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  The Past

The Present

The Future

Northern Ireland

The solution to Northern Ireland and the Balkans and every conflict in the world is the same: Every country in the world should be an ultra-neutral, secular, ultra-liberal democracy. A nation should not stand for a common heritage or beliefs. This is an evil idea that has caused unending misery through history.

Why am I writing about this? These pages are just here for self-expression. I like to be able to work out my thoughts on "paper". I'm not a campaigner on any issues - I don't have time. See why these pages are here. Also, I'm from Southern Ireland. And I'm an atheist. So I am a member of a 4 percent minority in the South (actually the largest minority in the South). Now we can begin.

Introduction

This page started as an annex to the anti-censorship page, back when censorship was considered part of the solution to the Northern Irish problem (remember those days?).

Well those days are gone, hopefully forever. It seems that we have a solution now which at least has the capability of stabilising the situation. If everyone holds their nerve, then Ireland, North and South, can look forward to an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity. If we are attracted to the old certainties of the past, then the war will begin again.

The Past

The (original) Irish Problem

Should Southern Ireland be independent at all? - It is such a cliché that Ireland was an abused colony, and indeed most Irish people think of the past as "colonial", that it is sometimes a shock to realise that Ireland was not meant to be regarded as a colony at all, but as part of the nation. The nineteenth century is full of well-meaning attempts to make Ireland look as much a part of the national landscape as Scotland. And, in an alternate history, it could have worked. Even as late as 1900, the UK might still have been saved. For Ireland really was (and still is) a fundamental part of English and UK history, in a way that many Irish people deny.

Irish blood has flowed in the veins of many people, from the English Royal family downwards, who have shaped the past and present of the English state. Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James I, William of Orange, Charles James Fox, Queen Victoria, Lord John Russell, Lord Frederick Cavendish, Arthur Balfour, Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Lord Cranborne, David Cameron, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Lord Mountbatten, Princess Diana, Sarah Ferguson, Camilla Parker-Bowles - all of them descend from Brian Boru. Every English monarch from Henry IV (whose reign started in 1399) to the present day descends from Brian Boru. The future monarch, Prince William, descends from Pope Felix V. In the north, Terence O'Neill, Harold McCusker and Ken Maginnis are obviously Irish in their ancestry. (Terence O'Neill descends from the great Irish house of O'Neill, Kings of Ulster, through a female line.)

And English blood has always flowed in the veins of Ireland's great families, including many of its great rebels. Garret Mor Fitzgerald, Garret Og Fitzgerald, Silken Thomas, The rebel Earl of Desmond, The rebel Earl of Tyrone, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Robert Emmet, William Smith O'Brien, Charles Stewart Parnell - all of them descend from the British Royal Family. Daniel O'Connell may also have a Royal Descent. Even early 20th century Sinn Fein supporters have had Royal Descents. And in the north, Gerry Adams, Bobby Sands and John Hume are obviously British in their ancestry. Of course, in Ireland, all of our ancestors in every line came from Britain, if you trace the lines back far enough (except for the very small number that came direct from the Continent).

The UK could have worked, but the whole population had to be brought on board as first class citizens. The Catholic majority of the Irish population had spent the 19th century recovering from their dispossession, the theft of their land, and the long systematic denial of Catholic rights to property, education and professional membership - and, when they finally reached the middle class, voted immediately for Home Rule and, eventually, for independence.

The 19th century failure to save the Union

To keep the Irish middle class would have required radical change in the nature of the UK, and that was never going to happen. It is important to re-iterate that although Britain invented democracy (along with France and America), British rule in Ireland was not democratic. The Irish never voted to join the Union, and when they were, years later, finally allowed the vote, they voted again and again to leave. But they could not vote to leave - they had to wait until parliament deigned to allow them to go.

The first democratic (large numbers of voters, all religions, secret ballot) election in Ireland was held in 1874, the first chance that the natives ever had in 300 years to say what kind of society they wanted. It was a triumph for democracy after centuries of coercion. And the will of the people was quite clear and understood. It should have been a final, peaceful end to the long sordid story of disenfranchisement.

But instead, needless to say, the results of that election, and all subsequent elections in the following 50 years, were now ignored and overruled by London, as if they had never taken place. Having been finally granted the vote by their superiors, the Irish people now found that the vote was useless. Today, Northern Ireland is promised that if there is ever a majority vote for a United Ireland, the UK will not stop them leaving. Southern Ireland was never granted such a promise. Indeed, quite the opposite. There was, and they did. Finally, only by the violence of the 1919-21 IRA could the democratic will of the people, expressed in elections for decades, be finally implemented.

The 20th century tragedy of independence

Ireland's independence was in many ways a mess. It caused the Civil War, the destruction of the Public Record Office, partition, a sectarian Catholic state in the South, and a sectarian Protestant state in the North. But it was made inevitable because no serious attempt was made to reform the UK to stop nationalists leaving. In particular, it was made inevitable because the extremists in London consistently refused to allow the much more modest idea of Home Rule within the United Kingdom. Just as 30 years of war in the North have happened because the extremists there have refused to allow the much more modest idea of Catholics sharing power within the UK.

Modern sister states

The Irish problem has always been, and is today, basically a simple problem, about the nature of disenfranchisement. The problem lasts as long as the disenfranchisement lasts. The question of nationality is only secondary (as is shown by nationalist enthusiasm for the latest, partitionist, settlement). Having your own nation may or may not be a good way of achieving a free and equal society. You may trade the hostility, prejudice and thoughtlessness of your foreign rulers for a new set of home-grown, tribal majoritarian oppressions, as southern Ireland did for many years.

But everything has come out right for it now. It is a proper liberal democracy, where everybody is a first-class citizen - even atheists like me. It has abandoned the insane ideas of protectionism and self-sufficiency, and embraced global capitalism, becoming one of the richest countries in the world, with strong ties to America and Europe. It can even begin to think again of Britain as its "sister country" without recoiling from the term.

History and Politics

Religion and Culture

Protestants argue with Catholics, but - far from one of them being correct - Christianity itself isn't true.

Even worse, theism itself isn't true.

Protestantism v. Catholicism is an argument about entirely imaginary beings and events.

The Present

The immediate future is one in which power-sharing will finally work, in which Catholics will occupy many of the most powerful positions in the state, and as a result will begin to identify, at least for the time being, with that state for the first time. It is important to realise that Catholics in Northern Ireland have never had a share in the governance of their own country. Not just, not in the last 30 years. But never. In 400 years. Majority-rule is not democracy, and majority-rule must never be allowed to return to Northern Ireland.

Nationalists (separate page)

Unionists (separate page)

The Future

The long-term future of the North is probably with (a reformed) Ireland rather than with Britain. Why? Because Britain emotionally abandoned Northern Ireland long ago, regarding it more as a "white man's burden" than as part of their country to be defended. The inability of the Ulster unionist to win the hearts and minds of Britain is shown in polls where more people in Britain are in favour of leaving Ireland than staying (see survey, 21st Aug 2001). Ireland, in contrast, has made no such abandonment, and continues to regard Northern nationalists as fellow countrymen. Northern nationalists have a country, and always have had one. It is Northern unionists who are stateless, and only a power-sharing future with their fellow Northern nationalists can construct a country to which they can belong again.

Indeed, I predict that if there ever is a majority vote for a united Ireland, that power-sharing will still not end. First, to provide security for unionists, but secondly, because nationalists, having tasted power and worked successfully with the unionists, may not want to give up power to Dublin either. Whether within Ireland or the UK, power-sharing Home Rule for Ulster will continue forever.

A secular state

There are more than 2 peoples on this island. A growing number of people are rejecting the entire Catholic-Protestant identity.


Census figures:

Economic freedom

The Republic of Ireland is now economically free and prosperous.

Ireland as a free, independent ally of Britain and America

The Republic has abandoned two major principles of the revolutionary Irish (de Valera) state: (a) a Catholic state, and: (b) protectionist, self-sufficient, nationalised-industry economics. It is now secular, and capitalist. Now is time to abandon a third principle: (c) neutrality. It is time for the Republic to become a formal ally of Britain (and the US).

In the Iraq War, the brave decision of the Fianna Fail / PD government to keep Shannon Airport (and other Irish airfields and airspace) open to the Allies, even in the absence of a UN resolution, was a welcome step in this direction. In the future we should go further and declare Ireland a formal ally of Britain and America.

The Anglosphere

Return to Politics page.
       
Ireland should join the US, the UK and Australia in the Anglosphere.

While we're at it, maybe our flag should change too. The Tricolour is supposed to symbolise two tribal, sectarian traditions and a pious declaration of "peace" between them. It is a symbol of division if anything. And the unionists have never been impressed by this declaration of "peace". I suggest we get rid of it and adopt St Patrick's Cross or (my favourite) the Presidential standard.

Flags from fg-a.com.

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