I have sometimes been asked by people in Britain: why are the Irish the most passionately pro-Palestinian of any nation?
Why has Gaza been so central, even obsessive, to Irish politics, discourse and public demonstration?
Gaza has taken more time in the Oireachtas than any other issue touching overseas policy. It has been a central topic in the current Presidential election campaign.
Flags for a “Free Palestine” have been prodigious in city streets, and the cause has been ubiquitously embraced by every group from Irish Artists for Palestine to the National Women’s Council, and including human rights activists, academics, journalists, students and people of faith, too.
Sympathy
From The Guardian to Al-Jazeera, Ireland is acknowledged as the leading champion of the Palestinian cause.
I suggest that some of this sympathy for the Palestinian people is genuine compassion for the victims of a terrible conflict. No one could look on the newsreel images of Gaza and not be distressed and horrified. No one could feel untouched by the wretched condition to which the strip has been reduced.
A strong element of Irish feelings for Palestine is rooted in historical sympathy”
Yet there are other wars and other cruelties occurring which are all but ignored. It’s estimated that 150,000 people have died since 2023 in the civil war in Sudan, while 522,000 children are reported to have perished from malnutrition.
But this merits scarcely a mention in news reports. In Nigeria, the Acton Institute claims that “tens of thousands” of Christians have been recently slaughtered – and the silence from the western world is deafening.
The compassion for Gaza is real: but it is also selective.
It’s obvious that a strong element of Irish feelings for Palestine is rooted in historical sympathy. The Great Famine remains lodged in the Irish collective unconscious; as does dispossession and occupation.
Peace
That is understandable too, although the nuances of history are often more complex. As anyone who pays attention to the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, Jews are also a native Palestinian people.
Hatred of a Jewish Israel seems evidently part of the pro-Palestine partisans. “Keep pressuring Apartheid Israel,” proclaims one of the latest slogans. As is loathing of capitalism.
The Gulf States, Arab and Muslim, are fully behind Trump’s strategy”
It’s never going to be easy to deliver justice to all in this disputed part of the Middle East, but maybe the passion of the Irish pro-Palestinians may need to be tempered by a new reality, after Donald Trump’s peace deal.
The Gulf States, Arab and Muslim, are fully behind Trump’s strategy, which brought about the ceasefire more effectively than any amount of flag-waving and street demonstrations – sincerely meant though many were.
A new balance of views may be warranted.
***
Whenever there’s an exhibition of paintings by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, the show is immediately sold out.
His tranquil, serene images, often portraying domestic life, exercise a fascination for modern eyes, though Vermeer died in Delft in 1675.
His work has also been regarded as mysterious: what is the message of Woman Holding a Balance or the sub-text of The Milkmaid?
A British art critic, Andrew Graham-Dixon, now claims to have found Vermeer’s secret: every painting he did was inspired by religious belief.
Vermeer belonged to a Christian sect, the Remonstrants – although his wife was a Catholic. The Remonstrants modelled their lives on Christ’s apostles, and on Mary Magdalene. But they disdained established churches and gathered in private homes.
Although Vermeer’s faith brought a special dimension to his painting, sects like the Remonstrants seldom last: subsequently there was a breakaway group, called the Collegiants.
Religious ideals are central to faith, but so is the structure of an established, or organised, church. You must have a central authority to hold any such grouping together.
Vermeer’s mystical vision is still with us through his peerless painting (Woman Holding a Balance is weighing moral values), even if the Remonstrants dissolved with the passage of time.
Irish unity: Promises, politics and the reality behind the vision
It seems like the momentum for a United Ireland is continually gathering pace.
Both Presidential candidates beat the drum for its cause, and several books have been advocating it, anticipating a border poll.
On Wednesday last, The Irish Unity Dividend by Ben Collins, was launched at Westminster, endorsed by Mary McAleese, Colum Eastwood of the SDLP and Dáire Hughes of Sinn Féin.
The author is a former Unionist who has embraced the United Ireland cause, prompted by discontent with Britain’s vote to leave the EU.
Mrs McAleese writes in the foreword that a 32-county Ireland will be better for all – Catholic, Protestant and “Neither”.
Yet I think the reality may turn out to be a little like those family re-unions with a long-lost sibling, separated at birth or secretly placed for adoption.
Sometimes the reunion is successful; sometimes it is less so. But it always changes the dynamic of the family constellation.
A United Ireland might pay a dividend, but it will be a different country.
Ireland’s passion for Palestine and what lies behind it
I have sometimes been asked by people in Britain: why are the Irish the most passionately pro-Palestinian of any nation?
Why has Gaza been so central, even obsessive, to Irish politics, discourse and public demonstration?
Gaza has taken more time in the Oireachtas than any other issue touching overseas policy. It has been a central topic in the current Presidential election campaign.
Flags for a “Free Palestine” have been prodigious in city streets, and the cause has been ubiquitously embraced by every group from Irish Artists for Palestine to the National Women’s Council, and including human rights activists, academics, journalists, students and people of faith, too.
Sympathy
From The Guardian to Al-Jazeera, Ireland is acknowledged as the leading champion of the Palestinian cause.
I suggest that some of this sympathy for the Palestinian people is genuine compassion for the victims of a terrible conflict. No one could look on the newsreel images of Gaza and not be distressed and horrified. No one could feel untouched by the wretched condition to which the strip has been reduced.
Yet there are other wars and other cruelties occurring which are all but ignored. It’s estimated that 150,000 people have died since 2023 in the civil war in Sudan, while 522,000 children are reported to have perished from malnutrition.
But this merits scarcely a mention in news reports. In Nigeria, the Acton Institute claims that “tens of thousands” of Christians have been recently slaughtered – and the silence from the western world is deafening.
The compassion for Gaza is real: but it is also selective.
It’s obvious that a strong element of Irish feelings for Palestine is rooted in historical sympathy. The Great Famine remains lodged in the Irish collective unconscious; as does dispossession and occupation.
Peace
That is understandable too, although the nuances of history are often more complex. As anyone who pays attention to the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, Jews are also a native Palestinian people.
Hatred of a Jewish Israel seems evidently part of the pro-Palestine partisans. “Keep pressuring Apartheid Israel,” proclaims one of the latest slogans. As is loathing of capitalism.
It’s never going to be easy to deliver justice to all in this disputed part of the Middle East, but maybe the passion of the Irish pro-Palestinians may need to be tempered by a new reality, after Donald Trump’s peace deal.
The Gulf States, Arab and Muslim, are fully behind Trump’s strategy, which brought about the ceasefire more effectively than any amount of flag-waving and street demonstrations – sincerely meant though many were.
A new balance of views may be warranted.
***
Whenever there’s an exhibition of paintings by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, the show is immediately sold out.
His tranquil, serene images, often portraying domestic life, exercise a fascination for modern eyes, though Vermeer died in Delft in 1675.
His work has also been regarded as mysterious: what is the message of Woman Holding a Balance or the sub-text of The Milkmaid?
A British art critic, Andrew Graham-Dixon, now claims to have found Vermeer’s secret: every painting he did was inspired by religious belief.
Vermeer belonged to a Christian sect, the Remonstrants – although his wife was a Catholic. The Remonstrants modelled their lives on Christ’s apostles, and on Mary Magdalene. But they disdained established churches and gathered in private homes.
Although Vermeer’s faith brought a special dimension to his painting, sects like the Remonstrants seldom last: subsequently there was a breakaway group, called the Collegiants.
Religious ideals are central to faith, but so is the structure of an established, or organised, church. You must have a central authority to hold any such grouping together.
Vermeer’s mystical vision is still with us through his peerless painting (Woman Holding a Balance is weighing moral values), even if the Remonstrants dissolved with the passage of time.
Irish unity: Promises, politics and the reality behind the vision
It seems like the momentum for a United Ireland is continually gathering pace.
Both Presidential candidates beat the drum for its cause, and several books have been advocating it, anticipating a border poll.
On Wednesday last, The Irish Unity Dividend by Ben Collins, was launched at Westminster, endorsed by Mary McAleese, Colum Eastwood of the SDLP and Dáire Hughes of Sinn Féin.
The author is a former Unionist who has embraced the United Ireland cause, prompted by discontent with Britain’s vote to leave the EU.
Mrs McAleese writes in the foreword that a 32-county Ireland will be better for all – Catholic, Protestant and “Neither”.
Yet I think the reality may turn out to be a little like those family re-unions with a long-lost sibling, separated at birth or secretly placed for adoption.
Sometimes the reunion is successful; sometimes it is less so. But it always changes the dynamic of the family constellation.
A United Ireland might pay a dividend, but it will be a different country.
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