John Derbyshire offers up the view in National Review Online that "The Irish Republic is, in short, an enthusiastic member of the Axis of Weasel." Phooey.

His evidence? A review of how virulently anti-American the boys at Sinn Fein are (true enough), along with noting that Ireland is very keen on the U.N. There is no way around Sinn Fein's anti-Americanism, but their support, though hard core, is pretty small. But Sinn Fein is not the government. We have the prime minister, Bertie Ahern, saying he would have signed the first letter of support for the US if he had been asked, and telling the anti-American left to, roughly, drop dead, when they demanded he not go to the US to meet Bush. I had the pleasure of watching John O'Donoghue, a government minister, lambast a political opponent, John Bruton of Fine Gael, when Bruton demanded to know whether there were any circumstances when the government would deny use of Shannon. O'Donoghue told Bruton the government would not let Saddam Hussein use it. The point was clear: the government refuses to play moral equivalence between the US and Saddam. Bruton never really recovered from that attack.

That the Irish are keen on the UN is perhaps regrettable, but hardly a surprise. The primary function of the UN is to control US power. For the US's enemies, that means keeping it at bay. For its allies, that means directing the use of that power in ways they want (they get what they want without having to pay for it). That is a fact of life that US foreign policy will have to deal with.

It is true that Ireland has not been the ally in this war that, say, Poland or the Czech Republic has been. But support for the US has been high in the government, with some stirring words from Willie O'Dea in particular. To compare the position of the Irish government with Chirac is just plain silly.

I disagree - I think Ireland could have been much stronger than they were. I don't know that I would put them in the "Axis of Evil" but also I would not put them on the list of friends I could trust in my time of need. Ireland is between a rock and a hard place in one sense, like a deer in the headlights between the EU and the US, and it did (does?) face internal pressure from a vocal minority but it chose to stay frozen and not show leadership either way. They could have done a better job.

Also, Derbyshire raises an interesting point - if the British were not so strong with the US, if it weren't a US/UK Coalition, would Ireland have been stronger in their support? Would the anti-Americanism have been as vehement, as popular?

A distinction must be made between the current government and everybody else. This government was/is reasonably pro-US. Outside of the government there is a very widespread anti-Americanism that goes far beyond the usual suspects: the RTE-Irish Times axis. Except for Fianna Fail and the PDs, all the political parties not only have an anti-American agenda, but in recent weeks have been trying to outdo each other in anti-Americanism. It is found in all walks of life, not least in the Catholic Church whose demise John Derbyshire notes. When was the last time a Catholic cleric made a robust pro-American statement? For many years the Catholic Church has peddled a sort of hand-wringing third-world/UNism that is anti-American. Finally, that shrewd observer Gay Byrne has wondered if this anti-Americanism is the new anti-Britishness - something he had vigorously challenged throughout his long broadcasting career. He might well be onto something there.

The Irish people have always liked to face in all directions at once, and always keep all options open. The IRA depend on America for their funding and arms, and presumably therefore wish the Americans to like them. They saw that the EU would shower them with money as did many smaller european countries, and wished this to be maximised without comitting themselves to any military support for Europe.The Irish also wanted the EU to limit spread Eastwards so that available funding would not be diluted.
The Americans are not stupid however, and I note with interest that when Shannon was surrounded with Garda, that they decided to use Prestwick to refuel for the journey to Iraq. Those smiling Irish eyes dave a decided glint in them.

Derbyshire is hardly to be trusted to be objective where Ireland is concerned. Several months ago, Andrew Sullivan was shocked to find a "humorous" post by Derbyshire at NRO's "The Corner": it appears that Derb was watching the NYC St. Pat's parade with a Unionist friend, who turned to him and said, "the sights you see when you don't have your gun." NRO very wisely removed this bit of jollity from its website - but NR has a lot of 'splaining to do as to why they keep this loutish bigot on their payroll. (He's also objected to our allowing African Christian refugees into the US, on the grounds that their presence isn't advantageous to the culture, or some such bosh. He's a jerk.)