Choosing post-Brexit partners - Time to step out of British shadow

A GOOD phrase often has, like victory, many fathers. 

Voltaire and Machiavelli — others too — are credited with the pragmatic response when the priest ministering at their deathbed asked if, in view of their limited prospects on this earth, they wished to renounce the devil: “This no time to be making enemies,” came the unsentimental reply.

Irrespective of who made it, that dying-breath defiance may be a pragmatic position this small country might consider as Britain muddles towards Brexit.

That some of the most zealous Brexiteers still argue that favourable arrangements can be easily and quickly re-established with the European Union despite all of the evidence to the contrary adds to that impression.

As does the reality that those refusniks didn’t give a single moment’s thought to the implications their policies and unexpected victory would have for their nearest neighbour.

Neither did they consider for even a second how a reimposed hard border dividing this island could threaten the welcome peace built so painstakingly over decades.

That attitudes across the EU seem to be hardening — they are certainly not wavering on the four core EU principles — towards what might be offered to divorcee Britain also suggests that we should run with the hare and hunt with the hounds as we have so often.

There may not be any great honour in that flexibility but, as a small open economy and one with so little real power, there’s no great shame in it either.

However, yesterday’s intervention by European Commission Phil Hogan pointed out that, like Voltaire or Machiavelli, our options are not unlimited.

We have, no matter how unattractive this seems, reached a you’re-with-us-or-against-us crossroads.

We can ally ourselves with a diminished Britain and run the huge risk that entails.

Alternatively, we can, finally, step out from the shadow of our long-dominant neighbour and forge stronger links with the 26 democracies still committed to the European project.

One of those positions means our relationship with Europe would be defined by our relationship with Britain which, Mr Hogan, suggests would be an “enormous mistake”.

Instead, he argued, “we should have the confidence and direction to recognise that post- Brexit Ireland will need to have in place a wholly different set of relationships with our EU partners — relationships which we will forge, advocate, defend and address directly and out of the shadow of our nearest neighbour”.

Fine talk indeed but talk that might be more plausible if the EU was embracing the kind of reforms that might have averted Brexit and challenge the democratic deficit doing so much to undermine the project.

Mr Hogan has a very fine libretto to sing but, unfortunately, he sings it from an increasingly shakey stage. However, the alternative is even more unattractive.

These matters will accelerate as Prime Minister Theresa May’s deadline for triggering Article 50 approaches.

That momentum strengthened yesterday when Enterprise Ireland advised Irish firms to prepare for a hard Brexit.

Even if we had the vision of a Voltaire and the political skills of a Machiavelli we might still end up as the salami in the sandwich.