A New War Of Independence?

By AM Saturday, March 3, 2012

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Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer Dr John Coulter as he outlines why he believes Irish nationalists may need to fight a new War of Independence. John is a former columnist with the Blanket and writes within what he describes as a Radical Unionist perspective.

Ireland may have a new War of Independence on its hands as an indirect result of Tory David Cameron’s snub to the Eurozone.

From 1919 to 1921, Irish republicans fought a bloody war against the British Army, police, Unionists and Protestants – mainly in Southern Ireland – which ended in the Anglo-Irish Treaty, a move which sparked the equally bloody Irish Civil War.
  
The Republic is both part of the eurozone and the massive multi-billion euro bailout to prevent the state from becoming effectively bankrupt.
  
In spite of Irish Premier Enda Kenny unveiling one of the harshest budgets in the history of the state late last year, privately many Irish citizens believe the South’s financial independence has been sacrificed by the new so-called ‘euro super treaty’.

That super treaty is firmly dominated by the French and Germans, with many pro-treaty commentators maintaining Cameron’s snub has left Britain isolated.

At first sight, this British isolation should be welcomed with open arms by every right-thinking Irish nationalist. But what happens to Irish nationalism if, as a result of Cameron’s dogmatic stance on the euro, Britain and Ireland have to go their separate ways financially?

The 1998 Good Friday and 2006 St Andrews agreements have firmly cemented the Northern peace process as well as copper fastened the cross-border bodies and British-Irish institutions. Politically as an island, Ireland has never enjoyed such harmony since the 1880s and the pre Home Rule crisis days.

The Republic now finds itself in a terrible dilemma. If the South is forced by the French and Germans to follow the euro ruling and further isolate Britain, it could place an intolerable strain on the increasingly influential British-Irish structures.

However, the longer Southern Ireland remains in the eurozone, the more its national sovereignty is diluted.

The Republic has benefited substantially from EU membership, but with the economically disastrous collapse of the so-called Celtic Tiger, the South needs to negotiate greater independence from the EU’s vice-like grip on its banking structures.

The bitter medicine which the South has to swallow to regain that political independence is a scenario where it has to join a new Union with Britain.

If the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein can successfully run a power-sharing administration at Stormont, then the Republic must formalise an even closer partnership with Westminster.

It would be one of the great ironies of Irish history. The native Irish and Nationalists spend the bulk of eight centuries trying to throw off the yoke of English imperialism, only to have to rejoin a revamped Union to retain its independence.

If the latest round of conspiracy theories is to be believed, then Cameron’s euro snub was not a sudden rush of blood to the political head. It was a deliberate attempt to develop what has already been branded as the Trans Atlantic Alliance of Britain, Canada and the United States.

This would be a concerted bid to re-establish the joint power of the dollar and sterling as the main global financial currency. It would firmly establish the joint dollar/sterling zone in direct opposition to the Eurozone.

Add in the 50 plus parliaments comprising the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, and a political picture of the euro under pressure and isolation for the French and Germans – plus anyone who teams up with Paris and Berlin.

Dublin has some serious thinking to do over the Leinster House St Patrick’s Day recess. Does it remain with the eurozone and hope no more financial concessions and loss of national sovereignty have to be made to the European Union?

Or, does it make the biggest political gamble since entering the Anglo-Irish Treaty talks in the 1920s, abandon the eurozone, team up with Britain, and re-introduce the Irish pounds – converting the island back into a sterling zone?

To rebuild the Celtic Tiger, Southern Ireland may have to adopt the unthinkable – default on its euro bailout repayments, jump ship from the EU entirely and re-introduce the once financially impregnable Irish currency, the Punt.

The EU cash cow has been milked dry. Ireland is no longer a receiver of massive EU handouts for roads and building projects. But Ireland once delivered a major kick in the political stomach during a Lisbon Treaty referendum.

While Britain may have a seemingly thriving euroskeptic lobby in the United Kingdom Independence Party and the Tory Right along with elements within Labour, the Irish Euroskeptic equivalent is not so well organised.

But when the Dail budget bites hard in 2012, Southern voters might well vent their fury on the Eurozone and the EU.