Wilhelmus wrote: ↑24 Oct 2021, 4:54pm
pete75 wrote: ↑24 Oct 2021, 1:20pmNorthern Ireland is the last part of Ireland still occupied by Britain. Why would the President of Ireland take any part in commemorating it's founding?
Because he is the President of Ireland, not just of the Irish Republic. The Irish Constitution no longer explicitly lays claim, in Articles 2 and 3, to the Six Counties as part of its territory, but the official aspiration is that, at some future date, Ireland will once again consist of 32 counties. A resident of Northern Ireland is entitled to hold an Irish passport, to sit in the Irish Senate, and to be President of Ireland. Mary McAleese was from the North. The President is addressed in English as Your Excellency, just ike an ambassador. Like an ambassador, his job is to be a diplomat, sometimes carrying out duties which are not to his taste. Imagine how the Queen must have felt shaking hands with Martin McGuinness. She didn't duck it by saying she was 'not in a position to do it.'
Let us examine the assertion, beloved of those of a Republican persuasion, that Ireland was occupied by Britain. Like any other country, it had seen centuries of invasion, migration, trade, etc., which left it with a very diverse and cosmopolitan population. The notion of Irishness, characterised by speaking Irish, playing Gaelic games, step dancing, etc. is very much a modern idea, and a result of the nationalist movement from the end of the nineteenth century. There were, and are, other versions of Irish identity, one of which I possess.
Northern Ireland is not occupied by Britain, but by its inhabitants, a majority of whom clearly wish to remain part of Britain. The fact is that Ireland was a home nation, an equal partner with England, Wales and Scotland in governing the greatest empire the world has ever seen. It allowed a bunch of lunatics and malcontents, along with some high-profile Anglo-Irish renegades like Sir Roger Casement, to lead it along a road which resulted in untold bloodshed, misery and destruction, so that it now has the status of a banana republic unable to defend its own airspace. This latter job falls to the RAF, who regularly have to move on Russian nuclear bombers from the west coast of Ireland. Irish independence is a joke, and a bad one.