Avoiding hard issues - Ireland can’t dodge the big issues forever

ONE of the less charming characteristics of the Irish is our innate ability to say one thing and do another with a straight face. This trait was recognised by that most domineering but pliable of politicians Charles Haughey when, in relation to the Health (Family Planning) Act all of 30 years ago, he used the phrase “an Irish solution to an Irish problem”.

It is a principle – or the casual dismissal of awkward principles – that we resort to on an almost daily basis. We can believe whatever is appropriate to the needs of the moment. There is hardly a position we cannot change or adapt to. There is hardly an occasion or event we cannot turn a blind eye to if doing so suits us. Just ask anyone paying interest rates of 180% or more to “licensed moneylenders”.

For many, many years we have adopted that position on that most divisive of issues: abortion. Large sections of our society are vehemently, viscerally and absolutely opposed to the legalisation of abortion on any grounds yet abortion is a reality of everyday Irish life. At least it is for the 4,600 women who gave an Irish address when they attended abortion clinics in Britain last year. Many more Irish women went to continental Europe for the same reason yet we wash our hands of the problem.

Some of us, like a latter-day Chamberlain delivering his sincere but deluded peace-for-our-time declaration, purr with sanctimony when we tell foreigners that Ireland is a nuclear-free State. This idiocy has been officially sanctioned by a 2007 White Paper which explicitly rules out nuclear power for our time.

The hypocrisy is mind boggling as well as embarrassing, especially in a country that imports nearly 90% of its energy, much of its electricity generated at British nuclear power plants.

We also have a vocal lobby which defends our neutrality with great passion and idealism. Never mind that we could not defend our neutrality until this time tomorrow in the unlikely event of anyone armed with more than a few hurleys threatened it. Never mind that this position marks us out as a la carte Europeans, happy to take the grants but less than happy to commit to the entity that made those grants possible.

In the event of our neutrality being threatened we, as a “sovereign” State of course, would, just as we are doing in this economic crisis, turn to our patient and tolerant friends in Europe to save us. This tradition reflects well on only one of the participants.

In recent weeks another subject rich in potential for an Irish solution to an Irish problem has got increased attention. Assisted suicide for terminally ill people has come to the fore.

Does anyone imagine that we will debate this unavoidable issue in a rational way, in a way that recognises that Ireland is a small open country in a big and fast-changing world? Like so many other issues we will duck and dive, prevaricate and write a few dozen reports. We will do virtually anything other than make a decision or commitment. We don’t so much sit on the ditch as bury ourselves behind it, happy to be patronised and told that we are a sophisticated electorate.

This cultural paralysis, this crippling reluctance to make hard decisions, celebrate what is right and make what is wrong unacceptable is one of the main reasons we’re in the appalling mess we are in right now.

It is indeed time to change the way we address these big questions and the way we organise this society.