Ireland’s president Catherine Connolly has told a gathering of largely progressive leaders that they must cooperate to fight back against a growing tide of “might is right”.
Speaking at the Defence of Democracy conference in Barcelona, Connolly offered a defence of the UN as the best available means to achieve this, even if, “the United Nations was not created in order to bring us to heaven, but in order to save us from hell,” she said, quoting ex-UN secretary general, Dag Hammarskjöld.
Hell is precisely what so-called ‘Israel’ promised repeatedly to unleash on Gaza and has proceeded to do so through its genocidal campaign there. The US and the Zionist entity have inflicted similar unspeakable carnage on much of West Asia. They have committed these atrocities while constantly dismissing and denouncing the UN, and attacking its institutions.
These include Zionist land thieves’ attempts to destroy the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Washington has sought to use sanctions to wreck another body for international cooperation and accountability — the International Criminal Court (ICC) — which tries those accused of war crimes.
The efforts these mass murderers have put into attacking the UN shows it does have the potential to be an obstacle to grotesque violations of human rights. Zionist butchers have frequently declared how crucial the destruction of the UNRWA is to their efforts to exterminate or drive out Palestinians from their land.
‘Ireland knows what imperial brutality looks like’
Connolly then said:
Ireland is uniquely placed to offer a valuable perspective as a neutral, post-famine, post-colonial republic, and I am conscious that many in this room share that post-colonial experience.
Not entirely post-colonial, of course, given the north of the island is still occupied by Britain, albeit less so than previously. That being said, Ireland was indeed a testing ground for many of the horrors being unleashed today. Britain spent several hundred years testing its imperial methods in Ireland, including mass murder, destruction of crops and property, and enforced famine.
The modern incarnations of these crimes have been allowed to happen by too many nations being ready to cow-tow to the global hegemon, the US. They have been happy to kiss the godfather’s hand and reap whatever transient benefits this sycophancy granted them. They have done this rather than acting collectively in their own interests, and those of global justice, by bolstering international institutions.
Connolly alluded to this when she said the UN has waned:
…through accommodation, through the quiet retirement of inconvenient principles, and through our collective willingness to treat violations by powerful states as exceptional cases rather than the precedents they have become. Each time a violation was absorbed without consequence, the threshold for the next one was raised.
The Irish president certainly managed to piss off the right people by attending the event. The Irish Timeslaunched a protocol-bore themed hit piece on Connolly, claiming she had:
…triggered official and political unease over her first overseas trip…
Quoting ever reliable and highly accountable anonymous sources, they say “officials” would rather she had visited London on her first trip outside Ireland. The main pearl-clutching seems to centre on Connolly not maintaining presidential neutrality amid:
…a flurry of concern in Dublin that Connolly could sign declarations arising from the conference which could run contrary to Government policy.
Head of state has a right to warn on dangers of growing lawlessness
You’d have to wonder quite how long the Irish Times and these mysterious hand-wringing officials think a head of state should wait before speaking up.
If the current wave of barbarism were to be left untamed to the point it reached Ireland’s doorstep, would we expect the Irish president to remain tight-lipped? If not, then why should we expect silence when people thousands of miles away are enduring a holocaust? Do they not count too?
The journalistic standards of the legacy media outlet are about as robust as their morals. They claim the event should have been off limits due to it “not being attended by the UK and the US”.
Aside from the obvious question — why the fuck Ireland should wait for British or American permission before doing something? — this claim is false. British deputy prime minister and seasoned war criminal, David Lammy, managed to slither his way into the event. We know this by the deafening clanging sound that could be heard when he said, without a trace of self-awareness:
We’re meeting at a time of extraordinary challenge globally with rising prices as a result of conflict once again in the Middle East.
That being the “conflict” — aka US and Israeli-led war crimes — which Britain has massively contributed to.
When it comes to international institutions, Britain’s most notable recent contribution has been its attempts to destroy the ICC. This occurred when David Cameron threatened lead prosecutor, Karim Khan.
If the UN is to become a genuinely effective institution, it will be Connolly’s words that must be heeded rather than those of a man whose actions have served to further undermine it.
Featured image via AP Photo/Peter Morrison
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