history

Look Ukraine, I understand nationalism. I know all about North American descendants who call themselves “true patriots” unspoiled by a prolonged and brutal occupation. I know about parades and banner flags, secret societies and fresh faced cold-blooded killers reinvented as fallen heroes in the church basements of sweet little grandmothers. I also know about getting desperate enough to accept the help of Nazis and paying the price. The Irish did all this already. My Catholic great-great grandfather was an Irish nationalist. He sailed his own boat from Donegal to Boston in 1845. He and his brother spent decades rescuing members of their community, after a “famine” which gifted a convenient genocide to their occupiers. Successful Irish descendants in America kept the fire of Irish independence alive for decades. Alas, nationalism itself is an illusion. Sovereignty doesn’t guarantee the future of a thriving culture, that takes work. You either build a thriving culture which sustains itself regardless of where it lands or you don’t. If it falls apart under the weight of religious differences, if it needs a specific stretch of land or language to exist, if you’re killing members of your own family to preserve it – you’ve failed. Viable cultures transcend all that. I own no Irish land, speak no native language and follow no strict religion yet I remain typically Irish. That’s the power of culture and perhaps also hilarious levels of occasional in-breeding. The Donbas region is today your Northern Ireland – let it go. Broker peace and negotiate with Russia. It’s easy, just close your eyes and pretend she’s Great Britain. Eventually, many years from now, you may even win this region back with charm rather than shelling. Ireland’s own demographic shift and Brexit have made reunification far more likely, some now call it inevitable. Still, this could not be achieved with violent conflict. There’s no deal with the Devil that will hurry this kind of thing along. Save yourself the heartache and stop this war. If it’s meant to be it’ll happen but, only when there’s peace.