Sir, - Even the most cursory glance at the media coverage of criticism of of Ireland's budgetary policy by the European Commission reveals what potentially is at stake in the issue.
The news services of French TV channels TF1 and France 2, and the news service of German channel ZDF have not carried any story on the ECOFIN meeting and its criticism of Ireland's inflation situation. In Ireland, the events have been portrayed as an earth-shattering crisis. RTE, naturally, has covered the dispute. But, most interestingly, so has the BBC.
For the UK's many interested commentators on European monetary union, this spat between Dublin and Brussels has appeared in either of two ways: for the UK's beleaguered pro-Euro constituency, as an unhelpful moment of seeming Eurocratic heavy-handedness (witness Chancellor Gordon Brown on BBC news, defending his own government's expansive public spending policies from criticism by European finance ministers); or, for the UK's sizeable Euro-skeptic constituency, as proof positive of the domineering and anti-democratic tendencies of the EU (witness Britain's Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Michael Portillo, also on BBC news; or, on a smaller scale, anti-European comment and sneering at the Republic's "Euro disaster" by none other than the DUP's Sammy Wilson).
Ireland, Europe's brightest pupil, and the UK, Europe's most uncooperative associate, seem now to find themselves, ironically and for very different reasons, on the "outside" of the EU club. For Ireland, thankfully, the experience is much more of a disturbing novelty - a once-off and soon-to-be resolved quarrel with allies with whom it cannot make any long-term sense to fall out.
At this time, the Irish Government and the Irish people would do well do put these difficulties in perspective. They should not allow themselves to provide fuel for the strong anti-Euro camp in the UK or, worse, to be swayed by its retrogressive worldview. (In this sense, Tanaiste Mary Harney's contribution last week to the City-oriented Financial Times, whose pages have seen more Euro-warfare than any other paper's in recent times, was definitely ill-advised and no doubt appeared irresponsible to Ireland's eurozone colleagues). Both Ireland and the UK are unusual in the EU in being its only two anglophone members, washed by the trends and tides of the worldwide anglophone economy and culture as much as by those of continental Europe. Ireland, however, is in a unique position of being the only anglophone member of the eurozone and, indeed, needs to do even more to integrate itself with the whole of Europe while lessening its disproportionate dependence upon US, but more particularly UK, economic interests (as Trade Minister Tom Kitt himself argued to Irish retailers).
Ireland and the Irish people at this time must redouble, and be seen to redouble, their commitment to Europe and the euro. Now is not a time for sulking or bitterness or vanity. Ireland's tone is crucial. Its response must be measured and willing to admit responsibility, as much as to praise its many achievements and successes in recent years. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Mark Shiel, (from Dublin), Lecturer, School of Cultural Studies, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S11 8UZ, UK