The Republic of Ireland has always prided itself on its lack of racism. Take the fact that two of the country’s most popular sons are black or mixed-race. Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott was the first truly international Irish rock star, while the brilliant footballer Paul McGrath was, and remains, perhaps the most genuinely beloved Irish person alive. When I was at an under-21s game between Ireland and England many years ago, a small bunch of Irish fans started shouting racist abuse about Trevor Sinclair. They were soon attacked by other Irish fans, who asked the idiots if they would say the same thing to McGrath, who is simply known as ‘God’ in Irish footballing circles.
Those racist fools ended up being escorted out of Dalymount Park by police and stewards at half time – not because they were disturbing the peace, but for their own safety. Crowd violence is rare at an Ireland match, particularly at an underage game with only hundreds in attendance. But the rest of the fans reacted with genuine horror and violent fury at the sight of their fellow fans insulting a visiting player because of the colour of his skin. It was, it must be said, a proud moment to be an Irish football fan
That has always been the Irish tradition. Having been subjected to racism in places like the UK and the US, most Irish people recoil from the idea of berating someone because of their skin colour or ethnicity.
But recently a narrative has been emerging from multifarious NGOs and left-wing politicians that Ireland has become a racist hell hole.
Last Wednesday, a Green cabinet member appointed Dr Ebun Joseph as a ‘Special Rapporteur for the National Plan Against Racism.’ In essence, the Nigerian-born Special Rapporteur will deliver regular reports to the Irish government about how hideously white and racist Irish people are.
It’s perhaps no surprise that when she appeared on RTE’s main news bulletin to boast about her appointment, many Irish people were incensed by her assertion that white Irish people need to be ‘trained’ to be not racist. As one commentator asked, ‘Are we simply dogs to be “trained”?’ In a rather strange, but not in the least bit surprising development, it turns out that Joseph also happens to run a company which offers such training. What were the odds?
Yes, there is no doubt that racial tensions have emerged in Ireland over the last decade. A rise in immigration and a sense that immigrants, both legal and illegal, are being given preferential treatment over the indigenous population has led to a rise in violent incidents against, for example, hostels and hotels which have been remodelled to house the largely male and undocumented migrant arrivals.
Some of this anger is undeniably racist. Much of it is not. As we are currently seeing in every country across the western world, the patience of ordinary people is growing thin as they face a housing crisis, a cost of living crisis, and a desperate lack of hope for the future. There is a general sense in Ireland that ordinary people are simply being left behind by a technocratic, metropolitan elite which is more concerned about being recognised as the ‘best in the class’ by their ultimate overlords, the EU. After all, there is nothing that the typically insecure Irish politician loves more than to get a pat on the head and a gold star from Ursula von der Leyen.
But events in the past week have really exposed just how far the Irish government has become removed from the actual reality of life in Ireland.
To understand the current moral and intellectual bankruptcy that led to Ireland’s first ‘Racism Czar’ being appointed it is important to understand some context about her background.
Having spent years in academic obscurity while lecturing about Critical Race Theory and the problems with ‘whiteness’, Joseph became more well known after writing about an incident which happened to her around Christmas time in 2019.
As she herself wrote at the time:
‘I was on a break from posting about race at the time…but went for dinner in a Galway hotel and ordered a glass of the house red. Guess what I got served? Yep! Blackcurrant juice in a wine glass. Racist or mistake?’
When she complained, the manager explained that it had been given to her in error. They then gave her a bottle of wine on the house as a way of making an apology. But that didn’t stop her from going on a tirade and accusing the bar staff member who had mistakenly served her the red wine as being a ‘sick joker or racist’ and saying that ‘the damage has been done.’ The hotel later explained that a display bottle of wine had been mixed up with an actual bottle and that the incident ‘had no racial intent whatsoever.’
This wasn’t Jospeh’s last controversial incident. The following year, she complained that the famous Dublin hotel, the Shelbourne, was proudly displaying statues of black slaves at their front door.
As it happened, and as it was subsequently proved by bemused art historians, the statues weren’t of slaves at all, but actually depicted a number of Egyptian queens who were held in high regard.
That mattered not a jot to Joseph who quickly questioned the credentials of the art historian and expert involved before later huffing that black people can’t afford to go there anyway.
Ebun Joseph’s comments take her so far beyond caricature that it almost defies belief, even saying in the wake of George Floyd’s death that:
‘Right here in Ireland, we feel people’s knees on our neck, even me, with all my education… Yes, you’re not physically killing us, but you’re emotionally and mentally killing people.’
Yet in a country which has almost blindly accepted the now thoroughly discredited snake oil of Critical Race Theory and DEI, which so many American institutions and corporations are now repudiating, we still seem prepared to give plum jobs to people who don’t seem to deserve them.
Given the controversies she’s been involved in, it would be nice to say that Ebun Joseph is nothing but a joke. But it’s a joke that is being played at the expense of the already hard pressed Irish taxpayer. And that’s not a laughing matter.
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