Fight for Ireland?

The OP literally said Irish MEN so what I would do or what I wouldn't do is totally irrelevant.

2 weeks ago I'd have to imagine this was as far from a tech worker in Kyiv as it would be for an Irish person working in Indeed. OK not exactly but sort of. Its easy to stereotype and romanticise but the true horror and bravery is that these are just regular people who find themselves living out a Hollywood movie.

However on the flip side I do think we Irish have a passivity about us where we'd just start deliberating on whether our GDP would increase and if the invasion would result in more jobs for the country. It is just the type of country we are, probably to do with our geography and the fact we were essentially controlled in the most laissez faire way for centuries.

This is exactly what I've been thinking. We have no higher goals beyond GDP. Culture and the idea of the nation is used to sell cheese and entice Americans to come here, it doesn't have any real deep roots. It's bizarre watching people defend and believe in something bigger than themselves through this individualistic lens which ironically is the lens Ukrainians are fighting for in a way to pick up.

But tbh in times of globalisation and stability and cultural homogenisation it is hard to feel a deep sense of belonging to one place.

OP could you add a poll? Maybe not just Yes or No.

Imagine the video, Micky D ripping off his shirt, thumping his chest and calling out Putin to fight . . after insulting his mother for half an hour.

The majority of photos of Ukrainian celebs taking up arms are fake and old photos, the boxer lad pictured with plumes of black smoke behind him, the boxer woman photoed with a pump action shotgun in her kitchen, do you know that she’d be cannon fodder if she went against the Russians with a shotgun? Then some model one with an air soft gun in a photo that was taken a couple of years back while doing her favourite hobby. Also the media are feeding you bullshit, the Ukrainians have been fighting one another since 2014.

Would Ireland fight for me? No.

Would I fight for Ireland? No.

Nationality is a social construct.

This is a bizarre argument.

You urge that we spend a couple of billion on 25 jet fighters, more tanks, etc because, right now, we cannot match the Russians. But you completely ignore the glaringly obvious fact that, after we had done all that, we still could not match the Russians. So far as defence against the Russians goes, this would be a couple of billion completely wasted.

If we should resource for the worst case scenario, and the worst case scenario is an attack by Russia, then then is definitely not how we should resource for that scenario.

Not so much a joke of a country, I think, as a joke of a proposal on your part.

Norway is a member of NATO, and has associated obligations to contribute to NATO defence. If you imagine their air force is intended to equip them to resist the Russians on their own, I have a bridge to sell you.

Actually that is a good point as this weak midget really does represent Irish manhood today.

We'll have to up our game dramatically now. Given that the defence forces, as per official reports, cannot defend the country, the government will surely be shamed into making changes. It was on the cards before Putin invaded Ukraine.

One big issue is that we'll now be trying to do "something" after decades of apathy and shambolic underinvestment. Will we panic and make a hames of it.

People will argue how we shouldn't increase spending on the military when we could be spending on the health service, housing, policing etc. Yet other countries manage to have a military and a functioning health service.

Are we capable of doing anything at all without making a bollix of it.

We are a half arsed, cute hoor, stroke pulling, immature, seat of the pants, kick the can down the road country. Leprauchan economics, heavily reliant on multinationals for our prosperity and utterly dependent on other countries for defence. If we had been bombed hard in WW 2 and been forced to rebuild, would we be in a better or worse position now.

I've read some stupid posts in my day but that really is up there with the best of them.

Well, people have commitments here… plus a pandemic and this Russian thing but I know people who are using their time thinking and evaluating their options…

Good question - who exactly am I fighting against and what exactly am I fighting against?

Did Coveney sh@g your missus or something?

If fighting for Ireland is the same thing as fighting for the Rotheschilds banking system, then the answer is definitely no.

Been having the same thoughts recently and I think the answer is... it depends.... If I had some sort of reasonable assurance they wouldn't be going around exterminating us, like it was just a governmental coup but life would mostly go back to normal afterwards then I really dunno. Like if the English invaded again but afterwards we'd just be part of the empire like NI, Wales, Scotland and so on... then I'd very very likely sit it out.

I think if there was an actual threat to my way of life or ACTUAL life then yeah I'd be in the queue for a gun and hoping my years of Battlefield will see me through.

Flying columns. Ambushes. Assasination of G men and informers.

It was done before and it will be done again if need be.

The question is though, do we have men of the calibre of Tom Barry, Liam Lynch, Dan Breen and Sean South nowadays? I think we are gone far too soft nowadays.