Nationalists need 'Foreign Embassy'

TPQ regular Dr John Coulter with a piece that initially featured in Irish Daily Star on 20^th May 2013. 

Nationalists need to set up a network of Republican Embassies around the globe to enable the modern republican family to have a very positive foreign policy.

Mention this term 'foreign policy' to most republicans, and you'll be met with a blank look.

Or else you'll get a lot of sabre rattling about raising cash for guns in America by trying to present the historic image of fighting the British as if they were re-creating a scene from the Cillian Murphy masterpiece, The Wind That Shakes The Barley.

Had it not been for the millions of Irish-American dollars, republicans' war of terror against the British would have run out of steam long before the official 1994 ceasefire.

Republicanism's world image is the romantic myth that everyone becomes an honorary Irishman and Irishwoman each 17th March to commemorate St Patrick's Day.

Travel anywhere in the globe, and you will find an Irish community, whether that community is linked to nationalism or unionism.

Tragically, the Emerald Isle's greatest export has been its people. This reality was accelerated with the notorious potato famine of the 19th century, which not only killed tens of thousands of Irish people, it forced many thousands others to abandon Ireland.

A second blight occurred from 2010 onwards with the collapse of the Celtic Tiger in the South of Ireland. Again, the people export – mainly to Australia, New Zealand, and the Americas – began again.

Such has been the desperation and depth of the current economic crisis, the Southern administration has invented an innovative initiative called The Gathering to try and encourage people with Irish ancestry to return to the island and re-discover their roots.

This year is a tremendous year of centenaries for Ireland, and especially republicanism. In 1913, two major militias were formed – the Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers, both IRA forerunners.

Unfortunately, these centenaries of the ICA and IV have perpetuated the myth that republicanism's foreign policy is merely to link up with violent groups around the globe who have expressed sympathy in Irish republicans' campaign of terror to force the British and unionist establishment out of Ireland.

In the past, the republican socialist movements have linked up with various Palestinian groups, such as the Palestinian Liberation Organisation; the Marxist FARC group in Columbia; the Red Army Faction terror group in the former West Germany, and the modern Hamas group in the Middle East.

According to the intelligence community in the United States, dissident republicans have been teaming up in an 'unholy alliance' with Islamic militants to share resources and targets.

The republican tradition in Australia has been boosted because of the number of Irish criminals who were deported to these far reaches of the British Empire in the 19th century.

Irish republicans have traditionally tended to adopt a foreign policy of 'Britain's enemy is my friend', hence the IRA's flirtation with Adolf Hitler's Nazis during the Second World War.

Even in the Great War, British traitor and closet Irish republican Sir Roger Casement negotiated with Imperial Germany to get guns and ammunition for the Easter Rising.

A series of Republican Embassies in every country recognized by the United Nations would help restore Ireland's national sovereignty by showing what is best about being a modern republican.

The Republican Embassies would not be a PR stunt for the Dáil's current 'gravy train' coalition, nor would be a rebranded Shinner campaign to get cash for ex-IRA jailbirds.

Posted in: Feature from Elsewhere