FOR GENERATIONS some Irish people have fought for Irish independence, democracy and neutrality, while others have fought for imperialism. The second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is just another battle in this conflict and, whatever the outcome, the struggle will continue.
In 1790 in response to a potential war between the Spanish and British empires, Theobald Wolfe Tone wrote a pamphlet The Spanish War in which he advocated that Ireland should remain neutral. He stated:
“We should then look to our own internal resources, and scorn to sue for protection to any foreign state; we should spurn the idea of moving as a humble satellite round any power, however great, and claim at once, and enforce, our rank among the primary nations of the earth. Then should we have what under the present system we never shall see, a national flag and the spirit to maintain it.”
Tone went on to found the United Irishmen and sought to establish an independent Irish republic.
Other Irish people did not agree, supported imperialism and, with the help of the British union, crushed the United Irishmen. Then, in exchange for exceptionally large suitcases stuffed with cash, they voted to abolish the Irish parliament and support a common foreign security and defence policy within the union.
For decades the Irish political elite gave their total support to the imperialist tradition. Daniel O’Connell supported the Opium war on China, Isaac Butt supported the Crimean War and John Redmond backed the 1914-18 imperialist war to the hilt.
The Young Irelanders and the Fenians maintained the United Irish tradition. When one of the greatest of the Fenians, Michael Collins representing the Republic established 90 years ago, agreed to sign a treaty with the British union, he did so on the grounds that it was a stepping stone to that Republic, not a road back to a new empire. Eamon de Valera, in proposing the adoption of our own Irish Constitution ensured all power derives from the people, which is why we are having the referendum, continuing that tradition.
The Peace and Neutrality Alliance (Pana) in advocating that the EU should be a partnership of independent democratic states, legal equals without a military dimension, and opposing the Lisbon Treaty, are just maintaining the tradition of Tone, Connolly, Collins and de Valera.
But the imperialists defeated in November 1918 just waited in the long grass for their time to come again. With the British union in decline, they simply transferred their allegiance to the emerging EU superstate or “empire” as EU president José Barroso calls it. As we watched the Eurocorps (an EU/Nato military force) raise the EU flag at the opening of the European Parliament, the symbolism of an EU militarised superstate for the “European people” was overwhelmingly obvious.
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