Jingo fever
By Sean Marlow
It may have fizzled out now (except in the letters page of the
Irish Times) but for the past month we have been subject to a
barrage of media-driven jingoism berating us for not
enthusiastically wallowing in World War 1 commemorations.
These same politically-inspired pundits like Kevin Myers, Gay
Byrne, John Bruton et al, while happy to glorify the mass
extermination of young Irishmen, Germans, British, Australians
and millions of others in this imperialist war, are the same
people who take a high moral tone in vilifying the ``blood
sacrifice'' of 1916 and subsequent phases in this small nation's
struggle for freedom.
There WAS a major difference between 1916 and 1914-18, but not
the one that Myers and co would have us believe. In Ireland's
liberation struggle, its military leaders were prepared to do
their own fighting and dying rather than order others to do it
for them.
Contrast the courage of Padraig Pearse, Liam Lynch, Bobby Sands
and Mairéad Farrell with that of the British generals who forced
their canon fodder soldiers to march into machinegun fire. There
were no commemorations for those poor bastards who were stuck in
filthy trenches subject to years of artillery fire They suffered
shell-shock (now known as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome) and
were taken out and shot at dawn for cowardice - on the orders of
their superiors safely back in HQ.
As with so many other issues, James Connolly accurately analysed
the campaign to recruit Irish Volunteers to the British war
machine: ``All of the kept newspapers constituted themselves
recruiting agents for the British Army, and every effort was made
to stampede the Volunteers into unconditional acceptance of Mr
Redmond's blatant offer. Many thousands of recruits were obtained
for the British Army during the first fortnight of the jingo
fever promoted by the Home Rule press and wirepullers, companies
of Irish Volunteers marched in parade order to see reservists off
by the train and ship, their bands, to the astonishment of
everyone and horror of most, played ``God Save The King'' and all
sorts of erstwhile rack-renting landlords and anti-Irish
aristocrats rushed in to officer these Irish Volunteers whom they
formerly despised''
Irish republicans have no objection to the dead of any war being
remembered - very much the opposite - but we don't want it turned
into an excuse for glorification of imperialist warmongering as
the wearing of the red poppy of the British Legion implies.
The display of this partisan emblem is enforced on BBC and UTV
presenters while the white poppy of British pacifists and, of
course, the Easter Lilly, commemorating Ireland's dead, is
banned. So much for parity of esteem.
Interestingly, and showing that there is a political agenda at
work here, the castigating of Irish nationalists for not
commemorating World Wars is not extended to Unionists who have
forgotten those thousands of Protestants who bravely gave their
lives 200 years ago in the United Ireland movement.
The motivation for this selective remembrance seems to be linked
to the renewed campaign by 26-county Army generals, establishment
politicians (including the now defunct DL) and journalists like
Stephen Collins of the Sunday Tribune, to abandon Irish
neutrality and join the so-called Partnership For Peace. This
outfit, despite the innocent-sounding name, is a front for the
NATO military alliance, which still retains the option of nuclear
strike in its military strategy.
The Chief-of-Staff, Lieut Gen Dave Stapleton, this week went even
further - or maybe was just being more honest. He openly called
for Irish participation in the WEU as a fore-runner to joining a
future European Army. No doubt this army would be used to send
our young people to be slaughtered and to slaughter others in
future ``resource wars'' against ex-colonial countries in the
developing world.
Have we learned nothing from the horror of World Wars I and II?
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