Running guns at the theme park: How Ireland’s sugar baby relationship with D.C endangers its sovereignty

Ireland's symbolic gestures to Gaza mask the material military assistance it offers to its American sugar daddy, Uncle Sam, writes Adam Doyle aka Spicebag.
Voices
5 min read
Adam Doyle

Adam Doyle

05 Sep, 2024
Ireland and Israel may opposeeach otheron the world stage, but they have more in common than they are likely to admit, writes Adam Doyle [photo credit: @melville_the_third]

Making your wayfromDublin airport to the city centre,it becomes apparent that therearefarmorethoroughways than bombing, to destroy a city.Open-air crack dealing,homeless encampmentsandherdsof American touristsmilling aboutcity centre districts-turned-daycareconstruct the vibeof the kip.

Down on theLiffeyside,thesquat glass offices of tax-evading tech giantsgrowlike mossaround adirtygutter. Streets over,in old British buildings,clientelisticIrishpolicymakers preen themselves forTikTok’sor Guinness photo ops, obliviousto thewithering polity aroundthem.

Following the motorway out from ourjadedcapital, perhaps by private caras many wealthy Americans do, you can visit the Blarney Stone or The Gap ofDunloe.

On the way, maybe you’llstop for petrol in Barack Obama Plaza orenjoy aSupermacsinBallina. There you couldsit, stodgy burger in hand,watchingthe paint peelfromthegrovellingly renderedJoe Bidenmuralwhose visage looms over the townlike a shit Pompeian Style.

If you looked up at the right moment maybe you could spot oneoftheammunition-laden flights over Irish airspacebound forIsrael — asuncovered by last month.

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These illegal flights carryingmillions ofprimers,batonrounds,detonatorsand God knows what elserubbishthe values of the Irish people and the nation’s stance on Gazaas they pass overhead. Meanwhile, the psychopathic butchery, rape and erasure of the Palestinian people continues at pace.

Thegovernment is now about these flightsaccording to TaoiseachSimon Harris–factsthat, in truth, will have to be removed frommaimedGazan childrenwithout anaesthetic.

Facts will have to be swept fromsoccer pitches and dredged fromburntolive grovesin theWestBank.Hell, ifthey look hard enough,they might just find some facts embedded in thechassisof the Irish Army vehicle hitby an Israeli missile inLebanon just last month.

The very idea of needingto be“establishingthe facts”, about somethingwe’ve beenenablingsince October, isas embarrassing as it ismonotonously cliché.TheTaoiseach would have been better offdrunkenlyswayingand singing DannyBoy to deflectcriticism.

Thisimpetus to establishpatently obvious but ever-elusive ‘facts’isafrustrating fixture of Irish politics and its endemicculture ofcute-hoorism the — great national pastimeof political deception and corruption.Massive betrayalsofpublictrustsuch as this, and the resulting salvosof gaslighting andpolitical ‘shitetalk’, areroutine.Calls to “establish the facts”are as muchpart of the dreary cycleof Irish politics asthe‘brownenvelopes’andbare-faced criminality thatperpetuallyerode confidence in the Irish state at home and abroad.

Ireland and America: Joined at the hip

In contrast,the Irish public’s position on the genocide in Gaza has been and still is overwhelmingly in favour of the Palestinian people.

Ireland is the most pro-Palestine state in Europewith a massive majority of people believing Israel is not only committing genocide but exists as an apartheid state. This sentiment has been parroted by policymakers in Dublin who recentlyrecognisedPalestinian statehood.However,under the surface, like with many things, the Irish government do not share the convictions of the people – they simply endure them.

Calling Ireland a tax haven is incorrect, you pay tax here, just not enough. Ireland is athemeparkocracy– its mediocre political class serves as middle management for interests in Silicon Valley, DC and Brussels. Ireland’s political leaders don’t aspire tobe national heroes, they aspire to walk into a public affairs job.

Ireland, likeany good theme park, would be better ifitsinhabitants wereanimatronic.Animatronics don’t care about genocides, they don’t need housing, they don’t need hospitals or food andthey aren’t traumatised by centuries of colonial repression– they just smile and waveand perform for the tourists.

Since we are not animatronics,the state’s next best option is topretendwe don’t exist. As such welive in a nationwhere foreign interests trump publicones;we act as a supply line for a war we condemn. Weoffer up our homes to overseas investment funds amid a housing crisis.Callsfor unilateral actionto addresspublicconcernsare met with mealymouthed excusesand condescendingattempts at obfuscation.

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These factors, among others, show Ireland’s democracy is atrophying, maybe we’re more comfortable as a vassal – free of the imagination and conviction it takes to be afully realised country, we are content to be an attraction.

At leastanattraction can be leased. In 2020, US assets in Ireland were worth $2 trillion, four times the value of US assets in China, and US companies 378 thousand people(around14% of the workforce).

Irelandis so intrinsicallyin the orbit of the United States that it has US preclearance facilitiesat of its airports, the only nation in Europe tohave such facilities — an outpost of empire.

Ireland and Israel may opposeeach otheron the world stage, but they have more in common than they are likely to admit.

Both small, recently formed states in varying stages of colonialism whose inhabitants have a powerful lobby within the United States itself. Both states have been requisitionedby Washington, greatlimestoneaircraft carriers, projecting US hegemony in their respective neighbourhoods.

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When you’re finished with your burger, bin the red wrapper under the watchful eye ofDZ — it's best to head on.

There's no point dwelling too long in the suffocating country towns, in any ex-colonythe name of the game is extraction,that’s one habit you can’t kick.Everything from nursing graduates to excess cattle flows to the coastal hubs, ready for export.

ContinuingdownTheWild Atlantic Wayyou’ll see more of ourgreat theme park. From crumbling Marian shrinestucked into the roadsideto thebig data centres thatuse more electricity than all the islands’ homes.

On your way, you could stop and watchAmerican warplaneslifttheir fat, weapon-ladenarsesoverthe green hills ofClare.

As dusk settlesyoucould head forthebeach, just around the corner from Trump’s Golf resort inDoonbeg–there, sitting on cold sand,you could look out over theroaringAtlantic, to the mainland, four thousand miles away.

Adam Doyle is an Irish artist and political commentator working under the moniker ‘Spicebag’. Doyle’s work around Irish culture, politics and Palestinian solidarity has garnered international coverage.

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of , its editorial board or staff.

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