I have no problem with people being English, Scottish or Welsh. I don’t even mind unionists calling themselves British. Sure I find it odd that people who live on the island of Ireland want to be described by another term.but then again how they chose to identify is a matter for them. It’s the fawning, forelock tugging writings and utterances of those Irish people – think Ruth Dudley Edwards, Bono, Bob Geldof and Eoghan Harris et al – that I really detest.
‘West Britism.’ is what we are talking about here.
These are folks whose concept of ethnicity is to suggest that the best kind of Irish folks are those who reject their Irishness and seek to ape all things Brit. But it’s not just them. Our political life is rife with west Britism too. Anyone recall former taoiseach, John Bruton suggesting the 1916 leaders were not really heroes, and the rebellion itself was unnecessary?
And do any of you also recall the attempts by the Fine Gael led Dublin government back at the start of the year as they tried to spin their way out of the controversy surrounding their proposed commemoration ceremony for the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) which had to be called off such was the ferocious backlash against the event?
Basically, to spell it out for those unaware of the controversy, there was outrage as this ceremony would include honouring the memory of the Black and Tans whose rampages throughout the country included murder, rape and looting on a wide scale.
It occurred to me at that time, as I observed the Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, wriggle in considerable discomfort on the RTE news couch one evening as he tried to justify the raison d’etre for the celebrations, that it was abundantly clear that there are still a lot of people our there who are wannabe west Brits.The Dublin 4 media really has done a great job in setting the politically correct agenda of this country.
Back in 2011/12 I happened to meet a senior Fine Gael politician from the west of Ireland who told me Enda Kenny’s government was very worried about the ‘decade of commemorations’ that was coming up, that they believed the 1966 celebrations of the Easter Rising had provided the catalyst that led to the outbreak of the Troubles in the North.
My source told me they wanted to avoid a repeat so this time around the aim was to downplay totally the memorials, to sanitise them to the degree they celebrated nothing and offended no one.To a large extent it worked with both the big parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, going along with the approach.Indeed in their attempts to ‘soft focus’ – I prefer the word ‘whitewash’ – our divided past some of you might even recall that the Easter Rising Commemorations began with a government sponsored promotional video which did something amazing: it featured not a single person involved in 1916. I kid you not.
I am not attempting to make any profound point about ethnicity or nationality here but seeing that this is Easter and all that implies for Irish people it does strike me as odd that some people have a very strange concept of what it means to be Irish. The west Brits proponents suggest being proud of Padraig Pearse and James Connolly and those who died in 1916 is erroneous, that their actions were contemptible; how absurd is that?
Or that speaking Irish and loving our native games and culture makes us unsophisticated bogmen who need to get out more.
And if you are an old fashioned Catholic you have no chance.
If you think all this is an exaggeration go to the library and ask for back issues of the Sunday Independent and it won’t take long to find the evidence.
Just for the record I don’t speak Irish, I never really played Gaelic football and certainly not hurling, and my Catholicism would be very suspect. But I have no problem in my pride of those who flaunt their love of these things. Good luck to them.
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