1. Legitimation of the "state" and the Irish republic
Much of the readership of this blog is
from outside Ireland, so a little history will help. In the 19th
century, as soon as the voting franchise was extended to catholics,
the Irish nation as a whole repeatedly voted for a limited form of
autonomy called “Home rule”. While prime minister, Gladstone
managed to steer a “Home rule” bill through the commons, only to
see the House of Lords reject it.
So matters remained until WW1, when
“Home rule” was attenuated to include only the 26 counties. Even
this bill was suspended, with the Irish Parliamentary
Party/Nationalist Party (IPP) parliamentarians in London
expected to support conscription of the Irish as a quid pro quo. That
political tightrope act proved unsustainable, and a very marginal
group of socialists and Fenians declared a republic in 1916. Their
revolt was clearly quixotic,and is described in all its chaos by the
Nobellist Vargas Llosa's recent “El sueno del celta”;
Yet the point had been made; Irish
people were willing to fight and die for the proclamation of a
republic that extended the voting franchise to women, was
non-sectarian and claimed ownership of the resources of Ireland for
the Irish people. It is fair to say that these principles remain the
legitimately held aspirations of the great majority of Irish people
today. They are what the Irish successfully fought for in the
brilliantly executed guerrilla war that so inspired the 20the century
colonies to do likewise; they are also the touchstone of legitimacy
of the Irish state. One argument here is that this version of the
state as it currently operates is therefore illegitimate
In 1918 an election was held under
British law; Sinn Fein won over 70% of the seats. Instead of trotting
off to Whitehall/London, they formed an autonomous parliament of the
Irish republic as voted for by the people;
This assembly of the republic was
proscribed by the British and its successor had a similarly anomalous
being;
Eventually, after a bitterly fought
civil war, the “free state” was created, the republic was not
included,
Unlike the British, the Irish had a
written constitution, edited by Whitehall
The classic republican argument is that
the “free state” was created under threat of military invasion by
Britain and that therefore the second Dail remains in existence as
the legitimate government of Ireland, held in trust by the army
council of the IRA until full elections again are held. . The
Anglo-Irishman Richard Barton, who was one of the treaty negotiators
and had no reason to lie, attested that such a threat was indeed
uttered by Lloyd George, specifically “war within three days”
The “free state” made several
attempts to resolve the situation before the capitulation that we are
about to describe. One was the 1937 constitution; the other was the
1948 declaration of a republic, a declaration that was proscribed by
the British in 1922 but would probably have averted the Civil war had
it been done then. There possibly would have been less bloodshed on
the island in the 70 subsequent years had this 1922 declaration
taken place
A pathological dynamic, therefore has
historically obtained. It started when the party that became Fianna
fail set up what was effectively an internal government in exile
after the civil war. They had government ministries in this fantasy
league, unlike their successors from 1938 onwards, which were
strictly military in effect. The first such, with impeccable timing,
declared war on Britain in 1939; the subsequent 1950's border
campaign was as bad.
Most recently. Gerry Adams' IRA
renounced their claim on sovereignty and joined the parliament in
both parts of Ireland. It is fair to suggest that the British
patronage of Adams and his ilk was due to fear of Marxists like
Seamus Costello with their more effective paramilitaries, rather than love of Gerry.
2. The nullification of Ireland's
national territory
In 1937, on the eve of WW2, with an
armed neighbor beside it staking claim over some of the same
territory, and after centuries of genocide and dispossession, the
Irish people voted for this simple proposition;
“Article 2
The national territory consists of the whole island of Ireland, its islands and the territorial seas.”
In 1938, as we've seen, the IRA lost
patience and claimed jurisdiction over the whole island in the name
of the 1916 republic. This ended in the 1969-1997 disaster; what was
to come, I argue, was the conscious destruction of the Irish people
as an identifiable ethnic group; in short, cultural genocide. First,
in an appallingly written document, the national territory was
gotten rid of;
The new Article 2
“It is the entitlement and birthright
of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its
islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation. That is also the
entitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law
to be citizens of Ireland. Furthermore, the Irish nation cherishes
its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who
share its cultural identity and heritage.
The new Article 3It is the firm will of the Irish Nation, in harmony and friendship, to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland, in all the diversity of their identities and traditions, recognising that a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island. Until then, the laws enacted by the Parliament established by this Constitution shall have the like area and extent of application as the laws enacted by the Parliament[2] that existed immediately before the coming into operation of this Constitution.
Institutions with executive powers and functions that are shared between those jurisdictions may be established by their respective responsible authorities for stated purposes and may exercise powers and functions in respect of all or any part of the island. “
So there was to be no national
territory; power lay in new bodies with officials unelected locally
allowed to lay down the law. Moreover, by 2004 article 2 was rejected
by 80% of the electorate, who insisted - pace, Leopold Bloom - that
Irishness was more than just being born there
3. A new republic and reconciliation
tribunal
Consequently, we now have two
claimants on the republic;
- The current internationally-accepted government, the successor to the “free state”
- The army council of the IRA, which is not recognized internationally and has few supporters even in Ireland
It is the thesis of this post that
these claims have equal moral and political validity. Moreover, the
Free state has become so inimical to the interests of Irish people
that there a very strong argument for the declaration of a new
republic, even before putting it to the Irish people as a political
movement and a referendum.
International accreditation of the
“free state” brings with it a heavy burden, both financial and
political.In particular, we are told that we owe
abut $100 billion; in effect, the terms post 1998 are those given to
Germany by the allies after WW1 and WW2.
What is being proposed here, therefore,
is a tribunal subsequent to the coming into force of the constitution
of the new republic that examines crimes committed against Ireland
under the flag of the old republic. There is no doubt that the
banksters who successfully sought to defraud the Irish exchequer in
order to keep their scam going for just a few months longer should be
in jail, nor is there any doubt that the “free state” will not
prosecute them;
Nor is there any doubt that the
succession of minsters (Burke, ahern and now Rabbitte) who have given
away our fossil fuels are in violation of article 10 of the
onstitution;
“All natural resources, including the
air and all forms of potential energy, within the jurisdiction of the
Parliament and Government established by this Constitution and all
royalties and franchises within that jurisdiction belong to the State
subject to all estates and interests therein for the time being
lawfully vested in any person or body. “
Yet the situation is clearer still.
This government sees itself as a tool of the international financial
community, rather than an entity resolved to protect the Irish
people, as Merkel is obliged to do. They foster massive emigration
of the Irish, and immigration of unskilled foreigners. In particular,
the minister for finance announced that we e took one for the team,
where this team is clearly not Ireland;
The deputy PM reports details of
internal party strategy to his manager in the Dublin US embassy. Small
wonder they went on openly to try and teal Irish passports and refuse
visas to leading Irish writers, as my (in press) “Ireland in
crisis” shows;
The PM himself is frighteningly stupid,
ignorant, and ill-advised;
More to the point, as I have copiously
documented elsewhere, this version of the Irish state has suspended
the rule of law as it suits to destroy Irish ethnic musicians, and
put the universities outside any statutory control. My solution has been simple;
create an alternative university and open science sites. Indeed, this should be the
leitmotif; create alternative institutions using the web.
The Irish state attempts to control
things using mechanisms that are pre-Gutenberg, let alone the
internet. This colonial administration has in fact allowed Irish
passports themselves to become unsafe as the Mossad developed an
unhealthy obsessions with them. In fact, it produces nothing of any
benefit to an intelligent and sensitive human being
Law is used in Ireland almost solely as
an instrument to cement the grip of a self-appointed elite on power.
In general, then, the impetus that gave the free state some traction
on the notion of the republic and legality has been spent
Yet there is no point in redoing the
IRA trick. What seems to make sense is to declare a new republic, and
to abide by the laws of the free state in a minimal fashion. As
Iceland has demonstrated with bands like “Of Monsters and Men”,
there are massive opportunities for a resource-rich state like
Ireland that frees itself from the death-grip of the banksters .
