On St Patrick’s day later this month, Taoiseach Micheal Martin will meet Donald Trump in the Oval Office. It could not have come at a worse time, with the US-Israel military campaign against Iran escalating. As he presents Trump with the customary bowl of shamrock, the Irish leader will have one eye on the US President – and Ireland’s economic interests – and another on the sizable left opposition at home who would much rather he dump the shamrocks over ‘the warmonger’s head’.
Barely 18 months ago, the then-Taoiseach (now Tánaiste) Simon Harris reopened the Irish embassy in Teheran. Two days later, the Islamic regime fired hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel
The Irish government has adopted a ‘multilateralist approach’ to the current conflict – stopping short of outright condemnation of the US-Israeli strikes but with a firm denunciation of the tyrannical Iranian regime’s repressive actions.
While the government has positioned itself as an advocate for immediate de-escalation and a return to diplomacy, the entire left opposition is demanding that Ireland denounce the US-Israeli actions as a breach of international law. They are also demanding an end to US troops and military aircraft transiting Shannon Airport on route to the Middle East.
On the face of it, the government is holding firm and is placing much of the blame where it belongs – on the brutal Iranian regime and its role as a global sponsor of terrorism:
‘We’re all grappling with the fact that Iran has not only subdued and massacred its own citizens in recent decades and more recently, in recent weeks, but it has essentially contributed to state-sponsored terrorism in the region,’ said defence minister Helen McEntee.
Yet there is a hint of government double speak when she later said: ‘In order for conflicts to be justified’ there ‘needs to be a UN mandate from the UN Security Council.’ We then had Michael Martin say the UN is broken on his way into a cabinet meeting this week, suggesting he is willing to play both sides as well. Martin was more explicit in parliament, when he said, ‘by virtue of the composition post-second world war, it [UN Security Council] is no longer fit for purpose.’ This has left the Taoiseach under huge pressure from the opposition to call out what it says is the illegality of the conflict.
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The reality is that Ireland’s attitude towards the regime in Teheran has always been schizophrenic. Barely 18 months ago, the then-Taoiseach (now Tánaiste) Simon Harris reopened the Irish embassy in Teheran. Two days later, the Islamic regime fired hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel.
And who could forget former president Michael D Higgins’s congratulatory letter to the incoming Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, wishing him well ‘in his future endeavours.’
‘Iran with its long tradition of culture will play a crucial role in achieving stability, cooperation and peace’ across the Middle East,’ he intoned. Well, we have seen how well that has worked out.
For the past three years, as the regime beat women to death for showing a bit or hair, hanged people for ‘crimes against morality’ and sponsored Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations, there was rarely a debate in the Irish parliament about Iran. When one TD put forward a formal position on the malign views of the regime a few years ago, there was, as Michael Martin recalled this week, ‘a studied silence’ from those who are now shouting loudest about the US-Israel campaign.
Just two weeks ago, the largest opposition party, Sinn Fein, decided to abstain from a resolution adopted by the EU Parliament on the brutality of the regime. The resolution ‘condemned the slaughter of 30,000 people by the Iranian authorities, condemned the use of execution as a tool of oppression and condemned the treatment of women.’ The animus towards Israel and the current US administration runs so deep Sinn Fein could not bring themselves to condemn the massacre of 30,000 innocents in Iran.
Sinn Fein’s position is mirrored right across the Irish radical-far left. The smaller, Marxist parties explicitly deny Israel’s right to exist and while they say, ‘oh we don’t really like the Iranian regime,’ it is clear where they stand.
When Iranian living in Ireland danced outside the Iranian embassy in Dublin in celebration at what they believe is the beginning of the end of the regime, they were met with ‘Hands off Iran’ counter protests and told to ‘go back home.’
In Galway, left wing activists shouted; ‘shame on you’ while waving the Islamic flag in the faces of young Iranians. On Dublin’s O’Connell Street, prominent left politicians were spotted lining up against Iranians daring to hope for a free Iran.
In Belfast, in scenes that went viral, a group of middle aged keffiyeh clad radicals called a group of young Iranians ‘liars’ and ‘puppets’ for speaking out against the regime. One young Iranian woman pleaded for them to calm down and ‘hear our voices.’ ‘Up the ‘Ra [IRA]’ shouted one moron in response. Another roared ‘go back to your country boy.’
The ‘lived experience’ of these Iranians, young and old, counts for nothing for the anti-US, anti-Israel mob, made up of overnight geopolitical experts. Never was the adage, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ more apt.
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