Anti-British Xenophobia and Hatred in Ireland

hawley

Reading comments on here and other fora makes me believe that a lot of Irish people have an absolute hatred of the British, especially the English. From blaming all the British players for losing the Ryder Cup, to sneering at everything their politicians do. We're supposed to be a far more tolerant people now, but this is actually becoming quite disturbing. It's about time one of our politicians or someone in the media takes a stand on this.

chopperbyrne

In fairness, British politicians have been an absolute shambles since 2016, and have implemented policies that not only are **** up their own country, but are having large knock on effects for ours.

One very senior Tory MP, Priti Patel, suggested starving us.

They deserve to be sneered at.

ireallydontknow

It never went away but Brexit seems to have legitimised it. I find it utterly pathetic and it makes me loathe this country.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058210587/anti-british-racism-and-hatred-in-ireland

Why is it becoming "disturbing". The English slag the Welsh/Irish/Scottish and we slag them back.

Both the English and the Irish have become way more tolerant over the last 20 years as we work even closer to each other even after Covid.

No idea why you want someone to take a stand on it, do people not want to be able to have a bit of a laugh anymore?

Tom Mann Centuria

Lived here 19 years, only really got proper abuse twice for being English. And one of those times the bloke was an absolute cùnt to everyone and I think the English angle was just the thing he went for with me.

Haven't noticed an upturn in real life. Online is different, but there's an upturn in w@nkers generally on the internet in recent years.

StevenToast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944336#Comment_117944336

Westbrits are out in force

Fandymo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058210587/anti-british-racism-and-hatred-in-ireland

Hundreds of years of starvation, subjugation, being used as cannon fodder, abused as troglodytes in their papers, will tend to give those people a negative view of you. Not to mention starting illegal wars, bombing the arse out of the middle east, selling arms to anyone with cash, protecting paedophiles once they're upper class etc.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944387#Comment_117944387

What is a "Westbrit"? never heard the term before till I seen it here

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058210587/anti-british-racism-and-hatred-in-ireland

john bruton is yer man :)

Sunny Disposition

Was at a soccer match nearly 20 years ago, Galway Utd were at home to Bray and the home fans started a chant 'South Dubs, West Brits'. The English have had a tough time here for a very long time, but it does seem to be getting a bit more prevalent. There's a real sneariness to coverage of UK politics and even the England soccer team.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944462#Comment_117944462

dwellers of the pale i would guess

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944474#Comment_117944474

Bray is in Wicklow? Geography not a strong subject for the Galway supporters I guess

I still don't get it, is it a nickname now for people from South Dublin? but why "Westbrits" is they live in South Dublin?

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944475#Comment_117944475

"the pale" from what I understand is all of Dublin. So North and South. Maybe I am wrong. Just interested in the term as it is fired out here so I thought most people knew what it meant

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944502#Comment_117944502

so the pale would have been an extension of britain as most of the country was run from there, and lots of respect for the monarchy (jackeens) etc, kildare was in there too

Flinty997

The Pale is basically Leinster...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pale

West Brit is basically any Irish Anglophile west of Britain.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Brit

Though in Dublin it's used for affluent areas in south Dublin, though you could include affluent areas on the north side if you are fluent in Dub.

https://youtu.be/OhdXJrGr1iM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944462#Comment_117944462

The definition of a Westbrit is someone who doesn't blindly chant "Ooh ahh up the ra" in their Eire 32 Celtic shirt before heading home to watch Liverpool on Sky.

tdf7187

Criticisms of their class system and current dysfunctional governance are entirely merited. The majority of the Irish media reports on the UK with kid gloves. You might get the odd idiot online.

dudley72

So "Westbrit" is a derogatory word used by the English against all Irish. Yet we now have people using it on a thread which is complaining about the irish slagging off the English

Tom Mann Centuria

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944613#Comment_117944613

You misunderstand, It's used by Irish to other Irish.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944623#Comment_117944623

Read the link above, it was used first by the English to slag off the Irish. That's all I need to know and have no idea why an Irish person would think it is funny to use the term to slag off another Irish person.

This thread will go the same way as any thread on boards that discusses racism/sexism or homophobia.

A group of straight white Irish males will decide that there is no racism/sexism/homophobia in Ireland, it will then slowly work its way to "it's all them anyway, they're the racist/sexism/anti straight ones, before ultimately deciding that, when you look at it, the straight white Irish male is actually the victim here.

Tom Mann Centuria

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944634#Comment_117944634

You're either looking at past use, or present. If you choose not to see the difference that's up to you.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944664#Comment_117944664

The term was used by the English to slag off the Irish, I wouldn't look past that. Maybe that's just me. If I was English and I seen the Irish using a term they invented to slag off the Irish, I would be laughing at them.

Also it makes sense from an English point of view. I have yet to see anyone on this thread confirm which irish are "Westbrits", if it is supposed to be people from Southside of Dublin well that is just stupid

Sunny Disposition

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944634#Comment_117944634

It is a derogatory term for Irish people to use to get at other Irish people, John Bruton probably got called one because of his comments about Michael D Higgins not going to Armagh. It's not really an insult to the English at all, just a handy dig at fawning Irishmen.

The Galway fans were just using it as an insult for people living close to South Dublin, which would until recently years have been seen as more Anglophile than the rest of the country. Of course it's stupid, but so are people who chant nasty stuff at matches.

But anyway, it's not an insult to English people because they'd be actual Brits, the West Brits are more wannabe Brits. It might seem strange, but there'd be literally no point in calling someone from Britain a west Brit.

There is far too much anti English racism in Ireland, it is a blight, and I think it has been fanned a bit over the last five years. In America sometimes they talk about 'dog whistles' regarding racism, I think we've had a bit of that in this country regarding Britain. Also because Ireland is such a small country English people rarely know much about it, which is quite understandable, but as a result when they speak about Ireland they tend to make ill informed comments which really anger people over here, given the history.

I lived in England for years, the people are as sound as they are here, I hate the prejudice there is here.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058210587/anti-british-racism-and-hatred-in-ireland

Doesn’t really exist. Strong anti Irish hatred in Britain does exist - I recently saw a comment on an American blog (the guy was discussing Ireland in WWII) where a poster celebrated the deaths of millions in the famine. The whole comment section was a hate filled fever swamp. That anti Irish rhetoric becoming increasingly clear with Brexit. Of course BTL commentators in Britain hate most of Europe. The recent AUSUK agreement has unleashed the anti French rhetoric, and of course Germany is still Nazi, or trying to control Europe. The EU is evil.

the (online) British hate the world, basically.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944336#Comment_117944336

Do you loath brexiters for being anti Irish (anti EU etc) or is this the colonial cringe?

You get it both ways and it’s usually from some absolutely ****. I’ve had it in England once or twice and I’ve seen it here too.

I wouldn’t take online viciousness to be representative of anything though other than online toxicity. Twitter in particular has a cesspool element.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944502#Comment_117944502

The term west Brit is old , it used to mean people who wanted to keep the union.

WrenBoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944649#Comment_117944649

Yes, yes we know we've all heard the screechings. "Straight white Males" are the source of all the worlds problems. Absolute state of this argument 😂

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944753#Comment_117944753

Now like the term 'fascist'; it means 'people whose views I don't agree with'.

olestoepoke

I recently watched "The Hunger " on RTE narrated by Liam Neeson, a really well put together documentary on the Famine. That'd go some way to explain why a lot of Irish distrust or dislike England. The civil rights abuses of the troubles another reason. I personally have quite a few English friends and they are the salt of the earth, but just cant bring myself to wish well on their football team.

Fandymo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944649#Comment_117944649

Cool story bro, have you got a blog I could read more of your stunning insights on?

There is definitely elements of nastiness between Ireland and England and it goes both ways on an interpersonal level. It’s usually mild slagging, but it can cross the line.

However, the biggest trap I would avoid falling into is letting the English populist right turn any criticism of them into “anglophobia”. A lot of people (including probably more than half of England at this stage) are very critical of their insane policies at the moment, which are steeped in right wing nationalism and jingoism and have gone out of their way to destabilise Northern Ireland.

Criticism of that is absolutely not anglophobia and I think there’s definitely a spin effort now to go into “oh poor little old us. What have we ever done. I know we may have said horrible things, but now we are being upset by criticism.”

They are doing the same with accusing the EU of being mean or aggressive to them, despite the fact that they ranted and raved, accused it of all sorts of crazy stuff, made disgusting comparisons to the third reich and so on and made regular threats to destroy it.

However, it’s the EU that’s being a nasty apparently 😂

There’s also a regular line trotted out that they’ve been bullied by Ireland - basically, by standing our ground and daring to exist, we have gotten in the way of a smooth Brexit and thus we aggressively bullied them?!

Spin, deflect, spin and claim to be the innocent victim. That’s nothing new.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944770#Comment_117944770

we've already had "It doesn't exist", "It's all them" and "we're the real victims here" and we are barely on to the second page.

WrenBoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944804#Comment_117944804

Wah, wah, wah.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944831#Comment_117944831

the truth hurts I guess

hawley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944791#Comment_117944791

They don't have a populist right wing government, so I don't know where you're getting this from. If they allow the EU to dictate where the customs border in NI is, they're going to lose Northern Ireland in the long term. They've had a lot of minorities at high levels in their governance recently, Dominic Raab, Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Sajid Javid; so the idea that their government is racist is ridiculous.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944804#Comment_117944804

and that was all me.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944844#Comment_117944844

They can be populist and right wing without being racist.

Priti was threatening Ireland with starvation a while back. If I recall correctly.

Hmm, I didn’t say racist. I said populist and right wing. They’re not the same thing. Please don’t put words in my mouth.

Also this is probably the most populist and right wing government the U.K. has had in modern history.

They got into power using triggers like xenophobia and it was blatant.

You’re talking about a government that had “go home vans” and use extremely jingoistic messaging at all times. It’s also continuously engaged in divisive populism around class division and so on.

It’s a government quite literally led by a populist tabloid journalist ffs.

Is Patel not right wing? She openly supported the reintroduction of the death penalty (during a TV debate a few years ago) and is extremely anti-immigration.

If you want to pretend it’s not populist and right wing, I really don’t know what the point in even having this discussion is. You might as well be saying water isn’t wet.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944871#Comment_117944871

you don't

SHOVELLER

If it does exist its all online. In real life there is unhealthy obsession with the english. From buying their newspapers to watching their tv to planeloads of idiots flying over there every weekend. Its almost like they want to be english. Oh wait............

Blazer

Of course we can sneer at their politicians ffs. They inflicted Brexit on their people and lied their whole way through both the voting for it and the negotiations with Europe and continue to lie and trying to renegotiate. That is not racism last time I looked.

If fact if you look at the commenters on that rag the daily mail you'll see a lot more racism from English commenters.

Are there racist Irish people? For sure..all ethnicities have racists. But it doesn't mean we're all racist.

It seems to be the normal thing now if you don't like someone's opinion to scream racist at them instead of discussing it like adults.

hawley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944873#Comment_117944873

What populist policies have they enacted(apart from Brexit)?

Windowsnut

In reality, the OP statement is quite the contrary. From the comments section in the Daily Mail and Express particularly on Brexit articles involving Irish politicians, the anti-Irish racism and hatred of Ireland is very much alive, well and deep routed in the UK.

The unmoderated slurs and name calling against Irish politicians and Irish people is quite simply unchecked hate speech at times and goes completely unchecked by the UK media outlets and regulators.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944908#Comment_117944908

Yep. I was fairly shocked to see that because in my time there I had none of it. But we are talking about online.

Also the hatred for other parts of the EU and the Germans and french in particular.

hawley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944908#Comment_117944908

There was a thread started on Boards today where Boris Johnson was called a P**ck in the very first post. Is that ok?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944906#Comment_117944906

A vast array of public service and welfare cuts, fanned along by a campaign against notional scroungers, which has caused massive dependence on food banks and caused genuinely grinding poverty.

Unprecedentedly aggressive immigration policies, which included deporting long term residents from the former British empire who had rights to live there.

Ramming though policies that are causing supply chain chaos and huge damage to the economy, and denying realty because they clash with a populist dogma. That is absolutely shocking. It’s not how normal Tory governments would have behaved either. It’s government by the tabloids.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117944933#Comment_117944933

That's perfectly ok. He is called a prick in England as well?

Why this obsession with defending a politician in another country. Someone who is, by necessity, antagonistic to Ireland's desires in Brexit?

.42.

I cant recall any Irish people I know hating the British.

I'll be posting inline commentary that doesn't upset the OP for the rest of this thread.

Varadkar should don his red pointy hat, grab his fishing road and jump back onto his toadstool with all the other leprechauns