Imaginary conversation with well-informed foreign friend

Friend: I've just been looking at the homepage of your ... what do you call him? Your Taoiseach. I wonder if you can help me, there's some stuff there I don't quite understand ....

Me: You're not the only one.

Friend: He made a statement on the killings of the two British soldiers in Antrim at the weekend, and it says he conveys his sympathy to the British Prime Minister. He also expresses the hope that those responsible will be brought to justice.

Me: Well, yes. The killings were pretty brutal, and have been condemned by all the major parties, north and south.

Friend: Yes, but when Gerry Adams condemned them, he added that he was nevertheless opposed to any British soldier's being in Ireland. He coupled his opposition to the killings with his firm hope of one day seeing Ireland free from occupation by a foreign power. But there was no such view expressed in Brian Cowen's statement.

Me: Should there have been?

Friend: I think so. You're Taoiseach calls himself a nationalist, doesn't he?

Me: Well, yes, but ...

Friend: ... He leads the political heirs of the anti-Treatyites of 1922, doesn't he?

Me: You have to make a disti-

Friend: ... He adorns his office with a portrait of a man who took up armed resistance against Britain and declared that "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace", does he not?

Me: You can't take that too seriou-

Friend: ... He will in a matter of weeks take part in a state commemoration of the 1916 Rising, whose declaration called for the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the full and unfettered control of Irish destinies, won't he?

Me: Look, you have to understand that this is just political window-dressing. It doesn't really affect the way he exercises his political office. Commemorating events that happened 90 years ago is one thing, practicing Realpolitik today is something else.

Friend: Okay, look at it this way: does your Taoiseach see the Six Counties as part of Ireland, or part of Britain?

Me: As part of Ireland, I would hope.

Friend: So what business do British soldiers have there?

Me: None.

Friend: So they're a foreign occupying force?

Me: Well, the Taoiseach would probably see the occupation as a regrettable and temporary state of affairs, to be one day replaced by a united Ireland - but one to be brought about by peaceful means. It's not like he's in favour of British soldiers being there, but he tolerates it for the moment.

Friend: But why does he not say this? Why is he sending messages of sympathy to Gordon Brown and expressing the hope that Irish republicans will soon be hauled before the Queen's courts, but not giving the slightest indication that he wants Britain's occupation of the six counties to end, that every last British soldier should leave Ireland's shores, that Ireland should be re-united? Is he a nationalist or not?

Me: He is a nationalist, but -

Friend: - but he just doesn't let that influence the way he actually does politics.

Me: Not really, no. That's diplomacy.

Friend: In my country we call that hypocrisy, not diplomacy. How depressing. Tell me, is there any party in Ireland, apart from Sinn Féin and its more radical offshoots, that opposes Britain's occupation of the six counties? That calls in its manifesto for Britain to leave?

Me: Yes, as a matter of fact there is. The Christian Solidarity Party calls for a withdrawal of Britain from the north of Ireland in its 1997 manifesto. And that is still our position today.

Friend: Well, that's good to know. Hey, I hope you didn't invent this conversation just for a bit of publicity for your party, did you?

Me: No, not at all. But I want to stress for my readers that we are a genuinely nationalist party.

Friend: Hmmm, it sounds to me like you did -

Me: Begone!

Friend: (vanishes in a puff of smoke)