I suspect I would disagree with Clare Daley on a number of issues, but watching her a few nights ago on RTÉ’s The Katie Hannon Show, I found myself punching the air a little.
Clare is a woman of strong intelligence, highly articulate and fears no opponent in a debate. A few nights ago she was on with a Maynooth professor, a Fianna Fail TD and an American Republican.
She pointed out the contradictions and the complexities of the war in Ukraine, and made clear her sympathy for Ukraine and why Irish people should understand what those people are currently going through.
They have been invaded by a larger, stronger neighbour, just as we were and continue to be. That last bit was where I pumped the air. There is something ironic or maybe hypocritical or even maybe moronic about Irish people showing sympathy for Ukraine and other states suffering injustice. Why? Because we’ve been there. We’ve had a near neighbour who sees it as her natural duty to administrate all of Ireland, and when that became impossible in the early 1920s, to administrate six north-eastern counties. Mercifully, Clare added, we have found a peaceful path to Irish reunification and sovereignty in the Good Friday Agreement.
In other words, please don’t forget what has happened and is happening in your own country.
A lot of Irish political figures have rinsed any such thought out of their head. Ask President Michael D Higgins about the injustices of Gaza, the brutal invasion of Ukraine, and any similar injustice and he’ll talk eloquently on it. But I don’t remember him talking about the two states in Ireland where there should be just one. And you doubtless could add a number of other Irish champions of put-upon people and states – provided they’re far enough away.Clare Daly has no such inhibitions. I said something similar to Jon Snow of Channel 4 News when Queen Elizabeth II visited Dublin. My fellow-interviewee then was the marvellous novelist Sebastian Barry, and to my dismay he buried HM in poetic praise, but avoided looking at the core of the Ireland-England problem and whether the royal visit to Ireland really had any impact on it. (The answer is No, Virginia.)
Will Clare Daly’s calm statement that there’s an elephant in the north-east corner of Ireland make a difference? Maybe.But there is no doubt she has shown the courage to speak when so many others waltz around the injustice that is NEI.
The reason why they all waltz around it Jude, is because deep in their hollow hearts, they believe the GFA is the settlement. The game is played and over. Sure, any half decent Fianna Fail grass-roots person would tell you that!
Excellent article Jude.
I feel sorry for the people in Ukraine living in fear from the dictator who once upon a time got elected on a promise to make peace with Russia but Victoria Nulands Puppet was easy to buy along with the Butchers of Mariupol as the journalist on the ground Fra Hughes called them. And don’t forget the 14000 Ukrainian Russian speakers who were slaughtered before Russias intervention hundreds locked up in Buildings in Odesa burned to death. Irish free state sensorship never went away you. That should be our fight now.
Agreed Patrick
I agree within Patrick. And I feel sorry for all those killed in the proxy war on Ukraine and Russia, those in exile, those in Germany with increased charges for US gas and other things because of sanctions. All the billions being spent-not on peace but on killing machines-kindly provided by the UK et al-Billions that could be spent on welfare etc. I see little reference by the West to Zelensky’s association with fascism-eg Stepan Bandera. The increased militarisation and inaction of the EU regarding Palestine is another issue as is Irish neutrality. But looking at the core of the Ireland-Britain problem, the Good Friday Agreement, was just a beginning-allowing people to work openly for political goals-people who attack it never come up with a legitimate alternative-another 35 years killing 3,000 people? There is much change in the North but we have to work hard for Unity.