No it is not too much to ask but perhaps we can undertake to understand it.
English colonial occupation of Ireland drove the people into a desperate even primitive poverty even before the potato famine. They were forced to concentrate on ever smaller patches left them by their absentee landlords and they were, in effect, forced to exist on the potato with hopefully enough scraps left over to maintain a pig.
These were the kinds of conditions, but much more benign, which caused us Americans to revolt. The Irish to their credit rebelled for hundreds of years. It is not surprising that in their desperation they rejected everything British and clutched at any ideology which even arguably supported their plight. Hence the strong flavor of socialism, even communism, that infected Ireland and especially the IRA and those extremists who were willing to engage in terrorism in defense of their ideology and their religion.
This is indeed fertile ground for leftist propaganda. The absence of contrary media to debunk leftist propaganda is not unique to Ireland, virtually the whole of Western Europe suffers from it. I remember posting years ago in Free Republic that the whole idea that anyone's subjective reaction to speech was justification enough to suppress so-called offensive speech was terribly dangerous and would ultimately lead to tyranny. Yes we have prohibitions against slander and libel, although limited when applied to public figures, and we have laws against clear and present danger of inciting violence but these exceptions to free speech enjoy a long tradition in the Anglo-Saxon world and do not significantly restrain political free speech which, after all, is the bulwark against tyranny.
This pernicious doctrine of hate speech which depends entirely on the subjective reaction of the listener, is not new but it is metastasizing in America and has virtually taken over the Democrat party.
I am not surprised that 73% of Ireland is misinformed when nearly 50% of America voted for Hillary Clinton.
