Extract from the Sherrill Lecture given by John A. Costello
at Yale University Law School
'Ireland's Foreign Policy'

[matter omitted]

These remarks naturally lead me to the objectives, principles and procedures of Irish policy. Ireland – all Ireland – is a Christian power, and, while not claiming any superiority in moral virtue, is ambitious of acting a Christian’s part in international affairs. In her own self-interest, she will adopt a policy of goodwill, in the faith that if she employs such a policy, an unseen force will gradually dislodge opposition to her purposes, an invisible hand will help her to ultimate success. In human relations there are no incurable cancers, nothing so malignant that will not be drawn out by the therapeutic heat of charity. Ireland will be patient, for a Christian must be patient and patience is, too, a condition for the improvement of human affairs. She will hope, for it is when times are darkest that this virtue is most needed. She will be constructive in the manner of the peacemaker, for good works are essential for salvation. She will seek by example to communicate the message, so vital for the health of the world, that there is as much an obligation to moral action on the part of peoples and governments as on the part of individuals.

Christ chose to work out man’s redemption through the direct action of man upon man. Ireland will, therefore, recommend the politics of gradual improvement and be content if at least she moves in the general direction of even an approximate solution.

Finally, and it follows naturally from what I have said, Ireland will, I hope, seek everywhere justice and peace. She will not be content with the status quo if this is merely the implication of power, for there will be here no enduring order. Naturally, Ireland may be expected to have an intuition of the ultimate failure of mere oppression. If the sword of justice is used but in time, the cause of war may disappear. Traditionally, in diplomacy small countries have acted as means of communication between opposing points of view when other means have gone. Obviously the scope now for any such action is limited but it still exists. It may still be possible for Ireland as a small country to do some such useful work for peace, despite its implacable opposition to the politics and philosophy of Communism. It can still act as a mediator in disputes where no compromise to its own fundamental principles is involved. Energetic action is required. For peace is no historical accident, no mere absence of war but a blessed state granted as the reward of much hard labour done.

Peace is the outward objective realization of an inner state of mind. It is no mere torpid acceptance of things as they are; but when it comes in its enduring form, being based on justice, it is as much a miracle of human achievement as the street no policeman need guard but which those who enjoy it take so much for granted.

A vital feature of Ireland’s foreign policy must be support for the rule of law. The universal acceptance by nations of this important idea would represent a most valuable advance in international affairs. It is obviously in the interests of small nations that powerful ones should accept some outside curb on their action, that all sovereign states should see that they have obligations as well as rights. The original harshness of the sovereignty theory is being corrected by recourse to the older civilized tradition of the natural law by virtue of which no man or body of men is absolute but all men are under God. Cynicism may be, in literature, a saving flavour but in life it is great treason. A cynical disregard of the interests of the larger society of the West, of which it is a part, is not to be expected from Ireland. Irish liberty is significant only in the context of the survival of the traditional frame-work of civilized society. In the final analysis, the independence enjoyed by Ireland is allowed to it by a system of ideas which is itself challenged and threatened. Ireland, though militarily neutral, in common with countries like Sweden and Switzerland, is, like them too, not unconcerned with the outcome of the great debate. Perhaps even more than others, Ireland is not uncommitted in the war of ideas but is intensely interested in the outcome. Apart from its own involvement in the human tragedy, its whole history has utterly intertwined the interests and experience of Ireland with those of the rest of Europe on the one hand and with those of America on the other.

Ireland cannot be expected, therefore, as I have already indicated – and this will be a guiding principle of its action in the United Nations – to act in any way likely to strengthen the forces making for disintegration. The things that divide us from the rest of the West are far fewer than those that unite us. While we will naturally seek justice in each situation, a primary consideration for Ireland must be to see that the anti-Communist forces are not weakened. Ireland will never allow herself to be used as a tool to serve Communist Imperial interests no matter how cleverly these may be camouflaged. When I refer to the dispute Ireland has with Great Britain on the question of the Six Counties, please bear in mind that our contention, as European Christians, is that Partition, which gives rise to that dispute, weakens the West. But Ireland will never act so as further to subtract from the relative power of the West. In the issues which arise in the United Nations Organization this will be a touchstone to Ireland’s action.

[matter omitted]