There has never been a United Ireland prior to what is now the Irish Republic, which, prior to the Oliver Cromwell’s invasion, was no more than a feuding island of warlords similar to what currently exists in Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan, for example. This is what the leading Republican intellectuals of Sinn Fein are eager to see reinstated, legitimised, and funded, within the territory of the EEC. Thus, the notion of a golden-age of High-Kings and so forth, is no more a reality, than was the Volk-propaganda dreamed up by the Nazi propaganda machine for the purpose of promoting Nazism, prior to World War II.

A united Ireland, in the sense of an entirely united island incorporating the North, which is at present, Northern Ireland, an integral part of the United Kingdom, would be a possibility. This possibility is only sustainable and achievable under a new constitution, a constitution based on the rights of the individual and where the government operates to protect individual rights and not act in a manner which makes the individual subservient to the government, as Republican advocates of a united Ireland would prefer to see implemented, and is the hallmark of European style government, as per Peter Hitchens.

Peter Hitchens interview for 'The American Enterprise Online.'

How Sinn Fein hide their true identity.

Before Cromwell

Over centuries prior to the Cromwellian invasion, Ireland was an island riven by invasion, by the Vikings, and then the Normans.

The Vikings established considerable commerce and founded Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford, for example. But Viking rule succumbed to the kingship of Brian Boru, in 999 and the Vikings’ subsequent support for a revolt against Brian Boru led to their defeat at the Battle-of-Clontarf in 1014, and their relegation to a minor role in Irish affairs.

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, social culture, art, and religious philosophy made great progress Politics, though, was mired in endless feuds between opposing kings of Ireland, in their aspiration to create a strong centralised monarchy-- as in the king of all Ireland--which was only interrupted by the arrival of the Normans, at the behest of Diarmait Mac Murchada, king of Leinster, in support of his aspiration to become king of all Ireland. In due course, the leader of the Normans, Richard de Clare, became king of Leinster.

By 1171, Henry II became Ireland’s sole ruler, which was the beginning of English dominance over Ireland’s politics and society for centuries to come, during which time, the Normans quickly gained control of three-quarters of the island.

By the end of the fifteenth century, because of continual native Irish insurgency, and the effects of intermarriage with the native Irish, Norman rule in Ireland, was massively depleted. And did not regain dominance until the time of Oliver Cromwell.

Thus, Ireland’s ‘Golden-time’, was nothing more than a period of invasions, insurgencies, and inter-tribal feuds.

After Cromwell and the present day

Between 1649 and 1653 Oliver Cromwell set about ridding Ireland of Royalist support for King Charles I, decimating the influence of the Catholic church, and redistributing land to his supporters. But this new political and social order quickly reverted back to much as it had been, after Cromwell’s death, in 1658, when Charles II was crowned king of England, reestablishing the monarchy and Catholic influence.

Nonetheless, Cromwell’s time in power was an enormously influential time for Ireland, as was the routing of King James II and his Catholic supporters at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, by King William III of Orange. The famine of 1740-1741, when approximately 400,000 people perished, and the 1845-1849 famine caused by potato blight, in which approximately 1 million people perished, and many more emigrated, to America in particular.

The 1845-1849 famine reduced the population of Ireland to less than fifty percent of its peak of over eight-million, a loss it is only now recovering from because emigration, up until the late nineteen-eighties, was an enormous drain of a highly educated youth seeking gainful employment in Great Britain and America.

A major factor contributing to the impact of the famines was the lack of sufficient industrialisation, which would have massively reduced the peasant, subsistence farmer class, and created a proper division-of-productive-activity** society, which would have made the consequences of the famine marginal because of a more general wealth with which to purchase alternative supplies of food stuffs, and it would have avoided the mass youth emigration problem because gainful employment would have been available.

Such a division-of-productive-activity society would have put an end to the many rebellions and uprisings that occurred over the centuries, since Cromwell. Enabled independence to happen much sooner. Avoided the presidencies and disastrous influence of Eamon De Valera. Avoided The Troubles in Northern Ireland, ongoing in spite of ‘peace processes, etc., since 1969. And there would have been no Sinn Fein. party to thrive on tribalism and anarchical philosophies. This is because--as the Americans understood in 1750--a division-of-productive-activity society must have proper government, to protect individual rights, property rights, and property, all of which, is privately owned.

The citizens of Ireland never understood this and will pay a high price for it, as they face new threats to life and liberty within the EEC, where democracy has been artfully converted into a vehicle to create an ever more powerful command-and-control political establishment, not seen since the zenith of the U.S.S.R. This, of course, is not being promoted as a return to the gulags, but is being promoted as Social Equality and Environmentalism.

* It is more customary to use the term ‘a-division-of-labour-society'. Such a society is one in which simply doing labour is enough to make claim to any wealth, and this is the foundation of communism and socialism. On the other hand, ‘a division-of-productive-activity society’ is one in which labour is simply a step in the making of money, since money is the means by which free and voluntary trade can properly occur in a modern, civilised society. Simply compare the wealth of contemporary America to that of contemporary Russia. ( productive activity v. labour, George Reisman, Capitalsim. ISBN: 0915463733. )

The challenge to democracy

Democracy is simply a process to enable the individual to peacefully change the government, and has no intrinsic value in itself, a fact counter to that of current international political rhetoric. In Afghanistan and Iraq, for example. these two liberated countries are still under the absolute control of tribes and warlords, who use democracy to integrate some of the most oppressive religious laws into the legal system and constitution. And, since this is regarded as a successful outcome, by America, and Europe, it is a very small step to having this consequence of democracy become the gold-standard for other democrats, to emulate.

Ireland has now reached that point with respect to the consequences of democracy, which, if radical change does not soon occur, will lead it once again along the well trodden path of rebellion and insurgency it knows only too well. Simply citing democracy as a mitigating virtue, will not change this in reality. For a contemporary example, the creation of * Community Restorative Justice schemes (fully backed by the United Kingdom and Irish governments) to administer justice in lieu of the police force, has led to extra judicial punishment beatings, individuals accepting exile from the country, or face death, and women being strongly advised about the men they can associate with.

In addition, a successful outcome, like in Afghanistan and Iraq, will have far greater consequences to the electorate of America and Europe. This is because Ireland is a non-Muslim country, and being so, any democratic outcome will be seen as valid., on the basis: If it’s good enough for a good place such as Ireland, it must be good for us too.

External links

World's first Open Source constitution for a new United Ireland.

The current Irish constitution.

All about Laissez Faire Capitalism.

The American constitution and the Bill of Rights. A paradigm.