NOW THE MUSLIMS FIRSTTHE IRISH, Racism in the Irish Experience In his Introduction. Carner explains the absence of a discussion about racism against the Irish in Britain on the grounds that it has been dealt with elsewhere (tor example in Mary Hickman's Religion. Class andIdentitv: the State. the Catholic Church and the Education of the Irish in Britain). Howerer: this self-exclusion applies only to the 20th century because a whole chapter is devoted to the Irish in Britain in the 19th century: It is a pity that Garner does not attempt to deal with the anti-Irish racism in the late 20th century because there are so many parallels with the recent experience of the Muslim population. Racism occurs in a political context: in the case of the Irish in Britain it was the war in the North rather than IRA attacks on civilians (eg. the Birmingham pub bombings) that gave it legs. The Prevention of Terrorism Act, pushed through after the bombings. had little affect on terrorism' but. by stigmatising the Irish population. effectively silenced criticism ot British actions in Ireland. To speak out was to be identified as a terrorist sympathiser'. Long held notions of the primitive backwardness of Irish Catholicism were often invoked to explain the "fanaticism' of Republicans and their supporters. A great deal of media time was spent examining the ways in which Catholic theolog! could be seen as justitying IRA actions - for example. the idea of a just war". Demonisation of Republicans was common: media headlines often used the word "evil" to describe both actions and the people who carried them out. Most venom was reserved for the small number of priests who were IRA supporters. Finally, and most importantly. the deeply held and particularly English view of the Irish as 'thick Paddies' came into its own in police or Special Branch-inspired media commentary on the methods, especially the mistakes, of IRA members. Blair's response to the London bombings, apart from denying the links with Iraq. (well, he would, wouldn't he!) has been a relentless focus on the evil ideolog!" of Islamic fundamentalism demanding that Islamic leaders root it out. As in the Irish War. there is a determination in the whole ruling class to shift the focus from British imperial policy and to blame the Muslim population. even though there is little evidence that they allowed extremists into mosques. Even Blair's appeals not to 'scapegoat' them sounds like a threat. What is being attempted is silencing the many critics of Bush and Blair's imperialism not just among the Muslim population but also the whole anti-war movement. The other effect of the attack on Islam and the most serious for those on the left who go along with it, is to cement the hold of the preachers and small business leaderships of the mosques over workers and youth. If the attack is on theology. be it Catholicism or Islam. then the membership is likely to defer to clerics, imans or priests. to speak out in its defence. Mosque or church leaderships will usually 30 RACISM IN THE IRISH EXPERIENCE STEVE GARNER Steve Garner Pluto Press, 2004 Reviewed by David Coen be the most conservative and anti-political and will. especially in the current climate. want to avoid controvers! by shutting down political discussions. While it would not be surprising if anti-war activists now get a less welcoming reception outside mosques, this would simply play into the hands of Blair and the warmongers. The Irish in Britain Despite Garner's casual dismissal of 'nco-Marxism' because of its 'reduction' of sources of identity' (teminism. nationalism and ethnicity) to class. his approach is straightforwardly sociological in his attempt to situate racism in its historical contest. His examination of the 'racialisation' of the Trish in Britain in the 19th century is focussed around religion. class and race. He notes. for example. the civilisation barbarism distinction that accompanied the renewal of colonial conquest by the English from the 1640s. The incivility of the natives was a characteristic of'other victims of colonialism notably Africans and Native Americans. This was overlaid by a suspicion of popers" and rebellion in Ireland. Finally: from the period of the Famine 1845-1850. there was a huge influx of'emigrants into English cities produced (in 186] the Irish constituted 9 percent of the Bnitish workforce) which had the eftect of lowering wages and generated serere tensions in cities such as Liverpool. Glasgow and Manchester. The press ever concerned with promoting divisions concentrated on the disorder' caused by the Irish and in particular the dangers posed by their trade union activities. Racism in Ireland now A large part of the book is taken up with the current situation in the South of Ireland. He concludes that racism, anti-Semitism and sectarianisin were all present before the arrival of non-European immigrants. Surveys show a high degree of prejudice. not least of which is directed at Travellers. Survers of Black and Ethnic Minority groups show that experience of discrimination is high (79 percent). Though Garner does provide some of the economic and social context for the growth of racism. his essentially liberal. pluralist approach ends in a purely descriptive dead end: hostile attitudes towards Others are more likely to be held be older people. with less formal education. in lower social classes. living in rural areas. and a list of complaints about the iniquities of the neo-liberal regime and its compromises with global capital. Only occasionally: in sentences such as:.. ....it is clear that one of the functions of racism is the control of bodies moving into and within territory and the imaginary space of the nation: does he appear to come up against the limitations of his approach. Such formulations howerer are much too abstract (function for whom?) for an attempt to answer the question he sets right at the end: "hom to construct a tradition of anti-racism for ourseltes?*
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[Coined by George Orwell in 1984 (1949)] double-team dou-ble team [ dúbb'l teem ] Function: transitive verb players at one time doublethink dou ble think [ dúbb'l thingk ] Function: noun acceptance of opposing beliefs: the opposing beliefs at the same time i.e. WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH to block or attack (an opponent) with two conscious or unconscious holding of two