On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, the socialist writer James Connolly ordered an armed group to march down Dame Street in Dublin, in what became a citizens’ occupation of Dublin city centre. As Connolly hoped, the shockwave launched by the doomed uprising kindled fires of revolution throughout the colonies during all of the 20th century.On 18 November 2010, a small unescorted group of IMF technocrats walked down Dame Street – home of their goal, the Irish Central Bank – to articulate the re-colonisation of Ireland.
Ireland: A Colony Once Again first explains the lack of public protest by the Irish in the face of a grim future. In particular, the author argues that the IMF move simply cemented in place a deal done long ago between globalized corporatism and Irish Catholic nationalism. Almost all sectors of Irish civil society that might have offered resistance, including Connolly’s Labour movement, had long ago been bought off or destroyed.
However, the vacuum created by the perceived fall of the neoliberal world order in 2008 affords an opportunity to re-construct Ireland. In particular, the author argues that the mechanisms used to buttress the current order – from the state security apparatus to the mainstream media – have a less firm hold on power than appears at first sight to be the case. Furthermore, given its history, culture and geographic location, Ireland is very well placed to re-imagine and re-invent itself in a short space of time, in freedom and joy.
