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The coup attempt in the US may be ‘over there’ but we in Ireland have lessons to learn, particularly about our approach to far-right figures and the politics of hate.
@galwayad @GalwayLabour @ACriticalEar https://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/119214/trump-the-coup-and-the-lessons-for-ireland
@galwayad @GalwayLabour @ACriticalEar https://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/119214/trump-the-coup-and-the-lessons-for-ireland
Trump has been treated as entertainment by outlets like @RTELateLateShow, which has repeatedly invited and indulged Sean Spicer, the first person to take on the role of lying for Trump at The White House lectern. A political operative who normalises the horrors of the far right
There were those who sounded the alarm - and were mocked - early in Trump’s ascent. @AodhanORiordain and @irishstand were clear and outspoken on the danger of Trump's brand of demagoguery and bigotry.
There is a small, but growing, far-right element in Ireland. As in the US, they did not emerge from nothing - they feed on, and exacerbate existing prejudices: xenophobia, anti-Traveller prejudice, racism. We in Galway must live with the shame of ‘Rahoonery’.
(Aside, for those unfamiliar: the term comes from the Rahoon area of Galway, and campaigns by local residents and elected representatives to prevent the council from providing accommodation to Travellers. In my lifetime barricades were built, and staffed, to block Travellers.)
The consequences of bigotry are not merely academic: we know that Travellers have a 46 per cent higher risk of Covid than the wider population - a direct result of local authorities failing to spend their Traveller housing budgets over decades. @Minceirbeoir @SindyLJoyce
The tragedy of the Carrickmines fire, when 10 people died at a halting site, and the ongoing shame of sites not fit for purpose, should be a klaxon demanding our political attention, not something that gets pushed to one side when it is time for our public representatives to act.
As a State, it is less than 20 years since birthright citizenship was stripped from the children of immigrants, when 80 per cent of voters endorsed a dog-whistling campaign led by @SenatorMcDowell, now a senator representing graduates of the @NUIMerrionSq
The campaign, launched last year by @labouryouth and @labour, to restore birthright citizenship through legislation, would be a good first step to undoing that shameful bit of xenophobic populism.
