Must Ireland Be a Clone?

As early as the seventeenth century, there were laments that Ireland was becoming "Sacsa eile darb ainm Eire (another England with the name of Ireland). In the late nineteenth century, Dr. Douglas Hyde (Ireland's first President) gave his influential lecture "The Necessity for De-Anglicizing Ireland". The notion that Ireland is losing its identity or becoming a photocopy of some other country is hardly new.

That's not to say it's not a real concern. In fact, it is a very real concern, and one that concerns me greatly. I doubt a day goes by when I don't think about it.

So I was greatly interested in a recent video by my good friend, Roger Buck, which asked: must Ireland be a clone? (It's a preview of a longer upcoming video.)

I hope you'll watch the video, but here's an exchange I had with Roger in the comments:

Thanks for this, Roger. I one hundred per cent agree with you that Ireland is in danger of being a clone of other countries, especially America. As you know, I'm married to an American and have a profound love of America, but I don't want Ireland to become a clone of anybody. Of course, it's not going to be the best aspects of America we import here (although I would say, since you've mentioned it, that the homeschooling movement originates in America). We are not going to see Bibles in Irish hotel rooms or mainstream Irish politicians invoking God in their speeches or NGOs campaigning for something like the First Amendment to be inserted in our Constitution. It's going to be the entertainment industry and the "progressive" currents in American universities we import here. However, it's very hard to avoid this simply in a negative way. Just trying to avoid American influences would be futile and I wouldn't even want to do it. I could never begrudge, for instance, the influence Star Trek TNG had on my life. I think the better route is to try to promote Irish culture. Especially the Irish language, but also GAA, Irish music, the study of Irish history, and so forth. I'm not sure I entirely agree with you that globalisation is more or less Anglo-Americanisation. In the sphere of cuisine we definitely seem to be taking influences from everywhere. Whether that's a bad thing, I'm not sure. Starbucks coffee culture may have come from Seattle but it's obviously drawing on Italian coffee culture. I think you might be wrong on newspapers sold in Ireland. It seems to me that most are Irish. Tony O'Reilly, who died very recently, said that he got into the newspaper business because it's so insulated from foreign competition, that you could give away foreign newspapers for free and it still wouldn't reduce the demand for Irish newspapers.

To which Roger replied (and I'll give him the last word...for now!):
Maolsheachlann, thank you for your numerous and, as ever, thoughtful comments. As I've said before, even when we disagree, I always find you thoughtful indeed. What you are saying is worked out, rather than cliched or echoing the social media chambers. As usual, I agree and disagree with things here. 

In terms of Irish newspapers, it depends how you tally. There is, of course, the relatively low circulation of local papers and the so-called quality press. But in terms of circulation, the majority of the papers being sold to the nation will be the tabloids which are British in origin. Their circulation is always much bigger than the rest. Also I have said in other videos—if not this very short and fragmentary collection of clips—that Globalisation is not entirely Anglo-American. I mentioned things before like people doing martial arts and eating Chinese food. The New Age involves many Eastern elements, too—such as Yoga and Acupuncture. But Fr. Mich Pacwa once defined the New Age as "a highly-Americanised form of Hinduism". That's a nutshell and nutshells are evidently simplistic, but as nutshells go— *it's not bad*. The New Age is an Americanised version of Eastern things. So although I certainly know about Kung Fu, IKEA, Lidl and yes Italian coffee and obviously a few mosques that will start to be appearing in Ireland, to me it still seems minor compared to Hollywood blockbusters, soap operas, British and American rock, McDonalds, GAFA (Google-Apple-Facebook-Amazon) Disney cartoons. And all the rest. What people will have in their living rooms is not Islam or Chinese philosophy for the most part, but the "philosophy" imported from these . . . 

Moreover, these brands etc. are merely the obvious manifestations of Anglo-Americanisation. Less noticeably, the way things are advertised and marketed in Ireland now resembles the America I grew up in far more than it does anything natively Irish. Modern marketing in general owes far more to America than it does to say France, Germany or Russia. I just want to say that my list of popular brands above is only the most obvious layer. But I can't drill down deeper in this already long response! 

On the other hand, you are very right to point out the many good things from America we are not adopting here. Certainly, it would be good to see Irish politicians invoking God more! And yes many, many positive, uplifting and wholesome aspects of American culture are not being exported here. It is good that you remind us there is a great American world beyond its liberal marketing power. God bless this too-often hidden side of American culture! : - ) And yes we cannot simply avoid American culture. A vigorous Irish culture must be worked for. I truly think, Mal, you can do great things here in years to come. I really mean that. Your real gifts, erudition, passion and clarity of thinking can offer so very, very much, I think.