British insecurity and the Irish

Sceala Philosopher Location: Glasgow

Doogansdouble, these agree with your post about Bankrupt Britain.

British insecurities highlighted.
The Scotsman.
Duncan Hamilton: A wounded Celtic Tiger is still more nimble than the UK
There seems to be something about our relationship with Ireland which brings out the worst in Britain. Like an insecure elder sibling, we seem unable to be anything more than grudging about Irish success and desperately keen to emphasise any failings or difficulties.
Even my sparkling new satnav seems to be in on it. Driving from Glasgow to Cork via the Stranraer ferry might not seem exactly like the Dakar Rally but it was enough to entirely bamboozle my latest car gadget. As I sped down the vast expanse of new motorway to Cork, it was all too much for our electronic guide. The poor woman seemed blissfully unaware of any new road built in Ireland since 1970 and failed to understand why I was apparently driving at 70mph through a field. It was as if the idea of poor little Ireland having anything more than a few country lanes was utterly inconceivable.

But the real revelation comes when you chat to the Irish about the horrors of the economic downturn. For Unionist politicians in Scotland, particularly Jim Murphy, there is a barely concealed delight that the Celtic Tiger has been wounded.

Of course, the success of an independent country smaller than Scotland and with none of the resources of Scotland located just across the sea has long been a source of difficulty for those who want to sell a "stronger together, weaker apart" message here. That presumably explains the speed with which Labour politicians leapt to trash the image of Ireland as a model of inspiration for what a high-growth Scotland might achieve. Instead, it was portrayed as a country which had behaved throughout the boom years like an errant child in a sweetie shop and was now in dire straits.

But this is an unsustainable analysis, given the depths to which those in charge of the apparently "safe" United Kingdom have driven our economy. To seek to draw any conclusion about the viability or otherwise of nations based on the current global downturn is utterly bogus. The UK finances are in tatters and we may yet be downgraded as an economy by the international ratings agencies. Does that make the UK unsustainable? Oh, and unlike us, Ireland is technically out of recession.

Yes, Ireland has taken brutally tough decisions on spending, but so will we when the farcical pre-election deception ends in the inevitability of savage post-election cuts. David Cameron and Gordon Brown might also note that I have not met a single person who wants to condemn the Irish finance minister, Brian Lenihan, for his budget – he looked the country in the eye and told them the truth.

And yes, the Irish economic and social pain is real and instant. Many have lost their jobs, many think they might do and most will take a pay cut. But I sat next to one primary school teacher at a wedding who shrugged off the latest 7 per cent cut in her salary as the necessary price of keeping a job. It is a common approach. Hands up if you think that we will as readily adopt such acceptance of a shared responsibility to get our country sorted?

Is there real anger in Ireland at the bankers and the politicians? You bet. But the sense in Ireland is "we are where we are" and the priority is collective action to get out of this mess in double quick time. Which leads to the other point UK politicians seem to ignore: small economies can be more nimble and more focused as they emerge from recession. Ireland is no economic backwater – as a nation it has been hosting multinational companies and developing global financial expertise and acumen for the last 20 years. During a storm, you might well be safer in an oil tanker than a speedboat. But when the financial waters calm, what vessel would you prefer?

There is something else which has impressed me: the period of genuine national reflection which the economic downturn has triggered. The radio stations are full of debate and reflection on the future of Irish society. One programme asked which group had most damaged Ireland in the last year: politicians, bankers or, in the wake of the recent Murphy Report into clerical child abuse in Ireland, the Catholic Church. The theme was obvious: most of those in positions of authority had breached their bond of trust. But that has spawned a useful and necessary discussion about the way forward.

Equally, for those who have been in Ireland regularly over the last decades, the shift to a wealthy, consumer-dominated country has sometimes been ugly. For a while it seemed that Ireland was becoming like the Middle East – everyone was driving a Mercedes but the roads were still full of potholes. Add to that the issues of mass immigration, greater social dislocation, the absurd cost of housing and an ever wider disparity between rich and poor and the country is not short of material for introspection. But at least people are asking the hard questions. It might all come to nothing when the next wave of growth returns, but the contrast with a UK which continues to duck the big debates on what must rise from the ashes of the financial fires is stark.

So while my satnav may stubbornly refuse to recognise the new Irish roads, the response of our Irish cousins to the global downturn may yet provide some practical directions for a more adult, reasoned and useful reaction to the challenges of 2010.
http://www.scotsman.com/opinion/Duncan-Hamilton-A-wounded-Celtic.5952085.jp

Two-faced British tabloids sneer at film success but not in Irish editions
Two British newspapers gave their readers in Britain and Ireland very different versions of their feelings towards the success of Ken Loach's new Irish film The Wind That Shakes the Barley which won the prestigious Palme D'Or at Cannes.

The Sun and the Daily Mail newspapers both last week hypocritically feigned delight at the "Irish success", in their editions in Ireland, while in their British editions the film was rubbished and derided as "anti-British" propaganda.

The Sun and the Daily Mail, which both have a long history of virulent anti-Irishness, devoted pages of positive coverage to the film's success in their Irish editions - but true to their real beliefs savaged Loach and the "pro-IRA" film on their home territory.

On Tuesday, the "Irish" Sun ran a double-page spread entitled 'Cillian's men give Brits a tanning in Cannes', celebrating a victory for the movie's "no-holds barred" depiction of the Black 'n' Tans who "subjected Irish citizens to horrific violence for years".

The article's author Harry Macadam laid into the Loach project, deriding it and saying, "a brutally anti-British film has won the movie world's top prize outside the Oscars. Veteran director Ken Loach's The Wind that Shakes the Barley has a plot designed to drag the reputation of our nation through the mud."

The article criticises the British National Lottery's support of "Loach's biased ideas" to the tune of €795,000. The Sun piece also quoted from the Independent's movie critic John Walsh who said at times the movie "comes across like a recruiting campaign for the IRA".

It also contains non-attributed quotes from "American reviewers", who described the movie as "dull and pedestrian". It concludes with an additional comment from the author who said: "All in all, a must-not-see."

Elsewhere, the Daily Mail, which, in its Irish edition, has taken to referring to the Irish as "us" in its stories and headlines, revealed to its real heartland - the English middle classes - its true prejudices.

Under a story headlined 'Lottery cash funded Loach's anti-British film' - which did not appear in Ireland - the paper reported that "a film part-funded by the National Lottery that depicts the British 'oppression' of Ireland has won the top award at the Cannes Film Festival".

The paper added: "Loach's film is sure to attract controversy over the sympathetic way it portrays the IRA as freedom fighters and the British Army as violent oppressors."

While its British readers were also being asked, "Why DOES Ken Loach loathe his country so much?" the Mail's Irish readers were being shown a front page picture of star Orla Fitzgerald under a headline: 'The golden girl who conquered Cannes'.

Needless to say, the picture of a beaming Orla did not appear in the Mail's British editions.

In the London Times, Michael Gove questioned how British people could cheer for a director who portrays British soldiers as "sub-human mercenaries burning thatched cottages, torturing by using pliers to rip out toenails and committing extreme violence against women".

Perhaps then, it comes as no surprise to find that just 30 British cinemas have ordered prints of the film, which means that most British cinemagoers will not get to make up their own minds.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/twofaced-tabloids-sneer-at-film-success-but-not-in-irish-editions-130984.html

Register

The Irish Community have posted
9 REPLIES TO THIS TOPIC
for logged in members to view.

Irish Forums Message Discussion :: British insecurity and the Irish

British insecurity and the Irish