For those following Irish Twitter tonight, you may feel this is a bit of an over-reaction.

It's not. And I'll explain why. https://twitter.com/simoncoveney/status/1273350499807436801

Ireland is Constitutionally-committed to the principles of international law and peaceful resolution of conflict.

Article 29 of the Constitution covers the conduct of foreign affairs by the Government of Ireland; the first three sub-articles bind us to doing the right thing.

Art 29:
1 Ireland affirms its devotion to the ideal of peace and friendly co-operation amongst nations founded on international justice and morality.

...

2 Ireland affirms its adherence to the principle of the pacific settlement of international disputes by international arbitration or judicial determination.

...

3 Ireland accepts the generally recognised principles of international law as its rule of conduct in its relations with other States.

And, in compliance with that, although neutral, we've been one of the most dedicated states around on UN peacekeeping duties.

Join our Army, you know the chances are you'll end up wearing a blue helmet. And they do, with pride and distinction.

One of my late father's best friends, my youngest brother's godfather, was deployed on UNIFIL in 1983 when my brother was being christened. This is a non-militarised country where our primary military engagement with the public is in UN peacekeeping.

Add in, of late, our now MFA while Minister for Defence sending Naval Service ships to the rescue missions in the Mediterranean, of which the Naval Service are *intensely* and rightly proud.

In short, we really do believe in the international rule of law and trying to do right.

Now, you may be sceptical about the UNSC. I have been myself in the past often enough.

But the reason for that scepticism is that is has been undermined by those who have used it without any regard for the aims and ethos of the UN, those values we are committed to by law.

And you may say that we might not be able to do much against the P5, at least two of whom are nakedly hostile to doing right and over at least one of whom there currently rests a question mark.

But sometimes, if you do right on a doorstep, you can shame a response from a sinner.

We all have national vanity, and none of us are immune. Yet we ran for this on the basis that we wanted to do the right thing, would push for the right thing to be done, and we won on that basis.

There may be hope yet the right thing can be done.

In a world where the ideals of peaceful resolution and international law are under ever-increasing threat, and more and more hanker for a Great Power Westphalian world, that a nation committed to and running on the opposite could win this is something to be celebrated.

We need a bit of hope this weather, God knows. We all need some.

And, national vanity aside, this is cause for a bit of hope.

We have to deliver on it, insofar as we can; but, for now, it's cause for a bit of hope and a bit of honest pride.

And we'll take that, happily.