Meanwhile, back in the auld sod

In Eire, Easter Week is traditionally marked by Republicans with parades and marches commemorating the 1916 Rising against British rule. The tradition has now been adopted by Ireland's fast-growing anti-immigration movement/

Outside Dublin's Gardens of Remembrance, tens of thousands of anti-immigration marchers gathered for their largest protest yet. Speaking of the Irish government, an older woman carrying a commenorative wreath ranted, "They need to be dragged out by their balls!"

In the Republic, though very much not in Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin voters are by far the strongest anti-immigration constituency. Scattered across a broad spectrum of microparties, Ireland's anti-immigration movement achieved electoral success last year only in winning council seats in working-class areas of Dublin. 

Judging by the fiery speeches, the protest's organisers have decided to lean strongly into capturing Sinn Féin’s disaffected urban voter base. "We don’t need big posh people to come on and represent the working class," independent candidate Gavin Pepper roared at the vast crowd outside the grand neoclassical Custom House. “"We are the working class."

Myles naGopaleen, God rest him, always referred to them as "the plain people of Ireland". Speaking for them, he would surely have used a richer epithetn that "big posh people". He might well have called them "that ignorant, self-opinionated, sod-minded, suet-brained, ham-faced, mealy-mouthed, streptococcus-ridden gang of naatural gobdaws!" Myles was never one to sugar-coat things.

Neither is newly-elected councillor Patrick Quinlan of the National Party, an identitarian movement standing on a platform of mass deportations and re-Gaelicising Ireland. He gave a speech railing against "the den of rats inside Dáil Éireann" (the Irish parliament). It was the sort of political speech that would be recognisable to historians of Ireland’s 19th-century mass movement nationalism. :They fear not chaos but our awakening," Quinlan roared, "The holy fire that blazed in our patriot dead…lives on here today. The heroes of 1916 triumphed, and so shall we."

Source (excepting the paragraph of remarks by Myles na Gopaleen): UnHerd 27/4/2025. Thanks to BCF for pointing us in the right direction. If you want to read more of Myles' tales of the plain people of Ireland, try to find a copy of The Best of Myles, Picador Books, 1968.

Also recommended: The Rising: Ireland: Easter 1916, by Fearghal McGarry, Oxford University Press, 2010, and of course the excellent (except for Julia Roberts' performance) movie, Michael Collins (1996).

A message for the Glorious 12th of July

100 years ago: eyewitness describes the death of Michael Collins

In the rush to go on a short holiday, I missed posting this first-hand account of the death of Michael Collins, the hero of the fight for the freedom of Ireland. During the War of Independence he was Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a government minister of the self-declared Irish Republic. 

He was then Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State from January 1922 and commander-in-chief of the National Army from July until his death in an ambush in August 1922, during the Civil War.

John O’Connell, the interviewee in this video, was a private in the Free State army, travelling in the convoy that was ambushed on 22 August 1922, when Michael Collins was killed. He was travelling in the Crossley Tender which was one of the three vehicles ambushed when the convoy met a road block at Béal na Bláth.

 

Michael Collins died without seeing the realization of his dream of a united Eire, free of the hated British oppressors. Indeed, the day has not yet come. Ireland remains divided. But the fight continues, albeit at the ballot box rather than in the streets. 

Up the IRA! Sinn Féin!

Your elections this weekend

We concern ourselves, here on WWW, mainly with American and Canadian politics. But Walt has a soft spot in his heart [head? Ed.] for certain other countries -- especially Ukraine -- and a more-than-passing interest in still others. This weekend there is news from two of those "others", of elections that herald profound changes, maybe good, maybe not.

First to Northern Ireland, aka Ulster, which has been struggling for a century to rid itself of the British imperialists. [Your bias is showing. Ed.] Leading the fight to reunite the counties of the North with the rest of Eire is Sinn Féin, the political arm of the IRA.

Within minutes of taking his seat in Stormont (aka the Northern Ireland Assembly) in 1998, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness pointed his finger at Ian Paisley, leader of the Protestant Baskets Democractic Unionist Party, and declared, "We've arrived. Change is coming and there's nothing you can do about it." He was right!

Almost complete results from Thursday's election show Sinn Féin poised to replace the DUP as the largest party at Stormont, with its leader, Mary Lou McDonald becoming first minister. That will be a first for a nationalist party. A unionist party -- pledged to keep Ulster a part of the so-called United Kingdom -- has always been the largest in the Assembly, and previously the parliament, since the formation of Northern Ireland in 1921.

Voters in the Philippines go to the polls on Monday. I like the Philippines, and Filipino people, but they do seem to have trouble electing good governments, as a result of which the country suffers from poverty caused by incompetence, corruption and general misrule.

Part of the problem is the Filipino attraction to celebrities, even stronger than that of Americans. Only in America (some say) could movie stars and media personalities become governors, senators and even President. Not so! In PI they elect movie stars and singers, sure, but also boxers, beauty contest winners and celebrities of all stripes. Ordinary people -- the "Jose Rodrigues goes to Manila" types -- don't stand a chance. 

If you watch the excellent GMA video of "Lupang hinirang", the national anthem of the Philippines, you'll see, at about 2:10, a nice image of a nun holding a rosary and celebrating the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. Millions of Filipinos from all walks of life marched along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), the main artery of Metro Manila, to end the dictatorship of President Ferdinand E. Marcos and begin a new era marked by true freedom and democracy.   

Now, on May 9th, it looks likely that the same people who celebrated President Marcos' downfall will put his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., back into the presidensity. That's him -- little "Bongbong" (one of those Filipino "doorbell names") -- in the camo outfit, in front of his adoring father and Mother Imelda of the 1000 Shoes.

Young Mr Marcos has been busy rehabilitating the image of his kleptocratic parents. In his TV ads, as the voices of a choir soar to a crescendo, he raises a fist to his chest and speaks into the camera: "Together, we will rise again." 

Should Bongbong be successful, it will cap one of the most remarkable resurrections since Lazarus. He has benefited from a campaign to reshape the narrative around his father, casting him not as the brutal dictator that he was, but a patriotic hero who oversaw a period of economic stability and growth for the Philippines. As the country struggles with the Wuhan flu and economic stagnation, many hope to see a return to this mythical golden era.

While Mr Marcos’ supporters argue that he should not be judged for the sins of his father, opponents fear he will continue the authoritarian trend started by outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, who launched a brutal war on drugs, locked up critics and attacked the free press. Mr Marcos has been boosted by the endorsement of... wait for it... Sara Duterte, the President's daughter, who is running for vice-president (elected separately in the Philippines). 

Polling in the final week of othe campaign suggests Junior could win in a landslide. For the poor people of the Philippines, it looks like back to the future... and they will have no-one to blame but themselves.

Walt, Poor Len [and Ed.! Ed.] wish all of yez...

and may the wind at yer back always be yer own!

And, lest we forget, the Ukrainians are not the only people who have had to fight long and hard for their freedom from an imperial oppressor. Walt recommends this movie most highly.

Sinn Féin Amháin!

UPDATED: Ireland wakes up! Sinn Fein wins big in weekend elections

UPDATE ADDED 22/2/20: For a good in-depth analysis of what the success of Sinn Féin could mean in terms of the long-awaited unification of Ireland, Walt recommends "Is some revelation at hand? Brexit and Sinn Fein's success boost talk of Irish unification", in The Economist, 13/2/20.

Walt is almsot always happy to report on a nationalist political party doing well at the polls, because nationalism (IMHO) is natural to human beings. Globalism is unnatural. People prefer being with other people like themselves, in their own country, on their own land.

The Irish, after an inexplicable interlude in which they flirted with internationalism, diversity, inclusivity and all that rubbish, appear to have woken up, and I don't mean that in the liberal way! Since June of 2017, the government of the Irish Republic has been headed by Leo Varadkar, who has served as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and Minister for Defence.

Mr Varadkar is ethnically Indian, and openly as gay as 18 balloons. It was therefore a bit of a surprise that when former Taoiseach Enda Kenny decided to quit in May of 2017, Mr Varadkar stood in the election to replace him as leader of the governing Fine Gael party. Although more party members voted for his opponent, Mr Varadkar prevalied, and was elected leader, thus becoming, at age 38, the youngest- (and gayest-) ever Taoiseach.

This weekend the plain people of Ireland (Hello Myles na Gopaleen!) had a chance to express their opinion of Mr Varadkar and his government, and surprised the pundits by (apparently) voting in roughly equal numbers for Gael, the opposition Fianna Fáil, and... wait for it... Sinn Féin, a left-wing party committed to reunification of the island. Sinn Féin is regarded, unofficially at least, as being the political arm of the Irish Republican Army.

Its many critics accuse Sinn Féin of having failed to repudiate the role of the IRA in the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. The plain people of Ireland apparently don't have a problem with that, as exit polls show the party in a virtual dead heat with the two parties that have governed since the country won independence (for all but the northern part of the island) almost a century ago.

Ballot counting is still under way as I write, but with 96% of first-preference votes tallied, Sinn Féin had 24.1%, Fianna Fáil 22.1%, Fine Gael also 22.1%, the Greens at 7.4%, and small left-wing parties and independents comprising the rest. The Grauniad calls the result "stunning".

Preliminary vote tallies suggested Sinn Féin could win around 36 seats, up from 22 in the outgoing Dáil, far exceeding its own expectations. It appealed to young voters in particular, who felt left behind by a booming economy and chafed at soaring rents, homelessness, insurance costs and hospital waiting lists.

The predicted outcome means some type of coalition government is almost inevitable, with Sinn Féin likely to be a central player in the negotiations to form one. Until now, both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have refused to work with Sinn Féin because of its links to the IRA. Now, though, the centrist parties' resolve may weaken as politicians reckon with the reality of Sinn Fein's strong showing.

But their sudden grudging acceptance of Sinn Féin may come too late. Sinn Féin says it's ready to talk about forming a government... to everyone but the two major parties! "I want us to have a government for the people," said Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald. "I want us to have, ideally, a government with no Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael in it. I have started the contact with other parties to explore over the next days whether that is a possibility." Stay tuned.

Recommended viewing: Michael Collins, starring Liam Neeson, a mostly-true story about the struggle for the Irish Republic. Here's the trailer.



You can just fast forward past the love story part, with Julia Roberts in as horrible example of miscasting as I've ever seen. That aside, Michael Collins is a great movie about a great Irishman.