However, it will be in Washington where all political eyes will be focused to see how the current Dublin administration plays its cards with the new Trump Presidency. Clearly, Taoiseach Micheal Martin will be very diplomatic with his words to avoid any repeat of a public Zelenskyy-style put-down as witnessed by the world’s media a few weeks ago.
In Martin’s case, he would be well advised not to sing the praises of the European Union given Trump’s view that the EU was established to ‘screw’ the United States.
With a large chunk of the pan nationalist front, namely Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Alliance Party, boycotting the traditional White House St Patrick’s Day celebrations over the situation in Gaza, Martin will have to be careful that he is not politically tarred - and treated - with the same brush because of the actions of the pan nationalist front.
Martin has already rattled Brexiteer cages on this side of the Pond following a recent Anglo-Irish meeting in which he promised to do “anything we can” to help the United Kingdom get closer to the EU.
However, such seemingly pleasant platitudes should be taken with a large pinch of salt when coming from a Dublin administration. Put bluntly, when has a Dublin administration really wanted to ‘help the UK’?
There is clearly an underlying Dublin agenda at work here. In spite of Northern Ireland as a region of the UK voting Remain in the 2016 referendum on EU membership, the UK as a whole voted Leave and Brexit has become a reality.
One reality for any Dublin government is that it is now geographically isolated from the rest of the EU. Put equally bluntly, is Dublin’s offer of ‘anything we can’ really a bid by the Southern Irish administration to stab the UK in the back politically over the EU?
In reality, the ‘anything we can’ pledge is really a political stunt and must be seen for what it is - part of the Southern Irish government’s campaign to push for a border poll on Irish Unity.
Given Trump’s tariff threats, what Dublin really fears is not the UK outside the EU, but the Trump administration in the United States. That new American administration despises the EU with a passion.
Put in Ulster terms, the Trump tariff tactic could well be the political iceberg which sinks the EU Titanic. Is it any wonder Dublin wants to help the UK get closer to the EU. Dublin needs the UK back in the EU should any harmful trade war break out between Dublin and the Trump Oval Office.
It is no secret there are those within the current British Labour Party who would like to see another referendum held on the UK rejoining the EU. Dublin will be most certainly be pushing for such a referendum under the general banner of ‘anything we can’ to help the UK/EU relations.
Dublin knows full well that if the UK can resist such a move in terms of rejoining the EU while the Trump administration is in power, Southern Ireland may have to seriously consider the political nuclear option - leaving the EU itself!
Just as a decade ago, Brexit was seen as a non-starter, at the moment Irexit is also viewed as practically impossible. But if Trump puts the tight squeeze on the Southern Irish economy, might Dublin have to ‘jump ship’ politically from the EU to avoid the fallout from hard-hitting tariffs designed to ‘screw’ the EU?
This new Trump administration is well known for its lively public press conferences. While UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were able to escape unscathed from the public wrath of Trump, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not so lucky.
Likewise, Unionist representatives, such as Stormont Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, should be in their elements on St Patrick’s Day at the White House in terms of having a ‘word in the ear’ of Trump with no Sinn Fein representatives to contradict her.
The pan nationalist front may come in the long-term to regret snubbing the White House today. As the conversations take place in the White House, who will score the bigger points - the glowing orange shamrock from the Unionists, or Micheal Martin’s wilting green shamrock?
It was a joke with a jibe in post Second World War politics in trying to rebuild Anglo-German relations - don’t mention the war! Move it to 2025 politics, Martin would be well advised - don’t mention the EU!
If Martin escapes the White House without a Trump tongue-lashing about the EU, he could mark this with an extra large measure of ‘drowning the shamrock’.
The ultimate embarrassment for Martin could be another public White House press conference where Trump responds to receiving the traditional gift of shamrock with the quip - ‘so when are you Irish boyos quitting the EU that screwed us?’ We Brexiteers live in hope!
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. |
As if Trump gives a solitary fuck what anybody from Ireland says or thinks.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Conor McGregor will change all that Steve
ReplyDelete