February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
When the Socialist Workers’ Party took time off from campaigning against President Bush, Israel and McDonald’s the other day to get involved in GAA matters, we knew Sargent’s bizarre request of four years ago was about to be put in the shade. So it proved, as the SWP (sounds like a brand of car oil) called for the Cork county board to ban supporters from waving the Confederate Flag at matches. You’d think that with all the problems in Irish society they would have more important issues to be dealing with, but obviously not.
“We know the county colors are red and white, but it’s unfortunate one of the flags being flown is the Confederate flag from America,” said Joe Moore, a spokesman for the SWP. “It represents the promotion of racism and slavery, but Ireland is a multicultural society and such symbols should not be on display. Cork is the Rebel County, but the name comes from the fight for national independence. The rebel flag comes from a totally different context where people in the U.S. were protecting slavery.”
We’re surprised that the SWP even know that the Cork colors are red and white, because Moore is seriously incorrect when he asserts that the rebel county name comes from the fight for national independence. As has been pointed out quite often in the past, most eloquently by Professor John A. Murphy, the rebel Cork tag is actually derived from the county siding with the Yorkists against the English crown at the conclusion of the War of the Roses back in the 15th century.
Even allowing for the innate Cork hubris, one of the great sights on the GAA landscape is the City End at Pairc Ui Chaoimh when the county’s hurlers or footballers are playing at home, or the “City End on tour” as it’s known once it arrives en masse in Semple Stadium or Croke Park or Fitzgerald Stadium. Amid the riot of color, flags and emblems are waved that have nothing to do with the county (Ferrari flag anyone?) but add greatly to the pageantry. From Poland to Canada to Japan, any version of the red and white will do, and while the confederate flag has long been a regular feature, so too has a banner with the hammer and sickle on it.
Does this mean the Cork supporters are trying to revive communism, a political ideology under which an estimated 50 million people were murdered? I don’t think so. I think it’s more about fans wanting to add a bit of variety to the color scheme on the terrace on a summer Sunday. And if the SWP are so irate about the confederate flag, should they not then be equally tough on the hammer and sickle, not to mention the Japanese rising sun, a flag that has horrific associations with Japan’s imperialist and militaristic past?
Hell, there are plenty of people in Quebec who resent the Canadian Maple Leaf and call it “the red rag”. Who will speak for them in Croke Park next weekend? The SWP?
Notwithstanding the fact there is a legitimate debate in the Southern states of the U.S. about the Confederate battle flag being a symbol of a much wider heritage than just slavery, nobody disputes the flag is regarded as offensive by African Americans. However, a symbol can surely only offend when it’s being used in a political context. Is there not a huge difference between a Cork fan waving the flag at a game in Thurles and a KKK member hoisting it at a rally in Tuscaloosa?
To put it another way, suppose a student from the University of Tennessee spent a term studying at Queens’ University, Belfast. Suppose during his time there he was tempted to buy the flag of the Orange Order to bring home with him. After all, the Tennessee gridiron team wear orange (their fans are called the Orange Nation) and it would be a perfectly good accessory for this guy to bring to matches involving his college.
So, were I to spot the Orange Order flag at the 104,000-seater stadium in Knoxville, would I be calling for it to be removed because it offends me as a Catholic and a nationalist? I wouldn’t, because I wouldn’t be in the slightest bit bothered. I would find it hilarious to see one man’s symbol of loyalism being used to support a university football team.
The really funny thing here is that the Socialist Workers’ Party are, even for a second, being taken seriously by anybody. These are a tiny bunch of fringe activists who subscribe to a failed political belief system and whose chief raison d’etre appears to be anti-capitalism. They claim to be the most active party on Irish college campuses and that sums up exactly what they are: the sort of loony left operation that sucks in na