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Est. 2010
Twenty-Second Edition: Sunday, January 22, 2012

Hey there eIreland. So, on the 16th of this month I took on the responsibility of being this term's Party President for Eire Aonair. I have to admit that I haven't been very active lately. Real life has been keeping me very busy, as I know it has been for many others in our community. But, Eire Aonair is a party that means a lot to me and so this term I'm going to cary the torch and keep this party ticking. I want to do this not only for the many top notch individuals who have built this party, but for the many individuals who I hope will cary on the principles and practices of Eire Aonair.




Our Current Situation

I would like to have an honest look at Eire Aonair's current place in our political scene here in eIreland. I truly believe that Eire Aonair has always had the benefit of great members. The party owes its survival to the many brilliant people who have chosen to become part of its continued realization and development. The creativity and discussion that has occurred on our forums through the months is a testament to the greatness of openminded thought and teamwork.

However, Eire Aonair is not nearly as alive as it used to be. The forums have not seen any action in several weeks, party numbers are dwindling, and much of our core membership has dissolved due to inactivity. eRepublik has changed, and I believe that Eire Aonair has failed to adapt quickly enough.

That is why I would like to remind eIreland of what Eire Aonair is all about, what we have done, and what we may be poised to do. It sounds stupid, but I believe that the principles and ideas behind Eire Aonair transcend the game of eRepublik. If after investigating what Eire Aonair stands for, you agree, and you feel that Eire Aonair could represent you accurately, I would recommend considering membership.

There are many things in eRepublik that transcend the game and engage our broader beliefs and values; I believe that in light of the ever diminishing game play value, this, the community, and a probable element of addiction, are the reasons that so many of us are still here.

I'll leave you with some words from long time Eire Aonair member Darragh Davis about where he thinks the party stands right now. I think he's right on target.

Darragh:
I've always felt EA is one of those parties where no matter who joins, they are welcomed with open arms. We look out for each other and help in any way possible.
Lately however our party has somewhat become inactive due to many players with rl problems. Our forums needs a big boost because that is where our ideas are made, I do feel IRC is a must if possible, as everyone in Ireland nearly does use IRC , therefore we will be in touch with the community...

EA is and can be the best party in Ireland if we could recruit some active members and hope our old members come back.

I'd like to wish Darragh good luck in the upcoming elections. He will be running with the Irish Union Party - a big thanks to them for supporting him on his election campaign.


Who Is Eire Aonair?

Eire Aonair is intended to stand for adherence to values rather than political views. It is designed to accommodate members of broad ideologies and beliefs so that they can share a common character of principles and serve a sovereign Ireland.

The principles of Eire Aonair are:
1. Community
2. Individual Responsibility
3. Fair Play/Respect
4. Principles Over Politics

Eire Aonair's main function has always been to serve as a think tank for a community of free thinking individuals. If you would like to join in on discussions about economics, democracy, political security, and planning for our nations future, then these are all topics that Eire Aonair has had a particularly strong history of examining. You may find some of our past discussions enlightening or at least interesting (the game has changed a lot since some of our early days).

Eire Aonair encourages the practice of providing well supported arguments and asking the public to think for themselves. This is linked by the document to a favouritism for honest public discussion, and for the minimization of partisan politics and propaganda techniques.

Eire Aonair is not technically an independent party. The constitution makes this clear, but also states that free thought is a virtue, and that although the party will use its name to support ideas it believes in, it will also allow the alternative views of its members to be heard and encouraged. Eire Aonair also supports, through its constitution, the practice of voting based on the individual merit of candidates rather than on parties alone.

^ I know that this section has probably gotten us into trouble in the past, but I firmly believe in the value of supporting the rights of even the most controversial or infamous individuals to be heard. Even to support the mindful consideration of the most outlandish ideas in public forums.

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" - Evalyn Hall referring to the ideas of Voltaire.

Eire Aonair's position is that responsibilities are optional for players of eRepublik, but that because of the effect that neglecting these responsibilities can have on other players and their ability to have fun, responsibilities should be taken seriously.

Eire Aonair upholds that the pursuit of a good real life, is to be seen as more important than the responsibilities taken on in the game.

Eire Aonair is not associated with any religion, and is officially a secular party. It states that members of Eire Aonair are free to express or believe whatever they want, but that in principle Eire Aonair is against religious involvement in government.

Eire Aonair identifies itself as "The One Ireland Party". This refers to a unity of the community between all parties, military units, and ideologies. Not necessarily to accomplish the same goals, but to identify ourselves as a single community regardless of our differences. I make this distinction because given the real life history of Ireland, it could be taken to mean the geographic unity of Ireland (the four historical provinces). Geographic unity is not an official goal of Eire Aonair.

Eire Aonair's official stances take a purely mechanical view of the game rather than being motivated by real life history.


Party Documents

Eire Aonair's Constitution - This basically outlines the founding structure of Eire Aonair. Reading this over will give you a very good idea of where the party has its foundations. It was written by the founder of Eire Aonair as a launching point for the party. It was made an official document in March of 2011.

Eire Aonair's Stance on Northern Ireland. - This document outlines the general official view of the party on the territory of Northern Ireland. In a nutshell it states that Northern Ireland should be recognized as a natural territory of the UK within eRepublik, but that it remains a natural target for invasion due to its proximity and our isolation from the rest of the map. It was developed through voting and discussion with in the party, and made an official document in mid-May 2011.

Eire Aonair's Stance on Democracy - This document is a fairly straight forward solidification of Eire Aonair's views on how to preserve and respect democracy in eRepublik for eIreland. Being a member of Eire Aonair means valuing the sovereignty of eIreland by practicing good democracy rather than good politics. The document was developed through voting and discussion with in the party, and made an official document in early September 2011.

Test Run Company - This is an old article that was published by the party in June of 2011. Although the information with in it is likely badly out of date, I include it as an example of the fine kind of teamwork that the party has accomplished in the past. That is the kind of work that I would like to see the party continue in, and surpass.

Forum Introduction - This link will bring you to the visitors centre introduction section. If you're interested in becoming a part of the second wave of Eire Aonair, this is the place to start.


A Brief Historical Summary

Eire Aonair was founded on St. Patrick's Day 2011 several months after the total wipe of Ireland in December of 2010. The political scene in Ireland was still young, but it was worried that the scene would be over-saturated. It was felt that the party's ideas were unique enough to warrant the new party regardless.

Since then Eire Aonair has survived becoming the victim of a British PTO by surviving underground for several months. At that time the party even became extremely active and published the Northern Ireland document cited above. Several new groups were created, and over the months have come and gone, including The Black Buck Initiative, The Moynihan Group, The EA Advisory Council, The Eire Aonair Joint Investment Program, EAMU, and a short list of others. Our members have been elected to congress and served our government on several cabinets. And we've been fortunate enough to see those individuals thrive as contributing members of government. I like to think in part because our forum environment provided such a good training ground for the kind of thinking and discussion that takes place in Dail.

Eire Aonair has been dragged through unfortunate controversy at times, due to its history of... revolutionaries... while I can't say that I enjoyed those times, the silver lining is that they were quite interesting to watch and be some part of. One way or another I believe that our members have always had their hearts in the right place and I don't have many regrets.


What's On The Agenda Now?

There are many things I would like to address this term. The first and foremost thing is that I would like to rebuild the party and make it more active. We do have an IRC (#EireAonair) but I realize its not very active.

A while ago we were working on creating relations with the Croatian Party Ekipa za bolju eHrvatsku. Initial talks went very well, and I feel that our parties are very similar and compatible for any kind of cooperation. However I became unfortunately inactive along with the rest of the party around this time. In the future we may have another go at this project just for fun, but since politics in both Croatia and Ireland have become stagnant and less important, we'll have to wait and see if there's any projects worth doing together.

Eire Aonair has its own Military Unit called EAMU. This unit was fairly successful for a while, but because we opted to make it self supply, it really hasn't been viable. I was always unsure about whether this project really fit with Eire Aonair as a party, and Party Companies isn't something i envision for Eire Aonair. This term I would like to settle our plans for this unit, and right now I'm leaning towards dissolving it, and letting the many fine more professional units take care of these concerns. If you would like to give me feedback on this just send me a pm about it, and be sure to check out the units constitution, EAMU Constitution, to find out more about how the unit was intended to operate. I think there's some great ideas there, but just not the tools to carry through with it. I do think there should be a unit similar to what EAMU was supposed to be, but one independent of any political party. We had intended to emulate the very efficient structure that Libertad had shown - with great coordination and data tracking. Unfortunately what we really could have used was the kind of great high power supply that the Irish Army has been using - kudos to them for their great work. There are many great units in eIreland so I see limited need for EAMU.



Another thing I think we need in eIreland is some authentic Irish culture to add some depth to our experience. The ISF was a great idea by Conway to act as a kind of extra Ministry of Community, and I think that a focus on exposing the community to real life Irish culture would be a welcome addition to our media.

Other than that, I want to know what individuals in eIreland want to see, and to work with existing initiatives to try and improve eIreland for the better.

That's all I had to say today, so I hope there was some valuable information in this article for you. It was a little bit rushed, but now I've got some real life work to do... :/


Good day to you Ireland.


Ian E Coleman - The Coleman Global - Writing as Party President of Eire Aonair



Forum: eireaonair.userboard.net
Wiki Page: Eire Aonair @ the wiki
eRep Page:Eire Aonair
Video:Eire Aonair @ YouTube