The recent vote i Teach Laighean is not a technical adjustment; it is a fundamental betrayal of what remains of Irish neutrality.
By voting to remove the triple lock, the UN requirement for deploying our soldiers to foreign wars, the political establishment has signalled its intent. But we must ask: why now, and for whom?
Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher and Charlie McConalogue voted for this ending of the UN requirement, effectively allowing Irish soldiers to be sent to wars not of our making.
Are they being honest and open with their electorate?
The rhetoric of "protecting Ireland" is a dangerous falsehood. By aligning them and therefore the people of Ireland, with EU militarism and NATO-adjacent structures, Ireland does not become safer; it becomes a target. We are being dragged into the warmongering nations, aligned with NATO and PESCO ambitions; supporting a 'weapons of death and destruction industry' based on manufactured Russian aggression.
This is not neutrality; this is submission to the imperatives of EU, Yankee, and English imperialism.
The hypocrisy is staggering. As our young people face a housing crisis, a health service crisis and the people ó Dún na nGall and elsewhere, living in collapsing dwellings, why is the money for wars and death not being spent on the living? There is no money for social justice and the material needs of the population of Ireland, but there is always money for militarism. Billions of pounds can be found for Wars. Wars that will mean death and destruction, along with food and fuel shortages; burdens that always fall heaviest on the working class people. Is this the future we want for our children and grandchildren; to fight foreign imperialist wars in foreign lands? And to main and kill the poor and working poor of those countries? Just look at Palestine, Lebanon, Yemin, Iran and the wider West Asia. That's what we are lining our youth up to do.
Furthermore, the two TDs are masters of 'clientelism' and 'slights of hand' . . . the old 'three card trick'; doing favours like getting people their passports, two minutes before they would have arrived anyway. All this to maintain a veneer of caring, while ensuring the welfare of the rich and powerful comes first. They are a full and willing part of that capitalist system.
But their pretend words cannot hide the truth. If they truly believe in the ending of our neutrality, will they hold public meetings right across the country, to ask the people's opinions on our neutrality and sovereignty? Or will they hide behind the party whip?
And what of the English occupation of the 6 counties? What do the two TDs, Charlie and Pat the Cope say about that? Is that somehow different? If so, why is it different? If they are so concerned with "defending" Ireland, why is the English imperialist presence in the North not their primary focus? Why is it acceptable to join a Western military NATO/PESCO bloc, to defend others but not to address the root cause of division on this island? Namely partition and colonial occupation?
We are witnessing the dilution of Irish sovereignty. The people ó Dún na nGall deserve answers. We demand public meetings on this. We demand that our TDs explain why they are choosing the interests of imperialist powers over the welfare of their own constituents.
Neutrality is not weakness; it is a shield for the the majority i Éireann , especially the working class. We must defend it with every sinew in our bodies.
#PattheCopeGallagher
#CharlieMcConalogue
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| Micheál Choilm Mac Giolla Easbuig is an independent councillor on Donegal County Council. |
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