Britain and Ireland, archipelagic peoples

The one characteristic that has marked Ireland and Britain from time immemorial is proximity and propinquity. During the last Ice Age 18,000 years ago, the British Isles were one island (see here), yet for many, to this day they remain one. 

Is the British uniform really foreign?

On April 17 2017 Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy told a Sinn Féin commemoration at the republican plot at St Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork where lord mayors Tomas Mac Curtain and Terence Mac Swiney are buried:

"Let me just make it clear – it is important that we remember those who fought in world wars; those people who were part of the Irish nation but for whatever reason decided to wear foreign uniforms, it’s absolutely legitimate that they should be remembered and should be commemorated."

Diarmaid Ferriter in ‘The Transformation of Ireland: 1900-2000’ wrote:

"Thousands of Irish soldiers, many of them nationalist, fought with the British army, suggesting a high degree of contentment with Ireland’s place within the Empire."

People suggest that Ireland before independence was a mere colony. However as Edward Carson said, Ireland had county councils and representative institutions. And John Redmond said in 1915:

"[Ireland has] its feet firmly planted in the groundwork and foundation of a free nation."

Read my post on Ireland's social revolution here.

The anti-Columbus movement, Ctd

Michael Ramirez cartoon of Paul Krugman, arch-opponent of Niall Ferguson

The self-described classic Scottish enlightenment liberal, Niall Ferguson said:

"I think it’s hard to make the case, which implicitly the left makes, that somehow the world would have been better off if the Europeans had stayed home. It certainly doesn’t work for north America, that’s for sure. I mean, I’m sure the Apache and the Navajo had all sorts of admirable traits. In the absence of literacy we don’t know what they were because they didn’t write them down. We do know they killed a hell of a lot of bison. But had they been left to their own devices, I don’t think we’d have anything remotely resembling the civilisation we’ve had in north America."

He also talks about the moral simplification urge here. Christopher Hitchens discussed the progresses versus retrogresses of imperialism. He looked at the Marxian analysis which saw British imperialism as ending the "Millennial stagnation and isolation of India." And said, "if you have to be colonised, don’t be colonised by the Belgians."

Christopher Hitchens in response to Noam Chomsky who is charged by Hitchens of saying that America was not a good idea. Hitchens also notes the change of name from Jefferson elementary to Sequoia.

Christopher Hitchens on militant Islam's "Imperial nostalgia as well as imperialism". George Orwell said:

"Instead of taking the mechanically anti-British attitude which is usual on the Left, it is better to consider what the world would really be like if the English-speaking culture perished. For it is childish to suppose that the other English-speaking countries, even the U.S.A., will be unaffected if Britain is conquered."

You can read Niall Fergsuon with some thoughts on what Britain did for Ireland here and Roy Foster on the positive aspects of Britain in Ireland here. My previous posts in this series here and here.

Remembering Ireland's "patriot dead" of 1916. Forgetting Ireland's unionists.

GPO in ruins after the Easter Rising in 1916

Edward Carson said that the ideals and ambitions of Ulster should be clearly understood by the people of England, Scotland and Wales.

I want to make something very clear - The ideals and ambitions of Northern Ireland unionists and Protestants should be clearly understood in Southern Ireland. For they are each and all, "fellow countrymen."*

Being a Protestant unionist does not preclude that person from being Irish. John Hewitt said it. Nick Laird said it. Sam McAughtry said it. Loyalist Gusty Spence said it. Edward Carson was Irish. He was British. He was an Irish Unionist. An Irish man who simply wanted to be Irish and remain part of the social, political and economic infrastructure of the British Empire. As he said:

"We’re both [Tom Kettle, Home Rule nationalist] Irishmen, and that is what matters."

Edward Carson, who opposed Home Rule was an Irish unionist and wanted Ireland united. In a

Christopher Hitchens - The anti-Columbus Movement

[UPDATE - Below, with Ann Widdecomb]

I previously wrote about the American Empire, citing Christopher Hitchens who said, "The big secret of the US is class and empire; Everyone knows there's a class system and empire, but it's not officially admitted." Glenn Greenwald wrote an article in the Guardian, 'Afghanistan and American imperialism.' Christopher Hitchens awrote against left wing opposition to American imperialism in

Britain's hereditocracy, Ctd

In 'The Son Also Rises', a study of social mobility by Gregory Clark, will surprise and also alarm some people. By using surname patterns he showed that mobility is minimal in all societies where data is available even in the Nordic paradise of Sweden. He said:

"In all societies, what seems to matter is just who your parents are. At the extreme, we see in modern Sweden an extensive system of public education and social support. Yet underlying mobility rates are no higher in modern Sweden than in pre-industrial Sweden or medieval England."

Ed West then said of the left's political correctness tick and impulse to censor:

"The Left is terrified of the science around the human brain and human evolution, and goes out of its way not only to deny what is clearly true, but also to call out, harass and stigmatise anyone who argues it."

Ed West in full here.

Human Rights - "The UK is the best pupil in the class"

"UK is the best pupil in the class. It has always been seen as the leading nation on human rights." http://t.co/4VgqwvolVi
— Adam Wagner (@AdamWagner1) November 6, 2013

The similarities between Muslim and Irish anti-British language and feeling

Dr Usama Hasan of the Quilliam Foundation

Dr Usama Hasan is a senior researcher at the Quilliam Foundation (profile here) and part-time imam. He appeared on BBC Radio 4's PM show with Eddie Mair on Monday November4 2013 to talk about anti-British sentiment among young muslim men. He said:

"This is a wider problem within British Islam. There are many young people who feel alienated. They are sometimes subjected to extremist teaching which says they cannot be a friend or loyal to the west. That their identity has to be with Muslims only abroad, that's the Islamist idea with Muslims worldwide, global ummah. And the ultimate result of that is young men that want to fight and die for a cause. They won't fight and die for their own country - certainly not a European of western country - but they will go and join a militant group like the Taliban or al-shabab or al-Qaeda and go and fight in Syria or Somalia or Afghanistan. We have to understand that and grapple with it openly.

He was then asked by Eddie Mair: "How do we counter it?" He responded:

"The best way to deal with it is to bring the debate into the open and challenge the extremist ideas with better ideas rather than drive it under ground... Young people holding extremist views should be listened to and debated with calmly, to show them that Britain is actually a very tolerant and inclusive society which will give them the opportunity to participate in this society. 

There is a paranoid and conspiratorial mindset that everyone is against them and that the west is against Islam. As long as they're fed that kind of mentality then they will continue to operate in dubious ways.

There is no absolute parallel between the anti-British sentiment held by muslims and more hardline Irish nationalists and republican; but the parallels are very much there. Joe Brolly explained how Britain was regarded as he was growing up. He said:

"If I’d announced thirty years ago I was intending to play rugby and arrived home from school with a drawing of the Queen, they would have been sending for the men in white coats."

This is still a mindset and regard held by many Irish nationalists and republicans to this day. Brolly's plane of regard has, frankly, broadened and matured and taken in the context of the 21st Century. (Much like the west-Belfast, Ardoyne Catholic, British soldier here.) . As Alan in Belfast reported, "Joe Brolly’s son plays rugby for Malone and goes to the Cubs (coming home recently with a drawing of the Queen) [and] Joe finds himself standing for the [British] national anthem if he’s at a Cubs service to pick up his son."

The anti-Imperialism, anti-colonialism language employed by Muslims and directed against America is so similar in tone, mode and demeanour as that used by Irish republicans against Britain. Take the language used by the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guard, who said:

"The crimes of US leaders and international Zionism in dealing with Iran's great nation will never be erased from public memories and minds."

Like in Iran, Belfast and Northern Ireland has a class of young people who are participants of the emerging world culture, but they also have an angry, hostile and hysterical class who are lovers of medievalism and haters of modernity.

We in Northern Ireland, like Quilliam, need to calmly and openly debate those who hold extremist views and challenge those extremist ideas with better ideas. People in Belfast and across Northern Ireland are being fed and actively hold a paranoid and conspiratorial mindset that Britain is bad, that Britain is the cause of all ill in Ireland and that Britain is the transcendent issue even above the economy, jobs, education and healthcare (the same for loyalists of course). People will continue to be fed this perverse philoshophy and they will continue to act in dubious ways and so we must counter this with reasoned, considered argument. We cannot allow these superstitious ideas to fester under the surface.

Fraser Nelson on Polish lady and the welfare trap

Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator made comment on work incentives and the welfare trap in Britain. He said:

An 85% tax on the low-paid says about Britain says that we, as a country, are deciding not to use the talents and skills of our low-paid. If it were not for mass immigration, we’d really notice this. The economy would not grow. Employers would be furious. We would have been forced, as a country, to fix welfare 13 years ago. Instead, we are using immigrants to grow the economy instead. Even the Poles think this is madness. Here is a Polish recruitment agent, Iwona Dilinskas, is quoted. If she was British, she says:-

“I’d probably not want to work more than 16 hours a week. What for? If I work 16 hours or less, they pay 80% of my rent [as housing benefit]. And all my council tax. I get working tax credit, child tax credit, child benefit. So, to be honest – why work?”

Why indeed? So that’s why the immigrants come. And this endless supply of good, industrious, well-educated workers means that tackling Britain’s welfare problem is seen more as an act of charity than an economic imperative. Iain Duncan Smith has the solution: Universal Credit, a revolutionary new way of welfare which makes sure that workers will keep a fixed share of the extra income they earn. But so little money has been put behind it that UC is aiming – aiming! – to have an effective tax rate on the poor to 65%. Better than 85%, but still pretty bad. The point of Universal Credit would mean it can be cut to (say) 30% – but at some expense. But this aspect is universally ignored in Britain, such is the poor quality of the debate. Last week, the Daily Mirror splashed on an assertion that the poor pay 36% in tax: if only! As their readers know, the real tax burden is far higher – and is crushing the life out of many communities.

Fraser Nelson was quoting a Polish lady who was featured in the Sunday Times magazine in spring 2013. You can see an image of that source below: