CHARLES LATVIS,
Sir, - It really has not been an easy war for certain segments of the Irish media. George Bush seduces Tony Blair in the Oval Office with more flair than Bill Clinton. The bombs, darn it, mostly work. The civilians look embarrassingly happy when liberated. The controversy over the so-called prison massacre fizzles out. Even Russia, erstwhile comrade, follows its capitalist nose.
But just when all was thought lost ... Mary Robinson, patronising saint of the Irish secular left, rides in on her UN expense account and leads a chorus of sympathisers for the tortured Taliban of Guantanamo Bay! I always knew Cuba would one day repay the blind, if purely postcarded, faith offered by Europeans over the years.
Only in the shadow of Jean-Paul Gaultier's catwalk have I heard the phrases "orange day-glo" and "chain-link fence" repeated and emphasised with such teary-eyed gusto. I wonder if any self-righteous sympathy could be spared for the other residents of Cuba, devoid of the protection of Geneva and even of some more basic rights; fashion victims not of day-glo but of the Che Guevara and Castro chic.
Post 9-11, being a naïve and easily impressed American is not as easy as it used to be, so I was not completely taken in a couple of months back when Fintan O'Toole, ever the champion of the disenfranchised, roguishly questioned the make-up of the Irish Times boardroom. I truly sympathise that the rather reddish hues of the rainbow coalition are under-represented on the corporate side when compared with their dominance in the newsroom, but I wonder if Mr O'Toole has ever thought to question the representativeness of the paper's editorial board. The overwhelming pro-American response of the plainer people of Ireland seems to merit only one regular champion in these pages. Kevin Myers has dealt with that day and its aftermath with eloquent compassion and common sense, backed only occasionally but with great effect by op-eds and letters. I have read quality papers for too long to expect fair representation of anyone but the quality themselves, but the voracious feeding upon America's wounds by Eddie Holt, Vincent Browne, Dick Walsh, Harry Browne and Mr O'Toole himself honestly surprised me.
Hypocrisy and inconsistency are the two charges which have been levelled most loudly and repetitively at America, but surely our esteemed journalists know these are weapons which almost always leave a powder stain. I never thought Osama bin Laden would merit a place in the hagiography of the Irish Left. I remember less than sympathetic responses to religious fundamentalism of a more native and innocuous kind, when Dana dared to run for Europe, Cardinal Connell tried to do his job, and thousands dared to buy Faith of Our Fathers. Dr Noel Browne and the never-to-be forgotten International Brigade surely would not make room for a religious fundamentalist.
Claims about America's inconsistent foreign policy are legitimate in themselves but the similarly disproportionate attention by the Irish press to America's mistakes points to the true source of this animosity. Starving Afghans are ignored until America can somehow be construed as the cause. Palestinians are wailed for, while Kurds and countless thousands of Africans (remember Somalia?) are ground under the boot. And Cuba, a lovely little military dictatorship, is celebrated as the Disneyworld of the champagne socialists, while Texas is no-go because it executes anyone who does not eat hormone-pumped beef or feed oil to marsh birds.
Why? The truest and oldest Irish art form: begrudgery. The small class that produces your scribes, and perhaps many of your readers, hates the idea that they are the big fish in a small pond. That is why there is a yearning for Europe and a distaste for America. Too many Americans achieve material wealth without the accompanying snobbery and nihilism. Worse yet, some illiterate Irish proletariats have gone off to America and become rich capitalist tools - the dreaded Irish-Americans who put work back into working class and hung on to their oh-so-unprogressive values. Now their descendents return to amble along Grafton Street, distastefully well fed and amicable, sometimes even donning day-glo green, and steadfastly refusing to believe that the Irish are no longer the noble creatures of their imagination. - Yours, etc.,
CHARLES LATVIS,
The Courtyard,
Duleek,
Co Meath.