Dé Luain, Samhain 30, 2009

Impiriúlachas trí Ionadaí in Éirinn an Lae Inniu
30/11/09


(English version follows)

“Más mian linn an tír a athaontú creidim gur chóir dúinn dul isteach arís sa Chomhlathas Briotanach chun é sin a bhaint amach.”

Sin a dúirt Éamon Ó Cuív, aire ghnóthaí pobail, tuaithe agus Gaeltachta na Sé Chontae Fichead in athsheoladh an pháipéir Ghaeilge, Foinse Dé Céadaoin seo caite (18ú Samhain).

Tá sé scanrúil go dtacódh aon saoránach de stát atá in ainm is a bheith ardcheannasach go poiblí le hathiontráil isteach sna struchtúirí impireachta a rinne an méad sin damáiste dá dtír san am atá thart. Is iontas mór amach is amach é go ndéanfadh aire rialtais agus ball sinsearach de phairtí Poblachtánach mar a deirtear rud éigin mar sin.

Tá sé mar dhualgas ag Éamon Ó Cuív mar aire rialtais i ‘bPoblacht na hÉireann’ an status quo bunreachtúil inar toghadh é a chosaint agus seasamh leis. Ach, seo é, mar bhall de pháirtí Poblachtánach mar a fhógraíonn siad, ag rá go gcreideann sé gur chóir d’Éirinn san iomlán athiontráil a dhéanamh ar eagras stát lena bhfuil monarc neamhthofa mar cheannaire chun cuma aontais náisiúnta a bhaint amach.

Tá tuairim ag Ó Cuív ar an gceist seo; in 1994, mhol garmhac Éamon de Valera go ndéanfaí na Sé Chontae Fichead athnaisc leis an gComhlathas Briotánach mar bhac ar aontachtachas.

Bheadh sé doshamhlaithe d’aire rialtais seirbhíseach in aon áit eile ar domhan argóint gur chóir don stát ina bhfuil sé ag seirbheáil a bheith géiliúil do cheann eile.

Áfach, níl rud ar bith le rá ag an rialtas 26 Contae, páirtí Fhianna Fáil, ná ag na meáin faoi ráiteas gáifeach Uí Chuív.

Le haghaidh poblachtánaigh sóisialacha, tá foinsí de leithéid ráiteis soiléir. Bhí Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta, Comhaontú Chill Rímhinn agus an próiséas síothaithe a tháinig orthu, faoi normálú a dhéanamh ar bhaint an rialtais Bhriotanaigh in Éirinn. Bhí tréigean Altanna 2 & 3 ó bhunreacht na 26 Contae, ainneoin a luach reitriciúil amháin, faoin normálú seo a réiteach dóibh.

Le blianta fada, tá daoine cantalacha, frithghníomhaithe dígeanna agus roinnt aontachtaithe den chineál bunaíochta deisceartach, ag moladh bearta cosúil le hathiontráil na 26 Contae isteach sa Chomhlathas Briotanach. Thug 20 bliain de normalú fhorghabháil na Breataine cuma mheasúil do na moltaí frith-daonlathacha seo agus ligeann sé d’airí rialtais Bhaile Átha Cliath iad a chur chun cinn gan a bheith eaglach faoi fhritonn ar bith.

In agallamh in 1999, thaispeáin feachtasóir ársa poblachtánach sóisialach, Bernadette McAliskey é seo maidir leis na bunaíochtaí polaitiúla, ó thuaidh agus ó theas: “Ní bheadh ionadh orm dá aththachtaigh muid Acht an Aontais i gceann roinnt blianta agus feiceann muid an deisceart ag dul ar ais isteach sa Chomhlathas Briotánach, agus beidh siad go léir ina n-airí faoin gcoróin.”

Sna Sé Chontae, áfach, tá baint na Breataine in Éirinn chomh mínormálta agus mioscaiseach is a bhí riamh. Mar a thug éirígí tuairisc ar cheanna (PSNI Repression on the Rise), tá an PSNI ag stopadh agus ag cuardú thart ar 110 duine gach lá faoi reachtaíocht diansmachtúil, tá MI5 ag dul thar fóir agus tá ar a laghad reisimint amháin d’arm na Breataine réidh le haghaidh cogaidh. Díreach i rith na seachtaine seo, admhaíodh gur oibrigh an Special Reconnaissance Regiment go dlúth leis an PSNI in oibríocht faoi cheilt i bhFear Manach an Sathairn seo caite inar scaoil fórsaí na forghabhála urchair.

San am ina bhfuil Poblachtánaigh Éireannacha cúisithe go seasta toisc nach bhfuil malairt acu ar an status quo, tá sé do-chreidte polaiteoir sinsireach a chloisteáil ag moladh go réiteodh iarratas ceansa i slí éigin athiontráil a dhéanamh ar ‘clann náisiúin’ na Breataine fadhb ársa de chur faoi chois an stáit Bhriotánach agus bearta scar is trescair. Go réalaíoch, is coiscéim siar é beart den saghas seo do dhaonlathas agus dul chun cinn in Éirinn.

Cinnte, níl Éamon Ó Cuív ina aonar ag caitheamh i ndiaidh feisteis impireachta duine éigin eile atá imithe le fada. Ar an Déardaoin (Samhain 26), rinne ambasadóir na Breataine i mBaile Átha Cliath, Julian King, ‘Ceannfort ar impireacht na Breataine’ (CBE) de iar-ghobhornóir Bhanc na hÉireann, Laurence Crowley.

Dúirt Crowley go raibh sé ‘bródúil’ mar “seasann sé do gach rud atá go maith faoin gcaidreamh Thuaidh-Theas agus na dlúth-nascanna idir an RA agus Éire.”

An fíor rud a sheasann Crowley do ná ábaltacht i measc bunaíochta pholaitiúil, eacnamaíochta agus chultúrtha an stáit 26 Contae gan an bád a luascadh nó gan labhairt amach i gcoinne críochdheighilte, forghabháil mhíleata agus cur i bhfeidhm stáit apartheid ag rialtas na Breataine sa Tuaisceart.

Cabhraíonn leasaí aicme cómónta an stáit 26 contae agus bunaíochtaí Briotánacha le difríochtaí beaga a mbeadh acu a réiteach agus ligeaint do choincheapa ar nós dul isteach sa chomhlathas a bhunú.

Bheadh Laurence Crowley, mar shampla, áthasach le cinneadh na seachtaine seo ag Ard-Chúirt na Breataine ag ligeaint do bhancanna leanúint ar aghaidh ag amhantraigh agus ag brabúsaíocht, ag dushaothrú gnáth chustaiméirí, chun a socruithe fabhracha a fhóirdheonú dá gcliaint gnó saibhre.

Ag am ina raibh grúpa frithghníomhaithe Éireannacha eile ag iarraidh leasaí Briotánacha in Éirinn a chosaint, thug poblachtánach sóisialach Liam Mellows faoi deara gur sheas Poblacht na hÉireann do leasaí saothar agus an lucht oibre, fad is a sheasann an saorstát ar son chaipitil agus dúshaothrú.

Tá taobh roghnaithe acu siúd a bhíonn ag brionglóid faoin ‘gComhlathas’ agus faoi dhuaiseanna agus cuairteanna ríoga, caithfidh an chuid eile dúinn argóint ar son na Poblachta



Imperialism by Proxy in Modern Day Ireland
30/11/09

“Más mian linn an tír a athaontú creidim gur chóir dúinn dul isteach arís sa Chomhlathas Briotanach chun é sin a bhaint amach.” [“If we wish to reunite the country I believe we have to go into the British Commonwealth again to achieve that.”]

So said Éamon Ó Cuív, the Twenty-Six County minister for community, rural and gaeltacht affairs, in the relaunch of the Irish language newspaper Foinse last Wednesday [November 18].

That any citizen of a supposedly sovereign state would publicly advocate re-entering the structures of an empire that had done so much damage to their nation in the past is startling enough. That a government minister and senior member of the so-called Republican Party would do so is, frankly, jaw dropping.

Éamon Ó Cuív as a government minister in the ‘Republic of Ireland’ has an obligation to defend and uphold the constitutional status quo he was elected into. Yet, here he is, as a member of a self-proclaimed republican party no less, stating his belief that Ireland as a whole should re-enter an organisation of states that has an unelected monarch at its head in order to gain some semblance of national unity.

Ó Cuív has form on this issue; in 1994, the grandson of Éamon de Valera proposed that the Twenty-Six Counties rejoin the British Commonwealth as a sop to unionism.

It would be unimaginable for a serving government minister in any other part of the world to argue for the state he was elected to serve to become subservient to another.

However, neither the Twenty-Six County government, the Fianna Fáil party, nor the media has had anything to say about Ó Cuív’s sensational statement.

For socialist republicans, the origins of such statements are clear. The Good Friday Agreement, the St Andrew’s Agreement and the pacification process that led to them were about normalising the British government’s involvement in Ireland. The dropping of Articles 2 & 3 from the Twenty-Six County Constitution, despite their purely rhetorical value, was about facilitating this normalisation.

For decades, cranks, died-in-the-wool reactionaries and a smattering of southern establishment-type unionists have been proposing measures such as the Twenty-Six Counties rejoining the British Commonwealth. Two decades of normalising the British occupation has given these anti-democratic proposals a veneer of respectability and allows Dublin government ministers to promote them unafraid of any backlash.

In an interview in 1999, the veteran socialist republican and civil rights campaigner Bernadette McAliskey made this point in relation the political establishments, north and south: “I would not even be surprised if some years down the line, we re-enact the Act of Union and we see the south going back into the commonwealth, and they will all be ministers under the crown.”

In the Six Counties, however, Britain’s involvement in Ireland remains as abnormal and nasty as ever. As reported previously by éirígí (PSNI Repression on the Rise), the PSNI is stopping & searching an average of 110 people every day under repressive legislation, MI5 spooks are going into overdrive and at least one British army regiment is back on a war footing. Only this week, it was admitted that the Special Reconnaissance Regiment worked hand-in-glove with the PSNI in an undercover operation in Fermanagh last Saturday which culminated in a number of shots being fired by the occupation forces.

At a time when Irish republicans are consistently accused of having no alternative to the status quo, it is astonishing to hear a senior politician suggesting that a meek request to re-enter Britain’s ‘family of nations’ would somehow solve the centuries-old problem of British state repression and divide and conquer tactics. In reality, such a move would be a backward step for democracy and progress in Ireland.

Of course, Éamon Ó Cuív is not alone in hankering after the trappings of someone else’s long-gone empire. On Thursday [November 26], the former governor of the Bank of Ireland, Laurence Crowley, was made a ‘Commander of the British Empire’ [CBE] by the British ambassador in Dublin Julian King.

King said Crowley was ‘honoured’ because he “epitomises all that is good about North-South relations and the close links between the UK and Ireland”.

What Crowley really “epitomises” is an ability among the political, economic and cultural establishment of the Twenty-Six County state not to rock the boat or speak out in the face of partition, a military occupation and the imposition of an apartheid state by the British government in the North.

The common class interests of the Twenty-Six County and British establishments help to smooth over any small differences they may have and allow notions such as joining the Commonwealth to take root.

Laurence Crowley, for example, would have been delighted by this week’s decision by the British Supreme Court to allow banks to continue speculating and profiteering off the backs of ordinary customers in order to subsidise its preferential arrangements for wealthy and business clients.

At a time when another group of Irish reactionaries were trying to protect British interests in Ireland, the socialist republican Liam Mellows noted simply that the Irish Republic stands for the interests of labour and the working class, while the Free State stands for the protection of capital and exploitation.

Those who dream of the ‘Commonwealth’ and royal awards and visits have chosen their side, the rest of us must make the argument for the Republic.

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