Some things we achieved — no thanks to Europe

IN his letter on the Lisbon Treaty vote (July 21), Jeremiah C O’Sullivan says that “since 1973, a primitive, inward-looking, under-developed, compulsively nationalistic country has been transformed into a self-confident, outward-looking, competent people”.

Well, he and I must have been living in two different countries.

Back then, healthcare was freely available and air travel was a pleasant experience, if you could afford it.

Today, flying is a nightmare and healthcare is available only if you can afford it.

And despite a war going on in a part of our country at the time, the atmosphere was gentler, people had time for each other, young people had respect and behaved themselves, and we had trust in our institutions because of their integrity.

Mr O’Sullivan’s inference is that a benevolent Europe pulled us from our quagmire through the medium of free money.

He sees this cash — which apparently we all got, but I must have lost mine — as being responsible for our being confident, competent and well-travelled now.

He makes no reference to the excellent education system that was put in place before then, does not acknowledge the experiences through sacrifice that hundreds of thousands of Irish people made through emigration and ignores our first industrial revolution when so many US information technology companies set up here.

For Mr O’Sullivan, it seems, it is all down to free European money.

But while we could excuse a selective view of the past, there is no excuse for misrepresenting Ireland’s no to the Lisbon Treaty as a decision to leave the EU.

He asks: “Do we want to return to the isolation of pre-EU days? Do we have a wish to become the 51st state of the USA?”

Neither of those questions was part of the treaty vote and to suggest otherwise is just scaremongering. We rejected a new proposed constitution for Europe, and rightly so.

We did not vote to enter a state of limbo or dark days of isolation, as he put it.

In 1973, we respected our institutions, and that even included politicians. If we had voted then on Lisbon with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour urging a yes vote, I suspect it would have sailed through. Maybe Mr O’Sullivan should look closer to home for the source of perceived Irish voter ingratitude.

John Mallon

Shamrock Lawn

Mayfield

Cork