Chris Andrews of Fianna Fail recently called on the Irish government to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

If we boycotted the opening ceremony of the Olympics, we would be sending a message to China saying that we are not happy with their attitude to Tibet and the supression of democracy.

Would we be hypocritical if we boycott the opening ceremony, but still we send our athletes to compete in the Olympics? I don’t think so. It is not the fault of the athletes that China is the location of the Olympics. It is not the athletes fault that China is supressing democratic rule and is using brutality to stifle debate and people’s legitimate grievances in Tibet. China is not the only country with athletes competing - our athletes will compete against the athletes of many countries and our athletes should be allowed to realise the ambitions that they hold.

Therefore, I don’t feel that by boycotting the opening ceremony, but not boycotting the games we are being hypocritical. We can give China a bloody nose, make a statement that we are in Beijing to compete in the world’s most prestigious games, but we do not like what their regime is doing in Tibet.

I’m not sure the Chinese government is embarassable, but we could at least try.

I guess, ultimately, as a small country we will probably not risk damaging economic links with this emerging superpower.

…and that is a pity.

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