Against Republican Pluralism: The Role of Ethnic Nationalism in Irish Identity
“Aontú is a pluralist Republican political Party, the colour of a persons skin should have no more significance than the colour of their eyes. We believe that there are many types of Irish people and we need to get to a situation where we tackle Ethnonationalism head on in this country, it has no place in this country and I don’t believe it’s representative of the majority of people in this country.” — Peadar Toibín
Aontú have capitalised on growing anti immigrant sentiment in Ireland by vocal and rational criticism of the asylum process, highlighting some of the major flaws of this system which has become the focal point of the immigration debate.
Despite pandering to nationalistic sympathies, their vocal criticism of the asylum seeker system is not to be misunderstood as an appeal to the ethnic nationalism of the Irish population. In fact “ethno nationalism” is something which Peadar Toibín believes should have no place in the country and is committed to a pluralist republic.
To understand this position, we must first understand the terminology Toibín is using. What exactly is “Ethno nationalism” and why should it have no place in Ireland? And also what is a “Pluralist” republic anyway?
Ethno Nationalism or ethnic nationalism is a term coined by Hans Kohn in the 1940s. It describes a nationalism which is defined based on a group identity. An ethno nationalist views a nation as a group which typically shares a common culture, heritage, faith and ancestry. Kohn differentiates “Ethno” from “Civic” nationalism in which a nation does not necessarily share a common ancestry. [1]
Prior to the introduction of the term ethno nationalism, the general definition of nationalism shared almost an identical meaning to ethno nationalism. It was taken for granted that a nation shared a common ancestry. The Latin root word for nation “Natio” meaning to be born, emphasising the link to common parentage of a group. In addition the old Middle English word nation meant “a race of people”. [2]
Peadar Toibín’s vehement opposition to ethno nationalism is so extreme that he suggests it must be tackled “head on” and has “no place” in Ireland. When we look at the nationalism of the founders of the Irish state how would their views align with those of Peadar on ethno nationalism? Did they too believe in a pluralist republic?
The Nationalism of our Forefathers.
Let us start with Patrick Pearse, who is probably the most important figure in the 1916 Rising. The Rising being the catalyst leading to a reawakening of national consciousness in Ireland, culminating in the war of independence and partial liberation from Britain.
For Pearse, “Irish nationality is an ancient spiritual tradition, one of the oldest and most august traditions in the world.” For Pearse, freedom meant a capacity for this specific nationality to be able to live according to its own tradition.
“Politically, Ireland's claim has been for freedom in order to the full and perpetual life of that tradition.”
Hence for Pearse, political freedom meant an Ireland to be “not free merely, but Gaelic as well; not Gaelic merely, but free as well.” ‘Gaelic’ referring not only to a language, but to the concept of the “Gaels”. The Gael was understood as a racial or ethnic term, as well as a cultural term, denotive of the native Irish in Pearse’s time.
For Pearse, the Irish nation could only live as long as the gaels lived according to their tradition, and as long as there was “one true Gael” the nation still lived. On the contrary, should there be no more Gaels in Ireland and “had the last repositor of the Gaelic tradition, the last unconquered Gael, died, the Irish nation was no more. Any free state that might thereafter be erected in Ireland, whatever it might call itself, would certainly not be the historic Irish nation.”[3]
This sentiment was echoed by Michael Collins when he wrote:
“We are now free in name. The extent to which we become free in fact and secure our freedom will be the extent to which we become Gaels again. It is a hard task.”
The return to the Gaelic Ireland entailed the restoration of old Irish culture. Language was a critical part of this, but it extended beyond solely speaking Irish. The Gaels, in Irish mythology were the sons of Míl or the Milesians. They were the last of the ancient mythical races to arrive in Ireland. This group, which inhabited Ireland for millennia did not often share unified political leadership, but did share a common culture, language, tradition and ancestry.
“Freedom” for the Irish nation according to Pearse and Collins was not simply the removal of British authority from the island, but dependant on the extent to which the Irish people restored and embodied their ethnic identity.
In fact, Collins foresaw a great danger, greater than the physical force of the British empire. He warned against this “spiritual machine which has been mutilating us, destroying our customs and our independent life, is not so easy to discern. We have to seek it out with the eyes of our minds.”
For Collins, this spiritual machine was leading to the de-nationalising of the Irish people, which would subsequently erase their capacity for independent existence. To combat this machine he states:
“We have to put against it the whole weight of our united spiritual strength. And it has become so familiar, how are we to recognise it? We cannot, perhaps. But we can do something else. We can replace it. We can fill our minds with Gaelic ideas and our lives with Gaelic customs, until there is no room for any other.” [4]
Therefore the struggle of Pearse and Collins was to establish a Gaelic republic first and foremost. Ireland to them, was not a market or an economic zone, but a living breathing people. As Pearse states “The nation is thus not a mere agglomeration of individuals, but a living, organic thing, with a body and a soul; twofold in nature, like man, yet one.”
Consider also James Connolly, the Socialist for whom nation held equal rank with proletariat:
“The recognition of the duty we owe our country is, I take it, the real mainspring of patriotic action; and our ‘country', properly understood, means not merely the particular spot on the earth's surface from which we derive our parentage, but also comprises all the men, women and children of our race whose collective life constitutes our country's political existence.” [5]
Connolly did not regard Scotland, which was the “particular spot” on which he was born, to be his country, but Ireland. The Irish were the “men women and children of his race”. The term race at the time of Connolly is practically interchangeable with our modern term ethnicity.
In Connolly we see how the more “Gealic” he became, the greater his motivation for political action. His growing “ethno”nationalism fuelling his opposition to capitalism which in his view also operated as a de-nationalising force. As he stated;
"The stronger I am in my affection for national tradition, literature, language, and sympathies, the more firmly rooted I am in my opposition to that capitalist class which in its soulless lust for power and gold would bray the nations as in a mortar." [6]
He held the revival of Gaelic Ireland and capitalism to be incompatible:
“The chief enemy of a Celtic revival today is the crushing force of capitalism which irresistibly destroys all national or racial characteristics, and by sheer stress of its economic preponderance reduces a Galway or a Dublin, a Lithuania or a Warsaw to the level of a mere second-hand imitation of Manchester or Glasgow.” [7]
In addition, Connolly predicted that the removal of the English army out of Ireland absent real structural change to the economic system would allow for a situation where “England would still rule you”. Superficial change in management would not create real freedom for the Irish. One can see the same fears in Collins when he warned of the spiritual machine at work in Ireland.
This critique of capitalism by Connolly was fundamentally understood by Collins as well. He knew that the economic wealth that could be generated in Ireland must be used to allow for the development of other more important aspects of Irish society.
Collins stated:
“The objective of the state should not be the creation of wealth for wealths sake alone. The uses of wealth are to provide good health, comfort, moderate luxury, and to give the freedom which comes from the possession of these things.” And that the “object in building up the country economically must not be lost sight of. That object is not to be able to boast of enormous wealth or of a great volume of trade, for their own sake. It is not to see our country covered with smoking chimneys and factories. It is not to show a great national balance-sheet, nor to point to a people producing wealth with the self-obliteration of a hive of bees.”
It is absolutely clear that to Collins the economy and generation of material wealth was secondary to the development of Ireland’s people. And it is the Irish people themselves who Collins describes as “[t]he real riches”. As he further elaborates; “The real riches of the Irish nation will be the men and women of the Irish nation, the extent to which they are rich in body and mind and character.”[3]
To ensure that the Irish people develop to reach their physical, intellectual and spiritual potential he demanded; “[w]e must have a political, economic and social system in accordance with our national character.” Therefore, for Collins the concerns of the economy should be shaped in order to serve the people, rather than shaping the people to serve the economy. Ensuring that the social and economic systems in Ireland were in harmony with the national character.
Lastly, Collins’ national ambitions extended beyond the island. Stating that “our national aim remains the same - a free, united Irish nation and united Irish race all over the world, bent on achieving the common aim of Ireland's prosperity and good name.”
Can you imagine any Irish politician making such a statement today?
When one looks at the messaging of Fine Gael today, the sole boast of the party is Irelands surplus budget and their planned expenditure. Fine “Gael” (Tribe of the Gael) whose very name is derived from the ancient ethnic term of the Irish, have become the embodiment of everything Collins warned about. They no longer see in Ireland a people, but only a market.
Whilst they vaunt about GDP growth and corporate tax receipts, they possess absolutely no understanding of the mission of the party’s founders — the establishment of a Gaelic Ireland.
Ireland a Market.
For the current political class, the island of Ireland is a market or an economic zone and this is absolutely clear by their rhetoric and actions. This zone does not belong to the Irish, but to the whole world. Hence the slogan “Ireland for All”. Much to the dismay of Yeats and gaiety of the gombeen, the greasy till reigns; the MNC becomes Godhead in a country whose sole asset is low corporation tax. The generation of wealth is the only goal and purpose for this island under the stewardship of the current regime.
To understand this momental change in the mindset of Ireland’s political class requires a full in depth analysis of the changes over the past century - an analysis which is greatly beyond the scope of this essay. But in short, a turning point came after the opening of the IFSC in Dublin in the 1980s. The political class understood the capacity for self enrichment by opening the country up and marketing it as a tax haven for multinational corporations.
The term ‘tax haven’ is even too loose or too lenient a description to conceptualise the scale of money coming into the country. In 2018 a group of academics studying tax evasion determined “that Ireland was the biggest tax haven on the planet for 2015.” [8]
Multinationals corporations are washing hundreds of billions of profits from their global operations through Ireland to simply to avoid paying tax. The advertised 15% corporate tax in Ireland is in many instances avoided entirely through special exemptions and accounting tricks.
After the financial crash of 2008/9, specific funds were invited into Ireland to buy up property assets at extremely low prices and are now profiting enormously from it. Irish Housing is now one of the most profitable investments for these funds.
These funds, have become colloquially known as vulture funds or cuckoo funds see Irish housing as a major investment opportunity. By purchasing residential property, these funds can make huge profits selling it off, and also by renting it at high prices. They will be pay little to no tax on profits generated and are being supported by the Irish state. Per the 2013 budget: “when a special exemption was introduced for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)” these funds could acquire exemptions from corporation tax provided they met certain conditions.
Rory Hearne describes the advancement of these funds in his book Gaffs;
“These institutional investors, backed by the government, are taking over our housing system, especially in Dublin and the commuter counties. These new large corporate landlords bought just 76 units in Ireland in 2010, but in 2019 they bought 5,132 homes, 44 per cent of all new purchases in Dublin. That same year they bought 95 per cent of all new apartments built in the country. They now own over 45,000 homes in this country.”
For Rory Hearne, “it's clear that these investor funds, these faceless piles of global cash, want to turn us and our homes into assets that maximize the return to global investors. It's a scary future.” [9]
Hearne fails to recognise that immigration is crucial for these funds. More people equals more renters and greater demand for housing driving up prices. Supply and demand’s impact on prices is the most basic of all economic concepts. A scarcity in the housing supply and an increased demand for housing by increasing the population creates the perfect economic conditions for these “faceless piles of global cash”
Ethnic nationalism stands fundamentally against the international financial system and neoliberal capitalism. These forces utterly dominate Ireland and they ultimately fear any form of collective identity and action among the Irish. The historic Irish claim has been that the whole of Ireland, its island and resources belong to the Irish nation, this nation as formerly understood are the ethnic Irish.
This claim is diametrically opposed to the ownership of Irish property and resources by international investment funds and foreign immigrants. All the political parties in power in Ireland are propping up this system of international plunder and in doing so enriching themselves at the expense of the nation. This is why they so viciously oppose any form of ethnic consciousness and action by the remaining “white” Irish majority. Condemning it as “Far right” or “racist”.
This system is intolerable, and will eventually fall. The Irish nation is an ancient force, and many times thought dead and buried has risen once again. This nation will rise again to oppose the system, but it remains to be seen how much more damage will be done before it wakes up.
The Pluralist Republic
What is a pluralist republic? Without finding a direct definition from Aontú’s website regarding this term, it can be more or less interpreted as belief in a state which comprises multiple identities. A close cousin to this is the concept of the “Plurinational republic” which has the following definitions;
“Plurinationality, plurinational, or plurinationalism is defined as the coexistence of two or more sealed or preserved national groups within a polity.”
This term was first popularised in the 1980s in Bolivia where there are multiple different ethnic identities in one state. In 2022 Bolivia officially changed its name and become the first ever “plurinational republic”. [10]
Despite the newness of this term Ireland actually has direct experience with plurinationalism. Northern Ireland has been a plurinational state for over a century, where the nationalist Catholics and unionist Protestants have lived together with different national identities. Two separate identities resulting in tension and murder despite both being Christian and European.
How will the Republic of Ireland cope with 50 or 60 different national identities as a result of mass migration? Ranging from African Muslims to Indian Hindus all living side by side on a small island with limited resources. All competing for jobs, services, and property, with unique cultures all demanding representation. What will this pluralism, espoused by Aontú, mean for the lives of the citizens of Ireland?
I’d ask Peadar Toibín what is the ideal ethnic breakdown in the pluralist republic? How many different identities should we have? Do the new Irish get the same rights as the old Irish? Will Arabic or Polish get the same recognition as Gaelic?
Understanding how there can be many types of Irish people requires a knowledge of how the traditional ethnic Irish have been redefined as “white”. The ethnic Irish now appear as “white” in the census of the republic. This allows people like Peadar Toibín to create “many types” of Irish people such as blacks and asians, and to say that they are just as Irish as the “white” Irish.
Critical to this redefinition is demographic change. The population of “white” Irish was 76.5% of 2022 or 3.9 million people of 5.1 million in the republic. In 2024 with a growth of nearly 300,000 people through migration the population is estimated to be 5.4 million in the republic. [11]
The ethnic Irish population is now a dramatically lower proportion of the population of the Irish republic than it was just 25 years ago. In one generation the previously mono-ethnic population of the republic has gone from roughly 99% Irish to around 76.5% in 2022. Almost all population growth in the republic is a direct result of migration.
This trend will continue under the current regime which projects a population of 6.7 million by 2060, a further 1.3 million people in 35 years. Given the now below replacement rate birth rate in Ireland this massive population increase will be solely a result of migration. Thus creating an even more diverse republic than what we have today.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael boast of this population increase; more people equals more tax payers and a growing economy, but also a dramatically less Gaelic society.
Welcome to the Plurinational republic.
Perhaps we should have learned the lessons of the Middle East, where many countries had their borders drawn up by the British and French under the Sykes-Picot agreement. The aim, in part, of this agreement was to foment ethnic conflict, and thus stymie the ability of nations to act in a unified manner.
Muammar Gaddafi foresaw the inevitable outcome of such societies when he wrote that:
“All states which are composed of several nationalities for whatever reason - religion, economics, military power or man-made ideology will be destroyed by national conflict until each nation obtains its independence, because the social factor will inevitably triumph over the political factor.” [12]
The Irish political leadership avoided the lessons of history and voluntarily altered Ireland from a a mono ethnic society to a plurinational one without any consultation with their citizens. The long term ramifications of this change will be felt by a reduced quality of life for all of Ireland’s citizens, immigrants and natives alike.
Future of Nationalism
Consider how every major political party in Ireland fundamentally agrees with more immigration. Concerns about one aspect, the asylum industry, which is only a tiny fraction of the overall problem, are now being voiced openly.
Criticism of the asylum process alone in Irish politics is an incredible step in the right direction. It’s a testament to the efforts of grassroots protests which have changed the political discourse. Only 4 years ago. in the last general election, the word “immigration” did not even feature on any of the political debates. Instead they spoke of houses crises and health care crises without consideration of the impact of migration on said issues.
Aontú positioned itself to acquire much of the protest vote against this aspect of migration but remained committed to legal migration and the establishment of a pluralist republic. Therefore Aontú will not solve this problem, and will only make things worse in the years ahead.
The ethnic Irish, which are still around 75% of the population in 2024 do not currently have a political party holding a seat of power willing to express their interests or concerns directly.
There is not a party willing to say that their nation state, the state that their ancestor forged in revolution, denied to them for centuries, should be remain Irish. Instead all of these parties are committed to handing over the island to foreigners, be it economic migrants or “faceless piles of global cash”.
Should the trend continue as projected, Ireland will ultimately be reduced to a zone mired in competing interest groups and identities. Squabbling over resources and cultural spaces while international financiers expand their plundering operations unhindered. Unhindered because no one ethnic group on the island will be able to organise in an effective manner to counteract them.
The vilification of Ethnonationalism by the political class must be understood in the context of what Ethnonationalism represents. It is a redefinition of the same nationalism that founded the Irish nation state. It is not an immoral or evil belief system without a place in Ireland. But the natural state of most nations for centuries.
It is the Pluralist republican experiment, created in one generation without consultation, that should have no place in Ireland. It has no historical context and no continuity from the Irish struggle.
Therefore, if you oppose these developments in Ireland, if you believe that the Irish nation exists, as did the forefathers of the state, you have an obligation to resist. Resistance comes in many forms; politically by supporting true nationalist parties and individually by strengthening your ethnic identity.
While nationalist candidates failed to secure a seat in the recent election, they are growing. The current regime will continue unhindered, generating more discontent. Meaning the opportunity for the return of nationalism in politics will be greater in the next election. Failure to grasp the opportunity is inevitable if Irish nationalists don’t make the necessary sacrifices.
It must be understood that the cause of nationalism is a cause of struggle. Political power will not be easily granted nor won by nationalists. As “Ethnonationalism” is fundamentally at odds with the neoliberal economic system and the pluralist republic.
It faces an uphill battle against the vast material and intellectual resources of this system. But one that be can overcome if the Irish become Gaels again - becoming Gaelic in “temperament” and strengthening their physical, intellectual and moral forces.
This requires a process of rediscovery among nationalists of their ethnic identity. Real engagement in Gaelic culture: be it sport, music, literature and the language. Self development in physical and intellectual pursuits. The application of a high standards of ethics and living to a true moral code. These are the bare minimum steps required for any nationalist - one must actually live up to the ideals that they would have for their country.
By truly embodying these principles, every nationalist becomes a living stone in the foundation of a movement. When the time comes for you to lend your voice and support for the nationalist cause, it will carry weight and it will carry influence.
‘We want urgently in Ireland just at present, men uncompromising in their nationality - whose ideal is not less than an Ireland sovereign, independent;’ - Terence MacSwiney. [13]
Footnotes
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_nationalism
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation
[3] Padraig Pearse, The Coming Revolution.
[4] Michael Collins, The Path to Freedom.
[5] James Connolly, Patriotism and Labour
[6] https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1966/04/connolly.htm
[7] https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1898/10/language.htm
[8] Brian O Boyle, Kieran Allen, Tax Haven Ireland 2021
[9] Rory Hearne, Gaffs 2023
[10] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurinationalism
[11]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Republic_of_Ireland
[12] Muammar Gaddafi, The Green Book.
[13] Terence MacSwiney, The Art and Ideology of Terence MacSwiney: Caught in the living flame