On Freedom of Speech, Irish Artists Have Betrayed Their Principles
The Irish government will shortly introduce a set of laws designed to exert unprecedented control over what we can and cannot say. I won’t detail the dangers posed by these laws, the suspect motivations behind them, the lie of a “public consultation”, or the disastrous effects such laws have had in other countries. I’ve covered all that elsewhere at length, as have others — have a read if you haven’t already.
One group you expect to hear speaking out against the laws are Irish artists. Our musicians, actors, writers and journalists don’t normally shrink from social commentary. But it seems that no one prominent has anything negative to say about the impending clampdown on civil liberty and freedom of expression. On the contrary, where they are not silent, they are all in favour. How can that be?
Over the past 30 years the Irish media and artistic community bristled loudly and at every opportunity about the historic crimes of the Catholic Church and it’s suffocating grip on what could be said. From Sinead O’Connor ripping up the Pope’s picture to Angela’s Ashes, every thoughtful person understood what the good side of this argument was.
Those events cover a long span of time. Whatever you think of O’Connor, at the time it felt like she was really out on a limb. Gradually it became less of a risk to criticise the church, and more people did it. We arrived at the point where barely anyone notices if Panti dresses up as the Virgin Mary or if a group of pro- gay marriage activists drape Jesus in a rainbow flag.
As we edge into the 2020’s we’re still stuck in that peculiar frame — where artists can swing a punch at the church and feel they have hit on a significant target but feel completely safe doing so. It seems they’re more content to fight the wars of the oppression past than that of the present. If you walk around Dublin you will still see shops with “Yes for Equality” stickers in the windows and people in Repeal the 8th T-shirts, like the apocryphal Japanese soldiers lost in the Jungle, still fighting a war that’s over. Everyone gets to feel good about their role as a freedom fighter, without the risk of a living enemy who can hit back. That is the Irish artistic community in a nutshell.
In one sense the unwillingness of anyone to speak out on the subject of Hate Speech laws is understandable. Perhaps they do have concerns, but have watched the disintegration of Graham Linehan’s career and have been cowed by that example. You may not be a fan of the man but he has stood up for what appear to be an old-fashioned lefty value (women’s safety) and as a result now finds himself permanently outside polite society. People care about their social standing and are scared of losing it by speaking out.
That may be the motivating factor in some cases. Sadly though, it seems many are genuinely enthusiastic about the prospect of these laws and anxious they land as smoothly as possible. Here, for instance, is Christy Moore urging people to counter-protest an anti- hate-speech demo. It must be hard for people who love his music to see that when it comes to the crunch, he’s a stage rebel and no more thoughtful or well-informed about what’s happening in society than the average dozy backbench TD. Artists were queuing up to endorse gay marriage, abortion and even the repeal of blasphemy laws, but are silent on this subject. The common theme is that they are happy to prop up the status quo while pretending to buck it.
Maybe something good will come out of this. The bitter, loveless busy-body parish priest has become a worn archetype in Irish art. The artist whinging about the oppressive legacy of the church at every opportunity has become a cliché of its own. This is an opportunity to retire both of them. Let’s never again hear laments about a time in Irish life where everyone’s behaviour had to be held against the standard of the most pious, and where enforcers of the orthodoxy were everywhere, in official and unofficial capacities and unafraid to act. That time does exist, not 50 years ago, but now, today, and no one has a fucking thing to say about it. So shut up about the bloody church.
If the Irish media and artistic community sincerely care about artistic freedom and freedom of expression, if it was ever anything more than a pose, the time to speak up in defence of those things is now. You want to talk about oppression? With hate speech laws, real, tangible oppression is here. An apparatus of social control is being introduced such as no critic of the catholic church will have had to contend with in quite some time. So if you want to fight, there’s a real target. Throw a punch and show us how brave you are.
