Well done Sinead. I love your brilliant articles. I spent 10 years researching the fate of Southern Protestants who have all but disappeared. My father was the Dean of Coyne. Book called BURIED LIVES. THE PROTESTANTS OF SOUTHERN IRELAND based on an MPhil from TCD.
Hi Sinead, your article really resonated with me. I'm in my late 50s and have also been reflecting on my teenage years, and can say that there were many, many instances where I behaved like a total arsehole. I realise that there were also many times where I can be proud of myself - especially at a time and in a world in which women and girls were treated like dirt (1980s Ireland).
I fully agree that if one has not changed, learned, grown - and essentially become a better person over the course of decades, well, that isn't just tragic for the individual, it is tragic for the community in which they live, their family and children, but also the wider world as a whole. Just look at what we are living through right now; many millions of people (especially in the West), feel that we literally have nothing to look forward to, that the future is bleak, possibly catastrophic.
For me, one big part of this "personal growth" is our ability, or lack thereof, to accept that we, like most people from the Global North, have been totally brainwashed with white, Western propaganda our entire lives: Muslims, Arabs are dangerous fanatics. Africans are not capable of running their own countries. Chinese are communists, authoritarian, with terrible human rights. We fell for it hook, line and sinker. I am not saying that human rights are necessarily wonderful in the regions mentioned, but neither are the human rights (as grotesquely displayed for hundreds of years), in countries and empires of the Western world. Take the genocide of Gaza as just one example.
Sadly, most of us are unwilling to admit we are ever wrong; either in our own personal behaviour, but more importantly in our group behaviour. The West as a group, but the USA, UK and France in particular, with the help of Israel, continue to behave like scoundrels; violence, racism, greed, dishonesty, apartheid, exploitation, genocide. And to this day it continues all over the world right before our very eyes!! We are all participating in this disgraceful behaviour whether we like to admit it or not: the structures we live in have become prisons and we didn’t see it coming.
The chickens are well and truly coming home to roost now. If we cannot start viewing the world from a different lens, admit that in many (if not most) of our imperialist endeavours, we were wrong, then God help us. And I include Ireland: shamefully we have totally ignored what happened to us for 800 years. James Connolly and Michael Collins would be turning in their graves if they could see how FF and FG are leading us to into a destiny of total failure of morals, politics and society. And yet we continue to vote for them in spite of what we see with our own eyes.
I had a conversation with a colleague of mine recently. She is only 32. She says that she worries about China's powerful new place in the world. She's been fed the same propaganda. She said that she finds it disconcerting that the Chinese don't say anything - they are so quiet, they observe, they act without fanfare or notification. The West behaves like a massive arsehole and instead of responding, the Chinese quietly switch off the tap to yet another rare earth mineral we need. We treat them like shit and they develop their own systems, far superior to ours. We're so used to bluster and boasting in the West that we simply cannot understand that the Chinese don't operate this way. We refuse to understand that China, like Iran, is a civilisation. They have existed for 5,000 - 6,000 years. The rest of us are just countries - a group of ramshackle ethnicities right up until the end of WWI.
The thing that worries me about China is that they have clearly left the West behind. I don’t want to be left behind with people like Ursula Von Der Leyen, Donald Trump, Mark Rutte, Michael Martin! I find that terrifying.
And China is not just leaving us behind competitively—our very existence is no longer has any significance for the Chinese. They no longer give a damn about the way the West behaves and this should worry us; they can see what we refuse to see: that Europe and the USA are failing horribly. Late stage capitalism, corporate capture, appalling dishonesty, an elite class that traffics women and children and yet are immune from prosecution, collapsing societies and communities, hyper-individualism, increasing inequality, poverty and homelessness. Not to mention our liberal democracies quickly becoming less free and more oppressive as every month passes. And while this is all happening, the Chinese are quietly setting up a parallel system that has no need for, and no dependencies on, the West. And who could blame them? Why wouldn’t they? We have shown them who we are and they don’t like it. They’re not even bothering to resist or to warn us - they are simply walking away.
I think I’ve probably deviated from my initial point Sinead, my apologies. When I get onto the topic of our hubris I become so incensed I can barely think straight! Anyway, I love the articles, thank you.
Lovely piece. I see the theme of the last verse of the song lyric re-appears in the Irish Times piece on 'Khrushchyovkas'. I recently took a bus that meandered through some late 20th century West Dublin suburbs and I sat upstairs. It struck me that we were brilliant at building 'Lemasschyovkas', the sprawling spreads of three and four bed houses, ideally detached, with gardens front and back and side, and room for two cars, and open green space around. Beyond the narrow band of the bourgeoisie and haute-bourgeoisie, we weren't so good at catering from other expressions of housing-need, or economy-need. But with the population falling all the way from independence to the 1963 planning act, maybe we didn't need to be? We didn't stretch ourselve and we developed a robust ad enduring tolerance of 'voids' and vacancy. So, our housing crisis is a policy-legacy crisis and a transport infrastructure crisis. It's a product of choices made by our collective younger self. But does that matter? Lovin'your work. Paraphrasing Beckett, please do go on!
I enjoyed reading that.
Thanks Austin
Well done Sinead. I love your brilliant articles. I spent 10 years researching the fate of Southern Protestants who have all but disappeared. My father was the Dean of Coyne. Book called BURIED LIVES. THE PROTESTANTS OF SOUTHERN IRELAND based on an MPhil from TCD.
Keep up the superb work.
Regards
Robin Bury
Thanks Robin. What a small world, I’m a “friend” of Cloyne Cathedral. Lovely spot! I shall look up the book.
Enjoyed your scribbles Sinéad, from a far right demon (I guess🤷🏼♂️)
Maybe this is better: “far right” demons 👀. Thanks for reading!
Hi Sinead, your article really resonated with me. I'm in my late 50s and have also been reflecting on my teenage years, and can say that there were many, many instances where I behaved like a total arsehole. I realise that there were also many times where I can be proud of myself - especially at a time and in a world in which women and girls were treated like dirt (1980s Ireland).
I fully agree that if one has not changed, learned, grown - and essentially become a better person over the course of decades, well, that isn't just tragic for the individual, it is tragic for the community in which they live, their family and children, but also the wider world as a whole. Just look at what we are living through right now; many millions of people (especially in the West), feel that we literally have nothing to look forward to, that the future is bleak, possibly catastrophic.
For me, one big part of this "personal growth" is our ability, or lack thereof, to accept that we, like most people from the Global North, have been totally brainwashed with white, Western propaganda our entire lives: Muslims, Arabs are dangerous fanatics. Africans are not capable of running their own countries. Chinese are communists, authoritarian, with terrible human rights. We fell for it hook, line and sinker. I am not saying that human rights are necessarily wonderful in the regions mentioned, but neither are the human rights (as grotesquely displayed for hundreds of years), in countries and empires of the Western world. Take the genocide of Gaza as just one example.
Sadly, most of us are unwilling to admit we are ever wrong; either in our own personal behaviour, but more importantly in our group behaviour. The West as a group, but the USA, UK and France in particular, with the help of Israel, continue to behave like scoundrels; violence, racism, greed, dishonesty, apartheid, exploitation, genocide. And to this day it continues all over the world right before our very eyes!! We are all participating in this disgraceful behaviour whether we like to admit it or not: the structures we live in have become prisons and we didn’t see it coming.
The chickens are well and truly coming home to roost now. If we cannot start viewing the world from a different lens, admit that in many (if not most) of our imperialist endeavours, we were wrong, then God help us. And I include Ireland: shamefully we have totally ignored what happened to us for 800 years. James Connolly and Michael Collins would be turning in their graves if they could see how FF and FG are leading us to into a destiny of total failure of morals, politics and society. And yet we continue to vote for them in spite of what we see with our own eyes.
I had a conversation with a colleague of mine recently. She is only 32. She says that she worries about China's powerful new place in the world. She's been fed the same propaganda. She said that she finds it disconcerting that the Chinese don't say anything - they are so quiet, they observe, they act without fanfare or notification. The West behaves like a massive arsehole and instead of responding, the Chinese quietly switch off the tap to yet another rare earth mineral we need. We treat them like shit and they develop their own systems, far superior to ours. We're so used to bluster and boasting in the West that we simply cannot understand that the Chinese don't operate this way. We refuse to understand that China, like Iran, is a civilisation. They have existed for 5,000 - 6,000 years. The rest of us are just countries - a group of ramshackle ethnicities right up until the end of WWI.
The thing that worries me about China is that they have clearly left the West behind. I don’t want to be left behind with people like Ursula Von Der Leyen, Donald Trump, Mark Rutte, Michael Martin! I find that terrifying.
And China is not just leaving us behind competitively—our very existence is no longer has any significance for the Chinese. They no longer give a damn about the way the West behaves and this should worry us; they can see what we refuse to see: that Europe and the USA are failing horribly. Late stage capitalism, corporate capture, appalling dishonesty, an elite class that traffics women and children and yet are immune from prosecution, collapsing societies and communities, hyper-individualism, increasing inequality, poverty and homelessness. Not to mention our liberal democracies quickly becoming less free and more oppressive as every month passes. And while this is all happening, the Chinese are quietly setting up a parallel system that has no need for, and no dependencies on, the West. And who could blame them? Why wouldn’t they? We have shown them who we are and they don’t like it. They’re not even bothering to resist or to warn us - they are simply walking away.
I think I’ve probably deviated from my initial point Sinead, my apologies. When I get onto the topic of our hubris I become so incensed I can barely think straight! Anyway, I love the articles, thank you.
Sinead, I just wanted to say thank you for your articles. It’s a pleasure to read something that makes you stop and think.
Also enjoyed listening to your articles on the David McWilliams podcast.
Well done and thank you.
Lovely piece. I see the theme of the last verse of the song lyric re-appears in the Irish Times piece on 'Khrushchyovkas'. I recently took a bus that meandered through some late 20th century West Dublin suburbs and I sat upstairs. It struck me that we were brilliant at building 'Lemasschyovkas', the sprawling spreads of three and four bed houses, ideally detached, with gardens front and back and side, and room for two cars, and open green space around. Beyond the narrow band of the bourgeoisie and haute-bourgeoisie, we weren't so good at catering from other expressions of housing-need, or economy-need. But with the population falling all the way from independence to the 1963 planning act, maybe we didn't need to be? We didn't stretch ourselve and we developed a robust ad enduring tolerance of 'voids' and vacancy. So, our housing crisis is a policy-legacy crisis and a transport infrastructure crisis. It's a product of choices made by our collective younger self. But does that matter? Lovin'your work. Paraphrasing Beckett, please do go on!
Loved it ! Go join a band again.
Great lyrics!... and scribbles!