Many people will have seen the emotive poster put up over the weekend by anti-Lisbon campaign group Cóir which, under a picture of Pádraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke and James Connolly, claims that, “They won your freedom. Don’t throw it away.” It is shameful to see the legacy of those who laid down their lives for our country abused to prop up an emotionally manipulative misinterpretation of the Lisbon Treaty. The EU has been at the heart of Ireland’s development over the last 30 years, enabling us to emerge from under British domination and reinvent ourselves as an outward-looking, positive force in the world.
Garret FitzGerald, former Taoiseach and son of two Irish freedom fighters, comments:
“Ninety-three years ago my parents were both in the GPO with Pearse, Connolly, and Clarke. In 1919 just before his appointment as head of the Dáil Government’s propaganda office, my father spoke of our need to go beyond securing just political independence from Britain by getting out from under other forms of dependence on that country through closer links with the rest of Europe.
“We achieved that in 1973 when, in the spirit of 1916, we at last secured our economic independence from our near neighbour, within the framework of what is now the European Union. That economic break with Britain is what enabled us virtually to treble our living standards within a generation, raising our national output per head from barely half that of Britain to a higher level than in that country.
“Let us ignore those who want us to put all that at risk by joining with Britain’s Euro-phobes to oppose Lisbon - which would threaten to draw us back again into debilitating economic dependence upon that country.”
Lisbon continues Ireland’s empowerment by protecting the areas which Ireland views as crucial to its national interest and expanding what Ireland as an equal member state of the EU can do in the wider world, standing up for the values which we share with our European partners, values of “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights” (Article 2 TEU). As a small nation we have far more power to determine the issues which affect us when we are at the centre of the EU than we ever would on the sidelines where we would be condemned merely to suffer what others decided.
We need to focus on the Ireland of today, and what will improve the lives of our citizens now. The founding fathers fought to establish a state which would move forward and represent the interests of Irish people as they evolved – not one which would held hostage to a vision of Ireland as forever Britain’s poor relation. They fought for us to stand up and embrace the rights and the responsibilities of what it means to be a nation of the world. To do this we must stand proud at the heart of Europe.
