"But you see, it's not me, its not my family"
While this lyric can be interpreted in many ways with it being ambiguous as to whether the Cranberries on writing Zombie were demonstrating anger at all violence, or whether they wrote the song specifically to oppose the actions of the IRA in particular, there does appear to remain a common recurrent theme of apathy and inability to engage with or initiate conflict apparent in much of the political discourse of the present day, in the same way as many misguidedly assume that involvement in war efforts benefits the economy and further preserve their influence. This can be reflected on when observing historic interregional cultural and religious conflicts evident within Ireland, and their relations with the UK and the EU.
One can notice the clear contrasts between the attitudes of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland with regard to the willingness of the people to engage with these conflicts, as well as their comparatively isolationist motives with regard to their engagement with each other's agenda when reflecting on these observations. This is very effectively summarised through the the claim from a 1974 Provisional pamphlet that "the people of the Six Counties are justifiably angry and bitterly disappointed that their suffering, their hardships, their struggle for survival have been viewed as less important than the price of Guinness in the rest of Ireland". This presents the clear indifference and distaste towards the maintaining of ties with historically socially conservative anti-internationalist monarchist ideals evident within the UK government, which would thus appear to be counterproductive and a significant threat to maintaining republican ideals central to the establishment of their sovereignty and left-wing internationalist presence (as well as in developing their own alternative systems of governance). This sentiment can also be clearly exemplified through the ever apparent sentiment present amongst many republicans that a lack of care for Irish citizens and their individual identity is a fundamental facet to loyalist ideology, this going as far to even questioning as to whether they wanted a free and fair society at all, as was said by Sinn-Fein vice president Maire Drumm on this subject in 1971 when she wondered "if the people of Munster want us to be part of a free Ireland at all", this being in agreement with Martin McGuinness who took it upon himself to illicit the blame on disinterested and apathetic individuals in Southern Ireland when he demanded that southerners 'take some course of action to impress on your cowardly government that unless something is done by them to remove the British Army by force of arms, the people of the 26 [counties] shall be regarded as cowards and traitors with a few honourable exceptions' in 1974. This would thus prove to be of importance in greater understanding the limited importance of loyalism in Irish society in general and how it only served to be of benefit and interest to those supporting individualist anti-internationalist social conservatives who used this agenda to fuel far right and xenophobic agenda, which continued to be apparent and ongoing even at this present time with division and hatred reaching their peaks throughout the decades following the 1970s (and that we can clearly see remaining in light to recent far right attacks and violence in Belfast last week).
What seems even more alarming is the motives for this racial hate and violence that took place especially considering a very small proportion of under 2% of the Northern Irish population are actually migrants, thus presenting this as likely more than just a response and means of acting on the sense of fear and concern demonstrated by far right pressure groups who had fallen victim to narratives placing the blame on uncontrolled immigration supposedly threatening their livelihoods. These events were thus purely unprovoked and unjustifiable racially orientated violence that acts as a mere reflection of limited social progress and active change to society, in spite of political advancements having been seen to have been taking place. It is through event such as this that one can reflect on the clear similarities in patterns of exploitation of power and military interest as had been observed when conflicts between loyalists and republicans in Northern Ireland were at their peak, and ultimately present the interests (particularly in relation to the hugely apparent anti-internationalist Euro-scepticism, militarism, and British nationalism evident in much of present day UK politics) of both of these nations to be fairly similar to each other. This can thus prove to potentially explain the distancing and lack of interest of Southern Ireland in the commonalities of Northern Irish politics, along with providing an explanation as to why the people of Northern Ireland may appear to be considerably more closely aligned with the UK as a part of their identity than the rest of Ireland potentially. These attitudes can thus appear to explain the potential causes of racism in the lead up to last week's attacks.
No comments:
Post a Comment