Dublin City Councillor Cieran Perry arranged to meet at Cabra, an imposing crossroads in the north of the Irish capital. As he had every Thursday evening since October 2023, on this February night, he led a neighborhood protest in support of Palestine. It was getting dark and there was a strong smell of exhaust fumes and fast food from the nearby McDonald's. Yet the atmosphere was in full swing. A score of local residents – couples with children, retired people with dogs on leashes – waved Palestinian flags at the roadside. They unfurled a banner that read "Stop Israeli terror in Gaza." Motorists responded by honking their horns.
With his friendly demeanor, 61-year-old Perry, who denounced the ongoing "genocide" in Gaza, didn't mince his words. "Why do so many of us support the Palestinians? The answer is simple. There's a historical link between Palestine and Ireland: We had the same oppressor, the British Empire, and the same occupation plan," said the left-leaning official. Cerena O'Brien, a resident of the Cabra neighborhood, was stood by the roadside with her Palestinian flag. They made the same point as Perry: "We too have experienced oppression and famine."
Ireland is one of Europe's most pro-Palestinian countries. As early as October 18, 2023, 11 days after the massacres committed by Hamas in Israel, which retaliated by bombing the Gaza Strip, the center-right coalition government (allied to the Greens) called for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire." And it refused to cut funding to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, after Israel's allegations accusing its members of involvement in the October 7 attacks.
Ireland's president, Michael D. Higgins, criticized European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's "unconditional support" for Israel, saying she was "not speaking for Ireland." Dublin did not rule out joining the genocide case put forward by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice. "The government wasn't as supportive of Palestine in October, but it has come to better reflect national sentiment," said Perry. According to a poll published on February 2 by the Ireland Thinks institute, 79% of Irish people believe that Israel's military actions in Gaza constituted a genocide.
The memory of British colonization
The colonization of Ireland by the English (in successive waves, starting in the 12th century, then again in the 16th century) plays a central role in Ireland's national narrative, its population identifying with the Palestinians. The plantation system – land confiscated from the Irish, especially in the north of the island – was one of the reasons for the conflict between the occupiers (mostly Protestant) and the occupied population (mostly Catholic) that plagued the island for centuries.
You have 84.14% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.