The Irish Psyche: Against Democracy and Republicanism

Features of Irish Collectivism and Hierarchy

Ethnic groups organise their societies in particular ways according to their group psychological differences. These differences have been outlined by Harry Triandis, who has theorised that societies tend to be Vertical Individualist, Vertical Collectivist, Horizontal Individualist, or Horizontal Collectivist. Certain characteristics tend to correlate such as  hierarchical with collectivist. Similarly, egalitarianism and individualism tend to correlate with each other. While these types are relative and comparative, Irish people and society tend to collectivism and hierarchy in comparison to Germanic peoples who are the most egalitarian and individualistic. This article uses observable cultural features as points of comparison.

This Irish tendency can be seen in Celtic mythology with its prominent themes of kingship and kinship, as well as in the Irish language whereby its verb-subject-object structure indicates that the people who created it have a collectivist nature; that the being, doing, or making is of more primacy than the person involved connotes a hive-like social structure. This feature of Celtic languages contrasts with most other European languages which begin with the subject.

This contrasts particularly with German, where verbs are sometimes placed at the end of sentences. Similarly, it was the Germanic peoples who created and generally adhere to Protestantism, with its egalitarian and individualist nature, while Celts, Latins, and Slavs generally follow the more hierarchical Roman Catholicism or Orthodox, respectively.

Republicanism and Monarchy

Another feature of the Irish language is that it traditionally has no equivalent of the word “Republic”—with the modern word that is used ‘Poblacht’ having only been coined in 1916. Poblacht is derived from pobal which means community, nation, or society, but none of these denote an explicitly egalitarian nature.

At the time of the creation of the Irish Free State, the Welsh-speaking British Prime Minister David Lloyd George asked what word the Irish were going to use for Republic, and when told “Saorstat”, which is the literal compound of Free State, he replied “must we not admit that the Celts were never republicans and have no native word for such an idea”. Republicanism was introduced to Ireland by the Ulster Presbyterian-dominated Society of United Irishmen. Independence movements before this time were led by Gaelic nobility, and subsequently by Jacobites.

By contrast, the German word for polity is gemeinwesen, a compound of the words gemein, an adjective from Old High German gimeini, meaning ‘belonging to one another, in common, universal, belonging to the great body’ and wesen from Middle High German wësen, meaning ‘sojourn, domestic affairs, manner of living, quality, situation’. Gemeinwesen connotes an egalitarian mindset in those who created it.

While many Germanic countries are ostensible monarchies such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Britain, Canada, and Australia; a constitutional monarchy is not a “monarchy” in any meaningful sense, as laws therein are made by a democratically-elected parliament, decisions are taken by an appointed cabinet of ministers, and justice is administered by independent judges. In substance, any of the aforementioned countries are similar to the republics of Germany, Austria, or Iceland. By contrast the Republic of Turkey and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are similar to each other as all powers are concentrated in one person.

Hierarchical Politics and Society

It is no coincidence that it was the first Irish representative political party — the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) — that introduced a “party pledge”, essentially the first party whip in modern politics, or that there has been such a heavy use of the whip system for the duration of Irish politics. This demonstrates that formally introducing a “parliamentary democracy” will not substantially achieve one if it is not suited to the nation. Charles Stewart Parnell’s hierarchical, collectivist leadership of the IPP foreshadowed “democratic centralism”, a policy still practiced by Sinn Féin. It is also the case that Ireland has the weakest local government in Europe with minimal powers relative to central government. The powers that they do have are largely exercised by an appointed chief executive.

Other features of collectivism are an increasingly nationalised civil society whereby political parties receive most of their revenue from the taxpayer, the dominant media is RTE, a tax-funded organisation, while very many NGOs receive most of their funding from the State. Ireland is the only country in Europe that mandates the fluoridation of its public water supply, an unethically illiberal attempt at promoting public health, as well as having had among the harshest Covid lockdowns in Europe.

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was founded and continues to be organised on an amateur, community, and co-operative basis which connotes a collectivist mindset. Another feature of Ireland is the prevalence of “one-off” housing, whereby many people are inclined to build their own house in its own field outside of the compact urban fabric. While this could be taken to represent individualism, this practice is predicated on a large fiscal transfer regarding roads, public transport, electricity, and the postal service which therefore entails a form of collectivism albeit one which contains Irish psycho-spatial unfastidiousness.

Religion

Another feature of the Irish psyche is a closeness between church and State often entailing a compact at the top of society. In Gaelic Ireland, the druids’ counsel was sought on matters of governance, druids and kings were mutually dependent, and religion and governance were intertwined with kings taking part in religious ceremonies to legitimise their rule. This nature would again manifest when Charles Stewart Parnell sought an informal alliance with the Catholic Church, and after Irish independence when the Catholic Church was allowed to manage health and education services. It has morphed into the modern practices of leading politicians ingratiating themselves with the LGBTQ+ cult by introducing gender self-identification, attending “gay pride” events, and funding and being advised by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) focused on identity politics.

Democracy

Democracy is a form which will be rendered by the substance of the people who are practicing it. In sub-Saharan Africa, there traditionally existed a tribal social structure whereby the chief had all power without opposition and could only be removed through force of arms. This continues in contemporary ostensibly democratic republics in Africa, where it takes the form of a president-for-life who may only be removed by means of a military coup.

Substantive representative democracy is a product of Germanic psychology and social organisation. Tacitus described the egalitarian nature of Germanic societies two thousand years ago, and how the entire tribe would deliberate in council. This culture was the basis of the “Things”, with the Althing, the earliest extant parliament having been established in Iceland in 930.  Ancient Gaelic Ireland had no popular law-making assemblies. The closest equivalent was a gathering of notables who modified laws and made decisions.

It is therefore clear that the naturally occurring form of government of the Irish people is hierarchical and that provision should be made for suitable structures which reflect this. Instead of the pretence of democracy, where there actually pertains a powerful executive who is unduly influenced by certain vested interest groups, a suitable alternative would be a corporatist state where all interest groups would formally meet and consensually compromise on policy, with an additional aristocratic layer whereby Gaelic clans could be restored to land ownership.

This could be comparable to the British system of ownership by the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster. Profits from these lands could be beneficial in regard to patronising education, the arts and crafts, and they would be independent of both commerce and the State. The value of an aristocracy is that they would be permanent, patriotic custodians of land, and be able to influence decision-making; they would have the long-term interests of the country at heart. These forms of government would explicitly accord with the Irish hierarchical and collectivist psyche and would therefore produce governance more suited to the nation.