Posted on 09/10/2016 1:33:30 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
At first sight, the connections between Brexit and Donald Trump are not so apparent. However, look at it from an Irish perspective and one link becomes very clear: Irish people who hate and fear the Republican presidential candidate are almost invariably the same who were appalled and outraged at the British vote to leave the EU.
Why should this be? Well, we can speculate about the fears of rising nationalism or concerns about free trade. Internationally, that may be true. But in the Irish context, the hostility to Trump and Brexit is more of a childlike refusal to accept that things are changing and there’s nothing that can be done about it.
Who can forget Sir Bob Geldof’s Thames flotilla of yachts and floating gin-palaces during the Brexit campaign, when he and his crew of Hooray Henrys’ jeered and flicked ‘V’ signs at hard-working Cornish fishermen who were protesting Brussels’ stranglehold on their livelihoods? The reaction from ordinary working people in the UK was one of disgust, and his stunt may well have helped swing the result away from ‘Remain’. But was there a similar outcry at his behaviour from his native Dublin? Not really.
From the unprecedented public criticism of a nominee for US President – twice – by Enda Kenny in the Dáil, to the Tanaiste and other senior Fine Gael parliamentarians ostentatiously attending the Democrat convention while ignoring the Republican gathering, the response of ‘Official’ Ireland to what they see as unwelcome change has been almost gratuitous in its tribalism.
The concerted virtue-signalling at the highest level of the State has been in lockstep with that on social media, where the need to prove oneself liberal, hip and progressive is at obsessive levels. The over-riding aim appears to be to “keep up with the Jones’.” If the Jones’ are the Western liberal elite rather than the show-offs next door.
Perhaps none of this should be surprising. The pent-up feelings of inferiority and resentment from the isolated and penurious de Valera years, have been venting themselves in a dam-burst of reaction for at least a decade, if not longer. Lobbyists who push for radical social change have found an open door at Government Buildings, while large parts of the media revel in the role of campaigners for a ‘New Left’ agenda.
Yet is this healthy? Is it even in the national interest?
When we see the open partisanship towards Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, so prevalent now among Irish opinion leaders, we should also remember that this country is one of the most dependent in the world on foreign direct investment, with some of the most important companies being American in origin. Is it at all wise to have high-profile ministers like Simon Harris and Leo Varadkar running around telling everyone how much they dislike Donald Trump and, by implication, the Republicans, when Trump has made no secret of his wish to punish countries that he believes are undercutting America with corporate tax rates and other incentives?
There is also a worrying blindness as to the sea-change in public opinion that is taking place across the developed world. While Irish society is moving towards the full embrace of political correctness and identity politics, Europe, America, and large parts of Asia are rejecting the neo-leftist agenda; rediscovering the virtues of their own customs within sovereign nation states. Ironically, while many of us believe that we are now leaders of the liberal mainstream, we are actually outriders internationally, becoming dangerously isolated.
Previous Irish governments were strictly neutral in American elections for good reason. Going out of your way to antagonise the potential Leader of the Free World and the people who voted for them, is a quick way into trouble for a small, trade-dependent country like ours. Likewise, the Taoiseach’s intervention in favour of a Remain vote in the UK, along with ministers and other public figures, did nothing to sway the result and may even have opened the door to future foreign interference in our own ballots. Worse still, it identified this country with the losing side.
Tempting as it may be for officials and public to take sides in foreign elections and referendums in neighbouring states, there is just too much to lose in backing the wrong horse. We elect our leaders to be wise guardians of the Irish national interest, not to be acting like peer-pressured teenagers who will say anything to be approved by the coolest kids in class. It’s about time they started remembering that.
A snowflake begins to see the real world
I just spent a week in southern ireland. it was great. there are many people in ireland who get it. unfortunately ireland is, as the author says, relatively isolated, socially and technologically. their industrial base is small, narrow and fragile. so their self awareness is limited. and they tend to be overly concerned with their own past history, as interesting as that is. i was not there for the politics so it did not bother me much. i had other things to do so most of the time i kept my mouth shut concerning politics and current events. i do however hope that ireland will catch up, and soon.
The Common Market was a good idea. The European Union was a bad idea.
Ireland should put itself forward to the world's entrepreneurs as the low-cost regime. It should eat the lunch of greedier regimes, unable to compete due the stupidity of their voters. Long live Ireland!
F the EU and the $14.5b grab against AAPL. It belongs to Apple's shareholders, not to Eurotrash scum!
As for Ireland, keep your eyes on the ongoing water company dispute. As I understood folks trying to explain it to me, Ireland built a new potable water supply system. Somehow this had been mandated by the EU. Most of the people were against the new system because of the cost. Now the new system is in place and people are starting to receive the bills for it. However, a large percentage of the population is passively revolting by not paying the bills.
I have not had time to get back on the internet to look for articles about this. My information is anecdotal— still, given what I had heard, I would have expected that the article would have mentioned the water controversy, but it does not. Perhaps Irish popular opinion is in transition about Brexit...
What the hell is going on with irish water?
March 3 2016
http://www.thejournal.ie/irish-water-explainer-2639913-Mar2016/
the sorry history of ireland’s water charges
april 26, 2016
No bad for an Irishman. They are usually so steeped in hating America and Israel they can’t see straight.
One thing he leaves out: America’s kindness towards Irish immigrants which has gone on for two centuries now. It is repaid with bile from their institutions and trashed hotel rooms by Irish students.
That’s why Ireland is called the Mississippi of Europe.
The fact of the matter is - and I speak as a descendent of Irish immigrants who went into service in NYC - many Irish were like inner-city people today - the wild Irish they used to be called. Read up on the NYC draft riots. That is why those signs began to appear. The way New Orleans sometimes closes down their bars when the ‘Greek’ festivals break up. They can’t put up signs.
And yet, America keeps taking in Irish immigrants and extending work visas despite, even today, California landlords are often subjected to having their apartment ruined by Irish exchange students.
That does not mean there aren’t plenty of good Irish immigrants into this country.
We are a good and decent country.
Globalism is so chic in Ireland, the political invalid of Europe and soon the world.
Read the bio of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan by Joseph Lash (well worth it - brilliant). Annie’s background and her father’s behavior were so squalid as to defy belief. I simply refuse to romanticize the Irish diaspora at the cost of hating Americans of that period. The Yankees also provided the remarkably intelligent Annie with a good education before sending her out to conquer the world.
The Irish have willingly put on the yoke of the EU. Clinton is a perfect Misstress on the plantation
Not guilty! Very, very, NOT GUILTY!
How ironic that Irish leftists call themselves "nationalists" with reference to the British but identify with the Third World.
Globalism is so chic in Ireland, the political invalid of Europe and soon the world.
Nationalism was left wing before it was right wing. The Old Order was imperial, multi-ethnic, and cosmopolitan. Then came the French Revolution which led directly to Irish Republicanism, the Greek wars of liberation, the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, and national awakenings among Scandinavians, Czechs, Bulgarians, Romanians, Croatians, Armenians, etc. All these nationalisms were originally left wing. Right wing "blood and soil" mystical nationalism was a later development.
Irish nationalism has been left wing since Wolfe Tone.
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