Ireland must be anti-racist
Marcas Conchúbair speaks to International Brigades veteran of the
Spanish Civil War, Mick O'Riordan, about the growing racism in
Irish society and the lessons from his own political experience
``We have two experiences of racism and Fascism in this country,''
Mick O'Riordan says. ``There is the British anti-Irish racism in
which we were depicted as apes and referred to as `Paddy the
Pig'. And certainly there was racism experienced by the Irish in
America. The other example we have is the 1930s Blueshirt
movement in Ireland. The Blueshirt movement was a very Catholic
movement, and it became very popular, but then it was beaten off
the streets.''
The question arose then as it does today, says O'Riordan, of
whether Fascists should have free speech. He says those involved
with the International Brigade who fought with the socialists
against Franco's troops agreed, as Anti Fascist Action and
current anti-racists do today, that speech advocating racism and
fascism should not be tolerated. With the rise of European
Fascism and the Nazi Third Reich in Germany, the world ``saw
Fascism not only deny free speech, but deny life to millions of
people in concentration camps.''
O'Riordan spoke of the Catholic Church's support of the Franco
rising, and the blessing of the Irish who fought for his regime
in the Spanish Foreign Legion. He said that the Church's
influence resulted in many confused Irish Catholics supporting
the ``backward'' fascist regime. ``Those of us who went to fight for
the International Brigade issued a statement,'' he said, ``saying
that we were fighting out of a patriotic duty to save the good
name of our people who had fought for a long time for their own
independence, and whose honor was being besmirtched by the
Blueshirts and others who were fighting for Franco's fascism.
Also the question of international solidarity was most important.
Most of us came from working class backgrounds where the key
slogan is, `an injury to one is an injury to all.'''
He said the International Brigade saw the injury inflicted by
Spanish Fascism wasn't just a Spanish concern, but a concern of
the world, a view that was shared by the 40,000 volunteers who
came from 53 countries.
He said the result was to negate the question of Ireland
supporting fascism, but that result didn't come immediately
``because we were in almost a pogrom position. The Church was very
much pro-Franco. Only one priest in this country, Fr Michael
O'Flanagan, stood out in sympathy with us.''
O'Riordan also recognises a connection between Northern Loyalists
and Fascism. ``The Loyalist groups in the North at a certain stage
did have very good relations with the British union of Fascists,
but peculiarly enough, the British Fascists never actually formed
a branch in the North.'' He said it wasn't necessary for the
British Fascists to do this because the imperialist policy of
divide and conquer has always enabled Loyalists to have their own
special forces of sectarian violence to perpetuate British rule.
He says there was a national Irish Fascist front, but it has
never been that large. ``But it's poison, and you don't need a lot
of poison to do a lot of damage.....But never underestimate the
ability of Fascism to rise again, and to be encouraged to rise
again.''
He pulled out a copy of the 3 March issue of the Irish Times,
where on page 3 there was a picture of schoolgirls walking past a
``White Power'' slogan spray painted above a swastika on shutters
in Harmony Row, Ennis, Co. Clare. Then he turned to the editorial
page, pointing to a reply from Jo Anne Tobin of AFA to a Young
Fine Gaeler's letter which had attributed ``anti-Fascist''
credentials and ``democratic ideology'' to Fine Geal. Tobin's reply
referred to Eoin O'Duffy and Fine Gael TDs ``enthusiastically
giving the fascist salute at mass rallies throughout Ireland'' in
the 1930s, and asserted that, if the need arises, AFA would do
what is necessary in the future to drive fascists off the streets
again.
``The most extraordinary thing about the Blueshirts,'' O'Riordan
says, ``is that people came together to defeat them.'' Which is why
he's confident that the people of Ireland will stop any threat of
Fascism in current times as well. ``It was a happy experience to
listen to the young people [of AFA] express their solidarity with
the refugees who've come to this country,'' he said. ``If you look
back at the progressive movements in any country, in any shape or
form, it's the young people who always play the vanguard in these
situations.....that's the first criterion, the first basis for
the development of an anti-Fascist movement.''
O'Riordan added, however, that he didn't want to make the current
threat of racism and fascism seem larger than it is. ``I don't
want to say we're immediately confronted with the possibility of
fascism,'' O'Riordan says, ``that would be overstating the
case.....I don't see the question of politics in Ireland [as
being thought of] in terms of Fascism and anti-Fascism. It's
there, it's an element, but we've also got to recognise that it
exists in the conditions of the serious situation in Northern
Ireland.''
He recalled the 1914 quote of James Connolly that ``if there is a
partition in Ireland, it will be the beginnings of a carnival of
reaction,'' which he believes is a good assessment of the
situation today. ``But I am convinced that the unity of working
class people, Protestant and Catholic, is going to forge a new
lease of life.'' That doesn't mean that the two communities are
united strongly enough today to oppose British rule as they did
under Wolfe Tone in 1798, but the ironies of that historical
event also point to the need for unity and the absurdity of
sectarian bigotry that stands in the way of freedom and peace.
``There are certain lessons of the 1798 rebellion,'' O'Rordan says,
such as the fact that Wolfe Tone and ``many people who advanced
the Republican movement were Protestant, and the Catholic Church
was actually anti-Republican, pro-British.'' In the face of this
irony, he said that if the leaders of the Catholic and
Presbyterian Churches were serious about peace and unity they
``should have organised a joint ecumenical funeral'' for the two
lifelong friends, Damien Trainor who was a Catholic, and Phillip
Allen, a Presbyterian, who were murdered together in Poyntzpass
on 4 March. ``The way to end British rule in Ireland is for
Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter to unite as Irish people,'' he
says.
There's no telling exactly what direction the current political
climate is going to take the Irish nation, but as O'Riordan
recognises in the lessons of history, the young people standing
for justice in the 26 counties, as well as Republicans throughout
the island, are right to embrace diversity in every area of life
as the struggle goes on for a united Ireland independent of
foreign colonial power.
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