(First published in the Irish Political Review in November 2014 but still relevant)
A CLOWN IN HOLY ORDERS, celebrating Requiem Mass in Dublin for a soldier killed serving with the
British Army in Afghanistan (or Iraq?) said in his praise that the deceased always carried his Irish
Passport.
Perhaps we should expect the Pope to Canonise adulterers who wear their wedding rings when on the job?
And we should expect the Taliban and others to let citizens of Ireland, bearing such passports, to
“pass freely and without hindrance” through their countries, and to “afford them all necessary assistance and protection” as requested by the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, even when they are carrying and using lethal weapons, and wearing the livery of British and other foreign powers?
Apart altogether from the moral confusion of the unfortunate deceased and the Clerical Clown, ordinary peaceful citizens, faithful to Ireland, are put at risk by such irresponsible nonsense.
When US Marine Colonel Oliver North was getting arms for Iran in an underhand deal under President Reagan, US agents carried Irish Passports. And an assassination team in Dubai, apparently acting for Israel, used the same ruse de guerre. But Ireland is not at war and her citizens should not be put in jeopardy by such practical jokers.
Reporting from Paris for the IRSH TIMES of October 7, Lara Marlowe, an American, tells us that 750
Irish people lived in France when the Second World War started.
I’m not sure what she means, but from the context it seems she thinks it stated in 1939, but her own country kept out of it until December1941 when its Pacific Fleet was attacked at Pearl Harbor by the
Japanese and Hitler declared war on the US on behalf of the Third Reich. Until then the United
States maintained Embassies in Tokyo, Rome,Vichy and Berlin.
It’s moot whether without Pearl Harbor, or Hitler’s declaration, the United States would have become a belligerent at all.
The gist of her story was the unveiling of a plaque at the Irish College in Paris to Irish people who
engaged in French Resistance activities between 1940 and the expulsion of the Germans from France by the Allies. She quoted Professor of Military History, David Murphy of National University of Ireland –
“These people made a moral choice, they could have waved their Free State Passports, mirrored the Irish Government’s stance and said, ‘I’m not involved, I’m neutral.’ “
The fact that voters in the Irish Free State in 1937, abolished that State, and established a sovereign,
independent and democratic state with a Republican form of Government,seems to have escaped the notice of the Professor, together with the fact that Government and Opposition parties and populace supported neutrality then and in the many decades since.
Citizens waving “Free State” passports were, presumably stateless in 1940.
I’d guess that Irish passport holders, held onto their passports, like the British soldier, to shelter behind the neutrality of the Irish State, whose electorate required them to render fidelity to their nation and loyalty to their State.
Or, did they, perhaps, openly renounce their Irish citizenship, trash their Irsh passports, and replace
them with passports issued by General de Gaulle’s shadow Government in London, an irregular junta unrecognised by any power on earth?
I understand that Marshal Petain’s administration at Vichy had the backing, of most French men and women until long after D-Day in 1944.
On first reading Professor Murphy’s remarks I nearly hit the roof.
He appears to think himself a moral Colossus, and the Irish Government and Opposition and electorate in 1940 mere Pygmies.
I should be, but am not, surprised that he’s a Graduate and Professor of Ireland’s National University, God save the Mark!
IT DID NOT SURPRISE ME to learn that Professor Murphy is a member of the United Kingdom’s Royal United Services Institute, and has been awarded a Fellowship at the Summer Seminar in Military History at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where, I guess, he may have got his Moral Compass.
A Droll Fellow, Indeed!
British Army in Afghanistan (or Iraq?) said in his praise that the deceased always carried his Irish
Passport.
Perhaps we should expect the Pope to Canonise adulterers who wear their wedding rings when on the job?
And we should expect the Taliban and others to let citizens of Ireland, bearing such passports, to
“pass freely and without hindrance” through their countries, and to “afford them all necessary assistance and protection” as requested by the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, even when they are carrying and using lethal weapons, and wearing the livery of British and other foreign powers?
Apart altogether from the moral confusion of the unfortunate deceased and the Clerical Clown, ordinary peaceful citizens, faithful to Ireland, are put at risk by such irresponsible nonsense.
When US Marine Colonel Oliver North was getting arms for Iran in an underhand deal under President Reagan, US agents carried Irish Passports. And an assassination team in Dubai, apparently acting for Israel, used the same ruse de guerre. But Ireland is not at war and her citizens should not be put in jeopardy by such practical jokers.
Reporting from Paris for the IRSH TIMES of October 7, Lara Marlowe, an American, tells us that 750
Irish people lived in France when the Second World War started.
I’m not sure what she means, but from the context it seems she thinks it stated in 1939, but her own country kept out of it until December1941 when its Pacific Fleet was attacked at Pearl Harbor by the
Japanese and Hitler declared war on the US on behalf of the Third Reich. Until then the United
States maintained Embassies in Tokyo, Rome,Vichy and Berlin.
It’s moot whether without Pearl Harbor, or Hitler’s declaration, the United States would have become a belligerent at all.
The gist of her story was the unveiling of a plaque at the Irish College in Paris to Irish people who
engaged in French Resistance activities between 1940 and the expulsion of the Germans from France by the Allies. She quoted Professor of Military History, David Murphy of National University of Ireland –
“These people made a moral choice, they could have waved their Free State Passports, mirrored the Irish Government’s stance and said, ‘I’m not involved, I’m neutral.’ “
The fact that voters in the Irish Free State in 1937, abolished that State, and established a sovereign,
independent and democratic state with a Republican form of Government,seems to have escaped the notice of the Professor, together with the fact that Government and Opposition parties and populace supported neutrality then and in the many decades since.
Citizens waving “Free State” passports were, presumably stateless in 1940.
I’d guess that Irish passport holders, held onto their passports, like the British soldier, to shelter behind the neutrality of the Irish State, whose electorate required them to render fidelity to their nation and loyalty to their State.
Or, did they, perhaps, openly renounce their Irish citizenship, trash their Irsh passports, and replace
them with passports issued by General de Gaulle’s shadow Government in London, an irregular junta unrecognised by any power on earth?
I understand that Marshal Petain’s administration at Vichy had the backing, of most French men and women until long after D-Day in 1944.
On first reading Professor Murphy’s remarks I nearly hit the roof.
He appears to think himself a moral Colossus, and the Irish Government and Opposition and electorate in 1940 mere Pygmies.
I should be, but am not, surprised that he’s a Graduate and Professor of Ireland’s National University, God save the Mark!
IT DID NOT SURPRISE ME to learn that Professor Murphy is a member of the United Kingdom’s Royal United Services Institute, and has been awarded a Fellowship at the Summer Seminar in Military History at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where, I guess, he may have got his Moral Compass.
A Droll Fellow, Indeed!
Similarly, the only time British or unionist politicians join with the shinners to remember fallen heroes is when they died fighting for the crown.