Cultural Imperialism

No, this post isn't about the USA and its form of cultural imperialism. Perhaps I will make a post about that some day, but this is about imperialism of Irish culture.

A question I have often seen asked is "What does it mean to be Irish?" or people asking the definition of being Irish. The Republic of Ireland has, rather under-handedly and rudely, attempted to hijack this for itself by creating its own state and then not only calling it after the island (Ireland) in which that state resides, but also suggesting that its nationality is "Irish".

This, of course, makes the equation for the romantic nonsense of Republicanism and nationalism a much simpler one for foreigners to digest. It goes like this: Ireland = Irish, so what are all those nasty Brits/Protestants/unionists doing there?

For some actual Irish people, both north and south of the border in Ireland, the definition of Irishness is, simply, a lack of Britishness. That strikes me as a rather weak culture, to define oneself by a negative.. by what you're not.

To some Irish people from Ireland then, the equation excludes them, as it becomes: Irish = Ireland - British.

Take, for example, fellow blogger Karin, from Karin's World. She wrote this blog about the ridiculous 'Irish Heritage certificate' that the Republic of Ireland's government is offering people. Of course I agree with the main thrust of her post, and the point she is making. Where I differ, however, is where she suggests that inability to speak Irish (presumably referring to Irish Gaelic specifically), lack of knowledge of Michael Collins or the "Eater Rising" [sic] and pronouncing the Gaelic word sláinte a particular way is somehow un-Irish.

The Easter Rising was hardly supported at all by the Irish when it happened. The people who took part in it were, in fact, spat at and jeered by Dubliners as they were marched out as prisoners on their way to jail for treason. However, it is seen today as being the antithesis of Britishness by many.

It certainly is a part of Irish history, but it is not the be-all and end-all of Irish history. I single out Karin's blog as I read it just recently, and it reminded me of this pervasion and insipid infatuation with all-things-rebel and/or Gaelic and/or Roman Catholic. These things are not exclusive to Irish people and nor are they, either separately or in combination, any kind of definition of being Irish.

In Karin's case, she should also probably remember that Ireland has many, many differing accents and dialects. She may have heard of the Ulster dialect of Gaelic, for example. We pronounce things differently to people in Leinster and Connaught.

The word crack is also an Ulster word, having made its way there from the Scottish-English border basically, centuries ago. Karin has been taken in by the very ideas she is posting negatively about in her blog: commoditisation of culture, and re-spelled the word crack as 'craic'. See also my post Bad Crack.