Brace yourself for tricky times – but Europe is still the only option – John Downing,
IT IS time to look back at previous occasions when the European road forked and we took a different route to that of our closest neighbour and long-time huge trading partner, Britain.
We coat-tailed the United Kingdom into the then-EEC in January 1973. When it was rebuffed in the early 1960s, our membership application did not even get to the starting gate.
We parted company with the UK in 1979 when the EU set up its currency grid, the Exchange Rate Mechanism, which London eschewed. That led to a break for the first time since the foundation of this State between what would be briefly called the Irish punt and the pound sterling.
There were understandable predictions of economic doom and many problems ensued. But Ireland played through these and coped.
The other big one came in 1992 when the EU announced its intention to set up the EU single currency. The UK, along with Denmark and Sweden, again stood aside from that project.
The euro became a reality on international money markets on January 1, 1999. It and the cent were in our pockets at the start of 2002.
There has been little nostalgia for the “auld money” ever since, despite huge recessionary travails.
Ruairí Quinn will never be recalled as a green-to-the-core nationalist. But Ireland’s first Labour finance minister did strike a chord in 1996 when he summed up the need to make a decision on EU single currency membership as Britain demurred.
Mr Quinn noted that the only other option was waiting about to see what the United Kingdom would do into the future. It might, in extremis, be a notion worth considering on one issue – but what about related policy decisions?
It was very simply time-to-go-time for Ireland. Time to go with our other European neighbours.
Hanging about the European political stage door waiting on another nation with differing interests to make decisions is hardly a workable policy of any kind, whatever the weight of history and interwoven political, economic and social connections. That reality is compounded by the clear evidence that the UK has for a long time been riven about its participation in the European Union.
All of that is compounded by the European project being easily the most vilified entity in the history of the British popular press. The bigoted half-truths and lies propounded by elements of the UK media have made it impossible for very many citizens to see through the “fog on the English Channel”.
In those terms, too often Europe has been isolated from Britain. The UK’s political leaders have often failed to sell their country’s need to be involved in the European project.
This applies to key members in both main parties, the Conservatives and Labour. There have been very notable exceptions in both groupings. In recent days we have seen the re-emergence of former prime ministers from both camps, John Major and Tony Blair, to take up the cudgels on behalf of Britain in Europe. This move is very welcome but sadly belated. As things move into the Brexit endgame, the Government has limited options bar continuing to do what it has done. There have been very few siren sounds about parting the ways with the European Union – nor should there be.
Ireland must stay with the European Union. The other option would be to wait for some other poor UK policy twist in a nation still coping with post-colonial trauma.
Commenting on Britain’s failure to cope with the loss of empire is not to abuse our often-time best friends and neighbours. It is a simple reality. But the world cannot wait until huge swathes of the British political elite wake up to the realities of this globalised world.
Meantime, the Democratic Unionist Party waits upon, and props up, a London-based ruling Conservative Party government, which on a good day has a minimal knowledge of this neighbouring island. Many of its luminaries betray a lamentable lack of knowledge of the Irish Border and how it might or might not work after a Brexit which includes a split with the EU single market and customs union.
None of these issues was debated in any way during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign. There are indications that even now they are not really being addressed.
Amidst all of this, Ireland could still extend a helping hand towards London without breaking ranks with the remaining EU 27.
This has been done in times past by many Irish taoisigh.
It was notable in the early 1990s with Albert Reynolds, when the EU single currency was being forged. And again in 2011/2012 with Enda Kenny when then-British prime minister David Cameron was trying to broker what turned out to be ill-fated British membership re-negotiation terms.
It is undoubtedly true that the UK’s departure will deprive Ireland of a powerful and like-minded ally within the EU.
But Irish politicians have often quietly helped and supported British leaders within the EU to good effect. It can happen again at the 11th hour.
For the rest, it is not a very hopeful prospect for Ireland. The reality of a hard Border looms. Talk of technology amounts to talk of a Border by another name.
We cannot assume that the huge volume of trade between both islands can remain free of tariffs and customs formalities. But we must stay with the EU as our only realistic option.
We must stay with the EU. The only other option would be to wait for some other poor UK policy twist in a nation coping with post-colonial trauma