Why can\u2019t deputies be more like Edward Timmins?<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s he?<\/p>\n
The TD for Wicklow is already the Taoiseach\u2019s best boy in class for this week, even though it\u2019s early days and Edward isn\u2019t even a member of Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a>.<\/p>\n Edward provided some welcome respite during a tough D\u00e1il session when Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> was kicked around the chamber by speaker after speaker for not explicitly calling out the US for starting a major war last Saturday<\/a>. <\/p>\n Despite coming under heavy Opposition pressure to condemn Donald Trump<\/a> for riding roughshod over international law when he ordered missile strikes on Iran<\/a>, the Taoiseach managed to stay on the right side of saying everything apart from openly denouncing the difficult man he is due to visit in the White House in a couple of weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n Miche\u00e1l did this by repeating the phrases \u201crules-based international order\u201d and \u201cmultilateral rules-based order\u201d as many times as possible while criticising some of his critics for their reticence when it came to deploring the actions of other countries guilty of similar breaches and, in some cases, far worse transgressions.<\/p>\n He stressed that he fully respected the rule of international law and would never condone those who would seek to subvert it. However, the vile atrocities committed in recent years by a murderous, despotic regime in Tehran cannot be overlooked.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a multilateralist,\u201d he told Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a>. \u201cWe believe in a multilateral-based order, but we have to see reality too in terms of the full picture in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunately there is \u201can absence of an international rules-based order now\u201d, which is why the world has gone mad.<\/p>\n The order is out of order. <\/p>\n In an ideal world, there would be an immediate \u201cde-escalation\u201d in the Middle East (not mentioning any names of who might be able to do this) and a return to the negotiating table. <\/p>\n Nobody was disputing his condemnation of the monstrous regime in Iran. What opposition leaders wanted to know was why he didn\u2019t seem able to condemn the illegal military assault ordered by the US president at weekend. <\/p>\n Not that Miche\u00e1l approves of this Operation Septic Turkey, or whatever it\u2019s called by whoever launched it. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are issues, no questions, in terms of where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n But Mary Lou taking him to task for not condemning this \u201cbrazen\u201d breach of international law? He wasn\u2019t going to take that, not when her party voted in the European Parliament against a \u20ac90 billion loan<\/a> to Ukraine<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cI know Sinn F\u00e9in doesn\u2019t support Ukraine,\u201d he declared, provoking epic fury from the Shinners.<\/p>\n Had Europe denied Ukraine, a country illegally invaded by Russia<\/a>, it would be tantamount to telling its people \u201cto surrender now to the Russians\u201d and Vladimir Putin<\/a> would be the happiest man in the world, he said.<\/p>\n Then he fanned their epic fury (conveniently distracting himself from having to condemn the father of Operation Septic Turkey) by dragging in the Trump\u2019s political home guard, the Maga movement. <\/p>\n Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s organisation in the US supported Maga Republican politicians over the decades through \u201cfinancial donations\u201d, he cheerfully announced to Mary Lou\u2019s apoplectic troops.<\/p>\n Labour<\/a> leader Ivana Bacik<\/a> wasn\u2019t so easily deflected, with Miche\u00e1l acknowledging that her party had always spoken out about repressive and violent regimes.<\/p>\n Ivana knew what the Taoiseach was at. (As did all TDs in the D\u00e1il, as the St Patrick\u2019s Day trip to Washington loomed.) <\/p>\n With two weeks to go to the annual shamrock ceremony in the White House, she correctly surmised that Miche\u00e1l wasn\u2019t going to say anything to upset Trump before their meeting in the Oval Office. <\/p>\n It must have stung when she reminded him that the prime minister of Spain had taken the US commander in chief to task for breaking international law. <\/p>\n So Miche\u00e1l is skirting around the subject of Trump\u2019s illegal military assault, Ivana tartly concluded, before heading off shortly to \u201cgenuflect before the man responsible\u201d and \u201cengage in Plastic Paddy pageantry\u201d.<\/p>\n Holly Cairns<\/a> of the Social Democrats<\/a> wondered if the Government now believed that large countries could simply ignore international law. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t just apply to countries that we agree with.\u201d <\/p>\n While Trump\u2019s war was spreading in the Middle East, anybody listening to the Taoiseach talk about it \u201cwouldn\u2019t even know that the US is involved\u201d, she said. <\/p>\n Of course, it\u2019s easy for the other leaders to say this. They\u2019re not heading Stateside at the end of next week. <\/p>\n Two hours into Tuesday\u2019s sitting, when almost every question he was asked was to do with the war, the Taoiseach finally hit the nail on the head after Paul Murphy<\/a> of Solidarity-People Before Profit<\/a> had a go. <\/p>\n \u201cWar is a terrible thing,\u201d he sighed. <\/p>\n Well, yes.<\/p>\n Couldn\u2019t argue with him there. And when he is in Washington, he will be able to say that to Trump, who is unlikely to disagree. <\/p>\n