Irish Examiner view: Amid grave security threats, Ireland must contemplate the unthinkable
Taoisech Micheál Martin spoke with Irish Examiner Political Editor Elaine Loughlin at Government Buildings. Her interview is published in the 'Irish Examiner' newspaper and online today, Saturday. Picture: Gareth Chaney
Of all the taoisigh since the Second World War — there have been 15 — only two have faced penetrating and continuous world scrutiny of our policies on defence, and our longstanding commitment to the concept of neutrality.
One of those was Éamon de Valera, whose guidance and leadership through the tumultuous years of the conflict against Adolf Hitler, have often been misunderstood, sometimes wilfully, by overseas critics.
The second taoiseach to look these issues squarely in the eye is Micheál Martin, who states in an interview with Irish Examiner political editor Elaine Loughlin today that, as a nation, we are “blissfully unaware” of the “existential fear” consuming many of our European neighbours.
The circumstances facing Dev and his colleagues 85 years ago were unrecognisably different to those which confront Mr Martin. Then, a republic was gestating after extricating ourselves from the control of an imperialist power. It was before the days of the UN and the EU. We were a poor country.
Now, Ireland is perceived as wealthy. We are having a moment. We have much to say on the world stage, particularly about Palestine. More is expected of us. Other countries, including our friends on the continent, are of the view that if we want to talk the talk, then we have to walk the walk.
Mr Martin is one of our most worldly practitioners on the international stage, with extensive experience in foreign affairs and enterprise. He has spoken with authority about the situation in Gaza for more than a decade.
He commented eloquently about the collective failure to respond adequately to the annexation of Crimea in 2014, an event which has its appeasement parallels with Munich in 1938 and led directly to today’s crisis in Ukraine.
He knows there is enormous support within Ireland for the concept of neutrality and the so-called “triple lock” which applies certain thresholds before Irish troops can be deployed abroad.
Yet, with world events moving at a breakneck speed, sitting on our hands does not present itself as a viable option, or one which is likely to win support or approval from our neighbours on mainland Europe.
Our Defence Forces are understaffed and under-equipped and the case for a meaningful review and action alongside the establishment of a new standalone Oireachtas committee on security and defence is self-evident. That there will be increased spending within the EU on defence capability is inevitable, irrespective of any principled arguments regarding Nato membership.
Whatever the symbolic objections to that organisation, Ireland has been part of its Cyber Defence Centre since 2019. We have committed to establishing our own primary radar system. Further logistical expenditure and the provision of aircraft for maritime surveillance and helicopters is on the way.
Last week, leading scientists announced they were moving the Doomsday Clock — the metaphor they use to signal Armageddon — closer to midnight. It now stands at 89 seconds, the highest threat level since it started in 1947.
We must contemplate the unthinkable and, in doing so, debate the impact it may have on us. Warmongering is in no-one’s interests and our ability to act as peacemaker has long been valued on the international stage. Peace on our island was hard fought and only achieved in very recent memory. But debating our future alliances and interests is also the correct course of action.
As the 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche warned: “If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
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While movie fans await news of the screen adaptation of Marlon James’s Booker Prize-winning novel A Brief History of Seven Killings, it is of note that one of its central characters would have been 80 this week.
Bob Marley, described only as “The Singer” in the book, died in Miami at the age of 36 from a form of skin cancer but not before he established himself as a seminal figure in black music through his pioneering and political use of reggae, ska, and rocksteady.
He starred in one of the most famous concerts in Irish history when he appeared at Dalymount Park on July 6, 1980. It was his one and only appearance in the Republic and his last outdoor show before he passed. Bohemians later released a football shirt to commemorate the event.
It is taxing to visualise what Marley might have been like as a performer at 80, given his high-octane performances on stage, although we might have gained some clues from his long-time Jamaican collaborator Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, who was still appearing at Irish venues in his early 80s.
Marley will be remembered and feted though for his Dublin performance, when he is said to have devoted the legendary ‘Redemption Song’ to Ireland’s struggle for independence. And when, probably apocryphally, it was observed that “a lot of people were smoking that night. And it wasn’t Marlboro Lights.”
When the story of cross-border trade in the early part of the 21st century comes to be written, there should be a special gallery of shame for the politicians and bureaucrats who have managed to make an almighty mess of things.
And there should be a place in purgatory for us customers who have permitted such nonsense to take place in our names.
Marks and Spencer is a name known throughout Europe. It has had dozens of stores in the Republic for 40 years, and in Northern Ireland for five decades. It employs more than 4,000 people.
Its managing director for food, Alex Freudmann, says his job is to get fresh, quality food on shelves for 32m customers every day. Yet he can’t help but contrast this frenetic activity with the “sloth-like speed with which food crosses the Irish Sea”.
M&S ships thousands of products daily including sandwiches, ready meals, and fresh produce.
It has 60 dedicated Irish suppliers. However, five years after the UK left the EU, exchanging goods remains a byzantine and slow procedure.
“Brexit bureaucracy continues to add complexity and cost for retailers, and limits choice and value for customers,” says Mr Freudmann.
And when he describes the artificially created hoops that suppliers and distributors have to jump through, it is easy to understand why.
A convoy of lorries will travel by ferry from Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland to Belfast before six of them peel off heading south to the Republic, each one carrying some 20,000 items including fruit, vegetables, sandwiches, joints of meat, and ready meals.
Irish suppliers will be attempting in return to send produce including eggs, salads, meat, bakery items, and chocolates to Britain.
Before Brexit, the requirements were simple. Fill the lorry in the depot and wave it off with one piece of paper listing what was in the trailer.
Now more than 200 pieces of paperwork are required, taking hours to generate.
Systems which were invented to integrate with container ships carrying long-life or frozen food rely on hard copy documents, physical checks, and inspections.
Mr Freudmann added: “Paperwork takes hours to complete and demands details as niche as the Latin name for the chicken that is used in our chicken tikka masala. And that is just for the products we are able to send to our Irish stores.
“Sausages, burgers, and some fresh sandwiches can no longer be sent from the UK at all.”
There will be plenty of people who say that this is the price that the British pay for Brexit and there is, perhaps, a Gaelige equivalent for schadenfreude in that view.
But who is this red tape and jobsworth approach to trade actually benefitting?
Certainly not customers, and definitely not Irish suppliers who face impediments in accessing our nearest market which is projected to grow to 72.5m people — bigger than France — within seven years?
Even setting aside the clear and present danger that Northern Ireland will be dragged into US president Donald Trump’s trade war on Europe it is worth noting what the M&S boss describes as “the nub of the issue”.
There is no difference, he says, in food standards between the UK and the EU. So why do the rules pretend that there is?
