Intelligencer

Opposing Irish Aid For Katrina

The level of vitriol in Ireland attacking the Irish government’s decision to send $1 million in aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina has been truly unbelievable.

According to his recent Irish Times column Vincent Browne, one of Ireland’s best-known journalists, would have refused to send any money or other assistance from the Irish government to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The reasons he quoted were that America is a rich enough country and because of their involvement in the Iraq war.

That is an interesting logic, especially given the fact that at least 100,000 of those displaced by the hurricane have incomes of less than $8,000 a year and are in desperate need, so much so that 115 countries responded to their plight and sought to help where they could.

In addition, the indigent and homeless poor of New Orleans have as much to do with the Iraq war as Rwandan refugees had to do with genocide. A tide of human suffering is similar wherever it occurs.

More on Anti-Americanism

The Irish money of $1 million was, of course, a token gesture, but one deeply appreciated by a country which in a very rare moment found itself in a time of need.

It seems Vincent Browne and other leading journalists would rather that Ireland, with perhaps the closest cultural, historical and political ties of all to the U.S., was not one of those countries that contributed. He is once again exhibiting the reflexive anti-Americanism which has become such a part and parcel of the Irish intelligentsia.

Under the Bush era this anti-Americanism has reached its zenith. Now it seems that even desperate hurricane victims should be made feel the cold lash of Irish disapproval.

In their rush to the moral high ground Browne and others have angered many Irish Americans deeply. Most Irish Americans are becoming very tired with the anti-American slant, especially the spurious refrain that somehow the Irish attitude is not anti-American, but anti-George W. Bush.

If it continuously quacks like a duck then it likely is a duck. When helpless hurricane victims can be lumped in with this administration and its policies, it really is time for a rethink on both sides of the Atlantic.

Anti-Irishism?

If this Irish attitude were applied in reverse it would have some interesting consequences.

Irish media have quite rightly trumpeted the fact that by some criteria Ireland is the second most affluent country in the world.

Let’s assume a virulent strain of anti-Irishism suddenly begins to flourish in America. Using the Browne logic, all American aid and support for Ireland would immediately stop.

The International Fund for Ireland which has dispensed over Œ603 million on 4,850 projects to foster cross border peace and reconciliation projects would be immediately ended. The American taxpayer has higher priorities than funding peace efforts on the wealthy and tiny island of Ireland.

Likewise, the private initiative known as the American Ireland Fund, which has raised over $115 million in a spectacular fundraising drive in the past few years, would immediately stop funding projects the length and breadth of Ireland. Thousands of small, voluntary organizations would be deeply affected, but the point would be made.

Like the American Ireland Fund, the U.S./Ireland Alliance, and the Irish American Partnership, not to mention the Ireland Chamber of Commerce USA and the Ireland-U.S. Council, could all immediately shut up shop on the grounds that the Irish are rich enough to take care of themselves.

Individual philanthropists such as Charles Feeney, who has single-handedly played a major role in revitalizing third level education in Ireland through personal donations close to $1 billion, could find somewhere else to put their funds.

Likewise, the Taoiseach’s Economic Advisory board, a group of influential Irish American businessmen and women, could immediately end their advisory role. Last week in New York, Bertie Ahern paid fulsome tribute to their considerable assistance in bringing jobs and economic opportunity to Ireland.

Under the Browne criteria they would immediately disband — after all Ireland is so rich now it does not need their help, and they are merely another arm of the Great Satan.

No Help on Peace Process?

Of course, taking the argument a little further, on the political front the assistance on issues such as the peace process might be curtailed on the grounds that Ireland is rich enough to solve its own problems.

The contributions of men like former President Bill Clinton and Senator George Mitchell, the hard work and decency of the special envoys appointed by President George W. Bush, would be better served by directing their energies elsewhere.

Likewise, Senator Edward Kennedy’s current efforts to find a way to make thousands of Irish undocumented legal could be set aside.

It seems whatever the U.S. does for Ireland it is never acknowledged there by some. Even the heartbreaking scenes from Hurricane Katrina are not enough to disturb the orthodoxy as outlined by Vincent Browne that nothing in America should ever be offered assistance, not even the poor and the desperate in their hour of need.

It is a mean-spirited and myopic attitude that everything American is bad, that the homeless and helpless can be included in that, and that Ireland has no obligation at all to help in dire times of need.

Americans deserve better than that from their oldest friends.