ONE of the fine things about being Irish is that we are more than ready not to make a big fuss about being Irish. Now that may seem like a contradictory thing to write as we do indeed make quite a fuss about being Irish but I think I can explain.
Take the Olympics, whether it’s O’Donovan, McCarthy or Adeleke, something about victory doesn’t bring out anything ugly in the Irish. It’s joyous, celebratory, a little self-effacing, a little humble. It’s good craic. We are almost embarrassed by the idea of our own excellence. There isn’t anything noticeably ugly about the Irish celebrating being Irish. Even at those moments of utmost joy there’ll always be somebody ready with a wisecrack hinting at the ludicrousness of us being so good at something. We don’t, even when we are seriously good at something, take ourselves too seriously.
Of course there are examples of ugly explosions of Irishness. The tricolour being waved in a hateful way, violence beneath the banner of the Republic. But, in general, that’s not what we do.
Those things are the exception.
St. Patrick’s Day, for instance, might well contain some messy, some stupid drunkenness, but it is not by any stretch a spiteful, aggressive day. It’s a bit silly sometimes. A bit daft. But, at worst, it’s only a hangover waiting to happen.
Take the big gathering of Irish football fans at major international tournaments. There is famously never any trouble. There is, instead, almost an insistence on good behaviour and good humour. Indeed the idea of aggression seems almost unthinkable even if this is a crowd of primarily male, drunken, people.
So, why is that? Is it simply because we are a small nation?
Now, that is not as simplistic as it sounds. It doesn’t mean that there’s just not a lot of us on an international scale. What it means is quote simple. Our idea of ourselves, our idea of what the Irish nation means, is not tied up with any ideas of supremacy, any notions of our own primacy or power. We don’t have ideas about our grandness. When we say, I’m grand, we mean we’re okay, we’re fine, we’ll do. We don’t have a history of thinking ourselves to be better than others. Better craic, maybe, but you don’t build delusions of grandeur on that.
This means that uncomfortable feelings about celebrating being Irish dissipate when we look at it clearly. I’m very proud of the people I come from but it is not tied up with any chauvinistic idea of us as some kind of superior people.
We are not different to any other people, really, we’re not better or more deserving. We’re just who we are and even that changes as the years go on and the years go by. The generation of Irish people I came from were from a materially poor background, had generally left education early, had little but a great sense of survival and humour and an ability to squeeze the joy out of life.
Of course I’m proud to come from them. Of course they made me proud to be Irish. But that was simply because they were Irish, because they happened to be Irish, because they clung to the songs and stories they’d grown up with. They made their culture a thing to smile about and dance about and not deny however much others denigrated it or dismissed it.
There was nothing ugly in that pride though. It wasn’t tied in with hating anybody else. It wasn’t about hate at all.
So, I do feel we can say we don’t make a great fuss about being Irish. We revel, for sure, in other’s high opinion of us and we take full advantage of people generally liking the Irish now. We love the fact that the Irish are now associated with having a good time, with friendliness, with good cheer. Why wouldn’t we? And we are always ready to burst the bubble of anyone getting too high an opinion of themselves. In these ways being Irish doesn’t really lend itself to aggressive announcements about being Irish. Those who do are very quickly mocked. We’re good at that. But in a kind way, you know. Always with a laugh and a smile. Sure, aren’t we just the best?
Joe Horgan posts on X at @JoeHorganwriter
