It’s a long time ago now since I discovered the animosity of Free Staters towards northerners. They did not like anything that challenged the status quo. They were happy with Partition and did not care about what the British did in the six counties.
Over many years, I have received letters mostly anonymous from Free State pro-Brit people condemning me and wishing me all kinds of bad luck for speaking out about human rights abuses. When I criticised the role of the Catholic Church for remaining silent and propping up the political system the Free Staters went apoplectic.
I was not even expressing any political party view. I was mostly addressing human rights issues like the treatment of prisoners in H -Block and Armagh jails or the harassment of people by the RUC and the Gardaí. This was too much for the Free State brigade. They did not want to know about such things. They were happy with their own 26 county Free State and did not want to be disturbed or did not want their consciences to be disturbed.
When Sinn Fein first appeared on the political scene in the 26 counties in the 1980s I heard the vicious attacks on them by members of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and other Free Staters. When Sinn Fein TDs were elected to the Dail, they were subjected to more vicious abuse. The Dublin media -RTE and Irish Independent and the Irish Times -also carried on with vicious attacks -worse than any attacks by unionists in the Stormont Assembly.
We saw it once again during the recent Election campaign with the leaders of FF and FG making all kinds of snide remarks about Mary Lou McDonald and Sinn Fein. There has been an ongoing attempt to undermine Sinn Fein because of their all Ireland approach.
I see that partitionist attitude to the north in the results of election after election in the 26 counties where so many people vote for anti-republican and anti-socialist parties and prefer to put FF and FG back into government. They do not want a republican or anybody who is sympathetic to the idea of Irish reunification about the place. They have been brainwashed over the years to believe that discussion of Irish unity would be destabilising and would upset their little economy.
The results of the election show that a sizeable section of the population in the 26 counties want nothing to do with the North. They do not like the uppity ‘Nordies’. They do not want a border poll as provided for in the Good Friday Agreement as that would upset the cosy relationship of the FF/FG coalition. So if FF and FG go back together into government there will be no border poll.
That’s how I interpret the results of the General election 2024 in the 26 counties. People who voted in large numbers for FF and FG –those we call Free Staters – knew what they were doing. They voted to keep Sinn Fein out because they could not be bothered with the politics of Irish reunification. It would cause too much upheaval in their comfortable lives.
Then there was the 40% of the electorate who did not vote for various reasons. Many people seem to be disillusioned with the political system in the 26 Counties.
And yet, in spite of the hostility and snide remarks from opponents, Sinn Fein was returned as the second largest party with 39 TDs. Other republican minded and socialist parties returned more than 20 TDs. Someday soon these TDs will unite to end Free State politics and work to build a new democracy on this island. That will spell the end of colonialism.
Until that happens we must endure more bad government from the FF/FG coalition.
Hopefully this is the last free-state administration that will be inflicted on all Irish citizens Joe.
by the way, have you ever wondered why they don’t like being referred to as free-staters. Can you imagine the mental gymnastics taking place in their heads, when they hear or read that is how they are regarded?
Thank you Kieran. Growing up in Fermanagh on the border we referred to the territory as ‘the Free State’-so inevitably we referred to the ruling class and their supporters as ‘Free Staters’. Im sure they don’t like it -but those who support partition can only be described as ‘freestaters’.
The free staters hate the northern nationalists much more than they hate unionists. They are also anti Catholic Church. I think their antipathy towards us is because their IRA did not use guns and bombs against the British. They used water pistols. That’s why someone like Miriam O’Callaghan could question Martin McGuinness’s faith in a way she would never do with De Valera or Collins. Hypocrites.