A Letter from Ireland
a Chara,
This week, I got sent a very funny message. It was an Irish folk song with a photo that looked like an obscure 1970s folk album. The singing was pitch-perfect. The tune was strong, but the words were very funny relating to a friend of mine and their *ahem* “misadventures”.
It was AI-generated, but for a moment I thought, “How is this real ??”.
If something this trivial could be so convincing, how can we divine the real from the made-up? Are we at a point where we can’t believe anything that we see, hear or read online?
On any given day, I can go online and be told that Ireland is full, that Irish Culture is being lost, that we are on the verge of Sharia law being imposed and that Ireland is on fire. None of this is true. I could call it fake news, but even that term has been rendered meaningless.
I have always been cynical about what is referred to as mainstream media. I grew up as an Irish republican in Belfast. We were censored, marginalised and reduced to caricatures. We were described as savages. The image of my community in the media was not the community that I knew.
It is right to challenge media bias, but social media is not a counterweight. It carries the same bias with the added problems of being largely unregulated. If a so-called “citizen journalist” is asking for donations and/or receiving payment from online platforms, they are a business.
In common with any business, they will bend their product to what their customers want. That is not journalism. It is the point at which profit and propaganda meet.
In today’s networked world, a lie is halfway around the world before the truth gets out of bed.
Last year, Sky News, using X’s own data, found that 55% of all posts using the hashtag “Ireland is full” originated in the US, 28% in Ireland, 8% from Britain and the balance from across the globe. Remembering that X is not representative of Ireland but of its users and is an uninformed echo chamber.
Some may claim that I am living in denial, but I am not. I am living in the Ireland of today. A vibrant, diverse and changing Ireland with a resilient, deep and shared culture of language, music, sports and literature. A home where cead mile failte is a cherished value.
Immigration is not a problem; I meet the sons and daughters of Irish immigrants in the US and Canada all the time. Generations that shaped their new homes and are proud of their Irish heritage.
The issue in Ireland is that government policy is failing immigrants and society as a whole. It can and should be fixed. We can build homes for all in need, regulate immigration and share our culture.
I tend to question all media equally, print, radio, TV or online and balance it against my own lived experience.
I suppose if you truly believe that Ireland is full, you will not be thinking of seeing for yourself, as there would be no room in the inn.
But I would say, come to Ireland, see for yourself and celebrate our culture with us.
Have a great weekend,
