“Racism” towards the Irish on here

I reported that tread . I also emailed MNHQ detailing why I found it highly offensive and lacking in moderation and fairness, and how the OP on it needed to be reigned in and I also suggested that MN HQ should be ashamed of their lack of cultural sensitivity and understanding.
I don't usually hop on those kids of treads and I have been a MM used for more than 12 years so have seen it all before. I live in Ireland but travel to the UK regularly, I m not particularly nationalistic but yesterday's ignorance really upset me. I explained this to MN. I got the standard 'op was previously banned' response .

So frustrating. I agree there s a level of misunderstanding here, I don't really want to believe it s deliberate but I think rather people don't know or understand the complex history and just how recent it still is for people.
But I do agree that moderators on MN need to be more aware.
I had to smile at the comment 'most Irish want to be english' especially considering we had a exaggerated delay getting a renewal of my daughter's passport last year, why.... well because of brexit anyone in the UK with any Irish links, was claiming heritage and getting an Irish passport - there were numerous treads on here about it.

And to answer the final statement - All great Irish writers were Irish, not British.

Craic mummy:
I totally agree and have done and did ask too.
I am just trying to explain away some of the (my) ignorance! It is of course no excuse.

There was a post on that thread (actually related posts) where some goady fucker claimed that loads of Irish people wished they were British anyway, so what was the problem?

Somebody responded that was utter bullshit, to which they doubled down and said they personally knew several people. Which was a total lie, cos they were being a goady fucker on the Internet and that scenario doesn't exist, not even in an alternate Universe in fucking Star Trek.

I mean that thread was appalling. But apparently this thread doesn't warrant much response either.

Maybe we should head back to good ol boards.ie, lads?

So if there’s a “racist” thread about the Irish, it is an interesting discussion and the Irish need to be polite when telling racists they are racists

Exactly.

Similar to the spate of disgustingly racist posts against black people a month or so ago, most disguised as an incident that supposedly happened then 'but oh, was I/my child/my DH/my friend racist for saying so n so...?'

MN response to complaints was that posts/threads should stand as racism needs to be "discussed robustly".

As if people piling in scoffing at racism, minimising experiences of it, and telling those who have experienced it what is and isn't racist, amounts to anything but racist pisstaking.

Irish threads in similar vein. The Paddy thread the other day - if an Irish person feels insulted by being described as that then they know why - its not for anybody else to come along and minimise her reasons for feeling as she does, nor state what is and isn't offensive, then come up with convoluted. reasons as to why it isn't offensive.

I get that there are people who take pleasure in being racist. Likely people who'd be shit scared to be openly that way in real life, so anonymity suits them.

But MN need to take down these posts immediately, as those posters crave an audience, followed by a nasty troublesome discussion thread. Racists shouldn't be given the satisfaction of that.

Race awareness training would be a good thing.

We make the ruling classes uncomfortable because we've never believed their shite and having been in the thick of the receiving end, have a different narrative. Bloody criminals the lot of them.

I’m Irish, married to an Englishman living in England. Am so tired of the anti Irish sentiment that is tolerated on MN under colonial/postcolonial ideology.

I'm glad to see a discussion about this. Thanks OP for raising it.

Delighted to see this. I’m another Irish person living in England who is tired and bored of dealing with frequent low-level stereotyping and ignorance, and was dismayed by the dismissive tone of the MNHQ post on the goady, faux-naive Irish writers thread.

MNHQ, please listen when Irish people tell you, clearly and civilly, why something is offensively ignorant and stereotyping.

To the poster earlier who mentioned Colm Toibin’s new book, yes, of course William Wilde was a ‘Victorian’ — in fact he was oculist-in-ordinary to Victoria, and later knighted by her for services to medicine — but he was a firmly Irish Victorian. Born in Ireland, was educated entirely at Irish schools and universities, practised medicine in Dublin, had his own hospital in Dublin, was married to a strongly nationalist poet, wrote books on Irish folklore and archaeology, travelled widely but spent no significant time in Britain and never practised there. What about that suggests he didn’t identify as Irish?

Now, had the OP of the writers thread asked a more open-ended question about Big House writers such as Somerville and Ross or Elizabeth Bowen, and the extent to which they identified as having a hybrid Anglo-Irish identity, that would have been a different matter.

Yes, CraicMammy, I’ve often said to my Scottish DH that Englishness is like the white person’s version of white privilege. There is a myopia that comes with it, a lack of knowledge of other cultures and languages and an inability to see how hurtful or offensive some viewpoints are.

I posted on that thread yesterday and I'll reiterate what i said as best I can.

Irish people don't want to have to fight this every day. We just want to get on with our own shit, post away here and not have to be a teacher to those who are either ignorant or goady.

And when we do try to explain or defend, we are told sure we are over reacting! Don't they know someone Irish and they take no offence! It's not racism!

It's like we are being gas lighted.

There’s nothing stopping anyone from learning about Irish history! Read a book, find someone Irish or of Irish descent, sit them down with a cuppa and ASK THEM.

Blaming what you saw on telly 30 years ago for the views you hold today is no excuse.

@ giantbanger thank you for raising this. I stumbled upon the thread last night and was too shattered to respond but you are 100% right, the tone was xenophobic, dismissing of concerns, and the moderation ignorant of history and recent context.

I also echo @ elspethflashman the Baby Names sections can be so anti Irish they are laughable. It’s ok to be naive, it’s not ok to continually insist the use of a language other than English is a joke.

Hopefully if mods are discussing, there may be space to make moderation of these discriminatory posts a priority. I’ll admit this has prompted me to realize as an individual I should use ‘report’ more often!

Disclaimer: I am English (mixed, but not Irish)

I now ‘blame’ the bbc a fair bit for some of my ignorance. Their reporting in the 80s and 90s made the Troubles sound like a fuss between churches, rather than anything to do with the English/Irish history.
Even now I have to remind myself that this is clearly incorrect. I didn’t know until it was pointed out to me.....

It isn’t any excuse of course but the rhetoric was very poor and I wonder if that is where some of the comments come from.

I don’t know and am certainly no expert on Irish history now either!

I am Irish and was simply AGOG at that mod post. It was so very ill considered.

I am astounded by the ignorance of the mods comment

Focalpoint that is such a good article. It made me think that there’s an “English privilege” that so many English people are unaware they have. A blissful ignorance of the effect colonialism has had near and far. I don’t know if the lads referred to in the article knew how their tweeds would be perceived in Dublin, nor that the couple thinking of watching the famine film realised how ignorant they sounded.

I think MNHQ’s handling of this issue today, demonstrates that it too could do with checking its privilege.

www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/english-ignorance-about-ireland-just-isn-t-funny-anymore-1.3677267?mode=amp

Pretty topical article, the most read on today's Irish times website

It’s a bit odd isn’t it? Several people reported the thread, why only respond to one and that one isn’t even the OP of the thread!

I’m Irish, still living here, and I was disgusted by that Mod post. I wonder if they’ll respond here.

"MNHQ would you ever just trust us when we tell you that we find something offensive. It isn't for you to decide what is and isn't offensive, if we tell you something is racist then bloody well listen to us, eh?"

So so true!