Is Ireland a Cesspit of Antisemitism?

Some people certainly think so, many Irish people disagree. The latter say that Ireland simply objects to the way Israel has prosecuted its part in the war against Hamas, the former say the passion and intensity of those objections signal a darker motive. I tend towards the view that there’s something going on here beyond simple concern for human rights and international law but I don’t think it can be reduced to antisemitism, though antisemitism forms part of it.

First, let’s get a couple of nonsense ideas out of the way.

No, it’s not because we’re a Catholic country, there are lots of Catholic countries and they have had a range of reactions to the war that broke out on October 7, 2023.

No, we didn’t favour the Axis in the Second World War. We stayed out of it because we’d ejected the British at gunpoint less than 20 years before and it would have been intolerable to many to accept the return of British troops in large numbers considering the way they’d behaved so recently.

The German intelligence officers inserted into the country were quickly rounded up, the pro-Axis IRA was brutally suppressed and discrete cooperation was provided to the UK right from the start; this accelerated when the Americans joined the war.

No, the Second World War wasn’t fought to save the Jews and that’s why we sat it out. It was fought to defeat Germany, Japan and Italy. Stopping the Shoah from being completed was a result of the Allied victory not its objective.

So what is going on in Ireland? Why have parties across the political spectrum taken such a strong line against Israel?

I think it’s a peculiarly Irish moral narcissism mixed with a dash of false equivalence between our national struggle and the Palestinian one, laced with the antisemitism that forms part of European culture in general. And maybe a touch of ennui too.

First the moral narcissism. We see ourselves as an exemplary people who defeated the British Empire at the height of its power, have an uninterrupted history of democracy since then and in the last couple of decades we have become one of the richest countries in the world. And we feel that we’ve done it all ourselves. Thus, as a model postcolonial nation we feel justified in wagging our fingers at others on the international stage. This also explains our refusal to fund even a minimum capacity for self-defense. Why would anyone attack such an exemplary nation, one known to all for its commitment to peace and international law?

We tend to forget that our security and wealth are a function not of our good nature and ingenuity but rather of our membership of the EU and our special relationship with the US, the provider of the bulk of the foreign direct investment which powers our economy. We depend for virtually everything on the world’s greatest military power and on one of its economic superpowers. Yet we feel we’re above the grubby realities of international relations.

Fine, but how does that explain the obsession with the Palestinians?

Many Irish people see Palestinians as fighting an anti-colonial struggle and that our own anti-colonial one gives us a special insight into the justice of theirs

Never mind that modern Irish nationalism is a product of Protestant (“Illegal settler”) minds and was led at critical moments by Protestants and never mind that its core doctrine is that Irish people of all religions and none should unite behind the banner of Ireland.

Again, narcissism.

Because it’s what our great-grandfathers fought for it must be what the Palestinians are fighting for, never mind what they say. We know better.

There’s also a rich irony here; our struggle against the British from 1916 to 1922 served as an important inspiration for the armed wings of Revisionist Zionism, the branch of the Jewish national movement from which Benjamin Netanyahu springs. They thought that if we could force the British out they could too. And they were right.

The next question is antisemitism itself. I doubt if it's really worse on a day to day basis in Ireland than it is in any other European country but the events of October 7, 2023 had an enormously disinhibiting effect on public discourse about Jews throughout the world and Ireland was no different. A couple of days after the massacre, before the Israeli response began, my sister told me that she’d heard work colleagues say such things about Jews to make her doubt she would ever relate to them in the same way again. Just an anecdote, I know, but still…

Antisemitism is a bit like herpes, it lives in the body politic for the most part not being visible but it bursts forth under the right conditions.

And finally there’s ennui.

Back when I moved to Barcelona in 2015 the Catalan secessionist movement was gathering steam. You could see a gleam in people’s eyes, suddenly their comfortable lives had meaning, a goal to strive towards. When they banged kitchenware on their balconies in protest some joked that that was a terrible way to treat Le Creuset’s noble products.

I feel there’s something similar going on in Ireland. We enjoy a level of prosperity unprecedented in our history. The oppression of women and sexual minorities has been largely overcome. The Catholic Church has lost its power of social control. Sure, there remain problems like everywhere but we’re basically comfortably off, safe and free. In such circumstances people start looking for meaning in their lives and in the case of Ireland a lot of people seem to have found it in Palestine, or their vision of Palestine at any rate.

Adhesion to this cause makes many Irish people feel great about themselves while running no physical or economic risks, and that’s what it’s really about.