Mr O'Grady, Meet Mr Sloan

 Guest Writer Eoghan O’Suilleabhain with a piece on Irish sovereignty

Independent nationalism is unacceptable to the West, no matter where it is, and it has to be driven back into subordination  – Noam Chomsky

Writing wishfully but not presciently Joseph O’Grady stated in 1990 that:

“The very movement toward (EU) economic unity can only mean that (Irish) political unity will follow…” (p. 16).  The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Dec., 1990), pp. 7-20


If only that were true because here is the catch: Irish political unity doesn’t necessarily mean with Irish sovereignty.  In fact the whole point of Ireland being subordinated historically by the British unity project and now the European Union project required (and continues to require) Ireland to forfeit its national sovereignty in whole or in part because of (or in exchange for) foreign rule from Britain or Brussels.

Mr. O’Grady nonetheless offered a kernel of hope about the inevitability of Irish unity because: “In the post-Cold War neither the Irish nor the English will have any reason to continue to believe in such a myth (that Ireland has significant strategic value)”. (p. 17). 

However, it’s important that Irish Republicans not be deluded by this false hope because Irish political unity with sovereignty is small country independent nationalism which is an anathema to big country imperialism which is always propelled by purposeful motive and calculation often times based upon myth and perception such as “there’s commie behind every tree” to now the Muslims who “…hate our freedom”. 

And the power of myth and myth makers never ends because they serve a purpose. Proof:  Mr. O’Grady, meet Mr. Sloan. As in G.R. Sloan, Deputy Head of Department of Strategic Studies and International Affairs at Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, U.K., who writes and lectures extensively to the British security establishment that Ireland had and continues to have significant strategic value for the British:



However, as confirmed by the (British) government Green Paper in 1972, Northern Ireland was still seen as important in terms of ensuring the security of the United Kingdom from the threat of physical invasion. ... Yet the ending of the Cold War has not spelt the end of potential threats to the security of the United Kingdom and consequently has resulted in a potential increase in the strategic importance of Ireland: The collapse of the Soviet Union merely means the lack of only one ideological challenge to democratic capitalism. Outside the West religion still inspires universal claims and genocidal loyalties; the passing of European wars of religion has not ended religious war. Nationalism remains deep-rooted even in the placid and opulent industrial societies of Western Europe. In societies born in poverty from the debris of empires great and small, the national cult retains all its primitive force. The future is not an object of knowledge, but it has been shown that with respect to Ireland, geopolitical patterns of the past can have relevance to the future (Sloan, 1997, page 295) (emphasis added).
  
All of which means as long as people like Geoffrey Sloan occupy the halls of the British security establishment, and their name is legion for they are many, the less likely we are to ever see Irish unity with Irish sovereignty.

As I have stated before, we are more likely to see a united Korea before we will ever see a united Ireland because that's what suits Anglo-American imperialism.  See R=PB-Cin:The Blanket 12 April 2004.



 







2 comments:

  1. Good post Eoghan,I agree that people like Sloan an others have a unionist agenda.reading his statement elequent as it may be there is not the slightest bit of meat on his argument,just like every other reason profered by the brits for their occupation here its foundation is built on lies, O Grady doesnt seem to have read James Connolly.I think economic unity has been every bit as bad for Ireland and its people as has the years of Brit domination. .

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  2. Thank you Marty! And in the spirit of James Connolly, I don't think Brits like Sloan or Europeans like Merkle really have a unionist or unity agenda because those terms imply an equivalency of relationship for which there is little or no evidence politically or economically. Therefore they are merely imperial word play for domination for which too many pro-British and pro-EU Irish are happy to be subordinate to in one treasonous form or another like pro-American South Vietnamese or pro-Soviet East Germans.

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