Paddy’s Day is over for another year and as always, some people are left counting the cost of the national booze fest.
Why are there certain sections of Irish society that feel the need to celebrate their national identity through mindless violence? We’re still seeing cases come through the Courts from the Love Ulster riot – although that did turn out to be mainly an excuse for a load of knackers to pillage Foot Locker and make off with all the left shoes.
This year St Patrick’s Day in the capital of Ireland was celebrated with a riot in Finglas (a pretty rough part of North Dublin where around 100 drunken yobs burnt out about 20 cars – pulling driver out of some of them to do so.) Today we’re told of an attack on a 17 year old English kid, who was apparently set upon by a group of Dubs on the main O’Connell Street in the city centre and at some stage the promising pianist’s finger was torn off.
In fairness there’s some confusion about the finger ripping incident which may or may not have been sparked by the locals discovering where the kid was from. But there does seem to be agreement that a row developed after they found out he was from England.
Now that’s the thing. Why does Irish identity have to be identified by the fact it’s not English. This has nothing to do with who oppressed who or for how long. It’s racism pure and simple.
It doesn’t matter what cause there is to snipe at an old enemy, the fact is that in the here and now a lot of water has flowed under a lot of bridges and that fight was won a long time ago (the situation in the North is a separate case and one I’m not touching with a barge pole here).
It’s not even a subject that can be discussed in a grown up manner. As I write this I am checking and rechecking every word I write because I know if I use the wrong phrase or the wrong word any discussion will quickly degenerate into hackneyed accusations and hysteria.
Ireland has an extremely rich history that goes back a lot further than 1916. Yet any state celebrations tend to get stuck at that point and look no further. They celebrate the 90th anniversary of the 1916 rising with a banana republic display of military pomp and build roads over archeological finds that happen to crop up in the wrong place.
There are too many people in this country who define themselves by purely negative national stereotypes. Even Irish neutrality seems to be more of a partisan excuse for not getting involved rather than a true idealistic commitment…rendition flights in Shannon anyone?
This isn’t what makes Ireland the unique and great country it is (or should be anyway).
As long as the lowest common denominator sees being Irish as being good in a punch up and part of a proud rebel past this country isn’t going to be able to grow up. Until that happens Paddy’s Day is simply going to be an excuse to get pissed up and cause as much destruction as possible. Not exactly a reason for a lot of national pride!
