Posted by
KsReaganite on Saturday, June 14, 2008 2:25:13 AM
There is some self-respecting manliness left in Western Europe after all. Ignoring the tremendous pressure, threats, and outright economic bribery by their politicians, big businesses, big union, and Brussells, the voters of Ireland rejected on Thursday the Lisbon Treaty. The said treaty, a new super Constitution for a European mega state run by unelected bureaucrats, has been meekly ratified by eighteen big and small countries who have neither a sense of culture nor any idea of consequences. Bowing sheepishly to the lure of a pan European supra state where everything is 'taken care of' by 'enlightened' bureaucrats and 'silly' national laws are vetoed by the pen of mid-level civil servants, many of the erstwhile great European people simply went along.
But not the Irish.
Leave it to them to be proud of their culture, their traditions, and their hard fought freedom. Even as Ireland has become one of the richest countries in Europe-surpassing the United Kingdom and France in per capita income-her people's sharp sense of national identity and Christian faith has remained intact to a large extent. It is an identity and faith that has prompted Ireland to have, in all of Europe, the strongest legal protections for free speech, traditional marriage, unborn children, migrants, and the poor. It is heartening to see that even the threats and bribery of Europe's mightiest politicians, businessmen, and civil servants could not buy the Irish off.
Real men, as the Irish poet W B Yates noted, cannot be easily persuaded to part with their birthright. Freedom is the birthright of the Irish; even in 2008 they have men amongst them who won't give it up for a few silver farthings.
Go mbeannaí Dia is Muire duit!