Letters to the Editor: Ireland has a chance to show active foreign policy
Irish troops on Parade at Camp Shamrock near the border with Lebanon and Israel where Irish Defence Forces troops are serving with the Unifil peacekeeping mission amid escalating clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah.
It is also significant for the Defence Forces; a place where generations of military men and women cut their operational teeth in a "real-time" setting, while acknowledging the 47 service personnel who lost their lives there in the service of peace.
In 1978, it was a difficult mandate to implement. Intended as an interim measure, it has remained politically divisive and unsuited to policing persistent determined conflict.
For the record, the Defence Forces withdrew troops from Lebanon in early 2001. At that time, Irish units were deployed in East Timor and Kosovo. Subsequently, troops were dispatched to Liberia, Chad, and elsewhere, under UN, EU, and Nato auspices.
This variety of scenarios permitted the Defence Forces to develop their capability and meet defence policy goals, and provided real, professional challenges. In each of these varied operational configurations, Irish soldiers served with distinction.
Many conflicts exist today, demanding attention and the appropriate commitment of resources. The EU has a number of executive and training missions, many of which Ireland supports. Among these are EUFor in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a staff commitment to the maritime operation for Libya (Operation IRINI), and training assistance to the Ukrainian armed forces. Our Defence Forces have also been involved in training missions in Mali and Somalia.
Significantly, not all of these missions have a UN mandate. The Unifil mission’s closure illustrates how the UN Security Council is hamstrung. The normal "rules-based order" is being eroded.
Our Government’s proposal to amend the triple lock restriction is now brought into sharp relief. This proposal merits serious, mature consideration.
We have the opportunity to demonstrate that Ireland can pursue an active foreign policy, even as a small nation. We can commit our military resources to important and worthwhile causes. This will serve to provide an outlet for professional development for our military in very challenging times.
EU missions, as outlined, meet national and global objectives and will support and reinforce our position during Ireland’s upcoming EU presidency in the latter half of 2026.
It appears that more than a few of the best people now believe that the wrong sort of Irish people are putting up Irish flags in Ireland, and that this is being done as anti-migrant “hate speech”, directed against foreigners.
As night follows day, there will soon be an investigation led by the gardaí and then debated by Dublin City Council. Eventually, a proposal will be made to make it illegal for Irish people to put up Irish flags in Ireland. It is possible that such a proposal might be enacted, and it is also possible, perhaps likely, that such a policy will be upheld by the Irish courts.
Let me suggest an alternative policy: Instead of banning unwelcome speech, engage in speech of your own and win a battle in the marketplace of ideas and political ideals. Instead of ceding your national symbol, your flag, to alleged extremists, reclaim your symbol and hold that torch high.
More specifically, this is what I propose: In front of the main entrance of every Government building, public park, and playground, erect an Irish flag. At every major street corner, place an Irish flag.
And most importantly, in every classroom, that is, in every government-funded classroom — including classrooms within primary, secondary, and (especially) third-tier educational institutions — set up an Irish flag.
This way if some rowdies or street thugs carry an Irish flag, no one will even notice. And more importantly, you will at last refrain from the long-standing policy of ceding the symbol of your national identity to those who might misuse it. In fact, I put this policy forward as much for foreigners in Ireland as I do for Irish nationals. In order to help foreigners integrate into the national narrative and culture, there must be an identifiable national narrative and culture for them to integrate into.
A land without flags will be experienced, by many, as an unwelcoming and cold house. I will go even further, when foreigners apply for and take up legal residence in Ireland, the Irish State should give them their one-hundred-thousand-and-first welcome: An Irish flag to put on their home’s front door. What could be more welcoming than that?
Should all this come to pass, and work out as well as one could hope, this nation once again might even hold annual independence-day parades with drums, and fifes, and the Irish Tricolour.
There is just no good reason to ban other people’s speech.
Now, at the recent Second World War commemorative parade in Beijing, leaders of both Russia and of China, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, have been overheard talking about extending the lives of older people to 150 years of age during this present century.
This is surely a good thing for such prominent leaders to take an interest in, because caring for our elders and trying to improve their health issues makes us all better, caring human beings.
But caring for our elders should not be a practice that stops at our borders. Elderly people have the same health needs everywhere and in every country of the world.
So as a sign of wide mutual respect for elderly people, they should be facilitated to have the privilege of visiting other countries of the world (with one or two people to accompany them) for free!
Perhaps those over 80 could be the first to avail of this new international free travel scheme?
Free healthcare in all countries of the world could over time be given to all people over 80 too. In this way, all old people can have the dignity and respect they deserve at all times, and anywhere too.
This very worthy ideal might take decades to happen, with the participation of all nations needed, but it is the right thing for us to agree to aim for at this present moment, right now.
It will, I feel, eventually lead to making our whole planet a better and more harmonious place for us all to live in together.
While we wait, I would like to look back at presidents and visitors to Áras an Uachtaráin, such as General Montgomery of Second World War fame, keen to meet de Valera, as he greatly admired him.
Éamon de Valera was elected to two terms as president, in 1959 and, aged 84, in 1966. He was involved in Irish history’s big moments: The 1916 Rising, War of Independence, and Civil War; taoiseach in the Second World War, and he attended the funerals of John F Kennedy in 1963 and of civilians shot dead on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972.
His visitors included US presidents John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon, princess Grace of Monaco, and General Montgomery, who wrote asking if he could visit him in Áras an Uachtaráin. His funeral route in 1975 was lined by 200,000 people.
Erskine Childers was elected in 1973, but died of a heart attack in 1974. A minister in Fianna Fáil governments, his father was in the War of Independence and was executed in the Civil War.
Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh in 1974 was unelected. He had a distinguished career as chief justice and as judge at the European Court of Justice before his painful experience as president. He believed he and the office of the president were so publicly disrespected in 1976 by the coalition government when he had concerns about a security bill they wanted him to sign into law that he referred it to the Supreme Court to check its constitutionality. He did sign it into law. He then resigned in protest over the lack of respect for the presidency. Two years in office, he was a dignified man with a love of the Irish language.
Mary Robinson, our first woman president, elected in 1990, is still in public life. She visited Egypt’s border with Gaza last month to hear of problems in getting food aid into war-torn Gaza. The present President, Michael D Higgins, also speaks strongly on human rights and on the ongoing war in Gaza.
He has criticised the EU for not responding adequately to the Gaza crisis. He may be remembered as our foremost humanitarian president.
