At what stage did Fianna Fβil become a multicultural party? The moment slipped my notice, but it occurred. At least it must have done, because the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (ah, the sheer beauty of it!), John O'Donoghue, told the UN conference against racism in Durban - and what a splendid use of resources that's turned out to be - that the Government intended to promote an awareness of the benefits of a diverse and multicultural society.
So Fianna Fβil, the architects and defenders of a Constitution which merely acknowledges the language we all speak, and in which this column is written, as "a second official language", have apparently decided that all cultures on earth have parity in this new, singing and dancing multicultural Ireland. Because that's what multiculturalism means: it means parity for all cultures, parity for all languages, parity for all ethical systems, parity for all art forms, parity for all laws; and in particular, esteem for none.
Same respect
Thus it means, for example, that the Government will accord the Winston Churchill God Save the Queen, F**k the Pope Lost Tribe Of Israel Rastafarian Pipe and Steel Band (Popular Front) the same respect as it accords the Chieftains. It means the Government favours no culture or language or tradition over any other. In other words, it's just plain neutral.
We know this isn't so, certainly not with Fianna Fβil at the helm, and with all eminent visitors to this country being Riverdanced until they're squealing for mercy and offering to give us Tibet, anything, anything, but please, please not another bout of those twinkling toes, those clicking heels, those winsome smiles. Which is how it should be. Regardless of the merits of showcase culture, such events stand as icons of broader and largely unspoken artistic and social values.
A society which doesn't cherish its own culture abandons one of the essential glues of its existence. This doesn't mean intolerance; quite the reverse. A culture which welcomes new influences from outside usually enriches itself. What would the Book of Kells be without the artistic interchange between Pict, Irish, Northumbrian and even Viking? What would Riverdance have been without the American influences, which in turn derive from the clog-dances of Lancashire and the syncopations of Africa? No culture is pure, no musical form unadulterated.
Planxty were sometimes at their best with Bulgarian music, and the collisions of different cultures have been brilliantly celebrated by the Chieftains; but neither group abandoned the steadying form of Irish tradition, which gave a context to other people's music. In all cultures, there are great continuities which are worth cherishing. This is why in any society an indigenous culture should be respected above incoming cultures.
Cultural norms
A truly multicultural society gives equal respect to all cultures; and in doing that, it respects none. This is not playing with words, but giving them meaning. For if we are to be a "multicultural society", why should immigrants not expect the State to enforce their own cultural norms? Why, say, should a group of Muslims not try to get a particular advertisement withdrawn because it was against Islamic teaching, as happened last year? In a truly multicultural society, they would have a point; because in a truly multicultural society, everyone has a veto over everyone else's artistic and social expectations. True multiculturalism ultimately means no culture at all.
The primary cultural prerequisite in any civilised society is tolerance - tolerance of others' ways, of their music, of their arts; and a willingness to import whatever riches they bring. It doesn't mean there's only gold in other people's artistic luggage .
For example, other cultures presumably must have the equivalent of that peculiarly Irish abomination, the showband: and the only thing one might learn from the existence of that particular cultural artefact is how to put a machine-gun to good effect.
Moreover, there is no single "culture" in Ireland. The music of Darndale is not the music of Dingle; what is cherished in Rathfarnham is probably never even heard in Ring. So what we have is a broad band of co-existing tolerances, which presumably will get broader as people of different cultures arrive.
But how tolerant are we of difference? What is so intolerable about Fine Gael that most Fianna Fβilers would rather go into coalition with Sinn FΘin? How much intermarriage occurs between the two main parties? Do they even invite each other to their weddings and christenings? And given this almost impermeable social and sexual wall between two groups of white, monophone, Catholic Caucasians (with a couple of Jews and Protestants thrown in), all sharing a single national identity within the same territory, how will we treat newcomers who look, sound, smell, act and worship so completely differently from us?
Orange march
If you remember the furore last year about a proposed Orange march one hundred yards down a single Dublin street, you might be forgiven some amused scepticism over our beloved Minister's description of Ireland as a "multicultural society". But maybe he didn't intend to be taken seriously; for he also said our Republic was based on principles of liberty, equality and fraternity, which is also good for a chortle. For what equality and fraternity are possible when nearly a quarter of the entire adult population are functionally illiterate?
And has he even tried telling these people, enduring lives of chronic under-achievement in vast, dispiriting State-created townships, about the forthcoming joys of multiculturalism, when they can't even spell it?