Remember the Nice Treaty referendum? How could you forget: the astonishing result of triumph for the Little People against forces of the establishment, who briefly instructed us to vote Yes and then turned back to whatever they were doing at the time. It was less than a year ago, and yet in the bitter, twisted debate leading up to its successor referendum, on amending the constitution regarding abortion, it floated away into the blue.
Perhaps many have also forgotten there were three questions on the Nice paper: the treaty endorsement, the abolition of the death penalty, and the establishment of an International Criminal Court. The latter two got the nod from the electorate (or the less than 35 per cent which voted), with a yes to the ICC in all our 41 constituencies. The only dissenting voices in the lead-up to that referendum (including the late Mr Justice Rory O'Hanlon), had, ironically, claimed that the ICC would open the back door to legalising abortion, an argument which need not delay us here, or anywhere.
The International Criminal Court is to be a permanent structure so the world community could deal with wrongdoers on a global scale, perpetrators of genocide, torture, mass evictions. Sound like anybody up in court at the moment? But the tribunal in The Hague which is attempting to put manners on Slobodan Milosevic is an ad-hoc and temporary measure.
Given the need for a proper institution for such work, and the endorsement by the Irish public of the idea, one might ask why has it taken so long for Ireland to proceed with ratification of the treaty for the ICC. The treaty was agreed at a conference in Rome nearly four years ago, with the proviso that 60 countries must take the next legal step of ratification before it was actually set up.
Most of the European Union countries were quick off the block and by February this year only two - Greece and Ireland - had still not ratified. Foreign Affairs from time to time declared of course it was a priority, but complicated legally, and that Ireland was working full steam ahead to get this exciting project under way. Yet the impression of files somewhere towards the bottom of the in-tray persisted.
This week, the ICC lobby expects the final four national signatures of the 60 required for the court to be set up to be received at a ceremony in New York. Will Ireland be there? Maybe.
No comment or press release has been issued by the Government, and the ICC lobby, a very well-organised group backed by over 1,000 civil society organisations from around the world, was itself not sure whether Ireland will be one of the last four for the magic 60 this week. Bill Pace, of the US-based Coalition for an International Criminal Court, said the candidates for ratifying are Bosnia, Romania, Cambodia, Mongolia and Ireland.
The apparently low priority for the ICC contrasts with our excitement at chairing the UN Security Council last October, but is consistent with lack of enthusiasm for other international issues which don't deliver the votes in Ballyaoncapall. Also it questions the priorities of our leadership: when a Taoiseach is determined to spend millions, divide the country, divert attention from weightier issues, to get a fancy and unnecessary sports stadium built, then how are you? General Pinochet, a likely occupant of any ICC dock, used to have his victims shot dead in sports stadiums, but this would never happen here. Would it?
ALL news is local, as any salty ol' journalist could tell you. The dog run over in Drumcondra might mean a lot more to you, if you live on that street, than Russia invading Greenland - or even Killarney. But since television, and then cable news, 24-hour news, proliferation of global information in our living rooms, all news is right there under your nose. I bet I wasn't the only one watching with damp eyes as the Israelis turned their fire on one of Christianity's holiest sites, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where even hardened old cynics have been reduced to jelly by the sheer force of belief in those walls, whether or not you accept that it is the birthplace of Christ.
And yesterday in Dublin over a thousand people turned out in solidarity with the Palestinians who are having their towns wrecked and their people killed in hundreds by the wealthy and well-equipped Israeli defence forces. Tom Hyland's awe-inspiring campaign for the people of East Timor was heroic, and brought credit to Ireland in remote places all over the world. Young Irish people taking dangerous decisions to go and protest for the benefit of poor people in Latin America. Our clergy have always done their best in missionary work, such as led to the tragic killing of Father Declan O'Toole in Uganda.
The International Criminal Court needs our support - especially now the US, which is opposed to it, as it is, by policy, to all potential limitations on its power, is actually threatening to "unsign" its limited acknowledgement at the Rome conference. It will not ratify, not with Bush in charge. Ireland's signature should be on that document on the seventh month after September 11th, in a real step towards making a safer and more accountable world. Bill Pace points out that the 20th century was the bloodiest in history, thanks to the likes of Hitler, Pol Pot, Pinochet. An independent and democratic world court would help ensure that gruesome record is never equalled.
•Information about the International Criminal Court is available at www.iccnow.org