Ash Wednesday

Have a good Lent! I would be happy to pray for those who request it.

Rebellion in the Irish Church

Just when you think you've hit rock bottom...

The New translation of the Roman Missal is set to hit Ireland From Advent onwards, this missal, to sum it up simply if somewhat inaccurately, would enforce a stricter interpretation of the Second Vatican Council, slight reforms in the procedures and layouts in Novus Ordo Mass, and a greater liberalization of the Latin Extraordinary form (or so I'm led to believe, I welcome people to correct me in the comments if they feel I am in err).

This new Missal has got alot of liberal Catholics everywhere worried, which is what originally made me so interested in it, and I am rather shocked to learn that organizations of priests in America are advocating outright rebellion against Rome should this be implemented. The sad thing is there is an element of this rebellious spirit in the Irish Church too but I am ignorant as to its full extent, as I am fairly certain my own parish priests would submit to Rome is push comes to shove. But this element of rebellion is troublesome.

Outside of the obvious religious and social concerns I have over these developments, regular readers will recall I have previously stressed a renewal and strengthening of the Catholic Church in Ireland is needed to institute traditional conservative mentalities among the Irish from which any movement to re-establish a Gaelic monarchy can possibly be facilitated, and my own support of what I viewed as an Inquisition into the Irish clergy in the Apostolic Visitation, (again inaccurate but I liked viewing it as such), from which we have learned one of the Bishops say the Irish Church has less then ten years to avert disaster. Which when you think about it is a generous portion of time compared to the rest of Europe. Without a Strong degree of Religious Unity Ireland will sink that much faster into the pit of secularism and I do not need to point out the intrepid dangers of such a path.

Keep in mind, it was Ireland's conversion to Christianity that gave Gaelic civilization a desperate revival it needed when the rest of Europe was in its dark age, it didn't fix the problem of Irish Society being so stagnantly conservative that we were using armour and weapons designs in the 1400s that dated back to La Tene Celtic culture. If the Church can revitalize and consolidate itself, we will have a real chance to start the counter revolution properly in Ireland. Otherwise Apathy and death await the country.

I am under no illusion about these schismatics, should they as a group split from communion with Rome and go full liberal backwater, they will die out incredibly faster then the Protestant movements are. I honestly believe these to be hollow threats to scare Rome from putting its foot down as it inevitably will, sooner or later.

God, I hate Hollywood

Note: The reason why I have not updated about the State of the Republic is because I needed some time after the election to calm down lest I write naught but insane drivel and make a damn fool of myself. In the meantime, lets talk about what seems to be big on the Monarchist Blogosphere right now, Monarchy in the Movies. Lets have a rant about that first.

I went to see the King's Speech last week, and if nothing else about it, it made me laugh with the interactions between His Majesty and his speech therapist. But you can read other blogs about in depth reviews of movies and the subtle untruths and liberal whitewashing strewn throughout it, I wont waste my time reviewing it in depth here. Not this is about how monarchy and anything traditional is represented in movies these days. BraveHeart, Robin Hood, Kingdom of Heaven and now an upcoming movie entitled Ironclad.

In these movies, even the romantically entertaining ones such as Braveheart and Elizabeth: The Golden Age which usually portray ONE of the monarchs as the good guy, (except in Braveheart where the portrayed Robert the Bruce as a cowardly slave to his ailing father's will who betrayed William Wallace at the crucial moment and reaped the crown anyway), The same God damn annoying tropes are seen again and again and again and again. The kings are useless, evil, or nothing without a crass, classless friend to poke them along (did I mention Braveheart made it seem as if William Wallace started off the rebellion as a Peasant?), the Heroes are cynical sceptics of the contemporary government system and, (if it has a religious bent such as in the Season of the Witch) They are also sceptics religiously by default BECAUSE GOD FORBID WARRIOR HEROES IN THE MIDDLE AGES NOT BE SCEPTICS. Another Annoying trope and one that does not limit itself to the its representation in movies set in the middle ages is the uselessness of priest characters. If they are not Fanatics, they are somber, brooding, unhappy delirious, insane or otherwise extremely unlikeable persons who NEVER answer a sceptical character's questions. Ever. Its a rule, even when the priest characters are presented as good they are never able to answer a question that even I, poor sod of a Layman could answer, A priest is a man who dedicates his life to such questions and he wouldn't even attempt an answer? Really!? Also don't get me started on supposedly Catholic characters believing in the Rapture. This trope is endemic in any and every exorcism movie, especially the latest one, The Rite which I have to admit was a little entertaining but who's glaring flaws annoyed the hell out of me.

And now this new movie, Ironclad, it has told me enough from the teaser advert and promotional poster alone to tell me it is Kingdom of Heaven meets Robin Hood. Disillusioned sceptic of a crusader returns home and rebels against his king who is of course a ruthless bloody tyrant who rules arbitrarily and the hero will fight for democracy and freedom and tolerance and blah blah blah, God why can't I go to the cinema and just be entertained anymore?

If nothing else, the new Batman Movies are in my own view immensely entertaining, but it is a sorry state of affairs when professional entertainers can present comic book characters in faithful if original lights and not History.

SOTR: Fine Gael Victory seemingly imminent

In the Wake of David Quinn's slamming of the Labour Party over its Pro-Abortion policies, the Pro Life campaign in Ireland has stepped up its opposition to the Labour Party's callous canvessing at Parish Chapels after Mass. According to some blogs active in the Irish Pro Life movement, they have cited that the recent drop in poll votes for the Labour Party Is likely down to their involvement in influencing the Public over Moral Issues. David Quinn is the Director of the Iona Institute, a Conservative Roman Catholic Think Tank in Ireland who promote Religion and Family values within the country. This comes as Significent break with past relations as it was only in 2007 when the Labour TD John Burton had launched the Iona Institute's first Policy document with regards to Taxation. http://www.ionainstitute.com/

Also on the News is Enda Kenny attempted to defuse a row with Irish Trade Unions over Party Line comments over 'vested' interests on the Fine Gael website in regards to Trade Unions. David Begg, general secetary of the Congress of Irish Trade Unions is meeting with Enda to settle the Row. The Congress had asked the Line be removed over fears that a Fine Gael Government would enter prolonged confrontation with the Organisation over trade unions despite good relations in the Past.

Now with those headlines said, Recent Election polls, as reliable as they ever are heh, have shown and increase of 5 percent support for Fine Gael and a drop of 4% for Labour, with the Independents gaining as well. In all Likelihood previous predictions of a Fine Gael Majority Government with a coallition of Independents is still quite possible and Labour's chances for power is dwindling rapidly, thank God.

Now its only fair that as Enda Kenny is very likely to become An Taoiseach i should do a breif review of the Fine Gael policies and what they could potentially mean for Ireland's future. Now it goes without saying that as bad as the 'Conservative' Irish Party is to any good and Sound Catholic Irish man, nevermind a Monarchist, they are nowhere near the dirty revolutionaries that Labour is, but it still remains to be seen if they will be the lazy Traitors Fine Fail turned out to be.

The Fine Gael Policy for Reform is delightfully Called 'The Five Point plan to get Ireland working', what else is new? The Five points focus on five major Areas of concern the Party seeks to focus on, Jobs, Budget, Health, Public Sector and Politics. Yeah, a wide range huh? There is no way any government, no matter how competent could hope to fix all these issues in one or two terms, but this depends on how long the Gaels stay in Power for int he South. Lets have a breif overview of each section based on a skim reading of the PDFs they have supplied for public viewing.

• JOBS: The usual hub-bub with regards to acknowledging the effects of the recession on Jobs, reducing costs, red tape regulations blah blah ''down with the beurocracy!'' Bull we expect. The meat of the issue is to support investment and support 'competitive taxes' as well as supporting Irish Businness to escape Bankruptcy and a Cabinet Office pertaining to Jobs. They do however support a shift to Export-driven-Growth which could have knock on effects to issues I have raised previously with Ireland's econemy. As well as a 'New Asia Strategy. Another promising er...promise is to encourage working age Irishmen and women to get off benefits and other such debilitating nonsense. http://finegael2011.com/pdf/WorkingforOurFuture.pdf
• BUDGET: Call me a cynic, but this is the one area I do not expect any potential government to do well with in the next half a dozen terms, let alone a single term. Their policies are wide ranging and rather intelligible to a certain extent in a wide range of Taxation issues, including water charges. They've also dedicated and entire document outlining how they intend to reform Irish Banking to restore international trust in our competency. Yeah I laughed too. But give them Credit for trying. http://www.finegael2011.com/pdf/LessWasteLowerTaxesStrongerGrowth.pdf http://www.finegael2011.com/pdf/Credit_Where_Credit_is_Due.pdf
• HEALTHCARE: Short and to the point, Fine Gael believes the current Healthcare system in the South is broken, and propose the Fine Gael FairCare Universal system eliminating the current public-private two tier system in the South. To this I honestly tell Fine Gael to wise the bollucs up if you'll excuse my language. The current system costs 20 Billion a year, but compare that to the Bloated monster of the NHS right across the water, or the State-crushing French Healthcare system. You want us to emulate these systems? I am not without compassion and I recognise the horrid flaws in the current Healthcare system, but total Nationalisation is not the answer, especially since it will most definitely be a more expensive failure then our current system. I'd link their Policy PDF but they do not have one on their website.
• PUBLIC SECTOR: Fine Gael offers to create Smaller, better Government by cutting back room waste, destroying Quangos and shrinking the Public sector to make it more efficient (compare this policy attitude to the Healthcare suggestions if you will). Promising to reduce red tape, and increase accountability of managers and other 'middle men' as well as securing front line public services such as teachers, Gardai, as well as streamlining services etc, etc. Most of this I have no qualms with. The also hark back to budget reform and other such, but it really is a wait and see situation to how successful their policies will be. Assuming the 'like minded' independents they'll invite into Government with them agree. http://www.finegael2011.com/pdf/ReinventingGovernment.pdf
• POLITICS: And this is where I flush with Embarassment. Previously I had lamblasted Labour party for 'promising' to abolish the Seanad Eireann, however it seems that Fine Gael is not entirely against this Idea either. However, Fine Gael has promised to make the issue a referendum decision, rather then a policy decision. Not the Best but at least this allows room for the more moderate minded reformists take stage in the public sphere instead of the revolutionaries. Other promises include reducing the number of politicans by 35%, (they did promise smaller government afterall), as well as Constitution Day, which the Government will put forward various suggestions for reform of the Presidency, the Dail, Ombudsmen, and the Judiciary, all of which will be put to Referendum. However I strongly disagree with the abolition of the Second House, it is not effective for Ireland that The Dail should Rule alone and other small countries with only a single house governing well are few and far between. We do not need to take the risk of following their example by abolishing a potential check on the power of Government. http://www.finegael2011.com/pdf/NewPolitics.pdf

And there we have it. Fine Gael is most certainly not the Best possible choice for Ireland's future and I have breifly outlined some of the reasons why. Unfortuneately Ireland really does not have any other choice in the matter, the next Government must be Fine Gael with Independents, we cannot afford to allow the Socialists into power. Whatever Damage Fine Gael does to Ireland it will not be as bad Labour or Sinn Fein.

Or God help us, Fine Fail.

SOTR: A One Party Government?

Further development in polls in the Republic have seen a steady decline of support for the other parties in the Republic and a relative increase of support for the Fine Gael Party.

This development, while not unexpected, have raised speculators concerns at the possibility of Fine Gael forming the overwhelming majority in the Dail.

Out of practicality and sound political strategy, Fine Gael is still expected to adopt several like minded Independents as their coalition partners, ejecting any hope that Labour or Sinn Fein TDs have an easy road to shared power and if nothing else, God bless FG for that.

Oh yeah and apparently there's various candidates for the leader for the United Left Alliance, rather miniscule alliance of left wing parties in the Irish Republic. These are expected to get nowhere as you might imagine.

I can only thank the Irish Catholic Blogosphere for strongly doing what they can to expose Labour's pro-abortion tendencies to practicing Catholic voters in the Republic. My gripes with Abortion being a disaster, morally, socially and economically for Ireland being more then obvious, this further illustrates the point of keeping that hideous mutant of an ideology Labour Represents out of power. Especially since they have stated to actively seek abortion legislation in Ireland.

Back to Fine Gael however, what this change in attitudes means that, while I dont believe the majority of the Irish Republic are having an upsurge in Right wing conservative pride (although that'd be a decidedly delightful change to the rather liberal half century we just finished), it does mean that our future Government will most definitely be quite Conservative, which is good news for potential Senead Reform if any. Bringing a scalpal to the operating table where Labour would bring the Bulldozer. This doesn't mean I trust Fine Gael completely, I trust no party in any Republic to be fair, I am afterall, a Monarchist for a reason.

Fine Gael, generally though of as the most center right wing of the Irish Political spectrum (with Fine Fail being only slightly more right wing then Labour, consider that for a moment), has done something counter intuitive and that was to promise to stop the practice of candidates for the Dail knowing Basic Irish Gaelige. This, as Mac an RI points out in his blog, is mind boggling, not only is it something that no one, Right or Left, in Ireland actually wants, it goes against their own bloody history as being one of the strongest supporters of the resurrection of the Irish Language in the Nation. If I were a generous man, (and depending on my mood, I am), I would say it is a false sense of egalitarianism that is driving this promise, not to exclude the non native Irish Citizens. Which again is ridiculous when we have heard no complaints from the Immigrant community about Irish Language being thought in schools as a non-elective, or complaints about an Gaelteacht.

However this does raise the possibility that other legislation, such as the currently highly restrictive birth control and Abortion Legislation will not be exacerbated as Labour would have it. Which is good news for the Future of Ireland as the average Irish Family is just over the limit needed to sustain a viable culture without importing immigrants by the boatload to replace labour forces. There is just too much to fix and we cannot fix it all now, and this is putting to one side the Restoration I've been promoting, Ireland is still in deep trouble, and Fine Gael becoming the dominant party wont fix all these things magically, but at the very least, it will stave off the problems becoming disastrously worse.

SOTR: The Tricolour and updates to blog business

As for now, my Restoration Series of blog post is on hiatus while I focus on the tumultuous events leading up to the potentially disasterous March Elections in the Republic.

In the meantime I will be posting up new twists in turns in Irish politics, the possible socio-political implications of them, and I will post my final thoughts on the election results and what it means for Ireland.

After which I will measure up the State of the Irish Republic in the 21st century and how it measures up to its Constitution, founding principles, and how said constitution and legislative changes measures up to the often Neglected Irish Proclamation of Independence and the goals it has set in achieving Ireland's status as equal in the 'great family of nations'

Also for those of you who read my previous post on the implications of the Labour party's potential in Irish politics may be eleviated in recent turns in the polls have suggested Fine Gael may form a ruling party with only a handful of independents in co-allition. A surprisingly conservative move given all things. However I will direct you to my fellow blogger Mac an Ri's post over at Scotic Monarchy, regarding fine gael and the implications of Irish men being ashamed of their Irish-ness.

I will adress this concern also in later posts as well as a thourough look at availible Nobility in Ireland and how they can be intgrated into an Irish High Kingdom as an Addendum to my Restoration series. You may be surprised at what I can show you, so interested individuals may wish to watch for such a post in the near future.

For this post I will however, focus on Ireland's flag.

It has much been discussed, even in Republican Ireland, that the nature of the Irish Tricolour ultimately does not represent the ideals of the Irish Republic to begin with. To the casual observer, IE the one who is blind to the symbolism of most flags, their would seem nothing wrong with the Irish Tricolour, afterall it represents 'Peace between Protestants and Catholics' with its colours, and has influenced similar meaning in the flags of India and the Ivory Coast. What could there be wrong with it?

Quite alot as any monarchist would tell you. Or even, any Republican worth his salt could tell you.

It is no secret the Irish Tricolour is inspired by the French Tricolour. It is supposed to, asides from peace between the dominent religions of the Island, represent the ideas of the French Revolution, Egalite, Fraternite, Liberte. These are Jacobin Ideas, and while I have ranted how republicanism is utterly alien to Irish culture and spirit. Jacobin Ideas are, or should be, Anathema, even poisonous to the Irish spirit. And frequently often are.

Who are the Jacobins you ask? The Jacobins where a group of frenchmen with radical ideas, much more radical then their contemporary Revolutionaries and are famous for exacerbating the Revolution to its infamously bloody heights. In truth what the represented is a feotal and violent form of what has become a more mature and seductive monster: Secularism and with its twin, Totalitarianism. These were the Men who rabidly preached against Religion, tradition and culture, who burned down churches, hung priests, stripped paris of its Monarchical glory and even went so far as attempting to rename days, months, restandardise years, hours of the day, calenders street names, areas, signposts. In otherwords utterly revolutionize every aspect of France, even going so far as to attempt to implement a state sponsored religion that was at once rejecting God and attempting to deify the state. All under the name of Egalite, Fraternite, Liberte.

It was these men who influenced the french tricolour and set in motion the horrors of the French Revolutionary wars and the subsequent Napoleonic wars. Barely corrected by the Treaty of Vienna. And this was the flag and values the Irish Government sought to emulate under Republicanism?

I can only assume there was an element of Ignorence in the Young and vigorously authoritarian Irish Republic. (Lets face facts, the Irish Government and Irish culture in general suited an Authoritarian regime, even a democratic one, it is just a pity it was the stale Republican model, filled with ugliness) For any student of History will tell you the Catholic Church in Ireland was the State Religion in everything but name. Literally. It was nerly stated as so in the Constitution and the same Constitution still gives special place to the Catholic Church as the Religion of the Majority today. This alone puts the Nature of the Irish Republic at extreme odds with Jacobin Ideals for obvious reason. However, this is most likely the reason why His Holiness Pope Pius XII refused to Bless the Irish Constitution.

As well as this, and something which is pointed out in Scotic Monarchy, the Government also went out of its way to promote Irish speech and literature, a revised studying of Irish history and rigorous patronage of Irish sporting culture (which thankfully remains strong and which intrinsically is an engine of Irish Nationalism and Pride in return while remaining Apolitical) and attempt to perserve elements of Irish culture which had been dieing. This smacks of Traditionalism, another aspect which the Jacobins reject. Nevermind the fact that the Irish Republic, although reluctantly, instituted the Council of CHiefs of the Name. An extremely sympathetic nod to monarchism and Traditionalism.

And Egalite speaks for itself. When has any revolutionary country been truly egalitarian without making things worse for everyone involved?

With this one must consider the Distinctly Medieval, or should I say fuedal nature of all other Irish Flags and Emblems. One need not look further then the traditional flags of the Irish Provinces, themselves representitive of great Irish Royal Dynasties, Unions and History. And are themselves radically different to the National Flag On all counts. The Traditional Ulster flag especially.

And this does not even touch upon the existence of Family crests, a distinctly medieval and traditionalist aspect of Irish Society, which every clan shares. Every single one. Nor the Existence of Lord Mayors. Not just mayors but Lord mayors. a hangover of British Occupation, but one which I have no qualsm with for the forseeable future. Even in the event of a Restoration, the existence of mayorships for towns and Cities being an elected office still sounds reasonable. ANd in my opinion thats were democracy should stay.

The only conclusion is this: The Irish flag, which itself is un-Irish in its inception, is un-Irish in its influence, it clashes with the rest of our culture and promotes an Alien Ideology, and a destructive cultural force that inspired it. It is irrepresentitive of its constitution of its current government and its people's culture and history. In fact its irrespective of the Soldiers of the original Oglah na hEireann and what the stood for (except for the Socialists). It has no affectionate nickname as other nations have for their flags, it is bland and uniform, and smacks of an Innate slave mentality and fear of Irish exceptionalism and Pride, it is anti-intuitive to progress for Irish society culture and politics. It cannot stay as the National flag should any restoration occur; primarily because it should not stay even under the current form of Government.

State of the Republic

If I seem to be harping on about this topic, it is only because it needs to be hammered home again and again. The Irish Republic is in serious, serious trouble, as I have spent ample time discussing in post after post after post. Why are you so worried, you may ask me? Well, I can understand that as an avowed Absolute Monarchist, Nationalist and proponent of a radical change of the political structure of Ireland that I am, it may seem strange to some why I would not be celebrating a possible downfall of the corrupted, weak-kneed and constitutionally bank-rupt nation state the Irish Republic has become. But then that should just scare you all the more, because I am most certainly not celebrating the crisis in the Republic, and anyone with a brain should know why.

Even though it is still a long shot by most speculators opinion, there is still a sizeable chance that the party known as Irish Labour, (if you havent heard of them, let it's implications sink in first before you hit up wikipedia or google, then prepare to have your fears released), could either form a ruling party in the South in the coming elections or failing that, a co-allition party as the likely second largest party in the coming elections. Paradigm shifts aside, this is incredibly dangerous for the Irish Nation. Why? Not because of its social, political or economic goals, as debateable as those are they arent Irish Labour's real threat. Its real threat is the downright revolutionary attitude it is taking to the Irish Republic's Governmental structure and Constitution.

http://www.labour.ie/ Here's the link to their party site, knock yourselves out.

Now, rather innocently, their policies are listed under policies for reform. Looking over some of their policies, there are sweeping areas of concern that of course warrant further evaluation and consideration for a concerned voter (That priceless and mythical commodity) to mull over. Until you get to the policies for Government reform. Which while extensively detailed in the free PDF for download, (I reccommend a quick read if you have time), the policies they have decided to use as eye grabbing high-lights for Governmental Change are Alarming.

Establishing Independent Electoral commission and fiscal advisory board sound like good ideas at first, but when taken in light of some of the other proposals, such as Abolishing the Seanad Eireann (Irish Senate and Upper House of the Parliament) is an utterly radical move which would transform the Oireactas and Ireland into a Unicameral Legislature, dominated by the most popular Party. Introducing Spending Limits for local and Presidential Elections, while at first seemingly a step in fighting corruption in the office of President by preventing richer parties from dominating. However the Independent Electoral Boards puts the power in compiling electoral Registers and running elections under the authority of a single organisation, who's iunception was sponsored by the Ruling party.

Argueably the only proposal I suppose I could meet Labour halfway on is forcing TDs into longer Sitting days. But even that is thrown into doubt with the suspect motivations behind its other reform policies.

I'd feel safer if Sinn Fein got into office, at least they proved they have no idea what they're doing.

Communication

The single most cirrppling hinderence to world wide monarchist organisations, and the one thing the revolutionaries indisputably command better then most monarchists; is communication and organisation.

I hate to say this but this is a true fact and it needs to be stated. What are monarchists? Generally they are people in favour of tradition, legitimate authority, with emphatise on both, and patriotic. The vast majority of the time they are also profoundly religious or have a sense of religion. In short, the things we share in common are both our greatest asset, but also indisputably make it hard for us to get along with eachother. But not in the same fashion as Revolutionaries bicker and often times kill eachother like rabid dogs.

See, the qualities of monarchism will seperate a german monarchist and a french monarchist due to pride of language, history and loyalty. The are very much the same but are incredibly different, what makes us special and different from the revolutionaries is Monarchism's demand of a higher standards on both public and personal matters, monarchist must conduct themselves in good manner as a matter of sheer principle, (one can not be a monarchist and have no respect for manners. It is disingenious.), so when monarchists disagree with eachother, and we do, Often and passionately, our squabbles themselves, the very moments when our passions rule our minds and we un-man ourselves are squabbles of a higher manner then those shameful dogfights in the revolutionary political arena. This alone is quite an accomplishment.

However the fact remains that this difference often makes Monarchists too proud to share their ideas, I oftentimes myself harp on about the intrinsic need for more monarchist thinkers in the modern era to produce books and written works, more monarchist friendly media needs to be produced and am even an avid proponent in producing propaganda for monarchism. Because these are all things the revolutionary dogs do, and they are a good century ahead of us in this regard, is it any wonder we monarchists find it so hard to convince others of our arguements? We need to communicate better, monarchists around the world need to share their ideas more, the monarchist blogosphere is a fantastic start in this respect but it is not enough, because even communists klnow the value of blogs.

A prayer request

My Girlfriend's father has recently been in a car accident, he is an elderly gent on an air canister and is getting well on in his years, she will be the worse off without him should the worst happen. This is a rather personal request for their sake, I ask that you pray for them both and that her father makes a speedy recovery. Thank you.

Protectionism, and how it is neccessary

Onto something that has always bugged me. Ireland's economy.

Now I will step of my high horse long enough to say this: I am well aware that this is a vast and complex issue this is, and how divisive it can be for both intelligensia and laymen to discuss, that such talks of economics can not in the traditional sense be grasped by so called 'basic understanding' for to understand economics fully is to have enough liberty to be free from its effects, and thus impossible. I confess that economics naturally lends itself to politics, ideology, bias, and culture. My American readers, (and there are a goodly number of you) are well aware of this. I know that it will be impossible for my view and my arguments to be persuasive enough to convince even a small minority of you, and those of you of a socialist bent on Market theory are likely already aware that nothing I say could convince you.

Now with that said I'll just get back onto my high horse here and say this.

There is no such thing as Monarchist Economics and such talk undermines the Principles of Monarchism. I say this firstly because, of course, everything in this blog relates to Monarchism and the Irish situation, so it needed to stated before I am mistaking for speaking for all Monarchists of my stripes, which I am not. And I say it secondly, because it is true. Monarchism, as an ideology, is an ideology of realism, one of enduring traditionalism that absorbs new ideas that strengthens it and one on which it can rely upon good thinking and sound decision making of ages to guide its judgement and hence cannot be restricted y economic theories when said theories only emerge with the times. Monarchism allows for the Sovereign, (one should note I am speaking as an Absolutist here wherein the Kingdom has the Monarch retain a certain amount of active and decision making powers as either a check on Parliament or in communion with it), allows for the sovereign to choose economic policies free from party restrictions, petty election time restraints and concerns, and for the short term popularity or unpopularity of said decisions. After all, in any monarchy the principle about what is always popular is not always right reigns, (or at least it should).

Now how does this relate to Ireland? Well you may recall my previous blog posts lamenting Ireland's shattered harp, the celtic tiger and the threat of Irish Labour, and it got me to thinking of Ireland's economic situation as a whole. And when you get down to the nitty gritty of supply and demand, it is impossible for Ireland to survive without trade, we cannot possibly be a self-sufficient country, in any sense, (I can hear the Greens cry already).

Ireland has few natural resources. We have few precious minerals we can exploit and those resources we can exploit are dwindling and were small to begin with. We have, and likely always will rely heavily on agriculture, farming and fishing, as well as tertiary goods, high end products such as electronics. One thing Ireland has always been good at is producing very high quality products in high enough quantity to warrant the interest of investors, creating jobs, stimulating the economy and other such nonsense we we rent worried about when the country was getting drunk on the celtic tiger.

Yes thats right I am seriously claiming the celtic tiger stunted the Irish Economy, much like how coffee gives you an energy boost yet stunts your overall growth. Yes it gave Ireland the money it needed to build up its infrastructure and help 'the poor man of europe' to catch up but that was not the point of it. Not at all.

In truth, while the EU was subscribing to flawed notions of unending boom, (something that'll take more then a few blog posts to go over, I assure you), it was still relying on the economic make up of Europe during the beginning of that boom, one in which France and Britain controlled the trade in western Europe. Now dont get me wrong, I am not going to berate the French and British for looking after their own interests, its what any of us would do in their place. It was this set up that the EU relied on for their overall market. For the sake of argument, Ireland had a much stronger industry, its beef and grain increased in price due to its high quality and highly sought after worldwide would bring trade to Ireland (this is an isolated example), more trade would flow Ireland's way then it normally has done, Ireland's economy would grow at a slower, but steady rate, it'd pull itself out of the depths of poverty and become a respectible power. At the same time, this would decrease the level of trade that currently goes through France and Britain, American trade, which is still highly sought after, would increasingly invest in the Irish market, to the detriment of the British, this would change the economic make up of Europe.

Solution? Outside of Embargo, the easiest is to make the poor country (Ireland) economically rely on you. The celtic tiger was just that, investment from the EU had the same effect on Ireland as handing a man who had been poor all his life $1000, he will live like he has $1,000,000. And predictably he will get drunk, squander his money and be surprised to find himself sleeping in the same gutter he was in not 20 nights before.

Now, even while this was going on, Irish Industries where hamstrung by EU and UN restrictions on fishing and farming, in fact several times farmers and fishing communities in Ireland where near up in arms over these restrictions, and in other affected areas. These stifled growth, and were further harmed by other, less then above the counter effects. International chains in Ireland, markets famed for the quality of their goods weren't using Irish made products that they were advertising. This is old news for some but in Ireland when this comes to meat sales its quite serious. When most people go to the markets and buy beef, or lamb, or fish, 98% of the times they are buying goods imported cheaply from places such as New Zealand and masqueraded as Irish meat to attract consumers. I've spet a year working in a meat packing plant for such chains to know this is a cold truth. This means that Irish products, despite high quality have to undersell both in local markets and international markets all the time. The downsides should be obvious, after all, isnt this the same thing that happened to the linen industry in Ireland 200 years ago?

The only way a truly responsible government, republican or monarchical can rectify this is through a certain degree or economic protectionism. We have to protect what industries we have in order to justify investments and improve exports and the flow of trade in Ireland and, well, to hell with Europe if such is the case, I mean why not? They say to hell with us. This will no doubt offend those who espouse laise faire policies, but my only response is complete hands off approach to the economy is the same as riding a horse without any gear. And to those Libertarians who think I am a devil for approving some interference with markets, well, I'm flattered. Since I never liked you anyway.

And really my good Gentlemen and Ladies of court, what self respecting Nation hasn't broken a few UN regulations and restrictions in self interest? Come now, lets be sensible here.