Madam, – The intransigence of the French at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and, what some historians consider the subsequent unequal and unjustified level of reparations imposed on Germany led indirectly to the rise of a fascist regime there less than 20 years later.
Now, 90 years after the first World War, the same uncompromising attitude towards Ireland’s and other poorer countries’ debt restructuring could well lead again to an impoverished people being driven over the top.
The Eurocrats know that Ireland, in every way, is only a very small proportion of the European total. They are also aware that, like Greece and Portugal, it is on the periphery, both physically and economically – is geographically isolated from them – and therefore an almost nonexistent threat to the EU.
However they should be mindful of history and remember how a despairing populace can rise against an unfair administration and they should remember also the irony that one man and his followers, almost achieved a united Europe long before the EU was even a dream.
Their adversary today may not come armed with Molotov cocktails and forked tongue but may arrive quietly instead on the political stage bearing promises again of a heroic new future. – Yours, etc,