Ireland should stay neutral
Dear Editor,
THE Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has recently said that he and the government are now considering expelling some if not all the diplomats at the Russian Embassy in Dublin. For what I ask? The diplomatic row between Moscow and London has nothing to do with the Irish Republic.
We get on well with the Russians and they in turn get on well with us. We have no quarrel with them so why is our leader in Dublin taking sides when as a neutral nation Ireland should be trying to heal the rift between Mr Putin and Theresa May. Russia and Europe have a common enemy trying to destroy us from the Middle East. I don’t want to see a new Cold War happening and opening a gulf of mistrust that could lead to open war between the US and Europe versus Russia that would destroy us all in nuclear war.
That would have the Islamic terrorists being the victors as we are bombed back to the stone age because of small minded people who refuse to see the bigger picture.
For years the Russians, Americans and British have been engaged in a dirty war of spying and we Irish should not be dragged into it but be an honest broker instead.
Let us not forget that during the Irish War of Independence it was the new revolutionary government in Russia that were the first to recognise the Irish Republic as a free nation and it was Russian guns that were used by our grandparents to fight the Black and Tans who terrorised Ireland in 1918-21.
Only for Russia in the Second World War and fascism would have ruled in Europe and we would be all speaking German today. So let us now not follow the Americans and the British into World War III, a conflict we cannot win. Let us not be led by the nose to the slaughter as Irishmen were in the First World War, to die in their thousands. Let no Leo Varadkar by the new John Redmond.
Russia is the biggest nation on earth, the Russians are very patriotic and will fight to the last man and woman to defend their homeland as they did in 1812 when Napoleon tried to conquer it and later when Adolf Hitler tried to invade it in 1941.
Russia can be Ireland’s friend but also can be a terrible enemy so I would say to our Taoiseach, be careful, leave the Russians and their Embassy alone as you could be opening a can of worms. Mr Putin is not troubling us so let’s not trouble him.
Let sleeping dogs lie as the saying goes.
If America, Britain and NATO want to start a war they cannot win so be it, but let Ireland stay out of its foreign disputes and warns and remain neutral.
If the Taoiseach wants to drag us into conflict then let him consult us be referendum, first on neutrality to see do we want out young men and women to die in a war of mass destruction as happened in 1914-18.
As the Taoiseach has asked the US President Donald Trump to visit Ireland why can’t he also ask the Russian leader Mr Putin to come to Ireland?
Regards, Martin Ford, St Anne’s Terrace.