I think people don’t realise enough - and I say this as a native Englishman- that truly the English saw the Irish as a white overseer saw a black African-American enslaved person.
During the troubles, the English army would casually execute pregnant women, nursing mothers, children… for fun.
It was a sick obsession with power and “race” supremacy.
People nowadays have new targets: immigrants, LGBT+, progressives etc. But at one point in time, the Irish were one such group, surrounded by harmful stereotypes. They’re fully justified in being wary of the British even to this day.
Moreover, you just need to see what people did to the Irish to imagine where all modern nationality anti immigrant rhetoric can go
I think people don’t realise enough - and I say this as a native Englishman- that truly the English saw the Irish as a white overseer saw a black African-American enslaved person.
During the troubles, the English army would casually execute pregnant women, nursing mothers, children… for fun.
It was a sick obsession with power and “race” supremacy.
People nowadays have new targets: immigrants, LGBT+, progressives etc. But at one point in time, the Irish were one such group, surrounded by harmful stereotypes. They’re fully justified in being wary of the British even to this day.
Moreover, you just need to see what people did to the Irish to imagine where all modern nationality anti immigrant rhetoric can go