Fianna Fáil has sometimes served Ireland very well, sometimes very badly. Even in its worst times, however, it retained some respect for its underlying commitment that the Irish should control their own destinies. It lists among its primary aims the commitment “to maintain the status of Ireland as a sovereign State”. Its founder, Eamon de Valera, in his inaugural address to his new party in 1926, spoke of “the inalienability of national sovereignty” as being fundamental to its beliefs. The Republican Party’s ideals are in tatters now.
The Irish people do not need to be told that, especially for small nations, there is no such thing as absolute sovereignty. We know very well that we have made our independence more meaningful by sharing it with our European neighbours. We are not naive enough to think that this State ever can, or ever could, take large decisions in isolation from the rest of the world. What we do expect, however, is that those decisions will still be our own. A nation’s independence is defined by the choices it can make for itself.
The true ignominy of our current situation is not that our sovereignty has been taken away from us, it is that we ourselves have squandered it. Let us not seek to assuage our sense of shame in the comforting illusion that powerful nations in Europe are conspiring to become our masters. We are, after all, no great prize for any would-be overlord now. No rational European would willingly take on the task of cleaning up the mess we have made. It is the incompetence of the governments we ourselves elected that has so deeply compromised our capacity to make our own decisions.
Blimey.
You go girl, etc.
Was It For This? (Irish Times)
Although as a citizen I accept my share of the blame (we wuz all stupid)
what about the persistent failure of the media (including the Irish Times) to look in any way critically at the competence of the government during the economic boom, ahem.
mote, eye etc.
It should not get too cosy and it should be about more than just selling papers..
This is the end result of that toxic sentence: “Ah sure, it’s grand”. We accept corruption, incompetence and laziness as par for the course from everyone. Our politicians, bankers, priests, the list goes on. It’s a bit late for the papers to be casting a critical eye.