At the beginning of a project such as ours, one can make predictions. One can make educated guesses as to where the initial support will come from. One can infer, from the media light-show, which groups are not represented. And to a large extent these educated guesses have proven correct. We have found common ground with social conservatives who feel their heartfelt convictions stigmatised. We have found common ground with hard-working men and women whose livelihoods and existence is being siphoned away by crippling debt and a gluttonous State. We have found disillusion amongst the members of the major parties and the exhaustion of the long, destructive Civil War rivalries. We have found above all support from patriots and nationally minded people, who find their views no longer welcome in what once might have been considered nationalist circles. And we have found everywhere the same cry of concern. The same frustration with the malaise. The same anxiety for Ireland’s future.
But what we could not have properly foreseen, because it has not been documented or analysed, is the cry coming forth from the hearts of our young people. Some of them too young to have known an Ireland that, for whatever its faults, felt Irish. The Ireland they are inheriting is a bankrupt, globalised Ireland. Ireland the Bank Machine. Ireland the Stag Party weekend. Ireland the Joke of the World.
Need we ask how many liberal journalists have experienced the dislocation of being the only Irish child in their class? Need we ask? No, because the media rank and file is not drawn from these rundown, neglected communities. This dislocated Irish child, analogous with other children in other Western European countries, is not an ephemera. But rather is a new protagonist in the battle for Irish freedom.
The liberal journalist only feels dislocated when he or she must leave the bubble and go out into the real Ireland. Usually to hunt down and exploit one of the populace. As a consequence, he or she can never understand this new experience of being the dislocated, the discredited, the dismissed. The Irishman with his back against the wall. From inside the bubble, everything seems in its proper place.
The task before us is a great one. It will not be easy. But we see no reason for pessimism. We see every reason to be optimistic.
The psychological trauma of national dispossession and population displacement have not, to our knowledge, been analysed. No think-thanks have been bankrolled by money speculators to probe these concerns. But the effects are hinted at in studies like that of Robert Putnam who charted the deleterious effects of multiculturalism on social trust and cohesion.
It is no new thing to see Irish children raised for export. That crime we have seen before. The trauma of Irish emigration was always consoled, however inadequately, by the love of homeland and the connection to an origin. The love that promised that however far they ventured, they might come back. There was something unique and special to come back to. But no more that bitter consolation, for the New Ireland will be a consolation to no Irish man or Irish woman. The assembly line has been updated. The labour we export now is easily replaced by cheaper labour. And for every Irish person who leaves, newcomers will file forward and fill up the ranks. “Replacement migration” is a controversial phrase, but in Ireland it is undeniable.
The betrayal of our young people, by our government and by many comfortable interest groups, is one of the most disgusting and cynical betrayals in Irish history. That a smug minority, from the lap of luxury, have denied the children of Ireland an Irish future, is unconscionable. And cannot go unchallenged. To the young, we offer you our commitment and our tireless efforts. The task before us is a great one. It will not be easy. But we see no reason for pessimism. We see every reason to be optimistic. For the betrayers have done what betrayers always do. They have left us our betrayed. Even if the former haven’t copped on to it yet.