Sir, – Tellingly, Prof Ray Kinsella's article urging Ireland to follow Britain out of the EU makes no convincing business case, probably because there isn't one (Opinion & Analysis, August 29th).
How can it be to our advantage to drop out of an EU market of 440 million people (post-Brexit) for the sake of presumed free access to a UK market of 64 million mainly on its terms and conditions? Where is the community of interest between Irish farmers who value the support and stability of the CAP and a British government bent on reverting to a cheap food policy with massive imports from far afield that would have Irish farmers, as before, at their mercy?
Even Greece baulked at the consequences of trying to disentangle themselves from the euro zone.
Successive Irish governments and their officials have enabled Ireland as a sovereign state to punch well above its weight in the EU. It is a far more equitable international organization than the UN.
Our bad experience during the economic crash was in considerable part our own fault in the years previous to it, and it should certainly not dictate our long-term future. The bailout did brake to a vital degree the fall over the cliff edge, and we have recovered better than most. It should be remembered that US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner was just as insistent that there should be no burning of bondholders as Jean-Claude Trichet.
Enda Kenny, as newly elected taoiseach, successfully fended off a Franco-German ambush against our EU-approved corporation tax.
Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch warned that the price of EEC membership might involve the sacrifice of Irish neutrality. Although there have been some adaptations as the result of a common foreign and security policy, that has not come to pass.
Nato continues to be the body responsible for territorial defence in Europe, and the EU is not about to substitute for it. Fears about a policy that has never properly developed would be a ridiculous reason to leave the EU.
German chancellor Angela Merkel is Europe’s leading democratic stateswoman, not by right but on merit. Germany has had a consistently solid record of achievement, second to none, over the past 60 years. Most Irish people would have far more confidence in her, and in that achievement, than would want to follow the erratic leadership in evidence in both main British parties at the present time.
There is little desire to see Ireland revert to being economically speaking a reluctant British satellite or dependency. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN MANSERGH,
Friarsfield,
Tipperary.
Sir, – In presenting his case for Ireland to leave the EU, Ray Kinsella argues that “amnesia can be a terrible thing”.
In this he is correct, but he seems to have himself forgotten that Ireland has prospered through its EU membership and that it was “marginalised, peripheral and dependant” as a British satellite.
Let us hope that our medical professionals are fully prepared in the event of a nationwide amnesia outbreak! – Yours, etc,
DAVID GEARY,
Gros Islet,
Saint Lucia.
Sir, – Ray Kinsella's timely article raises important questions about our national interest in the aftermath of Brexit. Since the British referendum decision last year, although we have strongly criticised Brexit and "Brexiteers", we have paid limited attention to the problems and issues that have fuelled dissatisfaction with the EU, in Britain and elsewhere.
Prof Kinsella refers to the recent memoir by Yanis Varoufakis about the Greek financial crisis of 2015 (Adults in the Room). It paints a troubling picture of EU power-brokers who were disdainful of the democratic mandate received by a newly elected Greek government, and were unwilling to work towards meaningful debt restructuring of a country whose citizens were suffering great hardships as a result of the economic crisis.
Unlike, for example, the postwar Warsaw Pact, the European Union is a voluntary union so any decision to leave is a sovereign, national decision, which appropriately belongs to the British or any other nation within the union.
The European Union is formally committed to the subsidiarity principle, which upholds the rights of member states, but the often angry reaction in Brussels to Brexit, and accompanying warnings of punitive Brexit financial settlements, would suggest that its implications are not fully understood.
Brexit may or may not be a wise decision and it will have to stand the test of time. It is undoubtedly causing great uncertainty in Ireland, especially in border regions.
However, Prof Kinsella is surely right that there needs to be much more public debate in Ireland on our options and interests in the post-Brexit world. – Yours, etc,
TIM O’SULLIVAN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – The logical end point of Irexit would be an application to rejoin the UK. – Yours, etc,
PN CORISH,
Rathgar, Dublin 6.
Sir, – Prof Ray Kinsella is taking quite a bit of flak from Europhiles for merely suggesting a look at the desirability of an Irish exit. Let’s call a time out on the attacks on the good professor. We are in the lucky position in Ireland that we can bide our time for a few years and see how things work out for the UK post-Brexit.
I suspect Prof Kinsella might be proved correct. But let’s wait and see. – Yours, etc,
ERIC CONWAY,
Navan, Co Meath.
Sir, – Irexit? Maybe the wisdom of the “Irish Mammy” is required here.
“If Britain jumped off a cliff, would you?” – Yours, etc,
DAVID McNERNEY,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.