#nothing is more derailing and destructive to a cause than valorising its advocates

[hussyknee]

Yeah the people in the notes going "obviously the government isn't the people" are missing the point, which is that being white and western and therefore a beneficiary of the colonial order consistently breeds racism and apathy towards the suffering of Black and brown and Global South people. Ireland maybe a little better than the rest of Europe but at the end of the day there's still no incentive to interrogate their privilege. Praising it inordinately for showing the bare minimum of decency allows them to cover up all the ways they're also complicit and uninvested. Give the privileged an inch and they take a mile.

anyway in the past week the irish government has voted down two motions which would have condemned the genocide in gaza.

i need everyone to stop lionising ireland as if its not also a european government with strong ties to the us. american weapons pass through shannon airport and will continue to, because yesterday the motion to stop that was voted down 83 to 50.

other governments have done much more but somehow people still act as though ireland is the ultimate palestinian ally and exempt from criticism on its handling of palestine bc it was once colonised, even though that past experience clearly isnt being taken into account by the irish government when creating policy.

i live here i know there’s a lot of public support and sympathy for palestine, which is great, but that isnt reflected in government, and i think ireland should be treated like other countries whose governments have done nothing.