There seems to be a lot of self-righteous criticism in Ireland of how “bad” the USA and the UK are in the way they treat black people. And the USA and the UK certainly have some major issues there.
Ireland is far from blameless in that area. But Ireland has been ignoring its main racism and sectarianism for too long. We should perhaps finally start to talk about it.
So, not being a public figure, a letter to the paper is about all I can do.
Sir,
The BLM movement seems to be finally making some progress in getting recognition that racism has continued to be endemic in many countries long past the time when racism was “formally” outlawed. Meantime, while Ireland may not be as racist as some countries (not exactly a claim to be proud of) we should still take a moment to recognize that racism and sectarianism of different sorts lie at the absolute core of our national myths and that parties in our Dail still operate on the basis that some Irish people are better than others.
The Northern Ireland state was certainly worse, but the Irish Free State and then the Republic of Ireland proved that Irish Protestants had a point when they claimed that “Home Rule is Rome Rule”. That attitude of deference to the Catholic Church has weakened over recent decades, but the idea that Celtic Irish are better than other Irish and that Irish republicans are the only real Irish is still being peddled by one party in particular. And not just that…the idea is often allowed to pass unchallenged by everyone from other parties and from the national media.
But of that one party. Let’s not forget that they and their armed allies quite recently engaged in ethnic cleansing to rid Ireland of its protestants. To change the demographics of Ireland through murder of one type of Irish people. Not just within living memory, but quite recently. And many of the people who organized it are still in the driving seat in that political party. A party that many Irish people vote for.
So, let’s not fool ourselves. Ireland may have somewhat less anti-black racism than other countries, but we’re still perfectly comfortable with acolytes of sectarian murderers and people that any decent country would pursue for crimes against humanity sitting in our Parliament and appearing on our TVs.
It’s not statues of bad people from the past that we need to tear down. We need to confront, for once, that most of us are happy to define Irishness by race and by religion. That the murder of other Irish people over differences of religion or political detail is something we’re happy to gloss over and forget. That we might not be such good guys after all.
Many people are calling for change. Ireland does need to change. For the better.
Regards
Hugh
Hugh Says Hello There 
You must be logged in to post a comment.