Ever since November – the knife attack in Parnell Square, Dublin, and the subsequent riots – it seems a rather dark atmosphere was unleashed on Irish streets. The causes might have been building for a long time but it takes something to ignite the tinderbox. We have, of course, seen events with some echoes of this in England this week, with a slew of violent riots triggered by the murder of three young girls in Southport last Monday. It is hard to skirt around the grim sense that something profound has changed. If the path to restoring a sense of ease to these communities was obvious it would have been taken by now.
With all of that in mind it feels particularly frivolous to be glued to the Olympics – a master device for head-in-the-sand, fingers-in-the-ears distraction. On Monday evening I watched a Swede beat the pole vaulting record and didn’t think to follow the BBC live-stream about the violence taking hold on the streets closer to home. The fraying social fabric of England should not, I don’t think, detract from such an absurd feat of human physicality (clearing 6.25 metres! Nearly a metre higher than a giraffe on the tall end of the spectrum). I was surprised to find the discus as compelling as I did too.
France is a country long pestered by civil unease. Recently the right has made gains at the ballot box and the left has formed a nervous and unhappy coalition to keep them at the gates. The country has been beset by frequent and tragic terrorist attacks. Racial agitation is a common feature in the nation’s cities. A disaffected working class that feels left behind by the metropolitan centre manifested itself in the gilets jaunes and their civil disobedience – reaching an apogee in 2019.
But the Olympics have reminded us how great France really is. The Games have been a defiant – if temporary – rebuff to the narrative of France as a hopelessly fractured nation, a place permanently locked in a war between a truculent populace and a disaffected and imperious elite. Plenty can be said about the power of sport to unite people; about the gentler and de-fanged nationalism it encourages; about the celebration of universal values like fairness and hard work. Clichés only end up as clichés because they are true. The Paris Olympics proves it once again.
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The Olympic Games have challenged the narrative of France as a hopelessly fractured nation
Paris is perhaps the world’s most recognisable city. Beach volleyball held in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower was an inspired design choice. The equestrian events in the grounds of Versailles were a reminder of France’s aristocratic then revolutionary tradition. Even the dreary convoy of boats down the Seine – parading the athletes in the rain in the opening ceremony – managed to command some of that French majesty. Surfing in Tahiti, French Polynesia, is a reminder of how vast France’s imperial influence once was. The 2024 games writ large is a reminder of how vast its cultural influence still is.
And Ireland has taken to it all very well led by Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy in the double sculls, Kellie Harrington in the boxing, Daniel Wiffen in the swimming and Rhys McClenaghan in the breakout event of the year, the pommel horse. And that is just the golds. The Irish Tricolour has been all over the games. There is a sense of overall excellence – perhaps for the first time; a sense that Ireland as a country – not just its individual athletes – has shown up and participated. Perhaps France’s republican games suit us.
London 2012 was perhaps the last time the Games were this positive. And the context is not dissimilar. The summer before London had been set ablaze in a slew of violent and large scale riots. The country was ill at ease, nervous about an undertaking as significant as the Olympics. Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony might have been twee but it will be remembered. And the Games returned a sense of civic nationalism back to a country still licking its wounds from the summer prior.
We might hope a similar salve is offered to France. The outset of the Games, we shouldn’t forget, was defined by the arson attack across French railway infrastructure. The Olympics is not a panacea. And France – almost by design – is a country unlikely to find perfect and cloudless harmony. But perhaps this might just bandage up some of the worst fault lines for the time being.
The national slogan (liberte, egalite, fraternite), the triumphant Marseillaise, the tricolour: all symbols of the great republican values of France, all on display across these Games. The Paris Olympics goes further than offering hope for a temporary fix to an unhappy country. It proves that any nation with such a strong commitment to its history and principles can weather the storm posed by unrest and civil tension. That is a lesson worth heeding.