Mary KennyIreland’s tradition of ‘social intimacy’ may soften ‘the rough edges of difference’, writes Mary Kenny
Perhaps this is an apt moment for people in Ireland to reflect on how fortunate Ireland is as a country and a society.
Throughout history, we have had reasons to issue lamentations about the misfortunates of Erin – “ah, the most distressful country that ever yet was seen”, in the words of the well-known ballad, The Wearin’ of the Green.
To be sure, Ireland has had mournful past experiences, but there are times also to count blessings. And maybe these are such times.
Of all the countries in Europe which may suffer from either Jihadist aggressions, or the social disruption of mass immigration which is difficult to manage, Ireland must be the least likely to be in the front line.
The Almighty placed Ireland in an advantageous geographical position on the western shores of Europe. It is near enough to have close neighbours, both in Britain – a contentious element of history – and in continental Europe: but distanced enough to be out of the reach of most of the global conflicts.
Ireland’s – or, Éire, as the Republic then was – neutrality during the 1939-45 World War was wholly supported by the population (including the Protestant population). In that sense it was altogether justified. Yet the geographical truth is that the island of Ireland was protected by the shield of the neighbouring island of Britain. Goering’s bombers had to get past the Royal Air Force: which, in the end, defended all these islands.
Logic
I suggest similar logic might apply should these islands be threatened by Jihadism: the brutal truth is that such fanatics will strike at Britain first.
Ireland is fortunate, too, in having a tradition of social intimacy. You sometimes feel everyone knows one another – or, anyway, there are scarcely four degrees of separation between any two Irish people. If a person from Mallow meets a person from Ballyjamesduff, they will soon find some network of common kinship or mutuality.
This social cohesion oils the wheels of everyday life. The leader of the Muslim community in Ireland, Imam Dr Umar Al-Qadrai, has said that he does not expect a backlash against Muslims here, and I am sure that is true.
The bedrock of social cohesion in Irish society, particularly in rural Ireland, helps people to see each other as neighbours, and I believe the true Christian tradition guides us to perceive others within a fellowship of faith.
There is also something in the Irish air, I feel, which ‘softens’ the rough edges of difference, although I grant that this may be fanciful.
Europe, and the world, faces some very great problems in the coming times. We should give thanks that Ireland is more sheltered than most from the sharp edges of such challenges.
A mother’s instinct is to protect life
“Help me – I’m pregnant!” cried a young woman clinging by her fingertips to a window ledge during the Paris massacre. She was begging people below to catch her if she had to jump – and foremost in her mind was her unborn child.
That is the natural response embedded in every woman. It is so deeply embedded that even women who plan to terminate pregnancies automatically try to protect unborn life (although that point does not apply, at all, to the expectant mother seen at the window ledge).
Her rescue by a young man known only as Sebastian was surely one of the most touching events of last weekend.
‘Imagine there’s no countries’
In response to the cruel, horrible and desperately distressing atrocities in Paris, a young German musician, Davide Martello – who uses the performance name Klavierkunst (Piano-Art) – brought his piano to a Parisian street near the Bataclan and played the John Lennon song Imagine. He was received with much acclaim globally.
It was indeed an imaginative gesture, and yet, the hippyish, nihilistic words of Imagine are rather at odds with the fervour of the French national anthem La Marseillaise.
Lennon’s lyrics invite us to “imagine there’s no countries” (and “no religion too”). Yet the French national anthem goes on to a issue a clarion call to patriotic fervour: “the children of the fatherland” should march forward because “the day of glory has arrived” and “the bloody standard is raised”.
It is one of the most stirring and affirmatively patriotic anthems in the world, as well as being tinged with what we might now call racism. (“March forward – let an impure blood water our furrows.”)
And it has been sung many, many times more frequently over the past few days than Imagine.
I suppose you could say that the framers of the 1985 Schengen Agreement, which abolishes borders within the continental EU – though never signed by Ireland or Britain – did ‘imagine there are no countries’.
It has certainly enabled terrorists and criminals with guns and grenades to move around with great facility to carry out their wicked deeds.