OTwo Editor Alice Keegan examines the concept of 'Irishness' in the wake of the Celtic revival.
Not since Italia 90 has Ireland been so delighted with itself. Though Ireland's success at the 1990 World Cup occurred more than a decade before I was born, its impact on the country, and its surrounding culture, lives on. Today, thanks to Troy Parrott, Paul Mescal, CMAT and a truly remarkable number of other musicians, sportsmen, actors, and artists, Ireland is experiencing another sense of pride and international recognition. Most of all, for being prime examples of 'pure', and 'authentically' Irish.
This time round, however, increased global communication, particularly with the emergence of social media, and the simultaneous surge and strengthening of the far-right, has meant that the media and socio-cultural landscape discussing such notions are drastically different.
After spending over ten years coping with the effects of the 2008 financial crash, suddenly being Irish is cool. Pellador jumpers, claddagh earrings, you know what I'm talking about. There's bingo as Gaeilge, tráth na gceists, trad sessions and céilís everywhere you look in town this month. St Patrick's Day will bring 100,000 overseas tourists looking to celebrate the holiday in the land of saints and €7.50 pints of Guinness. Ireland has a distinct, vivid and rich Gaelic character which must be embraced and celebrated. Most importantly, in this sociopolitical climate, it should be shared. Music, language and sport should be celebrated all year round, and especially in the month of March. Buy that new Bohs jersey and the tickets to see Fontaines DC headlining Electric Picnic this summer. But more crucially, this month and every other, we should celebrate our nation's history of rebellion, emigration and welcoming.
Ireland has a history of experiencing ethnic cleansing, transplantation policies, starvation, poverty and emigration. Amidst all of this, we are a nation of survivors, and this has manifested in our amazing cultural and creative output. Anna Corinne, of the Wild Geese podcast, looked into the etymology of the word 'culture' and summed it up as 'to care for yourself and the people around you.' Promoting traditional Irish culture amidst this ongoing 'green wave' is great (no, go hiontach), but let's not gatekeep 'Irishness' while we're at it. Instead of mocking someone who openly admits they 'hated the way Irish is taught in school', we should be encouraging them to revisit the language that our colonisers once attempted to literally beat out of us with the bata scór. This Seachtain na nGaeilge, let's celebrate traditional Irish spirit, but not to the exclusion of others. Ar an nós sin, let's acknowledge the help we have received from others, and uplift those around us who need it today.
“Promoting traditional Irish culture amidst this ongoing 'green wave' is great (no, go hiontach), but let's not gatekeep 'Irishness' while we're at it. Instead of mocking someone who openly admits they 'hated the way Irish is taught in school', we should be encouraging them to revisit the language that our colonisers once attempted to literally beat out of us with the bata scór.”
The tendency to 'gatekeep' is nothing new. It's easy to understand, and probably something we participate in more than we care to admit. In the creative arts, there has long been a tension between tradition and innovation. But what may not have been under consideration up until a few years ago, is the insidious presence of the rising far-right. To give just one example, for decades there has been discourse surrounding the conservation, preservation and presentation of Irish music - would Irish-language rappers, Kneecap, who notoriously mix Irish history and politics with drugs and sex in their lyrics, even exist if the naysayers, the musicians and musicologists who wished to confine Irish music and language to their traditional form and roots prevailed?
Now imagine what could become of Ireland if such traditionalist, exclusionary attitudes were taken toward the nation as a whole. Let's face it, Irish music, dance, sport and language would be devastatingly different. Many immigrants today know Ireland better than their homeplaces, their children never even setting foot in their ancestral place. Young refugees play for GAA teams, they serve you pints down in the local. Who is to say they are less Irish than the rest of us?
Such a view has not come from nowhere. Over the past few weeks, the country's government's ineptitude has been on full display, providing an insight into the various issues inherent in Irish policy-making. From their now scrapped proposals for SNA reductions in schools, the rejected plans to develop the Rotunda Maternity Hospital, and the record numbers of children living in homelessness, the current government's consistent disregard for its most vulnerable people has arguably never been more obvious. While they're at it, the Taoiseach is also planning to hand over a bowl of shamrocks to a man mentioned in the Epstein files more times than Jesus is mentioned in the Bible. Successive governments have framed issues which both rural and urban Ireland face, and more dangerously have reframed the problems of their own doing as problems caused by immigration. It's pathetic, heartbreaking, but most of all, dangerous.
The Irish diaspora is immense, with an estimated 100 million people claiming Irish ancestry, while year after year Ireland's young people move to England, Australia, the United States and elsewhere. Another failing of the Irish government which us left at home must suffer the consequences of. Nonetheless, at the 2023 Dublin riots, people wrapped themselves in the tricolour while they terrorised the city, all in the name of protecting Irish women and children from immigrants. At every protest across the country since then there has inevitably been a placard displaying the words "Ireland for the Irish." The most vocally anti-immigration love to retell the experiences of Irish immigrants who were met with signposts stating "No blacks, no dogs, no Irish" as way to deny accusations of racism.
Masking their remarks under the guise of national pride, patriotism quickly morphs into nationalism and separatism. "Irish men just don’t do this kind of stuff," is a comment I personally have seen on many social media platforms in the early stages of crime reports. If Irish men "just don’t" commit crimes, but crimes are being committed, then who is behind them? It's the people who don’t fit into their preferred narrative at that very moment - immigrants. The rhetoric is not always overtly discriminatory, either. In romanticising Catholic, conservative, rural Ireland, the decades-long neglect and destitution these areas still bear the scars of are ignored. Nationalist, exclusionary narratives are being utilised in an aggressive attempt to stop the tides of change, escalate racist violence and marginalisation of minorities through threats, intimidation, misinformation and sensationalism. Ireland's mythologised, Gaelic Catholic culture is increasingly invoked.
I'm not saying that rejecting notions of 'pure' and 'authentic' Irishness is going to solve Ireland's proliferating racist discourse. No, these sentiments have been growing for years now, and not just domestically, but worldwide. Far-right provocateurs such as Conor McGregor have operated within and been emboldened by partisan echo-chambers, intensifying the spread of their xenophobic, misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ beliefs, and have been given legitimacy in Europe and the United States by nationalist populist movements led by Trump, Farage, Le Pen and Orban.
But there are small things we can do. While we cheer for Jessie Buckley at the Oscars, let's also cheer for the immigrant mother bringing her children out to the Paddy's Day parade. They're both a prime example of all the good this country has to offer. This Seachtain na nGaeilge, look at Irish history, and think about how this country's experiences of resilience can be translated and reconfigured into Ireland's current climate. There, the indomitable spirit of the Emerald Isle so often espoused, can be found. It might not be as pretty as the new Ditsy Bits knit cardigan, but it will make Ireland, truly, a place to be proud to be from. As the saying goes, 'ar scath a chéile a mhaireann na ndaoine.'