On who we were, who we are and who we might become

Perhaps there is too little entertainment here in Kigali and maybe I’m beginning to take my movies a little too seriously. I just sent out a few dvds from a friend in Europe, one contained last years Irish production “The Wind that Shakes the Barely”. The movie have been out in cinemas when I was last at home and a friend of a friend had recommended that I try to find time to see it, but I didn’t get the time then. The film is essentially about the background to the civil war in Ireland and paints a vivid picture of a fair recent and brutal past in Ireland.

It starts with the occupation by the “Black and Tans”, a military but quasi-mercenary force consisting mainly of troops too screwed up by experiences on the front line in WW1 to be used anywhere else. So called because of their uniforms, they were sent to quell the independence movement which were gaining momentum after the 1916 rising. Stories of the black and tans and the civil war were familiar to me, my grandmother and people of my parents generation often spoke of it and the civil war provided the historical beginnings of the unofficial two party system I grew up with in Ireland. We are multi party democracy of course, things are slowly changing these days but till practically the 21^st century it was either the Fianna Fail or Fine Gael party vying for the majority.

“The black and tans were wild dogs…” “Civil war is an awful thing” “Who does your family vote for?”

We grew up knowing that there was a time, before Independence, when the Irish Republican Army (IRA) were not so much armed terrorists and extremists but rather a resistance movement against British occupation, that enjoyed popular support with the vast majority of Irish people. This movie is set in such a time and I know my grandmother had hidden guns in her piano for the IRA and that two of her brothers were active members. We grew up with stories about Black and Tan atrocities. I was often told of the time they stopped my great uncle, asked his name and details and simply told him to run home. So he started running, but only a few yards later a local police man told him to walk as slow as he could home. Apparently, this was a favourite pastime, telling people to run and then shooting them for “running away from questioning”. I was told that same uncle, died in hospital aged 80, delirious from whatever will killing him and rambling about that episode. We later heard that the IRA and their tactics to oust the British are regarded as the first known incidence of modern guerrilla warfare. And just like the lead characters in the film, my grandmothers brother’s grew up together, fought the British side by side, took opposite sides in the civil war, both eventually emigrated to the US and never spoke to each other again. Terrible thing, civil war.

The civil war came about after the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, by a treaty with the British which saw the withdrawal of all British forces. This same treaty gave the 26 counties a parliament under the British king, while keeping the 6 northern counties as part of Britain, sowing the seeds for the ongoing situation in Northern Ireland. Those who supported the treaty were tired of violence and felt it was the best deal available at the time, and that rejecting it would mean the return of the Black and Tans reign of terror. Those who opposed pointed to the 700 year long history of British treaties with rebels in Ireland, none of which lead to Independence. They felt it was selling the Northerners down the line and abhorred the clause requiring members of the new Irish parliament to swear allegiance to the crown. It was the quintessential clash of political idealism and realpolitik and it divided the nation, and divided families even into the future when the treaty was an irreversible fact. With hindsight, the classic British policy for Ireland and elsewhere, of divide and conquer had worked again. The Free State was far too much involved in combating anti-treaty forces (the republicans) to work at easing the concessions in the treaty. And of course, they depended on Britain for the arms to continue fighting. Much the same story has been playing out all over Africa since the 50s.

With the subsequent problems of northern Ireland and the cost to the British of fighting the Republican forces, its easy to think that the treaty was a sell out. But they didn’t know that WW2 was just around the corner and the end of the British Empire was in sight. The empire must have looked pretty formidable in 1920 and Britain’s need to keep Independence movements in check was critical – much the same story has been playing out between Taiwan and China since the 70s. After independence in 1948, we had strong personality leaders, civil war politics, a mini boom in the 60s followed by all sorts of corruption and chicanery in 70s and 80s, the extent of which was not known till much later. After years of fighting for the right to self determination and the right to our own language and culture, slowly we began to lose many elements we had retained in the face of colonisation. One of the things I have never liked about Ireland was how we gave up on our language. Much damage had been done by independence, that’s true, and the State keep it in the education system but it is we who, post independence, abandoned our culturally unique way of expressing ourselves en masse.

So our recent history is written in violence, brutality, fierce idealism in which people will die for their cause juxtaposed against political realism and pandering profiteers out for all they can get. But above all, ours a history of struggle - political struggle for independence until 1948, diplomatic struggles for unification and later compromise on the northern question and all this against a fierce economic struggle right up until the end of the 20^th century. If you are defined by struggle, what happens when its gone?

There is a stubbornness in our character which probably defines too much of what we are – almost like we forget who we are if someone is not telling us what we can and can’t do or if we have no one to blame for our troubles. Or perhaps, a better way to see it is to wonder what a blade might be without the stone to rub against. For a while there, after the boom it seemed as if we were really lost. When I was at university, few ever expected to have a good job and suddenly there was a whole batch of people who could afford a car, a house a few hundred beers…at 25! There was a lot of drink and drugs and fast living, and the rampant orgy of consumerism continues today, although many of my generation are spending their money in Ikea and their local wine merchant rather than the disco and the boozer. I was told that a third of the Irish economy comes from the property market…the gombeen men continue to make money for nothing, and run for parliament, as the Celtic Tiger profits go into the pockets of the developers while the country still doesn’t have a decent public transport system (not since we dismantled the stuff the British built in any case).

A cabinet member in the 90s noted that politically “we are closer to Boston than Berlin”. This may be true and we have certainly benefited from competitive business policies, but its no time to throw the baby (European style social programs and infrastructure development) out with the bath water (European style corporate incentives and labour markets). I doubt there is anyone in the country who wishes US style social problems and cut throat capitalism as a future for Ireland. It doesn’t much help that the educated, reasonably well off socially minded types in Ireland who might have the time and energy to give a damn are too busy running to keep up with their mortgage and childcare costs to get involved in politics.

I heard recently that the Irish language is making a bit of comeback…people are finally interested in being able to speak the cupla focal. This renewed interest appears to have stemmed from the increasing numbers of foreign migrants and immigrants, following the economic boom and our lack of barriers to freedom of labour from newer EU member states. Could it be that we may start to remember what defines us and acquire again a common vision of future, now that we have the new blade of immigration to deal with?