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Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, vol. 13, no. 3, 2017 - PARALLEL IRELANDS: THE DISENCHANTMENT AND RE-ENCHANTMENT OF IONA Seán Ó Nualláin et al (Gearóid O' Colmáin, Joe McCarthy, Gerald Gillespie, Frank Lillis, Glynn Custred, Cathal Brugha II, Hassan Ahmad, Eoin de Bhaldraithe, Mary Elizabeth Steiner) ABSTRACT: This book length work by Seán Ó Nualláin and other authors (Gearóid O' Colmáin, Joe McCarthy, Gerald Gillespie, Frank Lillis, Glynn Custred, Cathal Brugha II, Hassan Ahmad, Eoin de Bhaldraithe, Mary Elizabeth Steiner), the proceedings of a conference, explores the geopolitics of the islands of the north Atlantic (IONA) in the wake of Brexit and the new dispensation governing Ireland’s place in the EU following the EC’s Apple tax decision. This is juxtaposed with deep analysis of how the Irish state works, and fails to work. Moreover, the conference on which this is based featured trenchant discussion on immigration to the EU. It is proposed that a Celtic confederation should co-exist with the UK in IONA. The high resource, low population density countries of Ireland and Scotland should reach out to their peers in Wales and England with an offer of belonging. An immense and beautiful new possibility is proposed to replace the current illegal congeries. KEYWORDS: Ireland; Brexit; North Atlantic Islands; Celtic confederation www.cosmosandhistory.org 467 COSMOS AND HISTORY 468 Contents Prologue: Parallel Irelands, reality and necessity - Sean O Nuallain Introduction: From a terrible beauty to a fatal and dismal inevitability - Sean O Nuallain PART 1: DISENCHANTMENT Power, sludge and voting: three punitive expeditions into the Irish deep state - Joe McCarthy From corporatism to the deep state; a new Hibernian form of Euro-fascism - Sean O Nuallain One Bad Apple? - why Ireland will finish a distant second to an independent Scotland - Frank Lillis Irish folklore, literature and national identity - Glynn Custred Reflections of an expatriate son - Gerald Gillespie PART 2: RE-ENCHANTMENT IP in Ireland - Sean O Nuallain Celtic metaphysics and consciousness - Sean O Nuallain Cathal Brugha, Minister for Defence and Chairman of Army Council during War of Independence – Cathal Brugha II International Human Rights after the Good Friday Agreement: The Citizenship Conversation in the Republic of Ireland – Hassan Ahmad Dividing Ireland: From an Eirenic State to an Iron Gate - Eoin de Bhaldraithe The United Nations and Ireland: Blood lines and the right to language - Mary Elizabeth Steiner Appendix SEÁN Ó NUALLÁIN ET AL 469 PROLOGUE: PARALLEL IRELANDS, REALITY AND NECESSITY Sean Ó Nuallain “The new lordship of Ireland developed rapidly. Dublin became its capital, home of an exchequer, chancery and civil service which was to provide a central administration controlling a system of local government…The common law of England was introduced” (From C. Haight (ed) “The Cambridge historical encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland, CUP, 1985 P 116) While this describes the quickening pace of colonization in the 13th century, it can just as well be used for the Free State from 1922 or indeed the neo-colonial 21st century. The ultimate Parallel Ireland is and has been - for close to a millennium - the square mile around Dublin Castle housing the state administration. This administration is recognized internationally as the Irish state; in particular, it has agreed to massive levels of debt levied on the Irish people in order to maintain its existence. When, in 2016, the European commission offered it the possibility of exacting over $12 billion from Apple in back tax, it chose to renounce that opportunity. One may ask “Why?”. In fact, one may ask what the Irish state actually does, apart from continuing the myriad scams in the square mile described in this book, taking credit for a Pax Britannica in “Ulster”, and looking for ever more munificent colonial masters to serve. Arguably , the 2011-2016 government switched masters from the EU to silicon Valley. Its incursions into Irish civil society and community would on occasion make Stalin – let alone Mussolini – cringe in embarrassment. In Haight (ibid) it is commented that the later years of Henry VIII witnessed the state deciding on transubstantiation and the price of beef – so it was time for state retreat. In our contemporary Ireland, the Newspeak is beyond Orwell’s most paranoiac fears, particularly as the Gaelic forms take precedence . In attempting to levy water charges, its legislation redefined the world “occupant” (qua householder) as “customer”. OK, people quickly caught on and began assaulting politicians – but what of gay marriage? As it happens, the initial legislation prohibited heterosexual marriage; it was replaced by a document, now a constitutional amendment that allows two sheep or indeed two thumbs to get married. When it was pointed out that the word used – “beirt” – is not restricted to humans, the riposte came sharply ; an official version of the Irish language was promulgated in 1958. Those who learned that linguistics changed from a prescriptive to a descriptive discipline long before 1958 will recoil in horror; the rest of the world will laugh; those of us subject to the whim of the Irish state will fear. COSMOS AND HISTORY 470 When privatization looks possible, institutions like universities have been removed totally from the rule of law (see the other 2 ICIS books). Conversely (ibid) “private” institutions like IMRO are given a Bell-like regulated monopoly status without the regulation, let alone the brilliance of Bell labs. The removal of institutions from the rule of law is toxic to any state. The harbinger was the Free state’s treatment of the Roman catholic church, dissected in Martin Sixsmith’s “Philomena” (2013 – London: Penguin). The rather saccharine movie version glosses over a system in which children were sold to wealthy Americans, while their mothers performed slave labour in what were effectively concentration camps. The “Lost child of Philomena Lee” (to cite the original title) became Michael Hess, the US Republican party’s chief counsel and the architect behind redistricting. His great influence did not allow him glean a single relevant fact from his mother’s erstwhile jailors on his trips to Ireland. In the 2016 Euro soccer championship, two Irish teams appeared, both in green. One sang “God save the Queen”, an anthem it shared with the English team. Most of the team joined in; the same could not be said for the members of the “Republic of Ireland” team, whose members in general have since the 1980’s not been from the island of Ireland. A parallel Ireland; northern Protestants who were critical in the formation of Irish identity in the USA, enlisting in Washington’s army and indeed starting the March 17 parties. The next most famous Parallel Ireland is the IRA. Its provisional wing traded away its arms, Ireland’s national territory and arguably our self-respect to free its comrades. Irish culture has reached a new nadir since that agreement in 1998. Another Parallel Ireland is of course the EU, whose laws take precedence in Ireland. While the EC has repeatedly seemed to stand up to the Americans, this should be the job of nation states who have renounced their ability to do so through increasingly suffocating accession treaties (Nice, Lisbon, etc) An insidious Parallel Ireland is the American companies that claim to be based in Ireland for tax purposes. Apple’s IP is lodged with its Irish counterpart. Since this state of affairs came to be, we have not launched a single company in the Nasdaq. Franchise is another way to create a Parallel Ireland. The Irish rugby team does not play the national anthem in away matches, including the world cup, and has perhaps 5 players with Irish surnames on the team (eg vs the All blacks Nov 2016). Indeed, the coach has taken to importing foreign players and developing them for 3 years until they can replace their Irish counterparts. The Irish get trashed in the world cup every time – most recently by Argentina whose players wept while their national anthem was played. Franchise was taken a stage further by the creators of Riverdance, who eschewed the perfectly good version of Grace O’Malley’s life by Irishman Shaun Davey to bomb on SEÁN Ó NUALLÁIN ET AL 471 Broadway with one composed by the Les Miserables team. A new twist on all of this was supplied by one of the incidents which presaged the lawsuit described in the appendix. We launched the 2016 conference with a concert. After our announcement, the Irish consul in SF, Philip Grant used perhaps $250k of taxpayer’s money to create an alternative concert at the Episcopalian Cathedral (even the Irish-Americans baulked at this non- Roman Catholic venue and later ran their own event at one) on the same night with a foreign composer. Our project persists; as with all state-created ephemera, theirs will never be performed again. However, the consul took another step. Let us remember the SF consulate has a revolving door into the private sector. Deputy consuls end up in places like Silicon Valley Bank (true story), making the recent Barroso Goldman Sachs affair look kosher. Hearing of our conference, Grant intervened to have it declared illegal (see appendix) and ran – a rival seminar with Irish taxpayers’ money! Worse, he did so at a time there was no elected government in Ireland. It was as if Berkeley invited Gulen to give a talk during the July Turkish coup attempt. Irish-Americans also have a leprechaun-muddied, Trumped-up Parallel Ireland to which no (native) Irish need apply. In areas like San Francisco – with the moral and financial support of the Irish state – they have run “Irish” festivals with no Irish performers (for example, 2011).