Irish willingness to join NATO could ease unification
Support for both is rising among Catholics and Protestants
In 1949, when America’s ambassador handed Ireland’s foreign minister an invitation to join NATO, the answer was a polite no. Ireland wanted no part of an alliance including Britain, its former coloniser, which it blamed for dividing the isle into a mainly Protestant, British north and a Catholic, independent south. In later decades the Irish were leery of being dragged into America’s global crusade against communism or, more recently, its “war on terror”. Neither chimed well with Ireland’s generally anti-colonialist foreign policy.
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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “A unifying factor”
Europe
April 5th 2025- Marine Le Pen’s ban polarises France
- The prospect of early elections in Ukraine has everyone in a spin
- Russia’s army is being subordinated to its security services
- Irish willingness to join NATO could ease unification
- Germany’s Mütterrente is a poor way to pay parents
- Europe cannot fathom what Trumpian America wants from it
From the April 5th 2025 edition
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