Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin is keeping a close eye on the ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ campaign, and he does not like what he sees. According to Martin, society must say no. ‘Watching what is happening in the UK, I don’t like it. We, so far, have resisted a lot of what has transpired in other societies,’ he said, with a detectable whiff of sanctimony.
Well good for us, but what Martin really means is that when it comes to English people raising English flags on English soil, it’s a case of Down with That Sort of Thing – before it catches on here. Even that most basic expression of expression of nationhood, flying the flag, is viewed as an act of sedition at the highest levels of government. ‘We are at a tipping point in Ireland – I’m concerned about it, and I think this has to be resisted.’
Martin is dead right about the tipping point. But not, perhaps, for reasons that currently concern him. When will he help the children dying on waiting lists for spinal surgery? Or the young people considering emigrating because they cannot afford to rent – never mind buy – a home? Ireland is experiencing records levels of crime and a chronic shortage of gardai. Our defence forces are so vastly under-resourced that we must hope we are not invaded any time soon. Our immigration regime is in absolute chaos.
And therein lies the government’s problem.
The backdrop to Martin’s speech is the lines of tricolours that have appeared on streets in working-class areas of the capital over the summer. It has provoked much hand-wringing waffle among the ‘progressive’ political class and left-wing media. Something had to be done ‘as a matter of urgency’ to stop the uppity flag hijackers, before we ended up like the UK.
So, right on cue, Dublin City Council began drawing up plans and drafting in senior gardai to advise on risk assessment on what they might as well have called ‘Operation Lower the Colours.’ Council workers and contractors, however, are reluctant to remove the flags, and anyone with a half-functioning brain can see why. Confrontation would be almost inevitable.
To be fair to council executives, their actions were prompted by a Labour politician (who else?) – the type who thinks ‘multiculturalism’ means every culture but our own. Astonishingly, Cllr Darragh Moriarty blamed ‘English nationalism’ for the ‘attempted capture of our flag for hateful intent’ by folk in working-class areas. Darragh: ‘Far-right and malicious agitators are weaponising the flag to intimidate’. They are ‘borrowing from English nationalism and the English cousins on this issue. We have to stamp this out.’ Another politician accused said usurpers of using the tricolour to ‘mark territory and homogenise spaces.’
The national flag remains a powerful symbol of national identity, shared history, and culture. It represents pride and belonging. It’s OK to fly the flag at sporting events and St Patrick’s Day parades, but outside of that, when it means something, like a proud expression of national identity, they must be kept tightly under wraps for fear of, heaven forbid, causing offence to other cultures. Removing Irish flags is a massive authoritarian overreach that will achieve little except to further alienate and exclude people who have good reason to feel excluded.
Already there are signs of a fightback if the authorities start removing flags. Dublin street traders are reportedly stocking up on Irish flags, and one well-known heir to a family fortune is supplying 15,000 flags for free. This will not end well.
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