Thread: It’s bizarre, with the rise of the far right, to hear them talking about the need to ‘protect’ Irish culture (it’s almost as if they fail to notice it has already survived over 700y of colonialism, war, ethnic cleansing & famine).

Let’s talk about Irish culture

There are lots of definitions of culture, ethnicity & nationality but I think they miss the point. In the early Irish Republic it was about the Irish language, rural society & Roman Catholicism. The ‘dancing at the crossroads’ trope.

This enforced vision gradually collapsed under the undeniable fact that Irish people were part Scandinavian, Norman, English, Welsh, Manx, Scottish, Spanish & French & had different origins & perspectives. Dev’s so-called ‘Comely Maidens’ trope didn’t acknowledge our diversity.

Of course history has shown these ideas to be just as useful indicators as Irish wolf hounds, shamrock & round towers. Symbolic ideas, but they don’t tell you anything about what it is to be Irish or what makes an Irish person Irish, culturally.

There are of course negative stereotypes that have been waged against the Island. The drunken, the fighting & the garrulous Irish etc. There are the positive ones too - the land of saints & scholars. But these only tell you so much, if anything at all.

Most would agree that story telling is a common Irish trait - it led to the finest novelist in English in the 20th C, Joyce & the finest poet, Yeats. That story telling is about communication. Story telling has always been exalted in Irish culture since at least the Celts

From ancient times poetry has been judged the highest form of Irish culture. Even today, poets are respected more than any other creator in Ireland (with musicians a close second). It’s a fundamental part of our culture, based on age old tradition.

The Filí (Irish bards/poets) had charge of the listing of those entitled to vote in electing a Celtic king. Thus their verse literally gave power & this ancient validation lingers on in respect for books, libraries, learning & words in Ireland. Fascism does not.

And racists seem to forget that Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses, is about Leopold Bloom, a Jew living in Dublin & his wander around the city. There is a constant anxiety (again going back to the Celts) about how strangers might see us Irish & our need to look after them.

That latter trait is the welcoming of strangers Racists don’t seem to know about that one This is because of another Celtic tradition of wanting to be seen as friendly, generous & welcoming - in Hiberno-Celtic culture to be seen as mean was the worst reputation you could/can have

A reputation for meanness was feared by ancient Irish Celtic kings as the powerful peripatetic Bardic class (the Filí) might make a poem of your tight pockets & you would end up a universal laughing stock, unable to rule. So generosity is a fundamental trait.

Indeed until very recently it was considered rude in Ireland to describe someone as a foreigner or a stranger. There is a truth to the Irish cliche - a stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet - in ancient Irish culture. Take note racists! Our greeting is 100,000 Welcomes! FFS!

Stories of inspectors to the shacks of victims of the Great Hunger (Irish Famine when 1-1.5m died) recount the starving trying to offer their visitors the tiny amount of food they had. Racists seem not to know that about Irish history. Or that we were migrants then too!

The far right eschew the cultural trait of hospitality The famine story tells how deep this is in the Psyche You can’t claim to understand Irish culture if you are rejecting refugees from horrific trauma elsewhere, nowadays. Imagine if Canada or the US had done that in the 1840s!

Yet another cultural trait is a lack of expected formality in dealing with senior figures in society. Slagging is part of that tradition (the more u like someone the ruder u are to them if you are Irish). It’s not unusual to hear ‘How are yeah? Ye aul’ Bollix’ as friends meet!

This informality comes directly from Hiberno-Celtic tradition. Irish kings were elected from a derbfine (4 generations of relatives) within a kingdom of only several thousand people. Thus a ruler could not afford to upset voters or those who might influence them

Thus the far right trope of the distant leader on his (& it is always his) white horse to solve our problems, as only he can, is totally antagonistic to Irish tradition & culture. Fascists please take note.

Now all these cultural traits are extremely common & widespread - there are some people who don’t have them here though - the far right. It’s incredibly bizarre that they would think they are guardians of Irish culture!

Whilst I’m not saying that other cultures don’t share some of these traits, I can confirm that I do ask visitors to Ireland what their experience is & they all touched on these (& also how odd it was that Irish people kept asking them what they thought of the place!)

It’s hard to define what is traditional Irish culture, but I can confirm that racism, hate & ignorance are definitely not, since at least 500BC. I’ve read the manuscripts, asked visitors & consulted experts rather than trotted out half-formed nonsense about what it is to be Irish

Finally I find it extremely offensive when I hear these vice-signalling, yellow-vest wearing, jack-boot stomping, rabble rousing muppets talking about the ‘swamping’ of Ireland. Before the famine there were twice as many living here, as now. Shame on them for insulting our dead

A lot of my artwork is inspired by Irish art & culture. At the moment I have an Affordable Art Project as I think everyone should have access to original art in their homes. Take a look! https://twitter.com/robertbohan/status/1281560714637910018