An Enchanted Isle

When you grow up and live in a country for long enough, you get to take many aspects of life there for granted. They are the universal normal as far as you are concerned. Of course, when you travel to other countries you can see that many things are quite different there and that can be refreshing and interesting. Working and living in another country can give you a deeper perspective on differences still.

But one thing about living in Ireland I rarely see commented on is the effect of our policy of neutrality or non-alignment on daily life. Ireland was born out of a violent struggle for freedom against British domination, but ever since the civil war – which was a minor skirmish by European standards, there has been huge emphasis on the peaceful resolution of disputes.

An unarmed police force was set up almost immediately after that civil war, and less than ten years after the end of that conflict there was a democratic and peaceful transfer of power from the winners to the losers of that war. The Troubles in Northern Ireland were an acute embarrassment to the vast majority in the south, because while there was a sympathetic awareness of the many injustices suffered by the Catholic population in the north, terrorism was not the way to resolve such problems.

Ireland’s armed forces remain a laughing stock to many outside Ireland more used to military solutions to civil or international conflicts. While we have a proud record of supporting UN Peace Keeping missions around the world, our military services are not really suited to doing much more than that plus some maritime surveillance/interception capabilities and providing support for civil emergencies.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine allied to their sabre rattling at the rest of Europe, including cyberattacks, espionage, threats to undersea cables close to our shores, military overflights and interference in our domestic politics has led to some re-evaluation of our military capabilities, with the government promising to spend billions on improved military hardware such as active radar systems and surveillance aircraft. But we are still very far away from the levels of expenditure and military capability that would be required by NATO membership, much less what is now being demanded by President Trump.

There is still huge opposition to NATO membership, even in the context of a United Ireland, and nervousness at the prospect of the EU becoming more involved in European defence. I doubt many would have a problem with the development of common EU weapons inter-operability and procurement standards, but the development of a defence capability sufficient to deter or repel (say) a Russian invasion isn’t even on the agenda. What would be the point?

The essence of good military strategy is to restrict yourself to limited, achievable, objectives and to have a realistic assessment of the risks involved. Ireland has a long history of resisting occupation by an overwhelmingly superior military power right on our doorstep. But that battle was won ultimately by ensuring the costs of that occupation outweighed the benefits to our imperial neighbour. While there were some military skirmishes fought on the fringes in 1916, this was not a military success by any measure, and the eventual settlement (however unsatisfactory) was a political one.

So, I don’t think Ireland should even seek to develop a capability to resist an invasion by a major power. Improved maritime and airspace surveillance and interception capabilities allied to an advanced mobile surface to air and sea missile system should be the height of our ambition. Some undersea drones to investigate and deter any suspicions of damage to undersea cables might also become available with improvements in technology soon. An enhanced capability to prevent and disrupt cyber-attacks, hostile propaganda, and intelligence gathering should also be a priority.

But the last thing we should try to do is to fight wars like those of the last one hundred years with the military mindsets and hardware of the last century. Russia is already finding out the hard way that the costs of “conventional war” in Ukraine far outweigh any conceivable benefits. There are now many calls for us to mimic other countries and expend huge resources on conventional forces. Just as the Pandemic spawned a proliferation of amateur epidemiologists and public health experts, there are now many amateur defence analysts advocating for yesterday’s technologies to combat tomorrow’s threats.

But my opposition to developing a NATO style conventional war capability extends far beyond the huge costs involved. Becoming a military power changes the whole culture and nature of a society. Military services are essentially hierarchical and authoritarian in nature. They are a breeding ground for authoritarian and anti-democratic norms in society as well. Anyone who has seen machine gun wielding Spanish Guardia Civil deploy anti vehicle spiked chains across civilian roads to apprehend a perhaps random road user will know that the violent culture of fascism can remain for generations after fascism itself has been defeated.

Attitudes formed through centuries of suppressing local cultures by violent means remain common in Britain. An authoritarian pre-disposition to “sorting out troublemakers” rather than seeking to address whatever is causing the problem is still prevalent. In the EU and particularly in Germany and Ireland, there has been a revulsion against such attitudes, and a determination to find better ways of resolving disputes, and better still, preventing them escalating in the first place. Irish Gardai are trained in conflict de-escalation where often, abroad, calling the police can make matters worse.

It can be quite frustrating, when you are the victim of a crime, to find that the criminal gets huge resources expended on them to ensure that they receive the presumption of innocence, due process, legal representation, rehabilitation opportunities, and a custodial sentence only as a last resort. Your human instinct is to want to smash them. Many have changed from having “do-gooding” liberal attitudes to hard line “lock them up and throw away the key” attitudes when traumatised by crime.

There is far too often too great a focus and resources spent on the offender and none on the victim. The resources of the state are deployed to protect the rights of the offender, while the victim is often left unsupported or reliant on small victim support or restorative Justice charities to deal with their trauma.

So, I am not suggesting for a moment that Ireland has found an ideal balance in protecting human liberty and social peace. Victims should have rights enshrined in law greater even than offenders. There is a whole legal industry with a vested interest in crime rather than in its reduction. But that is still preferable to the wholesale repudiation of human rights now advocated by President Trump and the far right in many other countries with a sordid history of militarism and political violence.

So, for me, Ireland is something of an enchanted isle. Innocent, to be sure, of the sordid machinations of the military industrial complex in many countries. Having a large military changes the political and social mindset of an entire society. Conflicts are exacerbated rather than de-escalated to make them more amenable to military “solution.” Even the culture of armies as a whole can be deeply undermining of civil society.

My late wife once took a job as a civilian social worker with the Irish army. As she was an outspoken feminist I predicted she would last a maximum of 6 months in the job. On her first day at work, she witness one social worker assaulting another – which led to court proceedings – such was the level of tension in even one of the most socialised professions in the world. The rest of her time there was characterised by an overwhelming workload of domestic and sexual violence, abuse of authority, and a culture where homophobia, misogyny, bullying, and violence was endemic and regarded as normal. I don’t think the Irish army is an outlier in that regard. If you train people to repress all human feeling and empathy, don’t be surprised if they don’t function well in what we would regard as “normal” society.

So, forgive me if I am not in awe of military parades, of uniforms and the glitz of modern weaponry. The “boys with toys” game of acquiring eye wateringly expensive military hardware is not for me. My late father refused to join the Nazi youth because he regarded them as no more than thugs for all the smartness of their marching and uniforms. Humans have a need to belong, but that doesn’t mean that need must be channelled and exploited into hatred of humans not in your own group.

So, from my perspective, Partition, the Troubles, and what caused them were a disaster. There has to be a better way for humans in close proximity to live together. Politics is a much maligned profession, but at its best it is a way of resolving conflicts and mitigating their worst effects rather than exacerbating them. Politics tends to reflect the current realities of power but can also be a means of changing those realities by peaceful means, over the long term. It just means a lot of patience and hard work.

So, give me this enchanted isle over many of the other countries I have visited or lived in any day. We don’t have much in the way of a military industry or culture and do not glorify the conquest of foreign lands. Current problems are dealt with through politics, mediation, and law rather than violence. There is a maudlin sub-culture of romanticising past struggles and lamenting past repressions and immiserations, but we all have a difficult history to live with it, and I view that as more a therapeutic rather than threatening process which looks backwards rather than providing a signpost to a better future.

Long may we continue as a peaceful neutral island. To Putin I say – you shall not prosper from your invasion of Ukraine, and if you find Ukrainians difficult, you should ask the British about us. To Trump and JD Vance, I say – mind your own business and we will mind ours. US wealth, industry and services are as dependent on foreign markets as we are. If you want to shut us out, we will make our way without you, difficult as that may be.

To the militarists I say thanks, but no thanks. We will define our own goals and they will be about peace keeping, fisheries protection, deterring hostile intrusions, cybersecurity, and dealing with civil emergencies. Invade us at your peril! We made life miserable for Britain long enough. But we will not meet you on your terms. Ireland, as a non-aligned country has a unique contribution to make to Europe and the world, and it doesn’t involve building a large military by purchasing foreign weaponry and importing a military mindset we have spent so long eradicating from our own culture.

As Paolo Freire once said (I paraphrase) “you cannot adopt the means of an oppressor without becoming an oppressor yourself.”