Commentary
Two soils, common ground
By Paul O’Sullivan
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Nov 10, 2009, 00:16

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- On the night of the Lisbon Referendum my landlord’s son called to help me with bills.

‘I am hoping the Irish will do the right thing.’

‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

‘Lisbon. I hope they stick to what they said last time.’

That night I wrote a letter to President Klaus. Consequently, I discovered many people, including other Irish persons residing in Prague, were doing likewise in or around the same time. At four o’ clock a news report about early indications was posted on a national broadsheet website. I stepped onto the balcony, lit a cigarette and spit into the courtyard below. Spitting is a disgusting habit, but I was disgusted.

The Lisbon juggernaut has since rolled on. Today, I was teaching an employee of a computer game publishing company. He began the class by saying he had bought and watched the Michael Collins DVD the week before, which prompted a short impromptu history lesson. I must admit a little lump stuck when I spoke about Oliver Cromwell, Father Murphy and Charles Stewart Parnell -- call it a little homesickness. He opined that Collins was a ‘good guy’ and asked about Northern Ireland. He was really eating into time set aside for teaching phrasal verbs, but what better way to learn a language than by speaking. I finished on the Good Friday Agreement.

‘And Lisbon,’ he said, ‘why change? Why a second time? That is not democracy.’

Frankly, the topic wore me down. It was before eight. The hot chocolate and croissant had not yet settled and he was unintentionally upsetting me. ‘I don’t know. I really don’t know,’ was all I could manage.

From history and culture Czech and Irish people are not too dissimilar. After all, the Celtic migration originated in the Bohemia region. Other students have told me about genetic studies on a particular disease of the liver undertaken, linking the two populations. The population’s views of what democracy should be are one of the same. The effectiveness of a bureaucratic establishment is viewed with equal amounts of scepticism, which is where the EU presents problems in the minds of the ordinary citizen. Clarity of thought is shared and suspicions about power-mongering and ‘jobs for the boys’ arise.

The student used the metaphor of an anchorman reading the news with a hammer and sickle on his back.

‘Now they replace it with the EU flag. It’s crazy, man. It’s not what a democracy should be.’

Ireland and the Czech Republic are victims of recent occupations. They know too well how fractured European issues can become. Out of all European countries these two should be most willing to avail of the security a federation could provide. Yet the cultural instinct is powerful. Geography is a factor too. Ireland misses the continental vibe, the freedom of crossing borders without boarding aircraft or boats. Yet these populations seem to share the view, regardless of how this is misrepresented by their political representatives, that rule is unproductive.

After Lisbon, whether these populations will ever again have the opportunity to speak truthfully without resorting to protest is a good question.