Should Ireland join the commonwealth?

Fratton Fred

gordon_gekko wrote: »

i think mary robinson is a protestant and im pretty sure she was president of ireland too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Robinson

Though Catholic, Mary Bourke received the permission of the then Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid to study in Trinity College, Dublin[citation needed]. In her twenties, she was appointed Reid Professor of Law in the college, considered to be a prestigious appointment made to accomplished lawyers. Subsequent holders of the title have included her successor as Irish president Mary McAleese, Professor John F. Larkin Q.C., Irish Human Rights Commissioner and prominent pro-choice, Senator Ivana Bacik and anti-divorce activist Professor William Binchy.

In 1970 she married Nicholas Robinson. Despite the fact that her family had close links to the Church of Ireland, her marriage to a Protestant student caused a rift with her parents, who did not attend her wedding, although the rift was eventually overcome in subsequent years[citation needed]. Together they have three children.

(Why did she need permission to go to Trinity?)

guinnessdrinker

Fratton Fred wrote: »

(Why did she need permission to go to Trinity?)

Because of silly old policies that thankfully are now in the past.

McArmalite

FreedomJoe wrote: »

Should Ireland join the commonwealth?

Ok before I get all the anti brit bashing, lets just make one point clear.

If Ireland votes yes tommorow in the lisbon treaty we will be creating even closer ties to Britain aswell as europe. Even if its a no vote we are still politically tied to the UK through the EU.

In my opinion Ireland would be miles better of with the commonwealth than further interaction with the EU.

It is clear the EU wants to be a superstate, Is that what Ireland wants? We joined the EU as a trading pact, however that has since become a larger and larger club reducing Irelands trade further smaller.

The commonwealth would offer trading ties, Common history and language, Further enhance our sporting ambitions and we could even host a commonwealth games bringing billions to the country. The benefits are endless, furthermore we would could still remain part of the EU without any disadvantages.

So whats your opinions, without the Brit bashing!

Ah yes, it's "Lets wind up the Provos" time again. :rolleyes: This theme has been posted ( several ? ) times on the Politics forum, and also on the History forum. Usually the poster gives their location as Carlow, Dublin or wherever in the south, or claims to be born in England reared in Ireland, or from London with Irish parents etc. But the one constant thing regarding the posters of pro commonwealth statements - they all generally sooner or later come up with unionist arguements and views on the commonwealth - which is what they are, unionists, and no more form Carlow or born in England reared in Ireland than my big toe. Indeed the OP's statement " The commonwealth would offer trading ties, Common history and language, " sounds very unionist to me and could be if I rememeber rightly the opening lines of a unionist document outlining why they wish to be associated with the 'mainland' and not an Irish Republic.

Naturally there is the odd nationalist who might genuniely entertain the idea in the hope of buliding bridges etc, but as with the most of the posts so far to quote one " absolutly not the commonwealth is an outdated institution and its reason for existance is nothing but a way of feeling nostalgic about the past glorys of empire ". Most Irish people rightlfully abhor britian's mistreatement of us for centuries, their hardly wanting to be associated with the country that perpetrated such injustices on us.

Kev_ps3

Why should we join the 'commonwealth' no more than say the USA? We are an Independent country, some west-brits dont seem to realise that.
Why do some people think Ireland needs other countrys, the UK and now the EU. Ireland should be 100% independent in every respect.

Kovik

Our economy is more robust and, in terms of virtually every method of economic assessment, generally better than that of Britain.

There is no benefit to us here.

Let's not be stupid, please.

CerebralCortex

Kev_ps3 wrote: »

Why should we join the 'commonwealth' no more than say the USA? We are an Independent country, some west-brits dont seem to realise that.
Why do some people think Ireland needs other countrys, the UK and now the EU. Ireland should be 100% independent in every respect.

Good contribution as always Kev. :rolleyes:

CerebralCortex

Mad Finn wrote: »

Mary Robinson is not a Protestant although I believe her husband is.

The other Proddy President was Erskine Childers in the 1970s.

Douglas Hyde was a protestant, don't why this is mentioned but I don't think religion should have anything to do with politics. Remember Rome urged the Normans to enter Ireland to bring us back into line with Roman doctrine (although if they didn't I probably wouldn't have been born).
The commonwealth is a legacy of an empire based in London which ruined countless countries prosperity for its own gains why would we want to acknowledge that?? When we did "share" heritage look at how well that worked for us a population somewhere around 7% of that of England's.

Riddle101

Way i see it, the Commonwealth and the EU are both the same, at least with the EU we can trade freely with the rest of Europe and bring better relations even if we rejected the treaty. It's better to be friendlier with the Countries closest to us before we expand into the rest of the World

Dr. Baltar

I would never, EVER agree to joining the Commonwealth.

I honour my history and I respect those people who fought for our freedom.
I think that it would be both disrepectful and disgraceful to their names to join the modern day empire that they died to leave.

Fratton Fred

Sir Baralot wrote: »

I would never, EVER agree to joining the Commonwealth.

I honour my history and I respect those people who fought for our freedom.
I think that it would be both disrepectful and disgraceful to their names to join the modern day empire that they died to leave.

So the billion or so people in India are unpatriotic are they? Fiji left and came back, are they fools, unpatriotic or err southern Brits?

Just curious.

Fratton Fred

Kev_ps3 wrote: »

Why do some people think Ireland needs other countrys, the UK and now the EU. Ireland should be 100% independent in every respect.

but the truth is, it does.

Where do you think the Celtic Tiger came from, someone found a pot of gold and the rainbow ended in Brussels. No country is "Independant these days, least of all a ountry with 4million people and no natural resources.

Economically there is little or no point Ireland joining the Commonwealth, but to say it does not need the EU is about €54billion euros wide of the mark.

LordSutch

This Topic is turning-out to be a Hardy Annual on these Boards, which leads me to believe . . .

1/ There is a serious underlying appetite among many in the 'Republic' for re-joining the Commonwealth.
2/ We feel left out, specially with the North being in Commonwealth Games & us not being there . . .
3/ By & large there is positive interest in the Royal Family & all things British, from soaps to Footie, but . . .
4/ We Like/Dislike the Brits, we Love Footie, we tolerate the Royals, we love British TV, we are confused ?
5/ We also want the North, so maybe if we re-join the Commonwealth then the North will leave the UK?
6/ Now that Brussels dont like us anymore then we might make friends with, & re-join the other gang

gixerfixer

Look what happened when a few orangemen tried to march down O' Connell street...do you really think we will be joining the Commonwealth

McArmalite

ArthurF wrote: »

This Topic is turning-out to be a Hardy Annual on these Boards, which leads me to believe . . .

1/ There is a serious underlying appetite among many in the 'Republic' for re-joining the Commonwealth.
2/ We feel left out, specially with the North being in Commonwealth Games & us not being there . . .
3/ By & large there is positive interest in the Royal Family & all things British, from soaps to Footie, but . . .
4/ We Like/Dislike the Brits, we Love Footie, we tolerate the Royals, we love British TV, we are confused ?
5/ We also want the North, so maybe if we re-join the Commonwealth then the North will leave the UK?
6/ Now that Brussels dont like us anymore then we might make friends with, & re-join the other gang

As usaul :rolleyes:, a load of pro unionist bolox been posted by ArthurF.

1/ If you had bothered reading the posts in reply to the OP you would have seen that there is virtually no underlying appetite in the unoccupied 26 counties for re-joining the Commonwealth.

2/We don't in the very least feel "left out" whatsoever, we couldn't care less about them. I'm a mega sports fan, I don't think I've have never heard anyone talk about the commonwealth games in the unoccupied counties, nor for that matter in the occupied counties. People from say, Crossmaglen or the Bogside don't get very much excited about someone from their area winning at these games, fair enough they'll recognise their achievement, but their county winning an All Ireland brings much more delirious celebration .

3/Even more and bigger rubbish. Maybe the blue rinse brigade of old ladies take interest in the Royal family, obviously the Lady Di sort of Elvis type thing is popular with the younger women, but by and large the Royals are seen as a crowd of irrelevant dickheads - which is what they are. True their is a huge interest in soaps and soccer, but American programes such as CSI Crime Scene Investigation, Sopranos etc also pull as big if not bigger audiences. Indeed the Aussie soaps Home and Away etc also pull in huge audiences. The European Championships and Spainish and Italian soccer are a common topic of converation with soccer fans, it doesn't mean we want to join a sort of ' lets's pretend ' we're somehow American or Australian or whatever anachronistic club.

4/No we're not in the least confused, around 85% of the population of the island proudly hold firm to being Irish, we don't nor ever wanted to be british. A minority in the northeast of the country in the secterian gerrymander that you probably call ' Northern Ireland ' still cling onto their parasitical relationship* with the 'mainland', but it's a total load of bolox to a nationalist to tell them they don't know their own nationality.

5/ Ah yes, the big carrot to fool the papes into considering join the commonwealth :rolleyes: . When the 26 was in the commonwealth unionism was as secterian as ever with ofcourse the full backing of britian, been in or out of it wouldn't change a single mindset of that supremascisit ideology.

6/ By " Brussels " I presume you mean the EU and the Continentals in general. Nonsense as usual, the beaucrats of the EU are not going to try and kick us out, Ireland's good relationship with the other countries of the EU will not suffer.


* James Connolly accurately described the relationship between unionism and britian " as that of a relationship not found in nature, it is the relationship of one type of parasite living off another type of parasite. "

LordSutch

McArmalite wrote: »

As usaul :rolleyes:, a load of pro unionist bolox been posted by ArthurF. [/I]"

Cor blimey, thats a Bit harsh ..........

I was only pointing out that this Topic comes up every year, I then offered some reasons as to 'why' in my opinion this hardy annual of 'Re-joining the Commonwealth' keeps appearing ~ looks like I hit a raw nerve.

McArmalite

ArthurF wrote: »

Cor blimey, thats a Bit harsh ..........

I was only pointing out that this Topic comes up every year, I then offered some reasons as to 'why' in my opinion this hardy annual of 'Re-joining the Commonwealth' keeps appearing ~ looks like I hit a raw nerve.

" a Bit harsh " Your lucky I didn't use me Armalite on ya . Anyway, I've had me bellyfull of unionists coming onto the threads spouting their rubbish under the guise of being a nationalist.

ejmaztec

A lot of common and not much wealth.

magick

joining it would be as useful as a one eyed monkey holding onto a bomb while being strapped to a 10c ballon and calling it aircover.

garbanz0

Should that be

"rejoin the commonwealth".

In any case I vote 'no'.

RexMundi

No way should we join the commonwealth.

Belfast

No.

the last thing we need now is another divisive referendum.

LordSutch

I thought Belfast was already in the Commonwealth