Quite simply, we define ourselves as nationalists. To be more specific we define ourselves as ethnic nationalists, although we do not consider it necessary to use the exact term ethnic nationalism on a regular basis as we know that all other forms of nationalism which use a modifier before the word itself are totally illegitimate and we do not consider them nationalism whatsoever. To explain it simply: ethnic nationalism is the only nationalism that exists. The word nation itself is from the original Latin natio meaning “birth, origin; breed, stock, kind, species; race of people, tribe’’. Hence it is not actually necessary to use the term ethnic nationalism as the concept of ethnicity is already covered in the word nationalism itself. The only reason we use it here is to differentiate ourselves from the illegitimate and purposefully subversive concept of civic nationalism, which is of minor relevance in Ireland today but still somehow explicitly claimed by certain foolish individuals.
The term civic nationalism gained prominence when a Jew by the name of Hans Kohn published his book The Idea of Nationalism in 1944. Wherein he propounded his idea of civic nationalism as defining the nation not by race or ethnicity but by shared political values, laws, and citizenship. Membership of Kohn’s alleged “nation’’ is voluntary and inclusive and based on allegiance to a common political system. We reject this idea and consider it rootless cosmopolitan nonsense, and indeed a purposeful Jewish attempt at subverting the meaning of nationalism.
One is born an Irishman, he may not like it, he may love it, he may be the worst bastard you’ve ever met or the greatest living man on Earth, but he can never escape his birth, it is not voluntary. We may despise the traitors and those who are of our stock yet deny and denigrate our heritage and culture, but we only despise them because deep down we know their existence is bringing shame upon the nation precisely because they are of us.
We know that the true and only meaning of nationalism is based on race and ethnicity. Ireland is only Irish insofar as it remains Gaelic. The only reason that the old invaders: the Norse, the Norman and the Anglo, were eventually able to consider themselves and be accepted as Irishmen is because their Western European racial stock is the very same stock that our unique Gaelic ethnic group descends from. That is the only reason that the Normans were able to be described as “more Irish than the Irish themselves”, they blended in so well due to the fact we are both from the same racial stock, and once they adopted our Gaelic culture and language they were almost identical to the Gaels. Can any man seriously and honestly tell himself that a Chinaman, a Nigerian or an Arab could ever possibly be “more Irish than the Irish themselves’’ no matter how fluent he becomes in our native tongue and no matter how many GAA matches he’s been to. This ridiculous concept is never even so much as entertained for a single second by any right-thinking Irishman, only a pathetic and duped fool would consider such nonsense.
Detractors of nationalism, mainly leftists, will often claim that nationalism is “hateful” based on its objective exclusion of the foreigner. We say that any specific emotion towards the foreigner, be it positive or negative, is an entirely separate issue from nationalism itself. Nationalism is not an ideology in and of itself, it is the default natural disposition of the mentally healthy individual. It is completely natural and intuitive to know and understand that one has a special obligation towards one’s own people, just as one understands this fact regarding their own family.
An Irish nationalist is free to have the most fervent hatred of the foreigner, or he may be indifferent to the foreigner. He may even claim to have a spiritual and universalist love of all people, so long as he understands that he has a special and particular love and obligation towards his own people. Just as one has a particular love and obligation towards his own immediate family, which is not shared towards his neighbour, the “universalist” in this context merely needs to understand that he has a unique obligation towards his own people that can never be superseded by some false belief in an obligation towards all of humanity, such an idea is contemptible and unnatural. That is the kind of vile concept that would lead to treason.
Arthur Griffith wrote on similar concepts in his preface for John Mitchel’s Jail Journal. I will quote him in full here and embolden the most relevant parts to our discussion, we in Clann Éireann agree with every word.
“Mitchel has been explained as one who merely hated England, and apologised for as a good man unbalanced by the horrors he witnessed. Even his views on negro-slavery have been deprecatingly excused, as if excuse were needed for an Irish Nationalist declining to hold the negro his peer in right. When the Irish Nation needs explanation or apology for John Mitchel the Irish Nation will need its shroud.
…
The right of an Irish Nationalist to hold and champion any view he pleases, extraneous to Irish Nationalism, is absolute. The right of the Irish to political independence never was, is not, and never can be dependent upon the admission of equal right in all other peoples. It is based on no theory of, and dependable in no wise for its existence or justification on the “Rights of Man,” it is independent of theories of government and doctrines of philanthropy and Universalism. He who holds Ireland a nation and all means lawful to restore her the full and free exercise of national liberties thereby no more commits himself to the theory that black equals white, that kingship is immoral, or that society has a duty to reform its enemies than he commits himself to the belief that sunshine is extractable from cucumbers.
Against all effort to limit the liberty of the Irish Nationalist to think for himself—to sew on to the doctrine of Ireland’s national independence a tale of obligation to the world at large—or rather the sentimentalist world at large—John Mitchel is the superb protest.”
Culture is downstream from ethnicity and homeland, our culture is essentially the way in which our unique ethnic group interacts and lives within our unique landscape, thus comes the famous term “blood and soil’’, a term we happily accept. We are blood and soil nationalists, we are ethnic nationalists, simply put we are Irish Nationalists. To be an Irish Nationalist is to act with an all-embracing and boundless love for the people, to be convinced that there is nobility within our people, and if necessary, to kill and die for the people.
– Caleb Ó Muireadhaigh
