The political landscape in Ireland and across the rest of the EU will be transformed if Donald Trump proceeds with his threat to annex Greenland. The petty squabbles that dominate so much of what passes for politics in Leinster House will pale into insignificance.

The big question in the months ahead is not whether Michéal Martin will face a challenge to his leadership from some disgruntled backbenchers, but how the Taoiseach and his Ministers will respond to a direct attack from the US on Denmark, a fellow EU member state.

Such an action by the US would destroy Nato, the military alliance that has kept western Europe safe for the past 60 years, and would also have the capacity to wreck the EU unless the member states band firmly together and do all in their power to resist US aggression.

Europe does not have the military capacity to resist a US seizure of Greenland, but it does have the ability to fight back through politics and........

© The Irish Times