You may heard one or two of these arguments before...
1.If an area was ours for 500 years and yours for 50, it should belong to us – you are merely an occupier.
2.If an area was yours for 500 years and ours for 50, it should belong to us – borders must not be changed.
3.If an area belonged to us 500 years ago but never since then, it should belong to us – it is the Cradle of our Nation.
4.If a majority of our people live there, it must belong to us – they must enjoy the right to self-determination.
5.If a minority of our people live there, it must belong to us – they must be protected against your oppression.
6.All of the above rules apply to us but not to you.
7.Our dream of greatness is Historical Necessity, yours is Fascism.
Author Unknown
6 comments:
Love it O'Neill. :-D Thank you!
What would be interesting would a be study of non-ethno nationalism vis a vis USA v Canada and Australia v New Zealand.
An offer of union from Australia was rejected by the Kiwis in late 2006 despite the close links that the two countries have. From a perspective of the Kiwis, they are have have free trade and free movement (about one third of Kiwis at one point in their lives will live in Australia). So why wreck such an arrangement.
When questioned about the heavy migration from New Zealand to Australia, the 1980's NZ Prime Minister Robert Muldoon said that the migration benefited both countries as it raised the average intelligence of both countries!
Strangely one pioneer of non-ethnic nationalism (if you discount his anti-semitism) was Arthur Griffith. Taunted on his Irish nationalism despite his Welsh name and Ulster-Protestant ancestry (one of his grandfathers), Griffith if I remember rightly said "The Gael has come and gone, the Dane has come and gone, the Englishman has come and gone - and the Irishman has arrive".
This would have given comfort to many future workers in the Irish nationalist/republican movement such as De Valera (half-Spanish), Lemass (Hughonot), Pearse (half-English), Brugha (half-English) and Bobby Briscoe (jewish and lithuanian parentage).
Unfortunately others did see the Irish as a some sort of Celtic "race"
You omit Connolly from that list, also was de valera not half-American?
I wonder whether the various people you mention would have felt in the SF of today which has retreated even further into their euphemistically termed "community" comfort-zone?
Should read
"I wonder how at home the various people you mention would have felt in the SF of today which has retreated even further into their euphemistically termed "community" comfort-zone?"
Of course Connolly on the list - Scottish of Irish parentage. Indeed his great-great nephew Ian Bell of the Herald and Sunday Herald is a big fish in the Scottish commetariat.
Dev was half-Spanish, half Irish (his mother was Bruee in Limerick). He was born in the United States - Manhattan to be precise. Whilst much is known about his mother Catherine Coll, who abandoned her son and packed him off to be raised by her family in Bruee. The shadow is on Juan Vivian De Valera, his father. From what can be gathered, his father was a Spanaird who wanted to be a sculpture but blinded himself in one eye while sculpting. He then quit Spain to its then colony of Cuba (Spanish till the early 20th century) where he worked in the sugar business. He moved to New York to work for the American-import side of the business and met Coll there. He died of TB or flu when Dev was a toddler.
The shadowy knowledge about Dev's father led to claims in the 1930's by the Blueshirts and other facist travellers that De Valera's father was in fact a crypto-jew, that is a Spanish Jew pretending to be Catholic to avoid persecution. De Valera in the Dail said that to the best of his knowledge his father was a Catholic - he said this not to persecute Jews but merely to assert what he believed to be the truth. Dev a couple of years later enshrined the protection of Ireland's Jews in the 1937 Constituion - probably one of the few countries in the world with a such a provision. Griffith probably span in his grave.
Other noted mixed origins of course include Garret Fitzgerald whose father Desmond hailed from England and spoke with a cockney accent. Desmond's real name was Thomas but he changed it to sound more Irish. Desmond's parents were from Kerry and Cork but met in London. Desmond's brother France was a major supplier of weapons to the IRA but ironically ended up running a British armanents factory during WWI. It was bombed during the Blitz and France was killed - and Desmond ended up owning the factory! One of of Desmond's sisters also ran a top ladies finishing school in the Sutton Downs.
Garret's mother was an Ulster-Protestant. Her father was a leading unionist and whiskey magnet (he was MD of Dunville's). He was in business with the Craigs of Craigavon and Garret shared his birthday with his grandfather's (John McConnell) close amigo Edward Carson.
Garret Fitzgerald's wife Joan (Farrell) was English-born. Her father was an Irish officer in the British army and she spent much of her childhood living in the home counties.
Thomas Clarke - born on the Isle of Wight
Joseph Plunkett - educated at Stoneyhurst public school in Lancashire and spoke with English accent
Michael Collins - spent third of life in London
Erskine Childers senior - English-born, half Anglo-Irish protestant. Ex-British army officer and clerk in the House of Commons. Led the first carrier borne aircraft attack in British military history for which he won the DSO.
Erskine Childers junior - English born, raised and educated. Half American. Moved to Ireland in his mid 20's to work for Dev's media group - the Irish Press group.
To give a few examples!
“This would have given comfort to many future workers in the Irish nationalist/republican movement such as De Valera (half-Spanish), Lemass (Hughonot), Pearse (half-English), Brugha (half-English) and Bobby Briscoe (jewish and lithuanian parentage).”
Of course having colourful lineage does not disqualify someone from being an ethnic nationalist. Prescribing a vision of Irishness which put a premium on ‘Gaelic culture’ and Catholicism was enough to satisfy that requirement. Interesting for example how Charles Burgess styled himself ‘Cathal Brugha’ to underline his Irish nationalist credentials.
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