Disgrace: A Reflection on the conflict between Colonial Experience and Political Expediency in Irish Foreign Affairs

It is often malignant pressures from outside the national community which must bear ultimate responsibility for distilling, out of legitimate nationalism, a cocktail of violence. Where a national community, if offered a plebiscite, would opt for independence – but where such a forum is refused – local so-called acts of terror can be the result.

During so much of our history, that was the situation in Ireland . “Patriotism” and “martyrdom” came to mean much the same thing for Irish revolutionaries as they do across the Middle East today. Indeed, there were periods when in American, as well as in British eyes, the Irish were typecast as the “insurgents” or “terrorists” of the day.

Today, condemnations of nationalism often issue from those who are themselves driven by unexamined nationalist ideas masquerading as universal cultural norms. A reactive nationalism can now be found in the United States which routinely unleashes murderous military operations on other nations in the name of “defence of freedom” – sometimes even training in American military academies the torturers and assassins employed by corrupt regimes.

In Ireland , as a people we must know in our bones that the nation is sovereign. The role of Ireland on the diplomatic world stage is to say again and again that sovereignty is a right which neither oil nor Realpolitik can withhold from a distinct nation – whether in Ireland or Palestine or Iraq . If ever we countenance the invasion of other nations, we no longer merit the defence of our own.

In the wake of the Twin Towers disaster, George W. Bush asked the world’s nations to tell him whether they were with him or against him in the matter of invading a sovereign Arab nation. Thanks to Ireland ’s well-honed skills at political double-talk, we were able to tell him in no uncertain terms that we were both for him and against him. The Irish Government pleaded the alibi of Irishness on behalf of hostages Ken Bigley and Margaret Hassan – while continuing to scoop millions for the exchequer from aiding and abetting military transports on active service in invading the territory of the Iraqi people.

Bruce Stewart is Director of the Project in Electronic Irish Records and Lecturer in English at the University of Ulster.