Irish support for tyranny
Higgins' condolences for Castro follow in a long tradition of Irish support for tyranny.
Mark Humphrys
The Sunday Times (Irish edition), 19 Mar 2017.
This is a much longer version of the printed article, with extra material.
President Michael D. Higgins issues
condolences on the death of Fidel Castro in 2016.
(Image not used in Sunday Times.)
Last year,
President Michael D. Higgins
shocked many when he
expressed
condolences to Cuba
on the death of the dictator Fidel Castro,
who crushed Cuban
freedom for 50 years.
Higgins said that:
"Castro will be remembered as a giant among global leaders whose view was not only one of freedom for his people
but for all of the oppressed and excluded peoples on the planet."
Last month,
the President visited Cuba in person,
and few noticed that in opening remarks in Spanish in
his speech
he again expressed condolences:
"Let me begin by expressing my deepest condolences to President Castro, his family, and the people of Cuba, on the death of Comandante Fidel Castro."
His speech then
praised
the Cuban dictatorship's achievements
and
approvingly quoted Castro.
Higgins' condolences strongly bring to mind the episode in 1945
when both
the Taoiseach Eamon de Valera
and
the President Douglas Hyde
offered condolences to Germany
on the death of Adolf Hitler.
In some ways Higgins was worse.
At least Dev just offered condolences
and did not wax lyrical about Hitler supporting freedom for oppressed peoples.
It is in fact remarkable how many times Irish intellectuals and public figures have praised foreign tyrants of all sorts.
Living in a reasonably free and liberal democracy, with unbroken elections since 1922,
Irish thinkers nevertheless often feel the urge to praise foreign strongmen and thugs
who despise democracy and individual freedom.
Here are some more examples:
- Irish feminist and republican
Charlotte Despard
praised the Soviet Union in 1930:
"the stories .. that people are persecuted for their religious opinions
.. are absolutely false."
- Irish feminist and republican
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington
praised the Soviet Union in
1932:
"She said that children were happy and women were free".
- The IRA
in 1940
praised Nazi Germany
and said it was working towards
"the freedom of civilised nations ... and the reconstruction of a free and progressive Europe".
-
The IRA in 1940 even printed a
poem in tribute to Hitler:
"Oh here's to Adolph Hitler,
Who made the Britons squeal".
- Cumann na mBan
in 1940
said the Nazis
"are fighting Ireland's battle, and the battle of all oppressed nations within the Empire".
-
Dan Breen TD
in 1943
sent birthday greetings to Hitler:
"Congratulations to the Führer on his birthday. May he live long [and] lead Europe on the road to peace, security and happiness."
- Oliver J. Flanagan TD
praised Nazi Germany in the Dail in 1943:
"There is one thing that Germany did, and that was to rout the Jews out of their country."
- George Bernard Shaw
welcomed the rise of dictators
and incredibly supported all four of Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler.
He defended the Soviet purges.
In 1938 he said:
"we ought to tackle the Jewish question by admitting the right of the State to make eugenic experiments by weeding out any strains they think undesirable."
In 1945 he denied there was a deliberate Holocaust.
He said the Nazis running concentration camps
"were not fiends in human form;
but they did not know what to do with the thousands thrown on their care."
-
Brendan Behan
in 1956
applauded the Soviet crushing of the Hungarian Revolution.
"Long live the USSR", he declared.
- Proinsias De Rossa
in 1984 defended the Soviet Union:
"I have here some figures from an official Soviet source which to some extent at least refutes the assertion that all Jews in the Soviet Union are oppressed.
... Religion in the Soviet Union is a private matter
... we have to accept there are two sides to every story."
- Gerry Adams
in 1987
toasted the birthday of North Korean monster
Kim Il Sung.
-
The Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern
said to terrorist godfather Yasser Arafat in 1999:
"We will continue to support your just cause in every way we can."
-
Bertie Ahern
in 2004
paid tribute to Yasser Arafat at his death:
"a great leader and a great man.
... It is perhaps the most tragic aspect of President Arafat's death that he did not live to see the fruition of his ambition ... He will be greatly missed".
-
The President
Mary McAleese
in 2004 absurdly
described Arafat's death as "a tragic loss to the Palestinian people".
-
Michael D. Higgins
in 2004
paid tribute to Arafat
and even attended a candlelit vigil for him.
- Rory Hearne
of the Irish Anti-War Movement defended the Sunni and Shia jihadis in Iraq in 2005.
He praised:
"the defiant resistance in Iraq ... It is only through the continued growth and resistance of these movements that we can end the bloody occupation of Iraq".
- The UCD Anti-War Group said in 2006:
"We express our solidarity with all democratic, secular and progressive opposition forces in Iraq fighting for US-UK defeat."
- The Socialist Workers Party
in 2006
said:
"We support Hamas and Hizbollah in their courageous stand against imperialism".
- Eamonn McCann in 2006
said:
"Socialist Worker makes no bones about it. We are on the same side as Hezbollah and Hamas."
- The Irish Anti-War Movement
said in 2006 that:
"Iran is a modern country ... It is one of the more democratic states in the Middle East. Iran has democratic elections and a powerful reform movement, ... It is the US and its allies that are undemocratic."
- Finian McGrath TD
in 2006
denied that Cuba was a repressive dictatorship:
"It's a different kind of democracy to Ireland".
- Tom McGurk in 2008
praised Cuba:
"Castro has left Cuba with real status among Latin American countries.
... this is a society where, with food, housing and transport so cheap, and education and health free, material wealth is largely irrelevant.
... the tyranny of consumerism does not exist."
- Raymond Deane
in 2008 said:
"President Ahmedinejad"
[of Iran]
"has repeatedly expressed hopes for an end to the Zionist regime, a hope shared worldwide
... "The provision of training and logistical support to Hamas"
... is to be welcomed".
- The President
Mary McAleese
in 2010 laid a wreath at the tomb of Ataturk,
the butcher of Turkey's Christians.
- Galway City Council resolved in 2011
to erect a memorial to communist executioner Che Guevara.
- Emer Costello MEP in
2013
laid a wreath at the tomb of Yasser Arafat.
-
Mick Wallace TD
in 2013
defended Hezbollah:
"Hezbollah will retain its legitimacy as long as the Israeli occupation of Arab peoples and lands continues."
-
The Taoiseach
Enda Kenny
praised totalitarian Saudi Arabia in 2014:
"I congratulated the Crown Prince, his royal highness, on the fact that Saudi Arabia has been invited to the human rights council of the United Nations and served there in the last number of years.
...
I congratulated the Saudis on their leadership in terms of moderation here in the Gulf region and their desire for peace".
- Irish government buildings
flew their flags at half mast
in 2015
at the death of the King of Saudi Arabia.
There are plenty more such horrors in the future, I am sure.
Why exactly free and prosperous Westerners
feel the need to praise foreign tyrants under whom they could never live
is a mystery.
Nor is it unique to Ireland.
An extraordinary number of intellectuals and public figures in the UK, France and US have praised foreign fascists, dictators, communists and jihadists
over the years.
For some intellectuals, tyrants are appealing the further away you are from them.
In Ireland, it is not just a fringe.
The very top of the Irish state is implicated in this kind of thinking.
The idea that Ireland has an "ethical" foreign policy,
where we clearly support democrats abroad, and oppose tyrants and authoritarians,
is nonsense.
The fact is that President
Higgins is following in a long and shameful Irish tradition
of support for foreign, faraway tyranny.
If it is to ever end, this tradition must be confronted.
Dr. Mark Humphrys is a lecturer at Dublin City University.
Images (not used in Sunday Times)
The following images back up my points,
but note they were not used in the Sunday Times.
Charlotte Despard
defends the Soviet Union in 1930:
"the stories .. that people are persecuted for their religious opinions
.. are absolutely false."
The IRA
in 1940 says
Nazi Germany is working towards
"the freedom of civilised nations ... and the reconstruction of a free and progressive Europe".
Michael D. Higgins attends a
candlelit vigil
in Galway, 2004,
mourning the death of the terrorist leader
Yasser Arafat.
Hezbollah terrorist flag at
anti-Israel march,
Dublin, 2008.
David Norris, Eamonn McCann
and Michael D. Higgins spoke at this march.
Hamas terrorist flag at
anti-Israel march,
Dublin, 2010.
Also in this march were
Labour LGBT
and
the National Womens Council of Ireland.
The march was led by
Emer Costello, Lord Mayor of Dublin,
and
Chris Andrews TD.
The President
Mary McAleese in 2010 lays a wreath at the tomb of Ataturk,
the butcher of Turkey's Christians.
From President's visit to Turkey.
Publication
Shortly after this article,
on 21 Mar 2017, IRA leader
Martin McGuinness
died,
and Irish public figures came out again, mourning a terrorist leader, as they did with Arafat.
-
McGuinness was a senior IRA leader for decades.
He was
Chief of Staff of the IRA
1978-82.
He was involved in killing maybe 1,000 people and injuring thousands more.
- But when he died,
President Michael D. Higgins (who mourned Arafat and Castro) issued
condolences:
"I wish to pay tribute to his immense contribution to the advancement of peace and reconciliation".
Higgins' statement did not even mention the thousands of people McGuinness murdered and maimed.
-
Catholic Archbishop Eamon Martin's tribute to McGuinness is also devoid of a proper sense of morality.
He says the terrorist leader was "a man of prayer".
So killing 1,000 people is perfectly fine, then.
I ask the Catholic Archbishop
for some moral clarity
on the death of a mass killer.
I will not get any.
Irish support for tyranny continues
Irish support for tyranny will continue forever.
Mick Wallace and
Clare Daly
hanging out with the lackey of an Islamic terrorist dictatorship, Feb 2019.
From
here.
