The Irish state has once again proved itself to be a faithful little servant to its Western imperialist masters. This time, through the aiding and abetting of the genocide of the Palestinian people at the blood soaked hands of Israel and its Western allies.
Despite the seemingly radical rhetoric of Irish ruling class representatives in condemning the slaughter and their token gestures, such as offering to recognise Palestinian statehood and supporting South Africa’s case against Israel in the ICJ, these actions are merely a superficial veneer meant to conceal their true intentions. Their deeds speak far louder than their words.
For example, it was uncovered a few months ago by the media outlet The Ditch, that the Irish state is facilitating Israeli flights, collecting US military cargo and transporting it through Irish-controlled airspace. This cargo is being utilised to brutally cleanse Palestinians from their lands.
The Irish state’s support of imperialism is nothing new, but a feature of its existence. Shannon airport has long been used by the US to transport weapons, troops and prisoners to and from its military operations across the world. These facts clearly fly in the face of ‘Irish neutrality’ which has in reality, always been a farce.
Irish capitalism is a lapdog of Western imperialism and is eager to carry out the bidding of its US, British and European masters. It dutifully dances to the tune sung by these dominant imperial powers, to gain access to the scraps of world plunder. The Irish capitalist class is weak and unable to compete with the dominant powers on the world market. Therefore, it must flaunt itself and kowtow to the highest bidder.
For decades after partition and the formal declaration of independence of the Irish Free State, British capitalism leered over and dominated the weak Southern State. As James Connolly prophetically declared
“If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain. England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs”.
The economic domination of Ireland by Britain was no mere accident but a product of intentional design by the British imperialists. Irish capitalism was perpetually repressed to maintain the Irish economy in an artificially backwards state and to prevent the development of a strong indigenous capitalist class, in order to maintain the dominance of British capitalism over Ireland. In 1921, after years of failing to violently crush the revolutionary war being waged in Ireland, the British ruling class was eventually forced to grant the formal independence of the 26 Counties, recognising that it ultimately carried little weight, as Britain would still rule Ireland through economic domination.
Connolly understood that only the socialist revolution could truly free Ireland and its people from the tyranny of the British Empire. That it was fundamentally in the interests of Irish capitalists to carry out the will of its British masters, as they could enrich themselves at the expense of the Irish working class. This is still very much the case today, though now, the British master has largely been replaced by the leading reactionary power of the United States.
Ireland is heavily reliant on US tech and pharmaceutical giants like Google, Apple and Pfizer for capital ‘investment’. Ireland’s tax haven status is specifically to attract these multinationals to Ireland which, in turn, is generating super profits for these corporations while providing cheap access to the European market.
In 2023, just 10 of these US multinationals accounted for 57% of Ireland’s corporate tax revenue. Money talks and the Irish economy on the basis of capitalism simply cannot survive without the tax intake that is scantily drip-fed from these giants. The Irish ruling class understands challenging the will of US imperialism means biting the hand that feeds.
Any threat to this arrangement would jeopardise the entire basis of Irish capitalism, invoking a political earthquake that could risk toppling the house of cards. It’s why Trump’s declarations about bringing US corporations back to home soil has the Irish ruling class quaking in their boots!
The Irish state is not a colony directly ruled by a foreign state. It exists in a transitional form, as a semi-colonial state. In Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Vladimir Lenin explains that a semi-colonial state like Ireland has an indigenous capitalist class which formally enjoys the fullest political independence but remains economically dominated by the financial capital of imperialist states. This political ‘independence’ is shaped by the interests of its imperialist ‘allies’.
The reason for the anti-imperialist lip service touted by the Irish government on Palestine and Ireland’s ‘neutrality’, is driven by deeply held anti-imperialist sentiments amongst the Irish working class. The Irish ruling class is sandwiched between balancing the interests of Western finance capital while at the same time attempting to maintain legitimacy amongst the Irish masses. Ultimately though, the Irish state and its ruling class serve the interests of Western imperialism and will continue to do so until capitalism is overthrown.
As Connolly stated: “Only the Irish working class remains as the incorruptible inheritors of Irish freedom”. Only through the world socialist revolution can the genuine freedom of the Irish working class be achieved alongside the freedom of the working class internationally.
