The following was first published in ‘The Occidental Quarterly’ and is syndicated with permission.
Features of Irish collectivism and hierarchy
Ethnic groups organise their societies in particular ways according to their group psychological differences. These differences have been outlined by Harry Triandis, who has theorised that societies tend to be Vertical Individualist, Vertical Collectivist, Horizontal Individualist, or Horizontal Collectivist. Certain characteristics tend to correlate, such as hierarchical and collectivist.
Similarly, egalitarianism and individualism tend to correlate with each other. While these types are relative and comparative, Irish people and society tend to be collectivist and hierarchical in comparison to Germanic peoples, who are the most egalitarian and individualistic. This article uses observable cultural features as points of comparison.
This Irish tendency can be seen in Celtic mythology with its prominent themes of kingship and kinship, as well as in the Irish language whereby its verb-subject-object structure indicates that the people who created it have a collectivist nature; that the being, doing, or making is of more primacy than the person involved connotes a hive-like social structure. This feature of Celtic languages contrasts with most other European languages, which begin with the subject.
This contrasts particularly with German, where verbs are sometimes placed at the end of sentences. Similarly, it was the Germanic peoples who created and generally adhere to Protestantism, with its egalitarian and individualist nature, while Celts, Latins, and Slavs generally follow the more hierarchical Roman Catholicism or Orthodox, respectively.
Republicanism and Monarchy
Another feature of the Irish language is that it traditionally has no equivalent of the word “Republic”, with the modern word that is used, “Poblacht,” having only been coined in 1916. Poblacht is derived from poba,l which means community, nation, or society, but none of these denote an explicitly egalitarian nature.
At the time of the creation of the Irish Free State, the Welsh-speaking British Prime Minister David Lloyd George asked what word the Irish were going to use for Republic, and when told “Saorstat”, which is the literal compound of Free State, he replied “must we not admit that the Celts were never republicans and have no native word for such an idea”. Republicanism was only introduced to Ireland in 1791 by the Ulster Presbyterian-dominated Society of United Irishmen. Independence movements before this time were led by Gaelic nobles, and subsequently by Jacobites.
By contrast, the German word for polity is gemeinwesen, a compound of the words gemein, an adjective from Old High German gimeini, meaning ‘belonging to one another, in common, universal, belonging to the great body’ and wesen from Middle High German wësen, meaning ‘sojourn, domestic affairs, manner of living, quality, situation’. Gemeinwesen connotes an egalitarian mindset in those who created it.
While many Germanic countries are ostensible monarchies such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Britain, Canada, and Australia; a constitutional monarchy is not a “monarchy” in any meaningful sense, as laws therein are made by a democratically-elected parliament, decisions are taken by an appointed cabinet of ministers, and justice is administered by independent judges. In substance, any of the aforementioned countries are similar to the republics of Germany, Austria, or Iceland. By contrast, the Republic of Turkey and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are similar to each other as all powers are concentrated in one person.
Hierarchical Politics and Society
It is no coincidence that it was the first Irish representative political party – the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) – that introduced a “party pledge”, essentially the first party whip in modern politics, or that there has been such a heavy use of the whip system for the duration of Irish politics. This demonstrates that formally introducing a “parliamentary democracy” will not substantially achieve one if it is not suited to the nation. Charles Stewart Parnell’s hierarchical, collectivist leadership of the IPP foreshadowed “democratic centralism”, a policy still practiced by Sinn Féin. It is also the case that Ireland has the weakest local government in Europe with minimal powers relative to central government. The powers that they do have are largely exercised by an appointed chief executive.
Other features of collectivism are an increasingly nationalised civil society whereby political parties receive most of their revenue from the taxpayer, the dominant media is RTE, a tax-funded organisation, while very many NGOs receive most of their funding from the State. Ireland is the only country in Europe that mandates the fluoridation of its public water supply, an unethical, illiberal attempt at promoting public health, as well as having had among the harshest Covid lockdowns in Europe.
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was founded and continues to be organised on an amateur, community, and co-operative basis, which connotes a collectivist mindset. Another feature of Ireland is the prevalence of “one-off” housing, whereby many people are inclined to build their own house in its own field outside of the compact urban fabric. While this could be taken to represent individualism, this practice is predicated on a large fiscal transfer regarding roads, public transport, electricity, and the postal service, which therefore entails a form of collectivis,m albeit one which contains Irish psycho-spatial unfastidiousness.
Religion
Another feature of the Irish psyche is a closeness between church and State often entailing a compact at the top of society. In Gaelic Ireland, the druids’ counsel was sought on matters of governance; druids and kings were mutually dependent, and religion and governance were intertwined, with kings taking part in religious ceremonies to legitimise their rule. This nature would again manifest when Parnell sought an informal alliance with the Catholic Church, and after Irish independence, when the Catholic Church was allowed to manage health and education services. It has morphed into the modern practices of leading politicians ingratiating themselves with the LGBT cult by introducing gender self-ID, attending “gay pride” events, and funding and being advised by identity politics Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
Democracy
Democracy is a form that will be rendered by the substance of the people who are practicing it. In sub-Saharan Africa, there traditionally pertained a tribal social structure whereby the chief had all power without opposition and could only be removed through force of arms. This continues in contemporary ostensibly democratic republics in Africa, where it takes the form of a President-for-life who may only be removed by means of a military coup.
Substantive representative democracy is a product of Germanic psychology and social organisation. Tacitus described the egalitarian nature of Germanic societies two thousand years ago, and how the entire tribe would deliberate in council. This culture was the basis of the “Things”, with the Althing, the earliest extant parliament, having been established in Iceland in 930. Ancient Gaelic Ireland had no popular law-making assemblies. The closest equivalent was a gathering of notables who modified laws and made decisions.
It is therefore clear that the naturally occurring form of government of Irish people is hierarchical and that provision should be made for suitable structures which reflect this. Instead of the pretence of democracy, where there actually pertains a powerful executive which is unduly influenced by certain vested interest groups, a suitable alternative would be a corporatist state where all interest groups would formally meet and consensually compromise on policy.
This could be supplemented with an aristocracy whereby Gaelic clans could be restored to land ownership. This could be comparable to the British system of ownership by the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster. Profits from these lands could be beneficial in regard to patronising education, the arts, and crafts, independent of both commerce and the State. The value of an aristocracy is that they would be permanent, patriotic custodians of land, and influences on decision-making, who would have the long-term interests of the country at heart. These forms of government would explicitly accord with the Irish hierarchical and collectivist psyche and would therefore produce governance more suited to the nation.
The Irish Untouchables…Martins Caste Globalist Ireland…ye pack of mongrels
This present government has no relationship to past, history or Irish Ancestry…and certainly
no connection or respect to the Irish electorate, Ireland or the Irish Constitution.
Hierarchy, more like an illusion of grandure or elite sophistication, all fur coat no nickers.
How much more insults and humiliation will be dumpeď onto Irish People by its failure to recognise the most divisive form of governance and leadership in its entire history.
1066 – 2066, almost a thousand years approaching and nothing but ridicule and shame because of the absence of true Irish Leadership And Control Of Irish Interests And Nation.
THE LEGACY FOR IRISH CHILDREN TODAY IS THAT THEY MOST LIKELY WILL NOT HAVE GRANDCHILDREN TO PASS A LEGACY TO…OR MAY NOT SEE THEM GROW IN IRELAND
While you raise an interesting point about the collectivist nature of Irish society, I do believe you generalise a bit too much on the difference between Celtic and Germanic societies. Better to focus on individual nations, rather than abstract to higher levels of supernational organisation.
Anyway, the issue I want raise is that of aristocracy. You seem to have a rather idealistic view of aristocrats as patriotic guardians of the nation, but when we look at examples of aristocracy elsewhere in Europe, we see self serving groups. Now you might say that these modern aristocrats represent a degenerated class, or that they are the final stage of a hopelessly individualistic Germanic aristocracy. On this you could be right, but keep in mind our Gaelic nobility have a mixed record. For each great dynasty, who fought for Ireland and carried forth its culture and nationhood, we have others who were traitors. We see the same in Poland, where the nobility were bought and controlled by foreign interests until the Polish state itself was destroyed. An aristocracy is a class with power, influence, prestige and history. As such, they will act in the interest of their dynasty and class, after all would you want to be the man who brought your dynasty to an end. They have too much to lose and too many interests outside the well-being of the nation.
While it would be possible to foster a patriotic culture among the aristocracy, which would produce great men of a national mind, as a group they would be a liability. Instead we need a universal national consciousness, wherein every man, woman and child of Irish blood is of the nation. This will be a demand of loyalty, a God given right to Ireland and a means of unity. From this can be taken a call to greatness, to serve the nation, your family grown large. A moral bound meritocracy could be formed from this, the members of which would form the ruling group. They would be respected and powerful, but they would not be an aristocracy. Instead they would be Irish men and Irish women like everyone else. We would also have a larger lower class, who would also be raised in the same spirt of nationalism and duty, but they would have less direct influence and less to loose. As such, they would be capable of holding the meritocratic class to account.
This would be a better system, and one which would be easier to establish. Keep in mind, people must be convinced of such ideas.