FAR RIGHT “IRISH PATRIOTISM “
Posted By: January 17, 2023
FAR RIGHT “IRISH PATRIOTISM ” INSPIRED BY OLIVER CROMWELL AND MAGGIE THATCHER—NOT BY TONE, PEARSE, AND CONNOLLY.
By Fr. Sean Mc Manus
An article by Conor Gallagher in the Irish Times of Dublin, (January 14) makes sad and disturbing reading.
He writes in part, “It is a new feature of far right Irish ‘patriotism’ to hear them sharing planning information with groups including neo-Nazis and former British soldiers organizing similar protests against migrants and refugees in England.”
‘We were afraid’: Ireland’s far-right is mobilizing, and they are coming to a town near you’” —
Mother of God! —Who, by the way, gave birth to Jesus Christ in a stable because “ because there was no room in the inn”—how could this be happening in Ireland?
Irish people in Ireland—or America or any place in the world—opposing immigrants would appallingly be like Black Americans supporting slavery; or Jewish-Americans supporting historic, worldwide anti-Semitism. In other words, a total betrayal of their own experience and history, indeed, the denial of their very soul.
The “far right Irish ‘patriotism’” described in this article flagrantly and shamefully renounces not only the Gospel-based social justice teaching of the Catholic Church on the rights of immigrants, but also the basic human decency, humanity, and solidarity of people of no faith but of goodwill.
Faith is the faith that does justice; if it does not do justice, it is not faith. Not Jewish, not Christian, not Muslim—not any faith. And if people of no faith, but of “goodwill” do not do justice, then they are not of goodwill. “Love of neighbor”—and, therefore, love of God—means doing social justice for all God’s daughters and sons on this earth.
And an “Irish patriotism” that does not do justice is not inspired by Tone, Pearse, and Connolly, but by Oliver Cromwell and Maggie Thatcher.
