This brings up something I’ve been meaning to articulate for awhile:

In a country where 35+ million, mostly white, people self identity as Irish American (IA), it is not news that many are reactionary. Their “Irishness” is often little more than a surname, like we see here... /1 https://twitter.com/nuaeabhrac/status/1352934754706980864

Indeed IAs should be critical about the history and context that made the space for so many of our community to be reactionary (racism, capitalism, imperialism, etc.) but not every individual with an Irish surname engages with their Irishness, many are just white Americans.../2

What IS news and what I believe we should focus with IA circles is when IAs link (or attempt to link) Irishness and Irish culture to reactionary politics and oppressive systems. /3

Examples of this are many; that tricolour Confederate flag, “Irish slave myth”, Emerald Societies and general cop fetishization, “Irish for [insert reactionary Dem or GOP candidate]”, reactionary religious groups (AOHs), Pete King, etc... /4

We don’t have to claim every Kelly in America but we DO have to own up to how Irishness is used here and work to dismantle Irish America’s association and enabling of oppression, so that when the fash come out the only thing of Ireland they can claim is a common surname.

5/5

Note: this thread only relates to working within the Irish American context because of course we should be working to dismantle all oppression and reactionary systems, we just need to be smarter when applying the “Irish American” lens.