Bowing to Brussels: Irish PM Gushes Over EU on 50th Anniversary, Despite Sovereignty Critiques

DUBLIN, IRELAND - AUGUST 26: French President Emmanuel Macron is welcomed by Taoiseach Mic
Julien Behal via Getty Images
Peter Caddle

Fifty years after Ireland signed on to become a member of the EU, the nation’s Prime Minister has gushed over the bloc despite criticisms of its immense power over the nation.

Ireland’s Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Micheál Martin has heaped praise onto the European Union, 50 years after the nation signed on to become a member of the bloc, which some have claimed has resulted in “subservience” to Brussels.

According to a report by the Irish Independent, Martin said that Ireland had become a “more tolerant, kinder and more inclusive country” since joining the union.

“Few events in our history as an independent state have been so transformative,” the PM said. “The five decades since that signing ceremony in Brussels have witnessed Ireland emerge as a modern, open economy and society, one that contributes to and benefits from the close relationship and cooperation it enjoys with its European partners.”

“Far from diminishing our sovereignty as a people, our membership of the EU has helped to strengthen it,” Martin also argued.

In contrast to the prime minister’s claims, others have seen Ireland’s membership of the bloc as seriously harming the nation’s sovereignty.

Hermann Kelly — who serves as head of the Irish Freedom Party — lambasted Ireland’s continued membership of the EU, drawing comparisons to Ireland’s time as a colony of the British Empire.

“Half a century on from the transfer of political sovereignty from Dublin to Brussels, we can no longer afford EU membership,” Kelly told Breitbart London. “It is an organisation which can impose laws on the Irish people in matters of EU competence even if every person in Ireland is opposed. It’s utterly shocking that in matters of EU competence, EU law is superior to Irish law, the Irish Supreme Court and the Irish Constitution.”

“EU membership means subservience not sovereignty, with our laws and fishing waters under EU control, and our military sovereignty diluted beyond recognition,” Kelly continued.

“Outside the EU we can become a sovereign state working in the best interests of the Irish people, open to trade with the whole globe rather than tied to the EU which in global terms is diminishing economically, democratically and demographically as time progresses.”

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin also credited the EU with helping to bring peace to the island of Ireland during the commemorative event.

“For as long as the United Kingdom was a fellow member state, Europe provided a valuable shared space in which Irish and British ministers could co-operate and get to know each other,” the Irish Examiner reports him as saying.

“Relationships forged through this contact helped to develop the mutual trust and understanding that were so important throughout the peace process.”

While the Irish leader might credit the union with helping to bring peace to Ireland, the issues surrounding customs between the bloc and the now third-party United Kingdom threaten to demolish power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

The Democratic Unionist Party has been pushing for the United Kingdom to take drastic action over difficulties surrounding the Irish Sea customs border, with the party’s leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, threatening to collapse the region’s devolved government should the issue not be sufficiently dealt with.

“I have given space for talks. I have been reasonable, but Brussels is being unreasonable. These talks cannot go on for years,” Donaldson said regarding negotiations on the issue, which he believes “fundamentally undermines… the economic integrity of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland’s position in it”.

“The prime minister must realise that if there is no progress then, as I said, on September 9, our continued participation in political institutions that are being used to impose the protocol is not sustainable,” Donaldson continued.

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