Lots of good points here, two more I would add are - this harmony between hardline right CNR and PUL has been in existence much earlier than recent times. When it comes to issues like abortion rights, even in the height of the Troubles, both sides were able to put aside their hatred of one another and work together to ensure this island remained abortion free.
There's also a lot to be said too about Big House unionism purposefully whipping up racist sentiments and young Loyalist men (who feel they have been sold out by a peace process they were not included in) heeding the cause, and being sent out to destroy communities, sowing division and keeping Big House unionism in power. It's a tale as old as time.
Conversely, Republicans in power have lost their grip on the right wingers within their faction - illustrated in an electoral sense with the splitting off of Aontú from SF. So you're right that these right winger Republicans are becoming "little Englanders" and moving away from the traditional values of Irish Republicanism.
But the biggest question here for me is, what are the "traditional values" of Irish Republicanism? And maybe we have always been rooted in seeking whiteness - which explains why these disgraceful anti-immigrant views have been allowed to grow. The roots were already there.
The recent article, '‘No race hate here’? Irish national identity and racism in the mid twentieth century' by Jack Crangle is particularly illuminating, particularly Section 4:
"Irish nationalist identity was predicated on an exclusionary, white conception of nationhood. In the late nineteenth century, Ireland's burgeoning home rule movement flourished partially through cultivating a distinctive form of cultural nationalism through arenas such as sport, literature, dress, language and music. Institutions such as the Gaelic Athletic Association were constructed to actively distinguish Irish cultural practices from those of Britain, asserting a coherent cultural identity to accompany political nationalism. Central to this ‘Gaelic revival’ was the notion that the Irish were a discernible ‘race’, one that should be rooted in its own sovereign territory. This belief in cultural and racial distinctiveness informed Ireland's post-independence nation-building project, culminating in a state crafted around an identity that, excluded ethnic minorities due to its reliance on ‘ethnic belonging’ and ‘historic ties to place’. Independent Ireland, therefore, emerged with a ‘new-found sense of whiteness’ in which racial specificity was actively asserted and championed."
I think it is important to acknowledge the oppression that we were coming out of at the time that those traditional values were developed. We had lost all our identity, our language and our culture. We were reinventing our idea of Irishness. Its like hammering hamas for not having more liberal policies on gay rights in the middle of a genocide. There were also many anti-imperialist figures like James Connolly, Jim Larkin and Frank Ryan that wouldnt be too keen about current Irish Patriot movement. Look at Celtic Football Club, founded by Irish immigrants, strongly anti-fascist and anti racist. I think true Irish republicism has always been a left wing socialist ideology. This brand of plastic paddy nationalism is something very different.
If you ask me Ireland would be better off under a Feudal or Absolute monarch lol. That aside, I must say that in my view Ireland cannot sustain the whole of the third world and should be something of a 'Gaelic Paradise' it should be a font of Celtic culture, literature and people. This is what being Irish means.
Now I'm not Irish, so many might disagree with me, and I'm not terribly interested in politics as Fiction is my focus (notably Scotto-Irish-French Fantasy Fiction) as anyone who pokes into my Substack will tell you. However, I must say that the idea that Irish nationalism, so important to Europe as Ireland has ever been a crucial place of literature and poetry and culture, must be kept alive. If it should become little more than a form and a gesture filled thing with little real consideration for the desires and wants of the Irish people would be a terrible thing.
Lots of good points here, two more I would add are - this harmony between hardline right CNR and PUL has been in existence much earlier than recent times. When it comes to issues like abortion rights, even in the height of the Troubles, both sides were able to put aside their hatred of one another and work together to ensure this island remained abortion free.
There's also a lot to be said too about Big House unionism purposefully whipping up racist sentiments and young Loyalist men (who feel they have been sold out by a peace process they were not included in) heeding the cause, and being sent out to destroy communities, sowing division and keeping Big House unionism in power. It's a tale as old as time.
Conversely, Republicans in power have lost their grip on the right wingers within their faction - illustrated in an electoral sense with the splitting off of Aontú from SF. So you're right that these right winger Republicans are becoming "little Englanders" and moving away from the traditional values of Irish Republicanism.
But the biggest question here for me is, what are the "traditional values" of Irish Republicanism? And maybe we have always been rooted in seeking whiteness - which explains why these disgraceful anti-immigrant views have been allowed to grow. The roots were already there.
The recent article, '‘No race hate here’? Irish national identity and racism in the mid twentieth century' by Jack Crangle is particularly illuminating, particularly Section 4:
"Irish nationalist identity was predicated on an exclusionary, white conception of nationhood. In the late nineteenth century, Ireland's burgeoning home rule movement flourished partially through cultivating a distinctive form of cultural nationalism through arenas such as sport, literature, dress, language and music. Institutions such as the Gaelic Athletic Association were constructed to actively distinguish Irish cultural practices from those of Britain, asserting a coherent cultural identity to accompany political nationalism. Central to this ‘Gaelic revival’ was the notion that the Irish were a discernible ‘race’, one that should be rooted in its own sovereign territory. This belief in cultural and racial distinctiveness informed Ireland's post-independence nation-building project, culminating in a state crafted around an identity that, excluded ethnic minorities due to its reliance on ‘ethnic belonging’ and ‘historic ties to place’. Independent Ireland, therefore, emerged with a ‘new-found sense of whiteness’ in which racial specificity was actively asserted and championed."
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/irish-historical-studies/article/no-race-hate-here-irish-national-identity-and-racism-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/38314DBEDB338A76E46DE416EDF9493C
I think it is important to acknowledge the oppression that we were coming out of at the time that those traditional values were developed. We had lost all our identity, our language and our culture. We were reinventing our idea of Irishness. Its like hammering hamas for not having more liberal policies on gay rights in the middle of a genocide. There were also many anti-imperialist figures like James Connolly, Jim Larkin and Frank Ryan that wouldnt be too keen about current Irish Patriot movement. Look at Celtic Football Club, founded by Irish immigrants, strongly anti-fascist and anti racist. I think true Irish republicism has always been a left wing socialist ideology. This brand of plastic paddy nationalism is something very different.
didn’t know you were on Substack!
If you ask me Ireland would be better off under a Feudal or Absolute monarch lol. That aside, I must say that in my view Ireland cannot sustain the whole of the third world and should be something of a 'Gaelic Paradise' it should be a font of Celtic culture, literature and people. This is what being Irish means.
Now I'm not Irish, so many might disagree with me, and I'm not terribly interested in politics as Fiction is my focus (notably Scotto-Irish-French Fantasy Fiction) as anyone who pokes into my Substack will tell you. However, I must say that the idea that Irish nationalism, so important to Europe as Ireland has ever been a crucial place of literature and poetry and culture, must be kept alive. If it should become little more than a form and a gesture filled thing with little real consideration for the desires and wants of the Irish people would be a terrible thing.