Ireland – Page 220 – Slugger O'Toole

Lisbon Essay (25): As Iceland discovered the EU is the firebrigade…

Mick Fealty on September 30, 2009, 3:30 pm

| Readers 34

Jason O’Mahoney lays out a scenario he believes the No side is studiously avoiding: what happens to Ireland’s national interest within Europe if there is a No vote and Lisbon is abandoned for a more centralised, bi or tri-lateral decision making processes in its stead. The Treaty itself is dry and technical because it is dry and technical, not because anyone is trying pull a fast one. And he believes that counter to Nigel Farage’s assertions in LE10 the “alternative …

Aiste Liospóin (24): Níl, mar tá neamhspleachas mar oidhreacht duinne…

Mick Fealty on September 30, 2009, 3:00 am

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Vótáil Concubhar i gcoinne an Chonartha an uair dheireanach, agus ní bheith sé ag athrú a vóta an uair seo.. Tá dhá cheist difriúil ann dar leis: fearg leis an Rialtas, agus na rudaí a mbaineann go díreach leis an Chonradh féin. Níl an cheist faoi rogha idir an fhoireann seo nó an ceann eile; ach is rogha polaitiúil (agus, níos tábhachtaí, bunreachtúil) é. Faoi dheireadh, tarraingíonn an dara reifreann seo ar Chonradh Liospn, tar ?is breith chomh cinnte an …

Lisbon Essay (23): Why Ireland can’t afford the Lisbon Treaty…

Mick Fealty on September 29, 2009, 7:30 pm

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Niamh Uí Bhriain of Cóir sites her anti Lisbon argument in the material crisis of the Tiger economy. Nevertheless she notes that “the Lisbon Treaty is not about providing jobs or encouraging enterprise – it’s a treaty designed to centralise political power in the European Union”. She denies there are any short term economic consequences to signing up to the EU, but that in the longer term it leaves Ireland strategically weaker inside the EU… The attraction for foreign firms …

Lisbon Essay (22): Vote Yes to this unloved bastard son of the European Convention…

Mick Fealty on September 29, 2009, 4:00 pm

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Another European view and another from the Yes perspective comes from Daniel Cohn-Bendit, renegade from 1968 and currently co-president of the European Greens–European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament… No one loves it, he says. Who could? It long, legalistic, and complicated. An ad man’s nightmare. But it is the shaken down product of 8 years of filtering and dispute between all the countries of Europe. It’s not as democratic as he would like, nor as democratic as that …

Lisbon Essay (21): Europeans cannot opt out of globalisation and its problems…

Mick Fealty on September 28, 2009, 7:17 pm

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Richard Gowan notes that with the changing of the guard at the US Whitehouse President Obama is not likely to constrain himself to old alliances to deal with the problems of a much larger and more complex (not to mention more dangerous) world than most of us knew growing up… Richard notes that already huge amounts of time are being chewed up in 27 sets of bilaterals on different sets of policy initiatives … And he argues that since the …

Lisbon Essay (20): After eight years of intense political negotiation it is time to move on…

Mick Fealty on September 28, 2009, 2:00 pm

| Readers 33

Margot Wallström the current Vice-President of the European Commission lays out her case for Lisbon. In particular she notes the high level of distrust lingering in some circles with regard to the changes agreed (ie Ireland’s right to a commissioner, and the legal guarantees), but argues that these are political decisions the unbinding of which would have severe political consequences for whomsoever tried to do it. She also argues that whilst the dangers of a race to the bottom are …

Lisbon Essay (19): A No vote will stop the drift to ‘undemocracy’…

Mick Fealty on September 25, 2009, 3:30 pm

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Jason Walsh argues that when you strip away the contralto hyperbole of some of the more extreme claims of No campaigners like Coir, there is more than a grain of truth to their case that Irish sovereignty is under attack, primarily because multilateral institutions do not take national sovereignty seriously any more. The default assumption is that primary field of play is now on the multilateral plane… Worse than that, he argues, that all manner of powers (fiscal control has …

Lisbon Essay (18): Giving the Celtic Tiger back its growl

Mick Fealty on September 24, 2009, 4:00 pm

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Today Martin Schultz, leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament argues that a yes to Lisbon is essential to reviving Ireland’s fortunes (a view previously supported by LE11 but opposed in LE5 (and in this follow up from Stephen Kinsella). The question, he argues, is not apocalyptical. It about making Europe more transparent and democratically accountable by strengthening parliamentary rights at the national level. The benefits of the Union to smaller countries like Ireland, …

Lisbon (17): Without the treaty Ireland cedes its interests to bigger fish…

Mick Fealty on September 23, 2009, 4:56 pm

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Senator Deirdre de Burca argues that for all the legitimate misgivings surrounding the beefing of a European foreign policy, not least round those concerns in LE4 and LE16, the mere act of the EU coming together in a single multilateral body to tackle issues like climate change, international terrorism or with wild hiccuping in global markets. Collective action is not a choice, it is a necessity. Without that capacity Ireland can have little hope that its own interests that will …

LIsbon Essay (16): Building of a militaristic trojan horse…

Mick Fealty on September 22, 2009, 3:59 pm

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Today Andy Storey of UCD takes a contrary view of Ireland’s neutrality status post Lisbon to that expressed in LE13, and argues that whatever other countries mean by ‘neutrality’ in Ireland for generations now it has meant, as outlined in Lisbon’s ‘legal guarantees’ “non-membership of a military defence alliance”. He also questions whether it really is in Ireland’s interest to contribute to “a more assertive union [EU military] role … will contribute to the vitality of a renewed [NATO].” And, …

Aiste Liospóin (15): Ag líonadh na bearnaí daonlathais…

Mick Fealty on September 21, 2009, 11:00 pm

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Creideann Aonghus Ó hAlmhain go mbeidh torthaí fónta ar Chonradh Liospóin, torthaí a chuireann le gné daonláthach an Aontais agus, anuas ar sin, cuireann siad lena éifeacht. Maíonn sé nach mbeidh ról nua an Uachtaráin ar an gComhairle Eorpach nios mó ná ról chathaoirligh nó ról mholtóra. Dar leis go dtugann staitistic amháin léargas ar an ghné sin – agus is mór idir é agus na postaeiri atá crochta ar chuaillí Bhaile Átha Cliath. Is é sin go mbeidh suíochán …

Lisbon Essays (14): Women of Ireland, what will it be?

Mick Fealty on September 21, 2009, 3:00 pm

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Gerard O’Neill speculates on whether or not women will decide the Lisbon vote. They were the largest single group (numerically) to swing the last vote to a No. He observes that neither side have particularly targeted the female voter. This is largely correct, if the evidence my camera-phone in Dublin last week is anything to go by, (although Coir’s new Heart poster campaign seems almost entirely directed at women). Left to their own devices, Gerard reckons women may just swing …

LIsbon Essay (13): Ireland cannot commit to anything beyond “the Chinese veto”…

Mick Fealty on September 18, 2009, 2:30 pm

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Ben Tonra argues that the concerns around sovereignty and military interventionism (LE4) betray a timidity in Ireland’s sense of its own sovereign power, rather than an assertion of it. He argues that Ireland rather than retiring into the corner, should use the opportunity being opened by Lisbon and press forward and into spaces where its troops can proactively do some good, rather than “howling, free and unfettered, from the shores of the Atlantic”. Here’s a question – why would anyone …

Lisbon Essay (12): Three decades of building Irish independence inside the EU…

Mick Fealty on September 17, 2009, 2:30 pm

| Readers 50

Today Conall is the first of our Yes essayists to tackle the question of what has happened to Irish sovereignty through its thirty six year membership of what began as the European Economic Community, then became the European Community, and is now known as the European Union. He notes that in 1973, Ireland went in in lock-step with – and on terms largely negotiated by – the UK, but that in the time that has elapsed since the Republic has …

Lisbon Essay (11): Both long and short term investors require certainty…

Mick Fealty on September 16, 2009, 2:30 pm

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Today Senator Paschal Donohue rises to Stephen Kinsella’s challenging essay (LE5) makes a case that actually a Yes or a No does have the capacity to influence Ireland’s economic future. The result either way, he argues, will affect two crucial factors: confidence in those who will be asked to shoulder the country’s substantial and growing debt; and the potential for the country to continue to attract FDI if and when the ‘faucet’ resumes its flow. He argues that a No …

Lisbon Essay (10): Ireland’s opportunity to kill Lisbon in the water..

Mick Fealty on September 15, 2009, 3:00 pm

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Nigel Farage of UKIP has spent a lot of the last week trying to make up for something of deficit in credible speakers on the No side of the Argument. The UKIP leader here argues that the Irish people wider responsibilities than just their own futures. With less than 1% of the European Union’s population Ireland is only country that’s allowed a free vote on whether Lisbon goes ahead or not, and offers substantial evidence that a second No vote …

Lisbon Essay (9): They have not secured a single change to the text of the Lisbon Treaty

Mick Fealty on September 14, 2009, 3:00 pm

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Eoin O’Broin lays out the core of Sinn Fein’s objections to the Lisbon Treaty. In line with the party’s position just after last year’s vote, their objection is primarily that nothing of any substance has changed in the meantime. The guarantees and the solemn declaration in favour of workers rights do not change in slightest the text of the document. He also points out that the self amending clause in the treaty undermines the Crotty (et al) judgements and means …

Lisbon Essay (8): The deadening paradoxes of the Lisbon debate…

Mick Fealty on September 11, 2009, 3:00 pm

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Last one of the week is from our own Brian Walker who lays out an interesting historical perspective on the matter that too often dares not speak its own name on the Yes side of this debate. The vexed issue of Irish sovereignty. It’s a far from trivial concern, as Joe Higgins laid out in Lisbon Essay 4, but Walker notes “…supremacy, like sovereignty, does not carry through into all levels of everything”. Instead he predicts the problem the European …

Lisbon Essay (7): Slowness, endless negotiations and bureaucracy are the EU’s strength…

Mick Fealty on September 10, 2009, 2:30 pm

| Readers 14

It seems sometimes that the integrity of Ireland’s ancient struggle with its neighbour has left it in a semi detached mode in its relations with (and historical memory of) the wider interests (and the conflicts therein) of the rest of Europe. Rónán O’Brien writes of his conviction that the European Union has done much to mediate the effects of raw nationalism and brought peace to much of a continent that was previously continuously shaped by ethnic and nationalist warring… He …

Lisbon Essay (1): The treaty would isolate Ireland – a ‘No’ vote would free her

Mick Fealty on September 2, 2009, 3:00 pm

| Readers 29

My post yesterday on the poor quality of the debate around Lisbon brought positive feedback from some unexpected quarters… It also brought in a short blog essay contribution from the young editor of the Eurosceptic European Journal, Jim McConalogue. It marks the first a series of guest essays on the broad subject of Lisbon that will run each morning here on Slugger from the No, Yes, and no fixed opinion camps right up until polling day on Friday 2nd October. …