We need to revive spirit of Emergency

EMOTIONS are naturally running high at the moment at the prospect of our future being determined by an outside body such as the IMF. We need to be clear about our aims because the financial situation has already extended beyond our national resources, which have been hazarded somewhat imprudently to date.

The real question is surely this: who matters more to us, the poor of Ballymun/Dublin 1, etc, or foreign bankers? The answer seems to be foreign bankers. In truth, this is the answer we have been giving for a long time now.

The poor come low down in our list of political priorities. We need a new democratic kind of revolution to reverse our present priorities.

Can we show the door to the IMF when they come visiting? I think we can. Fianna Fáil might take inspiration at this critical junction from de Valera’s defence of Irish neutrality in 1939-’45. He resolutely protected Irish sovereignty (with nerves of steel, as it seems from this distance in time) against the massed armies of Britain and Germany (and subsequently America).

If de Valera could defend the interests of Ireland against armies, surely his successors can defend Ireland against foreign banks. In the end it is a matter of pride and the national will for independence. But no government has a mandate to trade sovereignty for the support of the IMF.

If that is the choice now facing us, the people ought to make it in a general election (with the proviso that on this occasion we accept the result).

Gerald Morgan

The Chaucer Hub

Trinity College

Dublin 2