Mark Donlon: In review of Irishness: How narrow minds will hold us back
But in a world where almost everything is material for debate, the jury seems to be out on just how good we have it, relatively speaking.
Donald Trump, the US president — or 'Leader of the Free World' to give him that increasingly ironic title — has been busy presiding over matters in the Middle East since his inauguration last January, with the Israel-Hamas war an ongoing disaster and Israel-Iran tensions since furthering the regional trauma.
In February, Trump suggested Gaza — now depleted of more than 58,000 Palestinians since October 2023 — could become the 'Riviera of the Middle East' if it was razed and rebuilt.
The automated division, destruction, and suggested ethnic cleansing of lands more than 10,000km outside of America's jurisdiction — but very much within its global reach and lucrative for its weapons industry — has become a news item so regular that it is hard to scale the unbelievable low points along the way.
Trump recently called on his Department of Energy to 'drill, baby, drill', in response to volatile crude oil prices amid strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
You don't have to drill down too far to see the true volatility and crude nature of the beast.
Sad state of affairs
Back here in Ireland, a recent post on social media from a Fine Gael TD denying rumours a vacant premises was to be used as an International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) centre was greeted in the Facebook comment section with the embellished relief of some who began to go on about retaining the 'Irishness' of the town concerned.
It's probably not what they meant, but sure, a crumbling, vacant business premises in the heart of an ailing rural town is indeed very Irish as far as trade, enterprise, and opportunity go.
In 2024, 14 people normally resident in IPAS accommodation died — a record number.
The rhetoric elsewhere, however, deals more with record numbers of asylum seekers availing of IPAS services in the broader sense.
Indeed, that number has more than quadrupled from 7,244 in December 2021 to 32,689 as of June of this year, but are we really so inwardly focused and outwardly ignorant to just skip straight to cold, hard intolerance?
It's a sad state of affairs that many counter arguments — for the most part made online — need to include reminders of our own country's suffering in the Great Famine, when over 1m people starved to death and an estimated 1m more fled their homeland in the uncertain hope of survival elsewhere.
If people are hellbent on their Irishness, at the heart of it should be compassion and a deeper understanding — even at a distance in our lives of supreme comfort by comparison — of the modern day atrocities being inflicted on innocent people in a growing list of countries.
It's hard to put a finger on exactly what made a proportion of Irish people lose their sense of céad míle failte, but one thing is for sure — it didn't happen overnight.
It may be a case of social media capturing some in an algorithmic vice-grip, but we don't (or at least shouldn't) spend all our lives on social media.
Communicating and connecting
Getting out and about and communicating and connecting in the traditional sense of the word is key.
A recent visit to a local coffee shop brought the comforting smells of a morning roast and an accent from eastern Europe.
Discovering that the barista was from Ukraine and here in Ireland since the outbreak of war in her homeland in 2022, the pleasant chat had a lot more significance in retrospect.
It is surely hard to get up and have cheer for all when you're away from home not by choice, but instead because forces of evil chose your home place as the latest wasteland of war.
It's probably all the more difficult when there's an echo chamber that throws a blanket over those from other lands and essentially resents their new life and safety from obscurity.
Rap group Kneecap's wranglings with the British government may be presented as divisive, but a more watchful eye would acknowledge that the real division in the equation came after they took a case against the then-Conservative government in 2024.
They split High Court proceeds to the tune of £14,000 among both nationalist and loyalist charities, after walking up the steps over the blocking of an arts grant by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
Maith thúainn, well done, a good deed speaks all languages.
Maybe, just maybe, anger indiscriminately lasered onto the most vulnerable can be harnessed into something more meaningful.
The term 'voting with their feet' has taken on an unfortunate new meaning when you think of the many who have marched in anti-immigration protests in Irish towns in recent years.
It's all the more unfortunate when you consider that the 2024 Irish general election — which took place less than eight months ago — saw voter turnout reach a record low.
With RTÉ reporting national turnout of 59.7%, it made for the lowest figure since the 1923 general election, which took place just eight months on from the establishment of the Irish Free State in December 1922.
In this country, the system of liberal democracy may be producing the sameness that now has us on our second bout of rotating taoisigh, but it is a democracy nonetheless and ours to amend and improve for the better and for the many. But as well as making up our minds in greater numbers at voting booths, not afforded to millions worldwide answering to autocrats, we have to open our minds in everyday life.
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