Do we really need titles to justify
ourselves?
By Joe Horgan
It seems just a little odd that so many high-profile Irish people are
in such a hurry to accept awards from the British establishment.
We can leave aside the strangeness of Bono and Geldof combining campaigning
humanitarian work with elitist titles from the remnants of Empire.
After all in a move that strangely echoed Bertie’s disapproval of
war in Iraq sitting alongside his provision of Shannon for US troops Bono
can combine his many stances on injustice with hugging and glad-handing
George Bush for as many photo opportunities as possible.
What is really odd though is that they should be so willing to embrace
these awards as Irishmen.
Of course in an age when we seem to have finally left some of the coruscating
hatreds of old behind or at least put them aside long enough to halt the
carnage that blighted the northern part of this island and the relationship
between the two islands for so long it might seem dangerously old-fashioned
to speak in such a way.
But while we must be masters of our history instead of slaves to it we
cannot simply remove it.
If we just become a deracinated society with no past and no sense of who
we are we will merely become the consumers and economic units the globalisation
zealots see us as.
The way of coming to terms with Ireland’s past and in particular
her relationship with her nearest neighbour is not simply by not being
Irish anymore. Not if we want to be a society or a people of any substance.
The imperial powers of old recognised this. One of their main aims when
taking over any society was to impose their own administration by co-opting
willing local grandees.
In this way they managed to impose the rule of one society upon another
and to transpose their values and mores on to those they had conquered.
They would even seek to impose their own language.
History shows there were always locals willing to be part of this —
usually those most willing to trumpet the claims of commerce.
The British did this all over the world.
Obviously many people will now state that this bears no relevance to our
society.
Perhaps they’re right but then perhaps we now have a society that
does actually speak the language of our imperial powers rather than our
own and perhaps we have a society that will soon see a General Election
where the two main parties continue to struggle to find any identity beyond
that forged in the fight to get rid of those very imperial powers.
So seeing such high-profile Irishmen walking into the photo shoot that
is all that is left of the British Empire is certainly not without historical
irony.
Especially as these men are best known for their political stance —
albeit one tinged with more than a passing veneer of shallow celebrity.
Now their acceptance of the awards is in many ways as irrelevant as the
British Empire itself and is little more than a day out for the paparazzi.
But in the context of Ireland it offers a very contemporary reflection.
The movers and shakers of Irish society want nothing more than for us
to ape British society whether that be suburban shopping malls, soulless
housing estates or ASBOs.
Whatever the British come up with the bright and innovative minds of new
Ireland come up with too.
The likes of Bono are only doing this at a more heightened level.
So yes, Bono and his ilk are truly just celebrities doing celebrity things
in a world where we’ve somehow got to a point where rank injustice
and appalling poverty are best combatted by film stars or middle-aged
rock stars.
After all Bono can both campaign for Africa and state that his fans want
to see him living a life of luxury and excess because that is his job.
In that sense then his acceptance of awards from the British establishment
doesn’t really matter at all.
What Bono and others have been very adept at is suggesting that war and
famine and a commercially-imposed poverty on a whole continent are in
some ways nothing to do with politics.
So accepting a medal from the Queen is hardly likely to be seen that way
either.
Some Irish people have lived and worked in Britain for years and on account
of massive contributions to society they too are given awards.
That at least makes some kind of sense.
Bono though has never lived in Britain or directly contributed anything
on behalf of the Irish people living there.
Like people who insist on their titles, be it Professor, Doctor or Mr
an Irish society eager to get its hands on the scrolls or the nomenclatures
of nobility just leaves you with the nagging sense that something deeper
might be missing.
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