Some influential voices in Ireland have used the coronavirus to cast Britain as backward

‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity,’ has long been a mantra for radical Irish nationalists.
What Fintan O’Toole did with Brexit, the likes of David McWilliams are doing with coronavirus. 'The UK is a rogue state' tweeted Ireland’s favourite economist. Imagine the uproar if someone like the British political journalist Robert Peston, above, wrote a tweet about Ireland in such termsWhat Fintan O’Toole did with Brexit, the likes of David McWilliams are doing with coronavirus. 'The UK is a rogue state' tweeted Ireland’s favourite economist. Imagine the uproar if someone like the British political journalist Robert Peston, above, wrote a tweet about Ireland in such terms
What Fintan O’Toole did with Brexit, the likes of David McWilliams are doing with coronavirus. 'The UK is a rogue state' tweeted Ireland’s favourite economist. Imagine the uproar if someone like the British political journalist Robert Peston, above, wrote a tweet about Ireland in such terms

The First World War was of course the most famous English ‘difficulty’ which Irish nationalists sought to exploit, and the one they exploited with most success.

It says something for the infantile disorder that masquerades as contemporary Irish nationalism that a calamity that threatens every family in these islands is being weaponised by significant influencers in nationalist Ireland in order to further its eternal struggle against the ancient oppressor.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Encouraged by what they see as their glorious victory in the backstop campaign, Irish nationalists are now rebranding their struggle as a civilisational war.

Ireland is modern, progressive and outward looking, whilst Britain is cast as some kind of backward looking Ruritania. And Northern Ireland unionists are being depicted in the most disparaging and pejorative terms, poor dupes and lackeys of British irrationalism.

The conronavirus is a heaven sent opportunity for Ireland to again burnish its modernising credentials.

What Fintan O’Toole did with Brexit, the likes of David McWilliams are doing with the coronavirus. ‘The UK is a rogue state’ is the pithy tweet du jour from Middle Ireland’s favourite economist.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Imagine the uproar if someone like Robert Peston wrote a tweet about Ireland in such terms.

Even leading Shinner John O’Dowd’s jibe about “this shire of bastards” sounds tame by comparison and contained at least a smidgen of wit.

The most deranged anti-British rhetoric in Ireland these days does not come from the political wing of the IRA but from mouthpieces of the Irish establishment.

And then they wonder why Sinn Féin did so well in the recent election.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

That is not to say that Sinn Féin have not disgraced themselves with their recent antics in Northern Ireland, standing side by side with the DUP last Thursday and hanging Arlene Foster out to dry publicly two days later at the meeting of the North South Ministerial Council.

How on earth can any administration function with such craven disloyalty? And if Sinn Féin really does believe that Northern Ireland should pursue a strategy against the virus at odds with that of the London government and the other devolved administrations, is this the way to go about launching a thoughtful debate, stabbing your partners in government in the back?

If Sinn Féin were actual republicans — ie radical democrats who believe in holding our technocratic governing élites to account – then they would have supported Jim Allister in the assembly this week with his three questions of the minister for health, to wit: “What is the lead in time for delivery of the 40 ventilators on order; whether the 139 ventilators available at present include those in operating theatres; and whether an addition of 40 ventilators will be sufficient?”

There are indeed valid and searching questions to be asked of the strategic responses of both the sovereign governments in London and Dublin to this crisis. Both of those strategic responses are dictated sadly by some of the lowest numbers of critical care beds per thousand of population in any advanced western society.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Altnagelvin hospital in Derry was the first general hospital to be built in the UK after the World War II. The James Connolly Memorial hospital in Dublin was a flagship in its day, a dedicated sanatorium to treat TB patients and seen as world standard.

Those glory days of idealism and investment are long past for the island of Ireland.

Tawdry tribalism will not bring them back.