When all else fails, put on the Green jersey and re-enact 1916.
It is, and for decades has been, the last refuge of the Irish Government in trouble. This week, on immigration, the auld enemy has once again been rustled out from the back of the political cupboard, donned in the butcher’s apron, and cast as the oppressor of all things good and decent and celtic.
Simon Harris’s face was dutifully stern, his voice resolutely firm, and his demeanour that of an IRA commandant facing down the black and tans: “Ireland will not be a loophole for other countries’ immigration issues”, he intoned.
Except, of course, it isn’t.
People are not coming to Ireland from the UK on foot of UK immigration policy. They are coming to Ireland on foot of Irish immigration policy. There is absolutely nothing in Irish or European law preventing the Irish Government from doing its own deal with Rwanda, or a similarly safe African nation, and taking away the incentive for people to come here.
Over a year ago, Denmark, a fellow EU country, beat Britain to the punch by doing such a deal with Rwanda. Our EU membership does not preclude such an arrangement, as the Danes – proud Europeans – have already proved.
(Incidentally, and as an aside, there’s a whole discussion to be had about how Denmark has somehow managed to be “at the heart of Europe” and benefitting from all the perks of EU membership while still retaining the right to say “no” to the worst excesses of EU policy, while in Ireland such a disposition is unthinkable)
In any case, If Ireland is a more attractive place for immigrants to come to than the United Kingdom or Denmark, then that is solely and entirely as a result of the Irish Government’s decision to make Ireland a more attractive option for immigrants than either of the two aforementioned countries. It is not the job of either His Britannic Majesty’s Government, or His Danish Majesty’s Government, to ensure that they’re issuing the same Cead Mile Fáilte as their Irish counterparts.
All of this is blindingly obvious. And that is why the fight with the British is being picked. It is, as the Irish Daily Mail reveals this morning, certainly not because of any great desire on behalf of the Irish Government to return migrants to Britain: Not a single one, the paper reports, has been sent back to the UK in the past three years.
Recognising that Ireland’s immigration crisis is largely the fault of the Government and its cheerleaders in the media is a very bitter pill for many to swallow. Going from advocating, in effect, open borders to advocating for very restrictive immigration policy might look, to an average voter, like an admission of failure. To fix the problem, failure must first be admitted. Politicians – and a great many journalists – simply cannot do that.
Instead, the electorate is to be presented with a carefully presented main course of ripe, perfectly presented bullshit, garnished with the shamrock: It’s not our failure at all, it’s the shameful British. We’ve no choice but to change policy, thanks to our awful neighbours. Perfidious Albion, once again the cause of all our problems.
Of course, this all suits the British perfectly as well: The Brexit voting boroughs of Northern England, for whom immigration was the single biggest reason for voting for Brexit, are no fans of the Irish Government’s (as they see it) antics during the Brexit negotiations. The comment of a Tory Minister to the Daily Telegraph over the weekend was loaded with more than a hint of relish: “The Irish wanted an open border”, he chortled. “Now they have one”.
Of course there’s another irony too: During the negotiations on Brexit, the Irish Government firmly and resolutely rejected the idea of bilateral negotiations: We negotiate, they insisted, as an EU bloc and take the EU position. Now, on immigration, the Irish appear to want a bilateral solution wherein the British do something to help us out.
Yet, the UK will point out, this is simply a case of the Irish ultimately dealing with the result of French policy. For years now, the French have been quietly waving migrants in the direction of the channel tunnel, and in post-Brexit Brussels, this became something of a standing, self-regarding joke: “They brexited, but they’re still swamped with migrants. How unfortunate”. Pour encourager les autres.
So the British might be prepared to negotiate on this – but on an EU-wide basis, rather than with little old Ireland. Sure, they might say, we’ll help with the EU border in Northern Ireland, but only if the French help with the EU border at Calais. Both the UK and Ireland will be waiting a while if we expect the French to change the habits of a lifetime.
Ultimately, though, pending the passage of the EU migration pact, how attractive a destination Ireland is for migrants is a matter for the Irish Government and the Irish people. It has absolutely nothing, of any kind, to do with the British.
At present, Ireland has voluntarily chosen to be a more attractive destination than our nearest neighbour. That is our choice, not theirs. Everything else is noise, bullshit, and spin.