A CURIOUSLY unsung truth is that apart from the obscurantist right, the most reactionary, conservative, unimaginative group of all in Irish life - made all the more unbearable by its hand wringing piety - has been the militant republican Left. It been reactionary wrong on virtually every economic issue, most importantly Europe, vehemently opposing membership of the European community, the formation of which has been the greatest and most beneficial development in Europe since the civil war of 1914-1945.
It was against free trade of any kind, castigating any business involvement in the Third World as immoral, either because to export things from the Third World countries was "exploiting" them, or because their resources should be left at home.
Republican Left favoured tariffs and the protection of native industries against multinationals, with concomitant high prices and low productivity - largely because native industries were seen to be more virtuous.
National Virtue
In economic terms, virtue in itself is no virtue. National virtue has been tried as an economic engine in any number of local experiments into how to make economics national, manageable and independent of the profit motive. We call these little experiments in human nature Albania, Burma, Tanzania and the Soviet Union, which have been variously held up as examples of moral superiority to the rest of us; and before long have been standing before us, their begging bowl virtuously empty.
Another little hallmark of the republican Left's piety has been our neutrality, with all sorts of other semi related issues drawn in simply because of the pious feelings which the word "neutrality" induces in the right minded.
So we have the recent report from AFrI (Action from Ireland), which makes the startling declaration that despite our neutrality, Irish based companies were trading in technology which could be used in weaponry.
What? Weapons? Good God above! Perfectly scandalous. How perfectly wicked. This should be stopped immediately. Trade in weapons is wicked, perfidious, immoral, etc etc. In passing, I note the international patron of AFrI is Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, which has the biggest arms industry in Africa and one of the largest in the world.
Is the good bishop urging the South African Government to close down its armaments industry and throw thousands of Africans out of work? Is AfrI suggesting that the South African republic should not trade in weapons? Or that this Republic; should not buy them?
Foreign Arms?
Because if it is, what will our soldiers be equipped with? Psalms? And if it is saying that the Army should be allowed to buy weapons from abroad, why should such trade be one way only? If some of the electronic equipment we make has military uses, is there any reason on earth why we should not sell it, Just as we buy the odd SAM and night sight and artillery and radar for our Defence Forces?
No doubt we might deplore the size of the world armaments business; but it is pious nonsense to suggest that nations should not be armed. Nations which have dabbled in that little experiment invariably end up being led in chains in slave caravans; our geographical position alone gives us the apparent right to lecture on the immorality of armaments. If Ireland was situated along the Vistula rather than the Atlantic, we would probably feel differently.
That geographical isolation has enabled us to enjoy the benefits of the European Union without having to contemplate the philosophically more troubling aspects of Union membership with any great degree of haste or intellectual commitment. A few lone voices have been unwaveringly - most notably that of Anthony Coghlan - have been against EU membership and all its consequences from the beginning. I honour him for his consistency. But many, perhaps most, wanted the riches which resulted but did not want to think about the consequences of admission to a financial community, one of which must sooner or later be protection of the interests and the wealth of that community.
You cannot expect to live in a house and be welcome there if you don't take your turn in locking the back door. If people don't want to engage in common defence of the European landmass, to which we have committed ourselves politically and from which we have prospered enormously, then they should simply state: time to leave.
A La Carte Approach
But those on the Left who promised ruin and decay from membership of the European community - some of whom are in government today - generally do not urge departure from the Union. They take an a la carte approach to conditions of membership; benefits, yes please. Responsibilities? Ah, now you offend our exquisitely Irish sensibilities.
You see, we in Ireland are against guns, power blocks, international alliances. We are pure and virtuous and completely above the squalid business of war. Et cetera. Ah yes, since we are talking, any chance of more structural funding? - Thank you. And some regional development grants? Excellent. And a few thousand headage payments? Much appreciated. And some set aside compensation payments? Most gracious of you....
Membership of the Union has been of extraordinary benefit to Ireland and the Irish people, both individually and as a nation. It is good to be reminded of how we regarded the European experiment in the first television explorations into the subject, made nearly thirty years ago, and the subject of some touching nostalgia, as well as reassuring success stories, in the television series "The Gap in the Mountain," the last programme of which is broadcast on Tuesday night.
We live in the best time in the history of Ireland, in the best time in the history of Europe. It is not a bad thing to be aware of that, and to take pleasure from it too. "The Gap in The Mountain" has reminded us of our gains, though not our duties.