Personally, I'd Rather Have Kept The Snakes

Mr FreeMarket reminds us that 93 years ago today Captain Oates went for his fateful walk.

Personally, I think that's a small price to pay for avoiding all this loveable Oirish crap. The folks at Tangled Web sum it up pretty well. Still, there's a little more to it than that.

I remember our future PM wondering why some many Brit Bloggers were pleased to tip their hats to the Yanks on July 4 when, all things considered, what was actually being celebrated was a British defeat. Actually, his argument was a little more nuanced, but it does raise an interesting point. The Declaration of Independence is kind of dull, but it does raise a number of serious charges against the Crown. The Constitution of the Unites States is one of the most sublime documents in existence. I can't imagine a country which wouldn't be improved by - at least - adopting the principles enumerated in this document - America, for example. The constitution is animated above all else by a belief in the limitlessness of human potential.

But Ireland ? Yes, they keep going on about cleansing Ireland of the British, but what else ? Irish nationalism is a philosophy almost uniquely devoid of any elevated concepts. True, there is a warped parody of The Faith which owes more to Tony Soprano than His Holiness, plus industrial quantities of victimhood, but apart from that ? Nada.

Partition in Ireland was like the sink estate seceding from the rest of town. The only problem with it was this: in the US they said 'Go west', in Ireland they say 'Go east until you get to Britain, breed like rats, hit the welfare like a battering ram and then spend it all getting blitzed and singing about killing Brits'. They're not a nation, they're an ex-wife.

Of course, now they're a roaring Celtic Tiger, which is why they need all those subsidies from the EU. Or something. Mind you, it must be hard to build an economy when the only thing you've ever invented is the car bomb.

Truly, the Irish are the Palestinians of the West. Except this: St Patrick was a Roman from Britain. Say what you like about the Palis, but even they don't have the chutzpah to build a key part of their national identity around an Israeli.