What Has The Treaty Of Rome Ever Done For Us?

We sure love celebrating things in this country, don’t we? And when there’s an excuse for a good aul shindig, you can bet Comrade Bertski & co will be there chucking confetti.

It doesn’t have to be a traditional cause for celebration either. Even the 90th anniversary of something is a candidate for breaking out the bubbly these days it seems.

And mark my words – when the Irish cricket team gets home from the West Indies, it will be an unmissable pre-election photo-op for our esteemed politicians, even though they probably think “leg before wicket” is some kind of dance move.

Given this party atmosphere surrounding Fianna Fáil and Leinster House, surely we can expect something pretty wonderful next weekend to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome?

Hang on – there doesn’t seem to be anything on the schedule! Even our national broadcaster fulfilled its obligations by screening a football match between an English team and a “European XI” which didn’t include a single Irishman.

So given this general ambivalence to the occasion, I guess that means we feel the European Union has absolutely nothing to do with what defines us as a nation today.

Like hell it doesn’t!!!

Sure, you can point to dozens of beaurocratic blunders from Brussels over the years. But you can also point to the signs that read “funded in part by the European Union”.

Can we honestly say we have made the most of our prosperity? How’s our health service? How does our cost of living compare to the continent? Should I go on?

All I’m saying is that if we’re going to take credit by calling it The Celtic Tiger, I reckon we should at least acknowledge that we’ve had a little help along the way.