Domesticky

The ‘Economic Miracle’ That’s Built on War

Here we are, folks — Belfast, the economic success story!

The newspapers are giddy, the politicians are patting themselves on the back, and the defence industry is absolutely delighted.

This city – once riddled with bomb craters and ringed by military checkpoints – has been reborn as a powerhouse of economic growth. We’ve done it! We’ve finally made it! And all it took was getting into the war business.

Am I the only one who thinks this is sick?

They’re calling it a boom, a windfall, a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for the North of Ireland. The contracts are rolling in, the jobs are being created, and the billions are stacking up.

The same Britain that spent decades demonising us, criminalising our resistance, and suffocating our industries is now cheerfully paying us to build weapons. The same government that once couldn’t trust us with a box of matches is now handing us the blueprints for missile systems.

And we’re meant to celebrate this?

Help me understand because I’m struggling.

The British state spent decades policing, controlling, and suppressing us. It turned Irish republicanism into the great evil of the modern world, treating any form of resistance – armed or not – as terrorism.

They brutalised people, locked them up, shot them dead in the streets, infiltrated, spied, and lied.

And now? Now, they’re paying us to make the weapons to bring war somewhere else.

So, tell me – was violence only unacceptable when it was used against them?

Because now that there’s money to be made, now that the targets are far away and politically convenient, suddenly there’s no moral crisis. No debates about legitimacy. No talk of disarmament. Just cold, hard cash flowing into Northern Ireland to keep the war machine turning.

And if that wasn’t enough, look down south. Because while the North is being drafted into Britain’s military-industrial complex, the South is facing its own existential question: will Irish neutrality survive the next decade?

From the Margins to the Military-Industrial Complex

Let’s be clear: we didn’t build this system. The arms industry is one of the biggest in the world, fuelled by a capitalist model that’s more than happy to profit off destruction, as long as it happens somewhere else. And now, they’ve pulled Belfast into the fold.

And so, the North of Ireland – once the unruly child of the UK, too troublesome to be trusted – is now an obedient manufacturer of high-tech weaponry.

You can’t get a united Ireland, but you can get a defence deal.

You can’t get investment in public services, but you can get funding to make the next generation of air defence systems.

Meanwhile, in the Republic, it’s not manufacturing that’s on the table. It’s ideology.

The slow creep away from neutrality, the whispered conversations in Leinster House about “realism” and “defence obligations.” They don’t want to say it out loud yet, but the message is clear: Ireland, as we’ve known it, is being nudged into the military fold.

The End of Neutrality?

For a century, neutrality has been a core part of Irish identity. It’s been both a point of principle and a practical necessity: staying out of wars that never served us, refusing to be another pawn in someone else’s empire. But now, that’s under threat.

Ireland’s airspace is already being patrolled by the British RAF because the Irish Defence Forces are underfunded.

Deliberately so.

The EU and NATO aren’t even pretending to be coy anymore – they want Ireland aligned, in step, and ready to contribute. There’s talk of military partnerships, of defence spending increases, of “modernising” our stance on neutrality. And all of this, of course, is dressed up in the language of security and pragmatism.

But the real question is – security for who?

Because if neutrality goes, Ireland doesn’t become safer – it just becomes another cog in the same machine that swallowed Belfast whole.

Instead of being on the outside looking in, Ireland would be locked in step with the very same war economy that keeps Britain’s coffers full.

The New Colonialism: Economic Dependence Through War

This is how empire works – not just through soldiers and borders, but through economic dependence.

They don’t need to send troops to keep us in line anymore; they just need to control the industries we rely on.

And when the UK throws £1.6 billion into arming Ukraine, with a hefty portion flowing through Northern Ireland, we’re expected to be grateful.

And when the EU and NATO come knocking, whispering about “threats” and “responsibilities,” Ireland is expected to play along.

Because what’s the alternative? What happens if you refuse to take part? Where’s the big investment for Belfast’s working class, for sustainable jobs, for industries that don’t trade in bloodshed? Nowhere.

What’s the future for Ireland if it continues to say no to NATO? Uncertain, at best.

It’s the same old story: Belfast, like so many places, has been folded neatly into an economic system it never designed. And now Dublin is facing its own test: hold the line, or get sucked in too.

The Illusion of Choice

So, here we are – willing participants, but not free agents.

The people of Belfast didn’t suddenly wake up and decide to become weapons manufacturers; they were nudged, funnelled, and steered here. When you need to pay the bills, you take what’s on offer. When the UK government is signing multi-billion-pound contracts, and the only viable industry left standing is the one that builds missiles, what exactly are we supposed to do?

And in Dublin, when the world order starts pressing in, when the EU and NATO make their expectations clear, what choice does Ireland really have?

This is how empire functions. It doesn’t force you—it makes you believe you have no alternative.

What Now?

What’s the way out of this? Do we even get a choice? It’s not just Belfast that’s caught in this bind—it’s everywhere that’s been swallowed by a system that prioritises war over welfare, profit over people. They sold us on peace, but the price tag turned out to be military contracts and economic servitude.

Boomtown Belfast, indeed. And maybe soon, Boomtown Dublin too. Because if we’re not careful, Ireland won’t just be losing its neutrality.

It’ll be joining the war economy wholesale.