An Irish MEP has asked the EU's most senior foreign affairs official to apologise for suggesting Ireland's policy of neutrality is in part due to Ireland not having a modern-day understanding of "atrocities, mass deportations, suppression of culture and language".
European Commission vice president and high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaja Kallas, made the remarks during a debate on an upcoming NATO meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg in France.
Responding to a discussion which involved various views on NATO, conflicts including Russia's war in Ukraine and whether the EU needs to increase defence spending, Ms Kallas, who is from Estonia, said: "I do want to address our Irish colleagues. I mean, yes, peace doesn't mean that human suffering will stop.
"If, you know, you surrender and you have the aggressor and you say okay take all that you want, it doesn't mean that the human suffering will stop.
"Our experience behind the Iron Curtain [the de facto border between East and West during the cold war], after the Second World War countries like Ireland got to build up their prosperity, but for us it meant atrocities, mass deportations, suppression of culture and language.
"This is what happens. It is also peace, but it's actually not freedom, freedom of choice for people, and that is what an EU is all about, and that is what we are fighting for."
In a statement today, Sinn Féin MEP Kathleen Funchion said: "I was astonished by Leas-Uachtarán Kallas's remarks, which displayed a clear lack of understanding of Ireland’s history.
"In my speech, I underlined Ireland’s long-standing policy of neutrality, which was shaped by our own experience of colonialism and struggle for self-determination.
"Vice President Kallas’s suggestion that Ireland simply prospered in the post-war period without trauma or oppression is deeply inaccurate and dismissive of our island's experience.
"Ireland too endured atrocities, from the Ballymurphy massacre to Bloody Sunday, where innocent civilians were shot and killed by British soldiers.
"Our people suffered internment without trial, and widespread discrimination in housing and employment, particularly in the North.
"Furthermore, the suppression of Irish language and culture has been an ongoing battle, as evidenced by the decades-long campaign for an Irish Language Act in the North.
"Vice President Kallas’s comments were ill-advised and deeply insensitive to the experiences of Irish communities still seeking justice to this day," she said.
The Sinn Féin MEP continued that she has written to Ms Kallas's office "asking her to withdraw her remarks".
