Irish Examiner view: Reaching outward is in the Irish nature

National Museum exhibition on connections between Ireland and St Gall shows while the drive by extremists to gaze within might be appealing in a dangerous world, we have always gained more by gazing without

Patrick O’Donovan, Karin Keller-Sutter, and Maeve Sikora at the St Gall exhibition at the National Museum. Picture: Julien Behal

In an era when the most powerful country on Earth seems hellbent on retreating inwardly, both politically and economically, where it is transforming into an isolationist nation courting and flirting with the dangers of extremism and fascism, it might behoove us to recall how our little island cast its net out into the wider world at a time when our island was typically considered the ends of the Earth.

One of the great tragedies of politics is where leaders only concern themselves with the internal, rather than seeing their nation as part of a greater network.