Strange-looking cove, Francis Stuart, the 97-year-old author who broke cover a couple of weeks back to deny he d ever backed the Nazis.
He wasn t entirely convincing in his RTE interview on January 11th, suggesting that Hitler did a lot for Germany before becoming possessed by spirits of evil . Evil spirits, eh?
The Stuart controversy was positive in that it helped maintain focus on racism and refugees in Ireland. Louis Lentin s documentary No More Blooms had last year forced us to face up to aspects of Ireland s unwelcoming attitude to outsiders , specifically to Jews before and after the Second World War.
Then came the failed attempt to expel Francis Stuart from the arts organisation Aosdana, for remarks he had made on a Channel 4 documentary hosted by Simon Sebag Montefiore. This development had some unfortunate features. Aosdana is a risible organisation, founded by Charles Haughey out of a desire to be seen as a man of enlightenment. Aosdana members call each other Saoi or Wise One .
Compounding the problem, the resolution to expel Stuart was moved by Maire Mhac an tSaoi, who is Conor Cruise O Brien s wife: This wouldn t be relevant if she hadn t demanded to be addressed as Mrs. Cruise O Brien , and if the O Briens hadn t placed the issue in the context of Conor Cruises s better-known, more eccentric concerns.
Commentators and columnists, including a number generally seen as on the Left , rushed to Stuart s defence in the Aosdana dispute. He d engaged with what he d done, and had imaginatively confronted his own role in his writing, it was suggested.
Stuart is by no means the great writer touted by Colm Tsibmn, Anthony Cronin and others. And, contrary to what we ve been told, the autobiographical novel Blacklist: Section H does not, either directly or in the tone and texture of the writing, convey regret for the war-years Stuart spend in Berlin, operating as an occasional propaganda broadcaster for the regime.
Stuart s case aside, it has also been widely suggested that what anti-semitism there has been in Ireland had its roots in a certain innocent ignorance and generalised nervousness of foreigners. Not full-blown anti-semitism, not comparable with the virulent mass hatred staining history in Germany and elsewhere.
Up to a point, this is true, the point being that the matter was never put to the test. Nazism never approached power here. But there is some reason to believe that racism, including its anti-semitic variant, was well-enough woven into the fabric of Irish consciousness to have sustained a Nazi presence here, had conditions facilitated its emergence.
It could hardly have been otherwise in such a self-consciously Christian society, given the hatred of Jews at the heart of Christian tradition. In the writings of the Fathers of the Church as far back as the fourth century, The Jew is a sensual Jew, an obscene, lascivious Jew, a demonic Jew, a money-making Jew, an accursed Jew. He is a murderer of the prophets, a murderer of Christ, a murderer of God. He worships the devil. All Jews are drunkards, whoremasters and criminals . . .
The persecution of Jews wherever Christianity held sway was the obvious practical expression of this furious hostility.
This wasn t a controversial presentation within Christianity. Anti-semitism was to be one of the aspects of Christianity left untouched by the Reformation. At the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946 Julius Streicher, editor of the Nazi paper Der St|rmer, was able to quote reams showing that his journal had carried nothing about Jews which Martin Luther hadn t endorsed.
Little wonder, then, that Jews have long been prominent among those whom it has been socially permissible for Christians to hate.
Here s a more up-to-date quote to end on. It s from last month s edition of Donegal Community News, from Francine Blache-Breen, who was born in the USA and now works for the ICTU s Centre for the Unemployed in Letterkenny.
I live in this country, and particularly this county, because the way of life is preferable to my country of origin . . . But each time I cross the border I run the risk of being stopped by the Gardai and asked to prove my legitimacy . . . I have taken to carrying my passport and marriage certificate with me when merely going for a day s shopping.
Colour seems to be a new problem for this island . . . I find it somewhat ironic that the country that encouraged emigration, legal or otherwise, to the borders of my home country, would stop me solely because I am black. I run the risk of imprisonment and deportation if I cannot produce proper documentation. This targeted patrolling of the border has begun during the European Year Against Racism . . .
Each time I cross the border I must push back the fear that this is the thin end of the wedge. As border controls are nearly non-existent for most of us, it s painful to believe that one is classified along with mad cows as the only creatures being stopped.
My daughter is an Irish citizen. I would hate to believe that she will have to prove this time and time again for the rest of her life. After all, she wouldn t if she were white.
The honourable attitude to adopt to those who come to our shores, whether it s because they fancy the climate or because they don t have free choice, whatever their race or religion and whether fleeing political persecution or driven by economic want, is to say, Welcome, Stay, if you like, Stay here in Ireland.
What reason could there be for saying anything else? n