De Valera warns us from beyond the grave!

R0C0

Daily Mail 16.05.2008

By Tom Prendeville

In a prophetic warning from beyond the grave, it has emerged that Eamon de Valera spoke out over 50 years ago about the dangers of becoming entangled in a European Union.

It came in a speech to the Dail on July 12, 1955 - almost 53 years to the day before the vote on the Lisbon Treaty - when the founder of Fianna Fail had returned from a meeting in Strasbourg.

Dev had been to a council of Europe meeting at a time when Ireland was been courted as a member of a new European alliance.

In a speech to a packed chamber, the then Taoiseach warned Ireland could lose its independence, control of the economy and become subject to laws that were not in our interests. Many of these outcomes are feared by Lisbon No campaigners.

And in the run-up to the June 12 vote, the words of one of Ireland’s greatest political figures may be significant for people more than half a century on.

Incredibly, Eamon de Valera’s stark message also warned about the dangers of a European Constitution and getting entangled in European-led military adventures, over which we would have no control. The events he warned so clearly and unequivocally about are now upon us, say anti-treaty campaigners.

He said: “We have always realised that we are one nation and that, as far as physical resources were concerned, our resources were not great. We also realise that, small as were our physical resources, there were spiritual ones which were of great value; and we never doubted that our nation, though a small one, in the material sense, could play a very important part in international affairs. In a Council of Europe it would have been unwise for our people to enter into a political federation which would mean that you had a European parliament deciding the economic circumstances, for example, of our life.

For economic and other reasons we had refused to be satisfied with a representative of, say, one in six, as was our representative in the British parliament. Our representative in the European Assembly was, I think, something like four out of 120. That is, instead of being out-voted on matters that we would have regarded as important interests to us by five or six to one, we would have been out-voted by 30 or 40 to one.

We did not strive to get out of that domination [British] of our affairs by outside force, or we did not get out of that position to get into a worse one.

“One of the things that made me unhappy at Strasbourg was that I saw that at the first meeting of the Assembly, instead of trying to provide organs for co-operation, there was an attempt to provide a full-blooded political constitution, there were members who were actually dividing themselves into socialists parties, and so on.”

On the issue of neutrality, he added:

“In every war fought, those who are fighting will always find good and moral causes for the fight…if the world does not learn wisdom and if there are to be future wars, there will be no dearth of good causes which war will be supposed to further. A small nation has to be extremely cautious when it enters into alliances which bring it, willy nilly, into those wars…we would not be consulted as to the terms on which it should enter”.

- Daily Mail

humanji

And Nostradamus predicted Hitler. Anything can mean anything when you interpret it for your own ends.

Sherifu

Well Holy God.

Ekancone

Wow, De Valera in nationalist comment shocka! I think the real question is, if Europe really went in this direction, would Ireland be able to do anything about it?

Irish and Proud

daithifleming wrote: »

Wow, De Valera in nationalist comment shocka! I think the real question is, if Europe really went in this direction, would Ireland be able to do anything about it?

Actually, it was De Valera (and his constitutional act) that gave us our right to vote in any treaty. However, some people say that if we vote for the Lisbon Treaty, it could be further amended without the need for another treaty, thereby by-passing our constitutional right to have any say in Europe. If this is true, it's disgusting! :mad:

Vote No!

Scofflaw

Irish and Proud wrote: »

Actually, it was De Valera (and his constitutional act) that gave us our right to vote in any treaty. However, some people say that if we vote for the Lisbon Treaty, it could be further amended without the need for another treaty, thereby by-passing our constitutional right to have any say in Europe. If this is true, it's disgusting! :mad:

Vote No!

Like so many things you find disgusting about the Treaty, it isn't true, though. Nor was it deValera who gave us our right to vote in any treaty, since, quite aside from anything else, we don't have any such right. When did you last vote on a bilateral tax treaty?

amused,
Scofflaw

dresden8

Scofflaw wrote: »

Like so many things you find disgusting about the Treaty, it isn't true, though. Nor was it deValera who gave us our right to vote in any treaty, since, quite aside from anything else, we don't have any such right. When did you last vote on a bilateral tax treaty?

amused,
Scofflaw

Last February

Scofflaw

dresden8 wrote: »

Like so many things you find disgusting about the Treaty, it isn't true, though. Nor was it deValera who gave us our right to vote in any treaty, since, quite aside from anything else, we don't have any such right. When did you last vote on a bilateral tax treaty?

Last February

So you're saying there was an Irish referendum on a bilateral tax treaty last February? Was it an awfully quiet one?

more amused,
Scofflaw