Early last year Gearóid Murphy wrote a hilarious article for the Burkean titled “The Unbearable Whiteness of Dalkey”:
The uber-wealthy town of Dalkey on the south coast of Dublin is whiter than the driven snow and it’s unbearable. The true victims of this festering reality are of course the residents of Dalkey themselves.
Bono is exquisitely placed here. With close ties to the Irish Government and its immigration NGOs, his residence in Dalkey and his foundation’s stated views he could be just the man to coordinate several busloads of Africans into Dalkey. He could even cosponsor a Direct Provision centre or apartment complexes for “own door” accommodation. Dalkey resident, radio broadcaster and noted admirer of Diversity in Balbriggan Pat Kenny might join him.
Biting stuff. The hypocrisy of figures like Bono and Pat Kenny is clear. But there are reasons for this.
Most obviously, the residents of Dalkey get to benefit from cheap immigrant labour without their neighbourhood having to pay any of the costs that come with leaving your nation’s door open to foreign drug dealers and rapists. They can hire a Moldovan maid to clean their lovely houses for a pittance and not worry about being able to walk home safely at night. But this doesn’t explain the degree of fervour with which their class embraces the NGO-complex cause. It’s not like their artisanal bread is being baked by Nigerians.
What any cosmopolitan cares about is status. When someone from Dalkey calls for more foreign refuse to be dumped on Balbriggan, that is a status signal. They are saying, I am rich enough that I don’t have to deal with any of the problems these people create. When they praise immigrants over their own compatriots, what they are saying is, I spend enough money on school fees that my children won’t have any anchor babies in their class. When they call for Ireland to take in infinity refugees, they really mean the houses on my street are worth so much that none of them will end up as my neighbours.
Not that they think of it this way themselves. The part of the mind that calculates these things is subconscious. At most they might recognise complaining about immigration as a low-class, low-status opinion. It’s the same across the west. They sneer at the working class people who have no choice but to deal with demographic replacement. Sure, they’re probably all racists anyway.
The worst part is that this force will only grow stronger as the effects of diversity become more widely and painfully felt. If Dublin ends up with the demographics of Lagos, people will be at even greater pains to prove that they are one of the few with the funds to escape the Lagos crime rates, in the same way that a gold Rolex is a bigger flex than a cheap Casio.
I don’t mean to excuse Dalkey’s hypocrisy by this. But there’s as much reason for their hypocrisy as there is for anything else.
In the same way the leftist “just knows” that conservatives are motivated by racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. etc., so this author “just knows” that wealthy Irish supporters of multiculturalism are motivated by status-seeking.
Multiculturalism is now a fact in Ireland, for better or worse. It generally takes a while for ethnic minorities to become upwardly mobile, but it does happen over time, as we see in America. I don’t agree with Irish liberals about much but I don’t doubt that their beliefs are genuine. Of course wealthy people will live in wealthy neighbours.
Having lived in Ballymun most of my life, an area with a lot of immigration, I can’t ever remember getting hassle from an immigrant. Lots of times I got hassle from the native Irish. It doesn’t make me any less of a patriot or a nationalist to say that. Nor does it make me an enthusiast for multiculturalism. But it’s the truth.
Attacking motivations is the easiest game in the world. There’s no way to refute it or substantiate it.
As a former lifetime leftie I can attest that the article is correct in its assumptions about the liberal left in this country. I certainly shouted “racist” atavistically when someone questioned immigration. It’s what the left do. They have no actual arguments.
They have plenty of arguments. For instance, the argument that the Irish went all over the world over the last few centuries. I’m not saying it’s a good argument, necessarily. But it’s an argument.
Our declining demographic base is another argument.
There are plenty of arguments on both sides. The debate is not a simple one.
Maolsheachlann, some valid points.
You say ‘this debate is not a simple one’. I say. in essence it is: highly restrictive migration; accountability and punitive prison sentences for politicians should any ethically indigenous Irish man, woman, or child is adversely affected by a migrant – 1st or 2nd generation; financial incentives for Irish people to produce children so that the country has an Irish future. I could go on.
You also state you have been hassled by an Irish person not a foreigner/migrant. Give it time and you will experience racial hostility at any time of the day or night. Get out of the house more!
We have a very influential media in the UK to soon campaign to halt the merest suggestion of high density dwellings in the leafy suburbs of London.
That’s a stupid argument.
Our forefathers didn’t emigrate. They stayed here.
Pray tell, When did we have Debates in Irish Communities, that received media attention, on mass UN-controlled migration? It never happened.
When did we have debates on the impact to Work,Education,Health,Housing,
Homelessness,Law and Order,crime and punishment? It never happened.
When did we have debates about Deaths in nursing homes, Sudden Deaths
that occurred after the JAB was introduced in Jan.2021? It never happened.
When do we have PUBLIC DEBATES, they do not happen on any item or
subject that affects the masses, the Dail Dribble is not debating.
IGNORING THE ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM …should you be Lucky to
have a debate…what then ?
Where is Reason, where is Logic,where is critical thinking or analysis????
Maolseachlann
What’s with the Irish language name if you support the extinction of Irish nationality and ethnicity?
And your argument that no foreign migrant ever bothered you is moronic.
It’s not about you.