While not a direct target of its initiatives, the shuttering of Washington’s USAID network is likely to have a ripple effect in Ireland where our nation’s foreign aid programmes have become interwoven with the Democratic wing of the American establishment in the last decade.

Founded as an instrument of American regime change, news of the USAID website going offline came amid a wider shaking up in Washington’s diplomatic establishment in the weeks following the beginning of the second Trump administration.

Part of a consolidation of U.S foreign policy under the State Department, the 9,000-employee strong USAID network became a prime target of the new administration due to its left-wing bias and perception of being utilised by Democratic figures as part of weaponised humanitarianism against the Global South and Middle East.

Spearheaded by Democratic hawk and colour revolutionary extraordinaire Samantha Power USAID’s demise has some notable implications on the Department of Foreign Affairs’ and Irish Aid’s work particularly in East Africa where the Irish state partners with America ostensibly to combat world hunger.

USAID involvement in Ireland proper began with International Fund for Ireland (IFI) in the 1990s where just over half a billion euro worth of effective slush money was pumped into the post-conflict region to maintain community cohesion.

Both power and USAID played an important role in the backroom direction of Ireland’s diplomatic response to the Ukrainian invasion as many insiders complained about the co-opting of otherwise apolitical Irish NGOs by the U.S foreign policy establishment.

Perhaps where USAID and the Irish state work most in synch is in Africa managing food security and preparing the region for climate change through provisions to small farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa including Ethiopia where the Irish government was accused of backing an American takeover of the country through support of northern rebels.

Whether the Irish presence in these countries can be sustained post-USAID in a world where China and even Russia can provide more beneficial bilateral relationships arguably with less clauses awaits to be seen.

Now the Republic’s ambassador to DC a key intermediary figure in the interface between USAID and Ireland is Geraldine Byrne Nason whose time at the UN led to accusations that Ireland was subordinating itself to the whims of Democratic administrations when it came to the Global South.

Irish and U.S Democrats have a decades old relationship steeped in diaspora connections and only accelerating in the post-Good Friday Agreement world where the two seemed to be joined at the hip.

The institutional decapitation of USAID emphasises the permanency of much of the regime change currently underway. America is not retreating from the world but rather entrenching itself in the North American continent leaving Ireland at an awkward junction outside a soon-to-be erected tariff wall and straddling EU federalism with and Atlantic economy.

Devoid of a sense of purpose on the world stage and willing to exchange our foreign policy infrastructure often in the form of humanitarian aid to DC the cessation of American slush money to Ireland and various initiatives abroad is a sign the thirty year hegemony of Clinton-era liberalism is approaching some sort of end here.

Posted by The Burkean

5 Comments

  1. Ivaus@thetricolour 03/02/2025 at 09:26


    That’s the way to do it…Money is for nothin and the checks for free.

    Irish Taxpayers money” going out” as Foreign Aid rising in billions year on year,not just through dept.of foreign affairs and Irish Aid Projects abroad, you must also include the Money sent from foreign nationals in Ireland to THEIR HOME COUNTRIES ABROAD…thank you suckers.

    Irish Taxpayers money ” going out ” as Foreigners Aid rising in billions
    year on year to Irish Aid Projects in Ireland, For Foreigners Housing,
    Homes,Health,Education,Work,Welfare,Pensions and ENTITLEMENTS
    ….Ta Ta you fools.

    Irish Taxpayers money”going out” to Foreign NGO Complex Aid,rising in billions year on year, to Irish Scam Projects by Irish Scum Traitors,
    for the benefit of Irish Governance and Corruption in maintaining the
    IRISH STATUS QUO….we want more,more,more…you bog peasant.

    So why does nothing Work in Ireland , Work for the Irish People,
    Work for the future Generations of Irish Children and Irish Legacy ????

    ….it is Paddywack, your paying for it all,and the Debt Burden has already been passed on to Your Children,Their Children and Future
    Irish Generations….it’s called your debt per capita, Personal Irish Debt.

    Reply

  2. […] takeover of the country through support of northern rebels,” The Burkean website in Ireland reported Feb. 2. “Whether the Irish presence in these countries can be sustained post-USAID in a world where […]

    Reply

  3. What a pair of scoundrels in that photo. I wonder if Hillary is fishing in her pocketbook for the hot sauce she swore to Hispanic voters in her 2016 campaign she always carried in her purse. No pandering there. Maybe she was planning to throw it on Varadakar for the crack he made about interns in the White House during the Clinton era – and for which he had to apologize. He should apologize to the Irish people. Why do these evil people always always get power over us?

    Reply

  4. I just heard on WABC radio that one of the projects that got pulled along with USAID was a DEI musical in Ireland.

    Mind blown.

    Reply

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