Posted on 04/23/2014 2:14:06 AM PDT by Olog-hai
There have been fresh calls for the Republic of Ireland to rejoin the Commonwealth after the success of the recent State visit.
Ireland left the Commonwealth in 1949, but recent historic moves including the visit of President Michael D. Higgins to the UK have reopened the debate.
Senior Conservative MP Michael Fabricant said yesterday that the proposal “is not so mad as it might at first seem”.
“If a country like the Republic of Ireland joined the Commonwealth, what greater message could be sent to countries facing political upheaval and disputes on the other side of the world than an ancient country who had drawn a line under parts of its past, whilst promoting its future on the best parts of its heritage?” Mr. Fabricant wrote on a website yesterday. …
(Excerpt) Read more at belfasttelegraph.co.uk ...
Ireland can fall into the sea as far as I’m concerned. They and their nutty president hate my country. I have no use for them.
Higgins hates his own country; he’d rather see it subjugated rather than independent.
I thought Scotland was getting it’s independence from UK? If so, are they just replacing them with Commonwealth of Ireland? Geez...and I thought the Irish had more sense! I have a few Irish ancestors, however they migrated here in 1700s.
A few areas in Ireland have become infiltrated with Muslims like the UK...I was doing some research for a possible trip when I found that out. So what gains are there in it for England? Politically, I know the Commonwealth had a woman at the helm much like Obama for awhile, now??
This is just a MP flapping his gums.
Nobody’s really “independent” up that way. The European Union is about centralization and more centralization, and both the UK and Ireland are members.
As for the “religion of peace”, just look up “Clongriffin Mosque” and that’ll answer that.
The commonwealth solution was originally proposed as the solution to the Irish separatists. The hard liners in Ireland (Devalera) trashed the agreement and England and Ireland have been at loggerheads ever since
Joining the Commonwealth would not alter the constitutional status of the Republic of Ireland in any way, still less make its citizens 'subjects of the monarch in Buckingham Palace'. Plenty of other Commonwealth member states are also republics. The Commonwealth is a very loose grouping with no constitutional conformity, and only some members also choose to have the UK monarch as head of state.
....not that I'm suggesting that this is either remotely likely, still less desirable.
A lot of skepticism in this topic, but this will happen.
Thanks Olog-hai.
The current “constitutional status” of Ireland renders them a vassal of the European Union. The Third Amendment to that constitution was signed by none other than Eamon de Valera, the “patriot” (born Jorge de Valero).
De Valera had no problem signing the Irish Constitution’s third amendment, which made European law supreme over Irish law, though.
That, however, would be no impediment to its joining the Commonwealth if it so chose. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
The Republic would never do that.
By the way, today is the 1000th anniversary of an important event in Irish history—the battle of Clontarf. Brian Boru, the namesake of the O’Briens, was killed in the battle.
One legend has it that the High King was actually killed in his tent while praying, by Viking mercenary Bróðir. Others have them fighting each other in open battle.
I agree, as I’ve already said, that’s it’s improbable in the extreme. Not, however, impossible: Cyprus and Malta, after all, find no problem, apparently, with membership both of the EU and the Commonwealth. Both are republics.
Neither Cyprus nor Malta is Ireland, though. The Emerald Isle has that unique (to say the least) character to it that neither Cypriots nor Maltese possess, especially having animosity dating back to Dermot Mac Murrough’s “selling out” to Henry II, which led to Strongbow’s eventual conquest (although this was all authorized by Pope Alexander III).
The Easter Rising, sad to say, was an inspiration for Lenin’s Bolshevik Revolution (at least via his “comrade” in that rebellion, James Connolly).
When nations form alliances, as Machiavelli conclusively demonstrated, they're motivated by actual or perceived current self-interest, and historic enmity becomes irrelevant. I'm only fantasising, of course: but then this whole thread is derived from a fantasy, and stranger things have happened.
Well, the EU was built on lies, so it’ll crumble rather quickly even if they do reach superpower status.
There’s too much animosity in Ireland (it’s even taught in the schools) for them to even think of entering something with shades of the old dominion by “the Brits”. Anyone who suggests even the slightest notion is condemned as a “West Brit”.
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