Ireland

 To Ireland from Portugal with much love and respect(for Your stance on a wide range of issues)

Thank you for sharing the interview with us! As a Portuguese and member of the European Union I wanted to leave a comment for Europeans and all my co-citizens in the world! I didn't know that Irish person, Graham Harrington( I think) that you, Danny, spoke with. But I have a declaration of interests to say about Ireland; as a country, not about the country itself but about its social, political and economic stance and for its commitment, dedication and interventionist aspect, interest and speeches that it takes( or makes) not only regarding its position in relation to EU as country(member),  as well as in relation to Europe as a continent, and mostly about the world in general. It is a country that, in my 50 years of life, has never allowed itself to be maneuvered by external forces, whether economic or military policies and has always spoken in favor of minorities, the disadvantaged, and against the interests or against War in General! This shows that the size of the country (geographical or populational) does not matter, but rather its greater size regarding its strength and genius in speech, in the fight against obscure interests, economic lobbies, in short, fighting against all injustices and problems. And I, as a Portuguese, and seeing this fiery and dedicated speeches of body and soul, from a small bench in the European Parliament, I feel embarrassed and ashamed, for Portugal, which was once an Imperialist Country (For those ignorant in this issue, yes, it was( Google it)!) And denote that I'm not proud of this, just saying due to his historical role in the world, given all his diplomatic connections, and because of that should  have a similar and perhaps greater role than Ireland, as it has opened "new worlds to the World"! So if the government should be able to find in its core the courage to be a voice in the world and creating a new front, or a new lobby, with Ireland, to promote Peace and understanding between Nations, so that we can all live better, in a united way without race, creed or political regime being obstacles to the common good!

And on the 50th anniversary of the "Carnation Revolution" I wish and aspire so that, like Ireland, we have a central and "sacramental" role to unify and not divide, to encourage dialogue and not cut ties, to promote trade and not the interests of others nor intervention of third parties and opening bridges between States, by putting aside pride, envy or fallacies and discord, that is absurd,when instead of giving importance to the petty interests or the pathetic selfishness of rulers, putting first the interest of the population, and we live in lands with different names that only appear on the map because from the sky above, the World has no lines to divide, no colors to separate or borders or obstacles that prevent us from giving our hand to one another, in order to cooperate, promote equality, share our ideas and learn to listen to others, to debate what is wrong , to help those who have nothing!

OK. now you can say that all of this is Utopian and impossible to achieve, but how can you say that if they are denying it from the outset? 

As Lao Tse says:

 "The journey of a thousand leagues begins with the first step" 

And Poet Camões says in a Poem:

 "Times change, desires change, The being changes, the confidence changes; The whole world is made up of change, Always taking new qualities. We continually see new things, Different in everything from hope; Evil remains in memory, And the good, if there was any, I miss it.(...)" sic

Luís Vaz de Camões 

OBRIGADO IRLANDA E SAUDAÇÕES DE PORTUGAL 

Sorry for my terrible English language I tried to use the translator but the text is too long and I m afraid that is full of grammar errors and semantically wrong. Pardon me but either case this will be read by 3 persons because nowadays everybody has no attention span and are lazy to read.... it's sad and one of the causes of the problems in the World!