When covering the disgraceful behavior of the Irish women's basketball team and officials last week, I agreed their behavior was indeed antisemitic, and I added:
And let’s be honest. Ireland is, in general, a cesspool of Jew-hatred (although it is important to note that there are decent, moral Irish people who firmly stand with Israel, albeit too few).
Some may have considered this an inflammatory statement. After all, I do not live in Ireland and am observing from afar.
So take it from Irish journalist Brenda Power instead, who spelled it out in her recent column Israeli team’s view on Irish antisemitism was on the ball:
Discrimination and bigotry, after all, are in the eye of the beholder but even from an objective perspective, Ireland has consistently been one of the world’s most hostile countries towards Israel, and that includes Iran. In fact, we’ve prided ourselves on it.
For years there’s been active agitation in Irish politics to expel Israeli ambassadors and diplomats, impose sanctions on Israel, condemn the Israeli state and support Palestine. In 2018 Dublin became the first European capital to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel. The BDS placed yellow stickers on Israeli goods here, in 2013, recalling the yellow stars the Nazis forced Jews to wear. During the last conflict between Israel and Hamas, in 2021, we were the first EU state to condemn Israel, when the Dail debated a motion to expel the Israeli ambassador. In 1980 we were the first EU country to back Palestinian statehood. In the same year, Brian Lenihan, then foreign affairs minister, declared that the PLO was not a terrorist organisation yet, at the time, the IRA and the PLO were training together, sharing terrorist strategies and tactics.
In 2006, Sinn Fein’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh described Israel as “one of the most abhorrent and despicable regimes on the planet”. In 2020, the Sinn Fein TD Réada Cronin tweeted that Israel had “taken Nazism to a new level” and compared Israeli embassy staff to monkeys, which she subsequently “unreservedly and wholeheartedly” apologised for.
Far from being a reaction to the current Israeli offensive in Gaza, Ireland’s attitude to the Jewish people goes way back. In 1904 a Limerick priest, Fr John Creagh, organised a two-year boycott of Jewish businesses in the city. As a result of the “Limerick pogrom”, its small Jewish community was dispersed into poverty or exile. In 1970 the city’s Labour mayor Steve Coughlan defended the pogrom and described Jewish moneylenders as “warble-fly bloodsuckers”. In 1936 the Department of Justice noted a rise in public protests against admitting Jews, and in 1937 the Irish Catholic newspaper observed that “Hitler has many admirers among Irish Catholics”.
Long before the current conflict, Irish musicians, artists and activists, along with the Labour Party, loudly demanded a boycott of the Israeli hosting of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest.
So, yes, you can see why it might appear to an Israeli woman that Basketball Ireland’s “strong concerns about fixtures with Israel” might not simply have originated with the current Hamas/Israeli conflict.
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It’s hard to blame the Israeli women for their anger at what could only ever have been a virtue-signalling stance by the Irish, given that they are of an age with the young women raped, brutalised and murdered by Hamas on October 7.
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As for our concern for the people of Gaza, there was little sign of it last July when they took to the streets to protest against Hamas and were beaten into submission by the “government” that has not allowed them a general election since 2007. And where was our concern for the women of Gaza under Hamas, subjected to a strict “code of modesty”?
Read the entire thing.
Posted from my blog with Exxp : https://www.israellycool.com/2024/02/11/irish-journalist-brenda-power-rips-ireland-over-its-antisemitism/
Very few because we don't support tyranny in Ireland after suffering under British rule, murder, torture and genocide for 800 years.
It has nothing to do with Jews and religion. It has everything to do with the Israeli government and their actions.
Again I'm sure that the majority of Israeli people are hard working, normal people having met very few but the actions of it's government are a disgrace and should have people tearing down their doors.
Irish morality is so warped by victimology that many support Nazi inspired genocidal rapists and mass murderers because they, in their ultimate wisdom (about something they know nothing about) have decided that Israel is the oppressor and occupier when in fact Jews are the indigenous people of the land of Israel and the Arab palestinians (from Arabia) are the coloniser and invader.
If the Irish would actually read their own Bible they would know that. If the Irish actually knew anything about history other than their own they would know that.
Ireland supported the Nazis in WWII so it is perhaps not surprising Ireland continues to be on the wrong side of history and support Nazi palestinians.
While there were some bad aspects of British Rule, it brought many benefits as well and the Irish suffered far less than other former British oppressed peoples that have transcended victimology and made a success of themselves (without massive EU subsidy). Prime among these are India and Israel.
The best, brightest of the Irish (like my ancestors) left for the US and Australia long ago leaving behind a country that was a complete backwater until massive EU subsidies and ultra low tax for Big Tech brought some prosperity.
Ireland today exists in a fantasy world of prosperity achieved not by its own efforts but sucking off the German teat and failing to ensure dangerous Big Tech companies pay their fair share of taxes.
This gig is ending. Germany is rapidly deindustrialising without cheap Russian energy, Big Tech is under attack from all sides and ultra low corporate tax rates are about to be abolished.
Ireland will soon return to being a poor backwater but with an aged and declining population because you've lost the ability to do the only thing Irish were actually good at - having lots of children!
I'm sure you'll blame your sorry situation on the Jews then too!
The brits didn't murder as many of you as in other countries is hardly a strong opening argument for supporting a genocide.
And yes the irish government did have talks with the nazis at the time but at no stage supported the regime and many of our citizens fought on the battlefields against them. Even more second generation irish from America and other nations where despite being victims our people have worked their way to success in those countries. Never mind the success of our current population and nation who punches far above it's weight in all aspects of life and world affairs.
And for anybody basing their history on the bible they might as well be reading from the McDonalds menu. Go back far enough and both jews and arabs have a claim to the land. Go back further and it will change again.
I don't care about the religion or the politics of the situation but the actions of the Israeli government and troops should be condemned.
You could say the same about the nazis if your German but the other people might disagree with you.
Of course joining the EU helped. How could it not. Being part of a larger organization with money and connections is always a bonus. Only an idiot would say otherwise but as always it means nothing without a hardworking and educated population.
Similar to how Isreal has been propped up by US funding for decades to provide a base for operations and an ally in that part of the world.