Explaining the Double-Irish with a map, some coins and Al Jazeera..

Explaining the Double-Irish with a map, some coins and Al Jazeera..

Working on the last few pages of a chapter for a book edited by Colin Coulter and Angela Nagle. I’ve just been rigid with anger over the last couple of weeks - more than usual - and I think the process of writing this chapter is the reason why. This little paragraph sums it up [...]

Working on the last few pages of a chapter for a book edited by Colin Coulter and Angela Nagle. I’ve just been rigid with anger over the last couple of weeks - more than usual - and I think the process of writing this chapter is the reason why. This little paragraph sums it up I think:

“There is a truism in Ireland that emigration acted as a safety value for social pressures. It is impossible to prove whether this was (or is) the case, but one thing is for certain: with the industrial schools, Magdalene laundries, a Catholic-Church dominated education system and an anti-working-class judiciary with a passion for incarcerating the poor, the Irish ruling class was not taking any chances. The history of Ireland since 1922 is a history of class violence and coercion.”

It’s is hard to delve into the history of the Irish State and not come out despising the Irish bourgeoisie. It’s really fucking difficult.