STARTING next week, as you know, we will have the Fleadh Ceoil na hÉireann in Belfast for the first time. The projected number of visitors to Belfast drawn by the Fleadh is expected to be 800,000. So here’s the question: how many of those enjoying the Fleadh will be unionists? I’m guessing very, very few.
Unlike the Orange Order, the Fleadh is equally welcoming to everyone – unionist, nationalist, none of the above. But it’s one thing to issue an invitation, another to have it accepted. And I believe there will be distressingly few Protestants/unionists availing themselves of the chance to hear the best in Irish music, dance and culture generally.
The double irony is that it was Protestants who, in the past, preserved the Irish language and Irish culture generally. Alice Milligan, a Protestant from Tyrone, promoted Irish literature, folklore and cultural nationalism. William Neilson published one of the first modern grammars of Irish, making the language accessible to new learners. Robert MacAdam learnt Irish and built one of the finest collections of Irish manuscripts.
The list is long, and those concerned with Irish culture are grateful and proud that these people were so important to the growth of our Irish culture.
That said, the question bears repeating: will there be many Protestants/unionists attending the seven-day feast of Irish music, dance and culture? Some, but not nearly enough. Will unionist politicians give the lead by attending some of the key events over the week? I don’t know, but I doubt it.
Looked at superficially, this refusal to have anything to do with things Irish is odd. I recall Davy Adams, a former loyalist paramilitary, telling me about how his father was prompt in reply to any question about his nationality: “I’m Irish – what do you think I am, an Australian?”
But the oddness of unionist contempt for 'diddly-dee' music, language and culture Is less surprising when you consider colonisation.
The US this year is celebrating its 250th anniversary – in 1776 the United States was formed. But of course for the previous 15,000 years America was populated by its indigenous people. How did the white colonists treat the local people? They taught them (and us – remember cowboys and Indians?) that their way of life was primitive, they seized their land, they deliberately spread disease that wiped out thousands of indigenous Americans.
We see the same pattern again and again. In Australia, the indigenous people were presented as ugly and superstitious, and white colonists seized their land and despised their culture. Likewise with the Maori people in New Zealand, the black people of Africa, the Indian people of India. They were stolen from and killed, leaving colonists in charge.
In Ireland, the people had their Catholic faith outlawed, Irish speakers were punished in school if caught speaking Irish, they were taught that their music and culture were primitive and laughable. Worst of all, many Irish people suffered from Stockholm Syndrome. In other words, there are Irish people who’ll mock you if you greet them in Irish, will draw all sorts of angry conclusions if you begin a letter to them with ‘A chara’.
Did nationalists in NEI have to struggle to have an Irish Language Act? You betcha. Is the notion of dual street signage – in English and Irish – popular with unionists? You must be joking.
And that’s why, for some unionists, the pervasiveness of Fleadh activity during the first week in August will feel as though the barbarians have breached the citadel.
I’m not blaming the majority of people for not being able to speak the Irish language or love Irish music. But if as an Irish person you react with a degree of inward scorn when you hear a cúpla focail or listen to an Irish air, remember this: you are living proof that the conqueror has had his way with you.
There’s another way of putting that conclusion, but this is a family newspaper.
