A couple of British journalists reached out to me over the past couple of days.
They wanted to know what was happening here.
In the past, such requests usually meant that something of note had occurred in the confected British polity in the northeast of the island.
This time, it was about what had happened in the capital city on Thursday.
The first was the appalling attack on young children in Parnell Square outside their Gaelscoil.
Then, it was seized upon by the far right as the speculation viralled across social media that the assailant was an immigrant.
That the person who intervened and almost certainly prevented multiple murders was definitely an immigrant didn’t seem to matter to our homegrown racists.
What transpired after the initial stand-off with the police was looting and arson by a feral rabble.
Foot Locker was ransacked, but Eason’s on O’Connell Street was untouched.
Books were safe, but the mob spirited away expensive training shoes.
Noted.
One of the tropes that the local far-right mercilessly peddles is that “Ireland is full”.
Actually, this country is tragically empty.
We still don’t have the population that we had in 1840.
It’s almost as if something awful happened after that date.
Dear reader, this is the genocidal crime that the Ibrox klanbase use to taunt Glasgow’s multi-generational Irish community.
Because of our experience as a diaspora nation, we have often been on the receiving end of nativist spleen.
From the Five Points in New York to Ibrox, the Irish were often told that we were unwelcome and should “go home”.
Consequently, it is doubly shameful that we harbour this xenophobia in our country.
I said to one of my NUJ colleagues in London yesterday that I felt the Cassandra touch on my shoulder on Thursday night.
My next novel, Gallant Allies, which is now on the screen, has the central character from Native Shore, Gerry O’Donnell, coming to close quarters with Ireland’s homegrown fascists.
I’ve written here before that one of the few triumphs we Irish can claim is that, in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008 and the imposition of the Troika, there wasn’t a version of Golden Dawn here in Ireland.
I saw the Greek fascist party up close and personal in Thessaloniki a decade ago.
At that point, despite some very similar circumstances of imposed austerity and loss of economic sovereignty, there was no Irish version of Golden Dawn.
Some might still console themselves that, at present, we do not have an openly racist, anti-immigrant party represented in Dáil Éireann.
As socially excluded communities continue to be gaslit by fascist trolls on social media, that day might be only an election or two away.
On the night itself, this post on X by MMA fighter Conor McGregor was deeply irresponsible.
British Fascist and convicted criminal Paul Golding was quick to elevate McGregor as the poster boy for the ensuing chaos that was unfolding in Dublin.
This puts the counter-narrative about the incompatibility of Irishness and racism very well indeed.
The featured image contains the wise humanity of James Connolly.
A proud son of this diaspora nation, the Irishman from Scotland made sure that his belief in the importance of equality and solidarity was in every line of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.
Tomorrow, my Dublin-based NUJ colleagues will be shoulder-to-shoulder with other trade unionists at the GPO, where those immortal words were first spoken.
You can read the ICTU statement here.
This rising right wing nationalist sentiment across the globe is a real danger. My father taught me that in Scotland we were considered “the others” and we would avoid treating anyone else as the others and all the connotations that go with it. It’s a shame we still have people willing to blame the others for all their ills. Time to revisit umberto ecos 14 points of
Fascism. It’s quite alarming.
I have read an article about Indian tribe giving a sum of money to help the Irish famine victims, they would have had little to give. It is not possible to shame to shame people about singing about the Irish famine. I think this kind hearted donation might have come from something the Irish people had done a long time ago to help this tribe
Hi Phil, I agree with your sentiment fully. I am Scottish and I live in England. I have never felt that welcome there to be honest and I’m not that enamoured by the locals if the truth be told, but I contend that most, practically all of the people in un-fair England are not racist. Prejudiced perhaps, arrogant for sure, stupid in many cases, 90 could be classed as sheeple, which is a necessary level of free thought for the majority for any regime to go about their crimes in the name of unelected king and countru.
The long and the short of it is though that the English can now see themselves being visibly displaced by foreign nationals, approx 750,000 “legal” immigrants flooded into the UK last year.
You can walk through towns/shops without hearing a single English voice. I was amazed last week to hear 2 shelf stackers in Tesco speaking French to each other.
A lot has changed in a very short time and you can hear and feel the anger building.
The anger as always will not be directed at the people in charge it will be directed at the poor immigrants, who let’s face it have moved so they can have a better life for their offspring, who wouldn’t ?
It’s a sad indictment of the human race that they are predisposed to believe a few liars who control the narrative than thing for themselves but that is they way it is and much trouble is in the pipeline I feel.
I have mentioned this before, the UK is heading for a financial cliff edge and from what I understand there is no turning back now, 8% pension rises for tory voting pensioners and 8% benefit rises for the poor immigrants should see the £ in some serious trouble next year.
When the masses get poorer and hungry, they will only turn on one group of people and we know who that’ll be.
I for one wouldn’t come to the UK now for a better life, it’s a shite life and getting shiter by the day and when the British bulldogs start biting innocent children then it will not be a good place to be.
If Ireland is experiencing ever 50% of what we are witnessing in the UK then you too are in serious trouble.
In case you are interested, the root cause of this madness….the bankers, pyramid scams need more and more people of they collapse….
I’m not convinced this actually was the ‘sentiment’ of the original article at all.
I never said it was, I said I agreed with it. The trouble is people in the main are frightened by change and evil men will take advantage of that. The problems neither the immigrants nor the anti immigrant brigade, it’s the People in powers unwillingness to run a country for the good of the people who live their rather than for the good of a few rich people.
You can scream at the racists and the racists can scream at the immigrants but the people sat in Westminster will be chuckling up their sleeve because they’ve done their job and have keep the focus off themselves, their corruption and their crimes.
You’ve been divided and conquered
That 8% pension rise is for ALL pensioners, not just Tory voters . I’ve never in my life voted Tory, and I never will. I do, however, welcome the rise.
I paid my NI contributions from 1971 until I retired at the tail end of 2018..
Not once in all those years did I claim State Benefits. I was unemployed for around five months, during which time I underwent some major surgery. I lived on my savings. I paid child support out of my savings. I have earned every single penny I get from the state.
Something that has become glaringly obvious to me over the last couple of years is this. The people who scream most vociferously about what immigrants are receiving from the state are to a man, and a woman, generally people who are on benefits. Often people who have never worked a day in their lives!! I would far rather see the contributions I have made go to people who in all probability will eventually contribute something to our country/society than the scrounging, racist, bastards who have been a drain on our economy since the day and hour Christ put breath into them.
The Tory voting demographic, like it or not are older people, mostly pensioners. Their 8% rise is nothing short of vote buying.
I’m not sure how you can argue against that.
I dunno where you live Charger but all those work why racists you mention certainly don’t live round here.
People don’t like change and it’s been forced upon them no matter which way they vote. People see this as a threat and they will turn to any party who promises to stop the immigration.
We are heading down a dark road but the people to blame are the people in power not the people who want their own status quo to continue.
Ditto rod Stewart. Surely with his values he would be much more at home in govan
Hope never to see that toerag Mcgregor anywhere near Celtic Park.