Cork Cumann Protest Starmer

The recent visit by Brit Premier Keir Starmer to Cork is an onerous warning to republicans of the constitutional direction this State is heading in. It is no coincidence that this visit coincides with a recent announcement of increased naval cooperation between this State and the Royal Navy.

The relentless assault on the policy of neutrality, to enmesh present and future Irish Armed Forces in Western Military Alliances, further underscores Westminster’s long-term intentions towards Ireland.

This is precisely why the British retained complete control over that aspect of the Good Friday Agreement which deals with constitutional change. The primary purpose of a Border Poll is not what establishment nationalists hail it to be, but rather a mechanism by which the British can determine the nature of any state that results from such a poll.

This is an Ireland in the Commonwealth. An Ireland as the western flank of NATO. An Ireland as a sub-entity in a capitalist financial system. An Ireland whose ancient culture and identity will be deliberately eroded for political expediency.

Here is where the Republican Movement must step up to the mark. Any republican critique of the British occupation of our country must be cognisant of British long-term planning and its use of domestic Irish politicians to make that planning effective.

The price for constitutional change cannot be the reduction of our national sovereignty to a nominal gesture whereby any 32 County political entity becomes a vassal state to the Westminster Parliament.