WE live in a world where fascism is here and just about in the ascendancy.
With the largest economy in the world on an aggressive path, undermining the rule of law, international peace frameworks and threatening the sovereignty of borders and nation states, the landscape is bleak.
Internally in America the Trump administration is bearing down on communities that might offer resistance and question the direction of that fascist policy. But what we have also seen during this time is that hope is not yet lost; however, this is the moment for strong and determined hearts.
Appeasement and the easy path are not, and never were, an option. Not in the United States Not in Europe. Not in Ireland. Right now Ireland has positive pathways to destroying the facism of the extreme right as it tries to get hold. This must succeed as failure will result in something far uglier.
When young men went into their local pub in Cavan at the weekend and refused to allow fascists – most the same age as themselves – to assemble and grow, they set the marker. It would have been easy for them to sink their pints and shrug their shoulders and wait for another day when the threat was bigger, but they chose to draw a line there and then.
In Dublin the tricolour and the legacy of Irish patriotism are being appropriated by the far right. This defiling of our national pride is a deliberate tactic to demoralise and weaken the republicanism of Tone, Devlin, Connolly and Sands, creating images of nihilism and controversy, instead of pride and unity.
In the same street young people gathered in the Cobblestone, one of Irish music’s arteries in the form of a pub on North King Street, and celebrated Dublin’s Trad week with the sounds of the uileann pipes, bodhrán and songs new and old. This real connection to what unites us as cultural descendants of the Gaelic revival rendered the extremist tropes outside meaningless.
When left unchecked, the extreme right morphs into wherever fear and doubt lurk in every country and when it goes unchallenged it becomes legitimate. In America, as it grew it was not quashed when opportunities presented. Official appeasement and tolerance became legitimacy and now good souls are its victims. There is no middle ground out of this.
The citizens of Minnesota are America’s vanguard in the fight for the soul of the United States. In a land where everything appears to be compared to the movies, the guys in the black hats are winning, and George Bailey has been kidnapped by Potter’s inevitable militia. Except this is not a movie and the good people who stand up despite the threats know that there will be no happy ending unless they stand firm in the face of violence.
It is notable that the Europeans going to the barricades last week when they thought Greenland might be threatened are silent this week in defence of nurses pepper sprayed and executed on US streets. Last week’s speeches promoting human rights and freedom must not fall silent. They must remain loud and determined and consistent.
When it comes to the extreme right there can be no tolerance. Their arguments and tactics need to be confronted and dismantled every time they arise, for as we see now, the price of freedom truly is eternal vigilance.
