“England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity” was James Connolly’s rally cry for the 1916 rising and following a bitter civil war our politicians took to the world stage looking to be recognised as a free nation.

It took years for our country to heal internally and also to reconcile our differences with an empire that ruled our small island nation by brutal force for hundreds of years.

It’s taken a long time to get here but Brexit has reminded us of how little our politics has matured. To suggest that Irish TD’s or MP’s should succumb to British rule in 2018 by supporting Theresa May’s Brexit deal is an insult to every Irish person who’s ever lived.
When the Irish Republic declared itself as a Sovereign Independent State it did so with the intent of abstaining from British politics, no longer would Ireland be a participant in its own enslavement.

For Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to ask Sinn Fein to take their seats in Westminster to support a deal that removes Northern Ireland from her rightful place amongst the nations of Europe is absolutely disgraceful. For Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to ask Sinn Fein to take their seats in Westminster to support a deal that the people of Northern Ireland voted overwhelmingly against is simply undemocratic. For Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to ask Sinn Fein to take their seats in Westminster to get England out of this difficulty is an absolute farce.  

What’s presented itself here is an opportunity for Irish people to decide whether they should vote for  parties that support British rule over Ireland

Or perhaps Irish people should decide they instead support parties that believe the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies.

Who would have thought that we would be faced with this choice a little over a hundred years after the Proclamation of The Irish Republic.  

The Queen’s agents need to be voted out of Irish politics. We will not go to England to vote ourselves backwards in time.

(Cartoon by @LatuffCartoons depicts Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness meeting the Queen in 2012)

The Yellow Vest movement that swept through Paris is further proof that European governments have lost touch with the proletariat who slip from wage-labour to slave-labour as austerity squeezes lower income households and struggling families.  

Quite simply the French government composed privileged policies to tackle climate change but they are not doing what’s best for their people. The change to renewables must be incentivised, governments must invest in the change through capital expenditure, not punish the average worker by pushing carbon taxes on people that have no choice or say in how they travel.

Similar to the water protests dividing public opinion in Ireland, the desire for a positive outcome is not enough to win over the will of the people, in particular when it comes at a significant cost to lower income households.

The yellow vest protests have no real ideology; opportunists from the left, right, and alt-right have all taken to the streets in anger, violence and anarchy. The movement has no leader and has made no demands. Common themes of insecurity towards immigration and hostility towards austerity are some of the reasons protesters took to the streets but it’s hard to tell who’s fighting for what and who will benefit in the end. Some call for lower taxes, while others call for higher wages, and some demand Macron’s head on a plate and further calls for Frexit.

Through the chaos Macron must decide if it’s time to support worker’s rights and decent wages or feed fuel to the alt-right fire through police violence. The possibility of the rise of the alt-right in France and ultimately a Frexit nightmare should be good enough reason for the government to meet with unions to put an end to this melting pot of uncertainty.
​
Ireland will be paying close attention to the outcome of the Paris riots, as the recent housing protest touched on some of the deep feeling festering across every sector of Irish society and the difficulties experienced in accessing accommodation. As the housing crisis deepens you can imagine it’s only a matter of time before the situation boils over. 

An episode of Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History (podcast) I’ve been thinking about lately is called “The Celtic Holocust”. In it Carlin tells a story about a caravan of Celtic migrants travelling from Switzerland across Europe seeking refuge in Rome.

In 60BC Caesar was a politician with a thirst for power and control of the military, the only thing standing in his way was the Roman Senate and the rule of law. The Celts probably heard tales of Caesar, that he had brought some jobs back from abroad and required more workers to make Roman goods, to make Rome great again, I don’t know I can’t remember all the details.

Carlin tells that in 55BC these 350,000 Celtic migrants from across 400 villages, sought a better life in the empire. They burned their homes to the ground before they set off on their journey, this was to ensure they’d never return. But Caesar didn’t see a caravan of migrants full of hope; he sees a weak and frail people as a personal opportunity. He reacts by demonising the caravan as an invasion and sets about building a 16 mile long fortification. Caesar convinces the Senate to give him an army to protect the border. Some journalists speak out against him, they say what he’s doing is wrong, but he has them silenced, and their friends silenced, and anyone who defends them silenced.

Of course when the migrants arrive at Rome’s borders he refuses them entry because he wants them to come in legally, he wants them to come in through a process, but none of them have completed the Visa forms. With no homes to return to and having traveled by foot all the way across Europe in search of a better life, many having lost loved ones along the way, a feeling of disbelief descends amongst the refugees. Some react by hurling rocks and stones at the border wall and Caesar reacts with the sword, ordering his army to slaughter the migrants.

By all accounts this was genocide, of course Caesar has a different point of view, he sees it as an attempted invasion of Rome and considers the whole affair a military victory, he even declares himself a genius (probably). Caesar then takes his army and sets about to raise war on the Celts all across Europe before returning to Rome to take power by force and becomes a military dictator, and a name everyone recognises 2000 years later due to his conquests and the military power of the Roman Empire.
​
It only takes one war to turn a politician into a dictator, it only takes the demonising of a foreign people looking for help to unleash the unthinkable. Keep this in mind, because if it happens again it might not happen exactly the same way, but if you hear someone say “We will open fire on them” be afraid, because last time it happened just like this it resulted in war after war, civil war, and it killed global democracy for 30 years.