with the C- factor. Although they pride themselvs of their ‘public’ and ‘private’ sectoral differences (alleged) in essence these stations are Uniform in their puny pushing of the gush line re the Mainland.
‘Fawn’ has, of course, a long tradition in generations of genuflecting grovellers of West Britain. At one time beige was all the rage in the age of the Sage McMurrough and then they acquired the knack of the Khaki , but now ‘fawn’ is definitely in (yawn) fash. They are all, are they not, part of the shady Tan family?
Tune in to Matt Cooper (no relation) now that the Premiership (sic) has set sail once again into the choppy waters of the Big Dosh. He is the Last Word in bird-dripping broadcasting.
A native Leesider ( is there a pattern of Pat the Forelock Puller beginning to emerge here?) Matt is never done with declaring his devotion to:
-Leeds FC.
Why this should be so, we are left to speculate. Could it be that Leeds is on de banks of its own lovely Lee or that York should happens to rhyme with Cork? Banks is right.
Anyway, Matt becomes the more than willing ham in the sandwich of two Uber-Irishmen, Tony Cascarino and Mark Lawrenson. This pair of crafty refugees from The Charlatan Era are still coining it a generation on, thanks mainly to:
Door Matt Cooper.