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!