Letters to the Editor: Keep Ireland out of rash militaristic interventions
'We must indeed properly resource our armed forces.' File picture
Why the rush to abandon the Triple Lock?
Most wars over the past centuries have either been colonial adventures (Boer war); foolish ideological wars (Vietnam); the result of unfortunate alliances that dragged combatants into mass slaughter (The First World War); or localised civil or inter-ethnic wars.
Even the Second World War was started to protest Poland being occupied and subjugated by a tyrannical invader.
At the end of it, Poland was anyway occupied and subjugated by a tyrannical invader — albeit a different one.
One has only to consider Tony Blair’s ill-considered adventure with George W Bush in Iraq, and the Allied involvement and subsequent ignominious retreat and scramble out of Afghanistan, to realise that formal or even ad-hoc alliances can lead to foolish waste of life and treasure, and continued destabilisation in the target countries.
Once the body bags start being repatriated, the PR spin has to be that “they died in defence of democracy” rather than the obvious “they died in defence of their leaders’ egos”.
As a side comment, it’s remarkable that the shrillest sabre-rattlers, to a man — and it is mostly men — have somehow managed to dodge or never experienced military action themselves, but are willing to expose others to pointless but deadly conflicts.
We must indeed properly resource our armed forces and build up a credible deterrent, possibly backed up by a highly-trained and well-equipped volunteer reserve — think Switzerland.
We can upskill on training exercises and equipment compatibility with friendly neighbours.
We shouldn’t, however, be goaded by UK or EU taunts that we somehow need to ‘step up’ internationally, and thereby risk being sucked into ill-conceived military interventions abroad.
Keeping the Triple Lock is our guarantee against making rash militaristic commitments that we would inevitably regret.
The Government’s Defence (Amendment) Bill has narrowly passed its first Dáil vote, enabling detailed arguments in the committee stage.
The overall significance of “the removal of the Triple Lock” (in the Government’s own words) should meanwhile not be obscured.
Even the Government’s own consultative forum failed to reach a consensus on that proposal, as its chairperson formally reported.
Yet the Irish people are being told to ‘get real’ by those to whom, as sovereign under Article 6, they delegate authority; bizarre, to say the least, in a democratic constitutional republic.
Our long record of Blue Helmets, now being invoked to justify sidestepping UN authorisation, reflected a well-grounded national consensus, articulated by Frank Aiken, on disarmament, decolonisation, and UN-led peacekeeping.
This consensus also informed our imperfect but vital peace process — a patient, modest, generous project to transform rather than amplify enmity and violence, foregrounding negotiation and diplomacy.
Breaking the Triple Lock would hardly help in a world which UN secretary general Antonio Guterres tells us “is becoming unhinged”, where “we seem incapable of coming together to respond”.
In 2022, Taoiseach Micheál Martin celebrated our sovereignty by telling the UN General Assembly: “We have — in this General Assembly, and in the other bodies, institutions, and agencies that make up the United Nations — the spaces to discuss, to negotiate, to share experiences, to craft solutions.”
He would be supported warmly and widely in making good on those words.
The Roger Casement Commemoration and Re-interment Association has formally applied to Dublin City Council and Glasnevin Cemetery to grant an exhumation licence to move the patriot’s remains from Glasnevin to Murlough Bay, Co Antrim, where he spent his happiest days.
Casement was captured near Banna Strand on Good Friday, April 21, 1916, and subsequently found guilty of treason by the British government.
He was hanged at London’s Pentonville Prison on August 3, 1916.
The British refused to release his remains which were buried in an unmarked grave within the prison.
On February 23, 1965, after pressure from the Irish government, Casement’s remains were repatriated to Ireland and buried with full military honours at Glasnevin.
However, shortly before he was executed, Casement expressed a wish to be buried at his beloved Murlough Bay.
On July 25, 1916, he wrote from prison: “Don’t let my body lie here. Take me back to the green hill at Murlough, by the McCarry’s house, looking down on the Moyle. That’s where I’d like to be now — and there’s where I’d like to lie.”
Because of his association with Banna Strand, Kerry people consider Roger Casement to be one of their own.
They have the same high regard for him as they have for other prominent Kerry patriots of the time such as The O’Rahilly, Con Keating, Thomas Ashe, Austin Stack, and John Joe Sheehy.
I firmly believe that Irish people will overwhelmingly support The Roger Casement Commemoration and Re-interment Association’s application for an exhumation licence.
After 110 years, it’s high time to bring Roger Casement’s remains home to Murlough Bay.
I find myself become quite irked when I listen to commentators promoting a ‘just loosen up’ notion to Generation Z.
Social historians of the distant future will surely recognise that Gen Z grew up riding the most substantial wave of technological change in recorded history.
Their epitaph will surely mention that they were the subjects of an experiment — a project wherein the sleepless machine of social media consumed and filled every aspect of their lives.
And all this change amid a climate of economic precariousness, austerity, and intense globalisation.
But hey, just loosen up!
We must pressurise the Government into building standardised apartment blocks on a 50x50m concrete floor slab with a lift and staircase shafts in the centre; four apartments on each floor.
Everything standard — floor plans, windows, doors, kitchens, and bathrooms.
All plumbing and electric standard.
The key here is standardisation. It will keep costs down on social and elderly housing.
It’s a no-brainer.
Just build the bloody thing on a mass scale in every county.
While the Government has distanced itself from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre ‘grandparent’ video, it is somewhat curious that this did not also happen at the end of September when the National Women’s Council organised the lighting up of the Mansion House and Trinity College in green for International Safe Abortion Day.
For many citizens, this overt celebration of abortion was incredibly disquieting.
