SHE was 21 years old and decided that she would not handle oranges from South Africa, and by doing so gave Ireland a moral compass in the face of governmental failure.
Dubliner Mary Manning was a member of a trade union, not one of the biggest, and that union had passed motions against goods and services from the apartheid state. Mary was in a low paid job in Dunnes Stores in Dublin city centre in the 1980s, when most of those of her age were forced to emigrate to England or America due to the poverty and high unemployment rates. But she still chose to take a stand. From 1984 until 1987 she, and ten other Dunnes strikers, stayed on strike pay until the government was forced to adopt an embargo on South African goods. An ordinary working-class woman on a check out stood up while others found excuses not to. When Nelson Mandela was released and came to Ireland, he insisted on meeting her and her fellow strikers and thanking them.
Irish footballers, due to face Israel in the UEFA qualifiers, face the same choice Mary did back then. Of course they can choose to hide behind excuses. The great and the good in UEFA and in the FAI have not taken a stand so the footballers “should not be blamed”. Ireland is only small and will “have no impact”. It is “six points that will be deducted” from the team during the qualifiers. And so on. But at the end of the day those young men will be the ones that stand and play against Israel in the middle of a genocide. Their choice.
The games are in Hungary and Serbia because UEFA and the FAI know how abhorrent it is.
RTÉ will not have terrestrial coverage because it has decided, just as it has on the Eurovision, to step back from the diabolical.
Fans will not be there. After a spring when Ireland was jumping up and down hoping for last gasp qualification for the World Cup, Ireland would have backed a humanitarian stand from those we can be proud of. Instead we are witnessing a shame-filled, dirty little trip that all involved are hoping to get to the far side of.
And it is utterly shameful, something that the players cannot escape culpability for. We are the people that stood against the British Empire at its height. The idea that we cannot stand up for the people of Palestine after 71,000 have been killed, including 20,179 children, 12,500 women, 262 press, 1,701 medical staff, and 140 civil defence – and that is without the 174,952 with horrific physical injuries in Gaza alone – is simply beyond any comprehension of who we are as a people. And just because you are a footballer does not absolve you of responsibility.
What is happening in Palestine today is beyond our words. Infernal acts are being planned and executed by a regime pumping billions into protecting its own reputation and promoting its own legitimacy, allowing it to continue its work of genocide. Playing football in the UEFA qualifiers and singing in the Eurovision are all part of that genocidal strategy.
Our nation’s soul is at stake, not six points. We need the footballers to take a stand on behalf of humanity when the weak leaders have chosen servility to evil.
