Ireland’s membership of EU most transformative event of modern Irish history, says Tánaiste

Ireland’s membership of the European Union has been the most transformative event in modern Irish history and the benefits of the EU was never more evident than in the collective response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said on Friday.

Mr Martin said Ireland has benefited hugely from its involvement in the European Union project and the EU-wide co-ordinated responses evident in the co-operative approach to evacuating EU citizens from Sudan as well as the response to Covid-19.

“We believe that the European Union experience is the most transformative event of modern Irish history since the foundation of the state and I think it’s important that we speak as Europeans, as an Irish nation within a European Union,” he said.

“I think it’s important that we embrace what the European Union means today in terms of co-ordination – we see it in Sudan where in a European Union co-ordinated effort, we have managed to evacuate 163 Irish citizens and their dependents from Khartoum.

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[ Presenting Europe: new exhibition tells the 50-year story of Ireland in the EU ]

“And we saw it in the vaccine production during Covid pandemic – it was a pan-European approach that delivered the production of vaccines in record times that fundamentally altered the trajectory of that pandemic so all that is evidence of the relevance of the European Union to everyday life.”

Mr Martin was speaking at an event in Cork hosted by University College Cork to announce the winner of the MyEU50 Third Level, a competition designed to give young people an opportunity to express what Ireland’s membership of the European Union means to them.

“The MyEU50 youth competition gave students an opportunity to think about what being an EU citizen means to them. The creativity, experience, and opinions expressed by the students showed their appreciation of Ireland’s 50-year-old membership of the EU.

“An important objective of the competition has been to recognise young people’s voices and to interact with them about topics related to the European Union that are most important to them,” said Mr Martin as he congratulated winner, UCD student, Favour Ochonoma from Co Meath.

Ms Ochonoma, who describes herself as a young woman who was born in Ireland to immigrant parents who found a new home in the EU, won the top prize for her speech titled “From Hope to Prosperity: Celebrating the EU’s 50-Year Impact on Ireland and Beyond”.

Accepting the award, she said that the EU has fought for refugee rights and anti-discrimination to create a world where everyone is treated equally and the protection that is offered by the EU to refugees now is the same as that was offered more than 20 years ago to her parents when she was born.

“This little girl, now 22 years old, has had a chance to achieve her dreams, reach her potential and fill her needs. Education protections and equality are rights that the EU has so carefully worked with Ireland to protect,” said Ms Ochonma.

European Movement Ireland chief executive Noelle O’ Connell said that the competition organisers were hugely impressed not just by Ms Ochonma’s winning entry but by the high standard entries that covered a huge range of experiences of the European Union.

“From podcasts on the rule of law to posters on equality & justice and speeches on the impact the EU has had on the youth of Ireland, we were highly impressed not only by the creativity of the entries but the level of research that went into each and every one,” she said.