Of all our national characteristics, the Irish are probably best at being selectively inconsistent. An unpatriotic comment, you say, especially at this time of national crisis, with Brexit about to murder us all in our beds, possible checkpoints on the border and, worst of all, a threatened shortage of European wine.
You have a point (although I made up the bit about the wine) but the inconsistency comment stems from three words: War of Independence. Monday marks the centenary of the war's beginning and if we analyse how it is being commemorated and by whom, we can observe in all its glory the inconsistency of the Irish towards both war and independence. (They are not quite sure about the "of" either, but more on that later.)
In modern Ireland, all violence is wrong, but the War of Independence was right. Indeed it was so right that RTE is showing it in a weekly drama series, which offers an interesting interpretation of history in that the nuns get a worse press than the Black and Tans. (Maybe in the next episode the nuns will open fire in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday.)
Meanwhile Ireland's politicians line up to be associated with the glory of the war. It all began at Soloheadbeg, Tipperary, when, without declaring war, the IRA killed two RIC men walking along a country road with a cartload of gelignite for a local quarry.
The men could have been taken prisoner, questioned for intelligence, warned and released. Dan Breen, one of the IRA men, later said that if you want to start a war you have to shoot someone, which was as dumb a statement as any IRA man has ever made (and there have been many).
A friend of mine who interviewed War of Independence veterans in the 1960s described Breen as a "bit of a spoofer", sitting in a nursing home in a partitioned Ireland, boasting about how many he had shot.
The War of Independence was perfectly legitimate, but not every action in it can be defended. It also had no social or economic objectives (where have we experienced that more recently?) so the new Free State was built on inequality, poverty and emigration (and we know where we see that every day).
The unwarranted nature of the Soloheadbeg killings was repeated in 1970, when three Scottish soldiers were unnecessarily killed in Ligoniel while off duty. Without declaring war, the IRA said it was part of its campaign to drive the British out. (The last time I looked, the British were still here.)
The 1919 killings occurred on the same day as the First Dáil met, putting pressure on Sinn Féin to support a war. Although widely respected, the First Dáil had no minister of education. This was just seven years after Pearse published The Murder Machine, highlighting the role of education in maintaining British rule in Ireland. Freedom did not apparently extend to the classroom.
So the Irish believe that all violence is wrong, not counting the War of Independence, and a host of other risings, rumblings and insurrections - oh, and not counting the Irish Army's current presence in Mali as part of an EU military training programme, where one of the trainers is reportedly Sergeant John Pearse, a relative of Patrick Pearse. So violence is wrong, unless it is far away in space and time.
If the Irish are inconsistent about war, they are positively contortionist about independence. As Dublin politicians trip over themselves to claim to be true inheritors of the struggle for independence, not one of them supports Irish political independence today. Every major party advocates political union with 27 other countries, including Britain, which they argue should not leave the EU.
Independence was a good idea in 1919, but now it is patriotic for Irish politicians to run to Berlin, pledging servitude to Europe's bankers and subservience to the EU's unelected leaders.
So that just leaves the "of", as in War of Independence. The Irish are less than honest about it too. "Of" suggests that the war achieved independence. It did not. So it might be more accurate to say the War for Independence, since the war failed. Indeed after 800 years of fighting, the Irish have never won a war in Ireland.
So wrap the green flag around yourselves and watch our politicians commemorate those brave men and women who fought and died for our freedom. As they commemorate the War of Independence, they shout hurrah for violence, because it was long ago and they give another hurrah for independence, as they board the plane for Brussels. Inconsistent? Us?
