Micheál doesn't have Sally Rooney's courage

I have not read any of Sally Rooney’s novels, but from what I can gather they are fairly harmless. While her novels have been very successful commercially and artistically, I prefer to read about Mayo’s football success and not just All Ireland victories. There is much more to Mayo football and GAA than Sam Maguire’s visit to the county and the Reek and Knock and Chicago and New York and places in between. There’s the clubs. And, of course, I like local stuff like Fighting the Good Fight and The Good Times. Informative and also harmless enough.

It seems Sally Rooney crossed the line when she expressed support for the UK-based Palestine Action (PA). Her conscience told her that banning Palestine Action was a wrong thing to do. PA was OK as a protest organisation. After all the UK recognises the right of people to protest, so long as they do so according to the rules. Some member of PA, it is claimed, overlooked the rules and caused some damage to some military planes and they also succeeded in doing some damage to buildings. In the greater scale of things these actions were also pretty harmless.

Palestine Action has been around for six or seven years. There are a good number of Brits who have a concern for the genocide in Gaza and the ongoing war in the West Bank. They have highlighted the extent to which British-based companies are providing arms, ammunition, drones, technology and intelligence to continue the destruction of Gaza which Israel continues to pursue despite the ceasefire they agreed with Mr Trump many months ago.

They have identified, in particular, Elbit Systems which has a number of weapons manufacturing facilities in the UK. But they have also shone the spotlight on other arms manufacturers in the UK who continue to provide the weapons of war to Israel, among other nations.

The simple reality is war is big business and creates jobs in the UK and elsewhere. It also brings in much needed revenues to the UK economy. So while the UK is not at war with anybody at the moment, they do continue to facilitate war in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Iran and no doubt they arm other insurgents in countries which we know nothing about.

Failing to achieve anything by peaceful protests on the streets of London, the committed members of Palestine Action diversified and started to introduce some low level, soft military style activities such as spray painting military aircraft (we have people doing the same at Shannon Airport) and indeed, in moments of heightened adrenaline-charged behaviour have caused damage to buildings. Still, the activities of Palestine Action have not, so far, degenerated to the level of violence that the students of France have adopted in recent days.

Now, I would be of the view that Sir Keir Starmer was a decent man intent on doing the right thing by a faltering British economy but instead of listening to Palestine Action and agreeing measures that would limit Britain’s support for the Gaza genocide and the war in Iran, he introduced a sledgehammer to the nut that was Palestine Action and he banned them. The result was more and greater protests, with some anticipated violence and thousands of generally law abiding, good-natured British citizens arrested. And Andy Burnham, another seemingly decent and sensible man, continues with the ban and the arming of the Israelis. My oh my!

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government proscribed Palestine Action, labelling the organisation as a bunch of terrorist alongside such misfits as Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, Isis and Fatah and Iran and the Houthis and the IRA. Strange though it might seem to some, myself included, those cultural marchers in Northern Ireland, the sash wearing members of the Orange Order who have hundreds of years of history of inciting violence and murder and trampling on people’s rights have not been considered worthy of being banned. They must be fuming. Think of the excuse for violence they would have if they were banned!

Down here, while we might salute Sally Rooney for the conscientious decision she took to support Palestine Action, at a financial cost to herself, we can’t afford to gloat. Our esteemed Taoiseach, Micheál, does not have the gumption to tell Ursula (von de Leyen) that she and the European Union is wrong in supporting the genocide in Gaza. That it is time to stand back and seek an alternative to war as a means of settling disputes. That there is no need to spend billions on the machinery of war at a time when we (citizens of Europe) can’t fix the housing crises, can’t properly regulate migrant issues, can’t develop a proper and effective health service and can’t even have a court system that works for the people, or chastise the practitioners who have been abusing the system. At the same time in this brilliant country of ours we allow five per cent of the people control the wealth of the 95% who are operating at or close to the breadline.

Micheál has determined that the triple lock which underpins our neutrality is no longer necessary and that we should not have to rely on an outside body, such as the United Nations, to agree when we should deploy troops to uphold the peace in war torn countries. Micheál is beginning to think like Mr Trump, who believes the UN is an extravagant and overrated world policeman. Then, of course, there are those who think Mr Trump is an overrated world policeman. Micheál is convinced that it is sufficient to have the approval of the Government (a government that can’t fix housing!) and the Dáil (no more than a rubber stamp) to decide when Irish troops can go and do the bidding of Ms von der Leyen.

There is not, that I am aware of, any demand among the Irish public for this move to undermine the authenticity of the UN. Micheál, as is his won’t, is off on another solo run (a la Jim Gavin for Úachtaráin). What is motivating him? I don’t know but I suspect there is pressure coming from the war mongers in Europe.

Where is The Third Policeman, Flann O’Brien? Ireland has need of you. She is bogged down by incompetent leaders.