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I had a chat earlier with a pal who’d have been reared on the “other side” of the Northern Ireland political divide from myself.
Discussing the likely reaction of the Irish to mass immigration, should the EU decide to dump on them next on a large scale, as suggested in some quarters.
It set me thinking about Ireland tonight.
I suggested to him that the Church in Ireland was a spent force now, never to regain the power of yesteryear. The sudden influx of a million new non-Christians would have a seriously detrimental effect on their remaining foothold. He’s a religious guy, but this concerned him more than I’d even expected.
We talked about how NI & RoI would approach things, should there be some ‘bad’ incidents, like we’ve seen across mainland Europe & the UK. NI would be more aggressive, people would be hurt, it’s our go-to way unfortunately. Southern Irish aren’t as naturally aggressive. They’re like us in the North in every single way, totally indistinguishable, except when it comes to accents & aggression levels.
I holiday “down South” regularly, simply because it’s calmer. They get the importance of contentment we seem to overlook “up North”. I see RoI as the ‘normals’ & us in the North as the walled-off nutters, in many ways. Coming from the NI Unionist persuasion that may sound surprising, but you only have to look at our history to see it’s generations away yet from removing the inbuilt-hostility so many of us grew up with.
Certainly many in RoI were involved in the Troubles, in many ways, but the average Joe Citizen most certainly was not. They had every reason to be, but it’s not their way. We, on the other hand, lost our way totally & bred our children to hate one another for way too long.
The fact remains, the million immigrants that is being bandied around is more than Ireland could cope with. It will change the place forever, unintentionally (or intentionally) destroying one of the oldest cultures in existence & one of the most calm & matter-of-fact attitudes to life.
Again, I’m not ‘expected’ to be any sort of fan of my cousins in the South, but that’s a load of old bollox, we all get on like a house on fire. Our problems back in the day were never going to make us different people, merely different nations. Two nations, competing side-by-side, but interlinked in ways no other adjoining nations could ever hope to be.
We can even choose our nationality, nobody really cares when you show one passport or the other. I know many with both, and back in the day many got 2 driving licenses, to ensure the ‘books’ weren’t lost should their job rely on it. One thing many in NI do know how to do, is rip the ass clean out of any little give they can see.
I’d be concerned for Ireland at present. I see a nation of naturally decent people being led by a man who looks to Brussels before he looks to Dublin. I don’t trust Leo Varadkar and I see a man with a Brussels job in his ambitiously-scatty mind. I see a nation about to be hit terribly hard from the more-than-likely No Deal Brexit scenario. Hit worst tariff-wise than any of the other EU27. Scary for a small economy.
I see a nation which could become beholding to the whims of the EU, who do not act for the outlying member states, only the select few. A nation who could be forced down, when their economy has been flourishing for years. I see a culture in decline, because the EU wish it to be so. I’d be very disappointed to live to see the day Ireland is changed in such a way as to lose her “Irish” attitude to life.
Look at the Irish in past centuries, and I’m including the whole island now. We batted above our station something shocking in the world. We spread to every corner of the globe. USA has a massive Irish-American contingent. We bred our way through that big open country over a couple of hundred years, like rabbits let out of the cage for the 1st time in Spring. There’s hardly even a major town you could go to without an Irish Bar, regardless of country. Mainland UK is made up of quite a few of our spawn, were we to examine family trees.
We’re different now, the North is more anglicised since partition. Even our Northern Nationalists must feel their subtle differences, when they cross that invisible border.
It’s a calmness thing for me, I suspect it’s similar for many. When I cross the border, I find there’s a weight lifts, I drop down a gear. It may be an instinctive thing, where I sub-consciously see less danger down South than my troubled home, a hangup from the past maybe. There’s an easy-going attitude in Ireland, it’s infectious, I think it’s more likely that.
Either way, I’m worried for my cousins South of the border. I see a lot of trouble, a lot of change headed their way, and I’m just not sure they are ready for it. How can they be, when their leader looks across the sea to mainland Europe, before looking to his own?
We’ve our own problems in UK with Brexit and Ireland has been used to beat us with, by an unscrupulous EU and their puppet in Dublin. We’ll sort our problems, but we’ll be FREE to do so. Ireland will still be shackled to a wounded EU, angrier at humanity more than ever as it sees the end of the UK cash-cow.
David Davis
✔@DavidDavisMP
For the avoidance of doubt I believe the PM will get a deal with the EU but anything based on the Chequers plan or one that keeps us in the Customs Union will not pass the Commons. Time to revert to free trade deal suggested by EU?
Is there ANY way we can sort this oul Brexit malarkey without dumping on Ireland? At the moment, I cannot see it, not without a Brexit deal with the EU. Theresa May is not bringing a palatable deal & it’s not likely to get through Westminster. The default is No Deal. No Deal hurts Ireland most. Ergo, we hurt my cousins South of the border, simply because the EU wanted to punish us in the UK.
I have no trouble blaming the EU for the likely woes in Ireland, but we should have done more here too. UK has not sent her A-game to Brussels at all, in fact we’ve barely broken C. The government I’ve supported for so long, who I batted for heavily at successive elections, are going to let the incompetence of Olly Robbins & his merry band of EU-lemmings hurt my cousins in Ireland.
I want Brexit and I’ll accept collateral damage that is outside our control. I’m very disappointed that UK has let herself be complicit in the likely damage to our closest neighbours. It leaves a sour taste.
I can only hope we either pull off a miracle deal-wise, or we at least try to ensure we do everything we can to limit damage to Ireland when we are forced to leave on WTO terms. We have many tariffs we can look to, there are choices we can make to aid our friends, even it hurts us slightly in our own pockets. WE should pay for our government’s dithering, not our friends.
Fingers crossed it all works out, Ireland. You’ve some choppy waters ahead.
This post was originally published by the author on his personal blog: http://ukrants.co.uk/worried-about-ireland-and-this-damned-eu/
