Politicians and media once again are nauseatingly pumping out pro-war materials, under the guise of defence and security, attacking our long-held position of neutrality and the more recent mechanism of securing it under the triple-lock. This mechanism, a compromise won by the people’s rejection of Nice 1, aligns to the Republic’s stated position of support for the United Nations as the only legitimate representation of multilateralism, recognising sovereignty and actual international law as opposed to the US empire’s “rules-based order”.
Our tradition of neutrality is very much based in our radical democratic and anti-imperialist struggles of working people on this island but has been undermined and attacked repeatedly by establishment pro-empire forces throughout our history, and so today’s onslaught is not new. I am reminded of the following exchange:
Is it too much to hope that out of this situation there may spring a result which will be good not merely for the empire, but good for the future welfare and integrity of the Irish nation? … while Irishmen are generally in favour of peace, and would desire to save the democracy of this country from the horrors of war … we offer to the Government of the day that they may take their troops away … we will ourselves defend the coasts of our country.
– John Redmond, MP, Westminster speech August 1914
And in reply:
My Dear Redmond,
You may count on me to use every influence I possess to work for a modus vivendi on the lines you indicate. Please see I have called the new battleship Erin, on account of your memorable speech, the echoes of which will long linger in British ears.
Yours very sincerely,
Winston Churchill
This exchange occurred in the context of the Home Rule Bill debate, the partitioning of the island for Home Rule and the outbreak of World War 1. Now, one could argue Redmond was cleverly using the outbreak of the war to regain momentum for Home Rule from Carson and the UVF but viewing this more as Redmond happily positioning Ireland firmly within the empire is a much more consistent reading of his class politics. His position, of course, actually turned into Irish people fighting and dying directly for the British empire, certainly not in the defence of Irish coasts. This establishment class politics was only undone by unionised workers, by radical trade union leaders, by socialists and nationalists and poor farmers willing to say, “Neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland” and standing up for Irish freedom.
Once again, today, Irish people are being let down by political representatives of the elites, intent on giving up our sovereign neutral position in order to defend the empire: in this case that of the EU and those old colonial powers desperate to salvage their position in the world in light of changing geopolitical circumstances. Establishment forces in Ireland today are trying to navigate having one foot in the US camp, as it pivots away from Russia and towards its new cold war with China, and another in the EU camp who continue their “accession” expansion eastwards towards Russia. We are being told to side with the good old empires in return for jobs and corporate taxes, but again we must stand firmly in our radical democratic and anti-imperialist position, defend the United Nations, failings and all, support demilitarisation, de-nuclearisation and be a voice for sanity and peace in the world.
