Grow Up, Ireland

Iain Dale's Diary · 57 minutes ago · 5 views

Regular readers will know I’ve become very interested in the history and culture of Ireland. I listen to the Irish Times brilliant INSIDE POLITICS each week and am fascinated by the machinations of the country’s politics. For a supposedly neutral country, it’s taken an interesting stance on Israel and Gaza. Interesting is perhaps not the word for it. Hypocritical and bizarre would be two other words. For Ireland the mantra is simple. Gaza good, Israel bad. There is no attempt at nuance. No attempt to understand anything from either an Israel or Jewish viewpoint. And the vast majority of the Irish people are behind their government’s stance. How many Jewish people are there in Ireland? Take a moment, take a guess? If Ireland had the same proportion of the population there would be around 25,000. In Ireland there are only 2,700 Jews. I wonder why. James Joyce wrote in his epic Ulysses, which is probably Ireland’s most famous work of literature: “Ireland, they say, has the honour of being the only country which never persecuted the Jews – and do you know why? She never let them in.” In the Second World War Ireland took in only a few hundred Jewish refugees. So neutral were they that the Irish Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera, delivered a personal message of condolence to the German Embassy on the day Hitler died. This week, Ireland has been obsessed by a debate over whether their national football team should be playing Israel in a double header Nations League qualifier. The arguments have to be seen or heard to be believed. The Irish goalkeeper has refused to play. Indeed the FA asked UEFA to ensure they didn’t have to play Israel at all. UEFA told them where to stick their request. So the two matches are being played in Hungary and Serbia, with the first leg tonight. (Ireland won 3-0). Last month, the Irish cricket team played five one day matches against Afghanistan, a country which reduces women to the status of slaves. Was there a peep of protest from anyone? No. No Jews involved, obviously. Ireland’s attitude to Jews and Israel is a stain on its reputation. I don’t support the Israeli government. I don’t support many of its actions in Gaza. But I understand why it had to react after October 7th. That terrible day barely rates a mention in the debate about Gaza in Ireland.  The Irish team wore black armbands tonight in remembrance of those killed in Gaza. Perhaps they should have also worn black armbands on their other arms in remembrance of the kidnapped Bibas babies whom Hamas strangled.  Also of course, of the hundreds of men, women and children raped, decapitated and murdered by Hamas on and following October 7th. And is if this weren’t crazy enough, Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio station has banned its DJs from playing Ed Sheeran songs over the removal of a singer from his concert tour – a decision Sheeran himself had nothing to do with. Virtue signalling, performative dickheads. You couldn’t make it up. Grow up Ireland. You’re better than this.