STAND UP AGAINST NEW HITLER PUTIN
Posted on 24th June 2023
Memories from my childhood have flooded into my brain, all induced by the debate about neutrality. During the Second World War my father served as a Captain in the Irish Guards. My mother went to London serving as a nurse and then joined the Army Catering Corp. This was their contribution to the war effort. It was not unusual. However, growing up it was at first a little hard to wrap my head around the fact that the Second World War, the struggle against the Nazis and Adolf Hitler was known as the Emergency. That for me was a bit of an understatement, to say the least. Even more astonishing was the fact that Eamon de Valera had signed the Book of Condolences in the German Embassy when Hitler died. By my mid-teens I had some understanding of our neutrality. Having been sent to a British Public School by my parents I made much of my refusal to attend army corp camp on the basis that I wouldn’t serve in a foreign army. In reality I grew to understand the benefit of the Republic’s stance during the Second World War, even if I felt a bit uncomfortable with the presumption that we had not truly stood against the tyranny of Hitler. Still, as the years went by I took pride in Ireland’s contribution to international peace-keeping and took the lazy view that if we were really threatened we would be protected by the British and NATO.
Now with Russia’s totally illegal invasion of Ukraine we have a new Hitler in the form of Vladimir Putin. He threatens the security of Europe. It is absolutely the right time to examine our existing defence policy and our current position on neutrality. Michael D. Higgins is our Head of State but also the titular Head of our Armed Forces. Whilst he is to be commended for opening up the debate, his anti-British and anti-NATO bias is less admirable. His snide remark about Professor Louise Richardson, who is chairing the current Forum on International Security Policy being held in Cork, just because she is a Dame of the British Empire, was seriously ill-judged. The Taoiseach should remind him that as our Head of State he plays an important role in maintaining a good relationship with our nearest neighbour. I’m glad he has apologised.
The Tánaiste is right to lead the debate. The circumstances facing this Republic now are very different from those in the 1930’s. Ireland may not be significant militarily but we are important in that we have the European Headquarters of key global tech companies that could present very obvious targets. We also have some important manufacturing bases of key pharma companies. Throw in the starting point for any transatlantic cables together with any future infrastructures built to harness energy off the West Coast and we will have a lot to protect. Finland has decided to join NATO. I think we need to take a different path but for a start we need to pay our defence forces properly and then have a mature debate on how to protect our nation and preserve our traditions.
