HISTORICAL VALUE

 

                                            Being neither nationalist nor republican,

                                            I have little sympathy for either side

                                            In the Irish Civil War; though I believe

                                            That, under the prevailing circumstances,

                                            The Free Staters were effectively right,

                                            Since an Irish republic embracing

                                            The whole of Ireland is no less

                                            Of a pipe dream now than it was then,

                                            And, besides, the British were implacably opposed

                                            To the 32-county Republican ideal.

                                            To me, both republican Nationalism

                                            And nationalist Republicanism

                                            Are inadequate for solving the Ulster problem,

                                            Which demands not a democratic

                                            But a radically theocratic approach,

                                            Commensurate with Social Transcendentalism

                                            And the establishment in Eire

                                            Of an Irish Social Transcendental Centre,

                                            The first of a number of such Centres

                                            That would eventually form a world-wide federation

                                            Of supra-national peoples.

                                            Nationalism, like Republicanism, is limited

                                            To a given span of evolutionary time, corresponding

                                            To an atomic age, and it has to be admitted that,

                                            Due to historical circumstances, the Irish came late

                                            To both Nationalism and Republicanism -

                                            At the tail-end, so to speak, of the nationalist age.

                                            Consequently, to regard either Nationalism

                                            Or Republicanism as ideals worthy of eternal sanction

                                            Is a serious mistake since, in effect,

                                            They are distinctly temporal.

                                            Better to regard them as means to a higher end -

                                            Namely the attainment of

                                            The most radically theocratic absolutism -

                                            Than to treat them as ends in themselves.

                                            Better not to unduly compromise

                                            With democratic procedure and tradition -

                                            More suited, in any case, to peoples

                                            Like the British and the Americans - than

                                            To take them to heart and/or

                                            Seek to push democracy in a more radical direction.

                                            Better the minimum compromise

                                            That permits one the maximum theocratic freedom,

                                            And thus facilitates progress towards

                                            A truly Irish ideological integrity ...

                                            Albeit one capable of wider global application.

                                            The modicum of political freedom

                                            In which to manoeuvre and subsequently engineer

                                            The higher end - therein, it seems to me, lies

                                            The historical value of the Irish Republic!