Ireland must stay true to its commitment to human rights and values based on international co-operation as envisaged by Daniel O’Connell over two centuries ago, but which is under growing threat in the modern world, Taoiseach Michéal Martin has said.
Mr Martin said O’Connell’s vision for Ireland offered a path forward for the country both in terms of its place internationally and in the challenges it faces in reconciliation on the island of Ireland more than two decades on from the Belfast Agreement.
Delivering the keynote address at the Daniel O’Connell Summer School in Co Kerry, Mr Martin said O’Connell, born 250 years ago this year, lived a life that was defined by “a commitment to values of solidarity between peoples and support for what we today call human rights”.
Recalling O’Connell’s fierce opposition to slavery, Mr Martin said the Kerry-born lawyer and parliamentarian supported the ideals of democracy and human rights. He adopted a fundamental position that Ireland should show sympathy with all oppressed nations and people.
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He said O’Connell’s political philosophy was an enlightenment-inspired nationalism rather than a revivalist nationalism. While he left behind no lasting organisation, he did leave a legacy that was key to the modern challenges facing Ireland both internationally and domestically.
“The idea of values-based international co-operation based on the rule of law is under threat. Many organisations which were once driving forces in promoting peace and development in the world are being undermined by countries which ignore or manipulate them,” he said.
Mr Martin offered the example of the United Nations and the challenges it faces where, despite the rising number of conflicts in the world, it has been more than a decade since the organisation has been able to authorise a new UN peacekeeping operation anywhere in the world.
“There are even sustained attempts by some to withdraw or undermine the core human rights laws which have guided much of the democratic world for three-quarters of a century,” Mr Martin told the large attendance for the lecture at O’Connell’s ancestral home at Derrynane House.
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“Ireland has to remain clear on where it stands. We must remain true to ideals of universal values which apply to friend and foe alike. We must refuse to accept false opposites and be able to speak up equally for the rights of the people of Ukraine and the people of Gaza.”
Mr Martin said internationally Ireland must be an active promoter of humanitarian values, citing the urgent need for international aid to prevent a catastrophe in Somalia, before addressing what O’Connell offers today to meet the challenges facing all those living in Ireland.
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“At home we must be more serious at meeting and overcoming the great challenge of this generation – which is to build a deep and sincere reconciliation between all traditions on this island,” he said.
“The shining beacon of hope which the Good Friday Agreement represented was not an end in itself. It gave us the freedom to move from fear and conflict to trust and understanding. We amended our constitution to reflect this, refereeing to the different traditions and aspirations of Irish people and our commitment to respecting diversity.”
Having earlier criticised a Sinn Féin spokesperson writing recently in An Phoblacht for describing O’Connell not as “the Liberator but the Suppressor”, Mr Martin took issue with the party for its unwillingness to countenance different narratives when it came to Irish history.
“Today we have a situation where the largest party in Opposition casually accuses opponents of being unpatriotic because they have a different approach,” Mr Martin said.
“It is not progress when we are again seeing people attacked for having a more complex or different view on how we should remember and reflect on our history.”
This would not have been a view shared by O’Connell, and Ireland would do well to remember more his legacy, which led to the rise of “the democratic republicanism” that has underpinned Ireland proving one of the longest lasting democracies in the world, he said.
