Joe Horgan Column
By Joe Horgan
A United Nations report came out not so long ago that suggested a few
things not just about Ireland but about nations in general and the identity
of the people within them.
It made the usual points about modern Ireland that are either disputed
or ignored by those in the media who see it as their job to act as cheerleaders
to those in power.
It pointed out that despite economic growth Ireland was still falling
behind in terms of social inequalities and low state spending on education
and health. It also pointed out that Ireland’s much-vaunted economic
success may be somewhat distorted in that it includes a lot of wealth
that is actually sent out of the country by international companies. In
other words a lot of those multi-nationals take their profits home. That
aside, the report’s claims about identity were actually the most
interesting and relevant to an Ireland of inward migration. They were
also the most relevant to an Ireland that so many in another state see
themselves as belonging to.
Firstly the report suggests that people’s ethnic identities do not
necessarily contradict their belonging in a particular state or country.
That is to say that our Nigerians or Latvians can remain both Latvian
and Nigerian and also be Irish. They can be true to their original ethnic
base but also part of the state they live in. There is not, of necessity,
any clash inherent in that. The very people who buy this paper are testament
to the truth of that. The friction is imposed by those who want a simple
world of one or the other; the followers of Tebbit and his cricket test.
The followers of McDowell. Thousands of Irish immigrants have remained
true to their Irishness while maintaining positive lives in Britain that
of necessity identify them with much that is characteristic of British
life. Likewise their descendants. How many people buy this paper yet see
no contradiction in having a British passport? How many are happy to be
both British and Irish? Many people are like this for as the report points
out much of identity comes down to choice. People journey through life
and their experiences, along with family background and personalities,
combine to produce who they are. Their identity is something formulated
by them, not imposed from above or outside. Even those of us who fall
one way, who for instance do not consider ourselves British just because
we were born there, see the legitimacy of those who feel different. The
report is quick to point out that this position is actually predicated
on historical truth as the very fact of nation state building entailed
the repression of those who did not fit or the subjugation of those who
could not be assimilated. In that way it recognises that nation states
are very often artificial constructs. Even island nations such as Ireland
bear this out, as our troubled northern corner has only too well illustrated.
You have only to talk to people to see the truth of this understanding
of identity as actually represented by people’s lives. Even within
families, such as my own, my siblings and myself would have differing
takes on our own identity and of the interaction between Britishness and
Irishness in making up who we are.
The point is that neither one position nor the other has precedence; each
is as valid as the other. Though I was born and reared in England and
lived there all of my life until moving to Ireland seven years ago I have
never considered myself English. I have always thought of myself as Irish.
That has not been an aspirational thing but just a case of being who I
felt myself to be. The only conflict in that has been in other people’s
denial of it. I would have found presenting myself as English as false.
Others though feel differently. They feel English or British. That is
who they see themselves as being, whatever the birthplace of their parents.
Now I admit that I have at times found that difficult to comprehend and
I have not always been fully respectful of those who have Irish parents
but see themselves as British. The point is though that my failure to
understand them in no way decreases the legitimacy of their identity.
That has been my failing. They are who they say they are, not who I or
anyone else says they are. Some would now have us believe that complexity
and diversity, multi-culturalism and ethnicity are dirty words. They’re
actually, in both Britain and Ireland, just descriptions of who we really
are. |
