How Trump’s delusional lies about immigrants fuels a deeper worry about Irish schoolbooks…
(Originally published in the Western People on 2024-09-17)
SPHE Families (The Irish Times, 5 Sep. 2024 by Harry McGee)
By any sane assessment, an angry and unprepared Donald Trump lost heavily in the ABC News Presidential Debate on Tuesday night last, against a confident and joyful Kamala Harris. He lied, as he does, forcing factchecks from the moderators and was easily baited by the barbed remarks of his opponent; into ridiculous claims of; his vast crowd sizes; that he had nothing to do with the January 6 attack on the Capital which was the fault of Nancy Pelosi; a migrant crime wave was sweeping the country and Haitians were eating the pets of residents in Springfield, Ohio (the last a crazy lie which normally would have concerned relatives googling costs of nursing homes).
Yet, I will be surprised if Trump receives less than 44 per cent of the national vote in the November election. By polls, almost half of the voting public are willing to overlook the fact that he is the least qualified candidate to be president in generations. They will not vote for a politically moderate, competent and hopeful leader in Kamala Harris and the question should be asked, why not? And why are so many voters identifying as Democrat or Republican, in the same way as diehard Liverpool or Manchester United supporters — where loyalty to the team endures through literally everything?
I received an emailed complaint to my last article (actually to the republishing of it on my weekly blog), complaining that I had unfairly ridiculed MAGA supporters – which to be fair was NOT the point I was making. The writer really wanted me to know that the nefarious liberal agenda of ‘you people’ was now coming to Ireland and soon I would know what it was like to have ‘your country taken away from you’. Unnamed ‘those people’ were using schools to indoctrinate kids into the transgender agenda and ‘hating America’. The writer also wanted me to know that they had voted for ‘you Democrats’ in the past — before the party was taken over by these ‘evil’ people.
I am not a Democrat and my correspondent who signed off ‘A true patriot’ didn’t really seem concerned if I actually was, or if I could be alternately persuaded. Instead, they included a link to an Irish news report of a scheme which they (rather gleefully) claimed ‘has been stopped in Florida’ because the Governor there banned these ‘evil books’ from libraries and schools. I clicked the link… and was indeed shocked by the article.
The Irish Times report of 5 Sep. by Harry McGee, detailed the across-the-political-spectrum outcry over the controversial chapter in a new school book, approved for Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) in secondary schools. The publishers claimed their module was designed ‘help students understand the importance of diversity in our lives [using] exaggeration and hyperbole to convey the nature and effects of inclusion and bias’. But it was the particularly vivid examples that the writers used which drew so much criticism, eventually causing the Educational Company of Ireland to withdraw their chapter and apologise for any hurt inadvertently caused.[1]
The offending piece featured two representative Irish families and asked the young readers to compare and contrast them, while imagining what it would be like living in either. The clearly-to-be-vilified Family A, are crudely lampooned as a country-living, Aran-sweater wearing, potatoes-bacon-and-cabbage-eating traditional family, who love Irish dancing, Irish music, Gaelic games, farming, watch RTE and have parents who do not mix with other religions because they would be a 'bad influence'.
Family B however, loved ‘change and difference’ and are depicted as the hip, modern multicultural family who travel abroad as a ‘great way to meet people and learn about other cultures and societies’. They also love art, music, camping, skiing, volunteering and have parents who believe college does not suit every one and a student should ‘follow a career doing something that we love’. Notably, Family B had but a single Irish attribute beyond their family being described as ‘part Irish’, when mentioning they ‘play hurling, soccer and rugby’. All their other mentioned activities took place outside Ireland. They may as well have lived abroad for all that was depicted of them.
The descriptions of both families were then accompanied by representative illustrations, in scenes which may be described as from a modern-day PUNCH cartoon. While the cool and diversly skin-coloured Family B of ‘Kim’ and ‘Flor’, are posing for a selfie in front of the Roman Colosseum, Family A of ‘Noirín’ and ‘Séan’ are deformed-looking, pale-faced happy eejits in woollen jumpers, posing outside their small thatched cottage. There is little doubt about the understanding behind the entire chapter i.e.; international culture good, Irish culture bad, as per the Ross O'Carroll Kelly books by Paul Howard. If this had been published for British schools, it would immediately have been condemned as overtly anti-Irish and racist, with the added insidiousness of it being included in the mandatory reading material of schoolchildren. It is perhaps illuminative that the Irish-language book version did not originally contain this chapter, which the publishers claimed was due to the translation not being ready. If true, what a happy coincidence that a real-life Noirín or Séan wouldn’t read it.
I had heard unflattering reports of ineptitude about the Minister for Education from teachers, so her refusal to get involved or even comment on the public outcry around the book, was shocking but not surprising. But lost among the denunciations and calls by politicians for a wholescale review of the SPHE programme, was a deeper disquiet.
Aside from what is going on in the minds of the ‘anonymous’ authors, how did this chapter get all the way through the process to being approved, published and included on school curriculum? How did anyone involved think this was in any way ok? And how systemic is this understanding of what modern Ireland should be like? How else is this ‘anti-Irish’ sentiment being expressed in our state and cultural institutions?
All this gave me a small window into the concerns of my Trump-supporting correspondent. They are clearly convinced that there is an embedded, widespread movement within the government, to impose alien values on the next generation of Americans, which is fundamentally at odds with their own beliefs. While I do not share these beliefs, I am also very disquieted by the ferocity and deafness of the culture wars here. Few are willing to listen, understand and accommodate the hopes, dreams and histories of anyone who doesn’t agree completely with them. I now see how many may feel helpless and frustrated with an emerging order which does not care about their views. Yet, it is indeed depressing that a rich sociopath has become their saviour, who claims illegal immigrants are eating the pet cats and dogs of Americans. I do not want find out if an equivalent, populist demagogue in Ireland would insist the same.
[1] Harry McGee, ‘Calls for Curriculum Review After Publisher Pulls Text on Irish Family “Stereotype”’ in The Irish Times, 5 Sept. 2024, sec. Education (https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2024/09/05/calls-for-curriculum-review-after-publisher-pulls-text-on-irish-family-stereotype/).