Diarmaid Ferriter: Nobody should be mocked or lampooned for decrying the consequences of the new arms race

Taoiseach John A Costello had quite the wind in his sails returning from an official visit to the United States in March 1956. He was sufficiently buoyed to tell his coalition government colleagues, “It is impossible to visit America, certainly at the time of the St Patrick’s Day celebrations, and retain any sense that Ireland is a small unimportant island. It is not. It is a country which has made a very large impact on the world and contributed very much to shaping the most important power in the modern world – America.”

Given Ireland’s neutrality during the second World War and the contemporary cold war climate, Costello also noted that his speeches during his trip demonstrated awareness that “there were immensely more important problems before the world than the solution of Partition, despite its great concern to us”. But both the Republican and D...
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