Micheál needs to change EU view on Russia

I’m a bit of an optimist myself, tending to see the glass half full rather than half empty but looking around me I’m beginning to wonder where in the world we are going. It seems to me the world is getting crazier by the minute. We all understand that the USA is going through a troublesome presidency and we know that Mr Trump is somewhat erratic, to say the least. For an 80-year-old (not to be ageist) he is not doing too bad. So, he made a major blunder in his attack on Iran. He was led up the garden path by his friend Netanyahu, but having realised his mistake he has been doing his best to reverse the situation and get on talking terms with Iran. You would think his critics might do the decent thing and give him a bit of leeway so that his attempts at healing the harm might bear fruit.

These are points I made last week and I regret to say that rather than securing a bit of sympathy, I aroused a very much anti-Trump sentiment. I had a few comments and most of it was in the negative. And most of it was borne out of what I can only refer to as fake news. The reality is that Mr Trump is not the only politician or commentator who indulges in fake news. There are plenty of others, including Irish media (not necessarily social media hound dogs), who have taken sides and are now incapable of change, of seeing a bigger picture, of being a bit magnanimous.

And it is not just Trump. Look across the water at poor Keir Starmer. He made a major blunder in appointing Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the US. He also made a bit of a fool of himself by buttering up to Mr Trump. But he was not the only one to do that. Our own Taoiseach did a bit of grovelling too. Apart from the Mandelson appointment and the buttering-up, what did Starmer do wrong? To his credit he did decline to back Trump on Iran.

Yes he was forced into a number of policy U-turns by his backbenchers for which he was taken asunder by his political foes (understandable) and by the media (not so understandable). Nobody pointed to the fact that a bunch of disgruntled Labour MPs, who are answerable to nobody (well maybe the electorate!) and who have no answers whatever to the problems facing Britain, forced the U-turns.

Now Starmer is gone and Andy Burnham (who?), elected in what could best be described as a staged and thereby dubious by-election, is set to become PM of Britain. It seems he has done some creative stuff as Mayor of Manchester and is a popular figure in the North East of England. But will that cut the mustard with rebellious backbenchers, many of whom are fortunate to have seats in Parliament. They were brought in by Starmer’s landslide victory and many of them will not see inside the Mother of Parliaments again. We will have to wait and see.

And while we wait we are confronted with another conundrum: what to do with Russia? Russia is a threat to Irish sovereignty, so we are told, and so we must spend money on defence is the face of the aggressor Putin. I have not heard Putin issue any threat to Irish sovereignty but there’s no point in telling that to a gullible and unquestioning Irish populace. And of course our gallant leaders would not dare contradict the anti-Russia rhetoric led by Estonian Kaja Kallas who is in charge of EU foreign affairs and security or indeed the genocide supporting von der Leyen.

As a former USSR country Estonians have no love of Russia. Kallas has appointed a former Dutch defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren, an Estonian Matti Maasikas and a NATO ambassador David Cvach to her cabinet. Not much chance they will bring an unbiased ear to any proceedings involving rapprochement with Russia.

James Sharkey, a former Irish ambassador to Russia, and one would imagine a man with a considered view, in a letter to The Irish Times, made the case for dialogue between the EU and Russia to end the “terrible and bloody war” in Ukraine. He simply made the point that Russia can’t be defeated on the battlefield short of engaging in a nuclear war. And he pointed to the fact that the EU spending increasing amounts on defence could better be spent in other areas.

Kallas and von der Leyen are not likely to be persuaded. They are not interested in dialogue with Russia Wouldn’t it be something if the incoming President of the EU took on the case. For all that he has been a competent Minister and Taoiseach, Micheál Martin has not had a bright idea since he got rid of smoking in pubs. If he was to initiate the discussion of an EU dialogue with Russia to end the war he could go down in history. He could point to the fact that it took dialogue to end the war between the IRA and the Brits in Northern Ireland. It would be a starting point… if he has the courage to challenge the big wheels in the EU.

Complicit in the GAA scam 

I am now complicit in the GAA’s money making scam that is the football championship. I went to Hastings Insurance MacHale Park to the Mayo v Meath game. It was against my better judgement. I had no great expectation of a Mayo win but, more importantly, I had no great expectation of being entertained. While the game has improved thanks to the Jim Gavin rule changes, it still remains a hand passing game rather than football. And, what I saw did not change my view.

There’s another drawback to this ridiculous championship. Reporting the game is a matter for the experts and you’ll have read their reports in the days immediately after the outcome. Normally, as a commentator on the game, my views would be fresh and undoubtedly eye-catching in the week after. If Mayo’s next game up was two weeks away, as was the case in the past, my comments might have some relevance. But no. There is no time for sober reflection, Mayo will have played again, against Cork, before you get to read this.

And, of course, I will be doubly complicit in the GAA’s scam, because, naturally, when Mayo is in Croke Park, one has very little option but to be there. I don’t necessarily go to see Mayo win, I go to support and, hopefully, be entertained. There is something about Mayo in Croke Park that is irresistible.

Mayo won’t win Sam, but that’s neither here nor there, so long as they play with the wild reckless attacking abandon that is the hallmark of the county. On last Saturday we had to make do with Kerry v Tyrone as the support act to Mayo’s game. Unfortunately Kerry don’t bring the same atmosphere. They generally don’t travel until the final.

What made my mind up to go to Castlebar was the chance to see Kobe in the flesh and take the opportunity to see what it was that attracted the Aussies to his case. It was plain to be seen. He was a marked man (as one would expect) but he still made his mark. You will have read that he scored four points, one from a fifty. It was heartening to see that we had an outfield player who could drive a “fifty” unerringly over the bar with plenty to spare. There was a confidence in his approach and there was none of the flip flapping that others go on with. Ball on the ground. Stand a few steps back and kick it between the posts. Simple-when you have the skill.

And yet it was not his scores but rather his instinct to do the simple things well. Short forward deliveries to an inside forward, go for the return - which did not come as often as it should have - but retain attacking possession rather than look for the backwards handpass. He will be a loss to Mayo.