Culture wars are on the rise in Ireland- with educational settings at the centre
By James Kemmy (News Editor)
The culture war phenomenon, something typically seen in American political debate, has been largely absent from Irish public discourse - up until now, that is. Generally described as a feature of contemporary social dialogue, ‘cultural’ clashes involve deep polarisations over issues rooted in identity and see ideological struggles between groups with seemingly incompatible values.
These divisions are often uniquely modern as they disregard traditional political factors such as class structure and party alignment in favour of more complex, emotive criteria like religion, multiculturalism, perceptions of freedom, gender and sexuality. While a certain vagueness surrounds the precise definition of this term, recent events in Ireland have highlighted just how divided political outlooks are and appear to suggest the increasing prominence of the culture war here.
Emerging from the Covid era with its vaccine and lockdown controversies, came the major politicisation of public health strategy. Initially seen in the US and Britain, a highly contentious environment took root in relation to pandemic decision-making. A brutal dilemma faced politicians as they sought to minimise the virus’s incidence rate on the one hand and maintain a degree of economic and social life on the other. This area of policymaking fiercely divided groups, with the beliefs and convictions of either side seemingly going beyond opinion on pandemic management to a question of wider worldviews over the role of the state in society. So steadfast were anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine campaigners, undoubtedly radicalised by internet conspiracy, that they often portrayed governments as sinister and even oppressive, determined to encroach upon citizens’ liberties.
This nature of debate could also be seen in the wake of the US Black Lives Matter movement. In this situation, searing clashes between protestors and counter-protesters revealed deep-rooted tensions surrounding police authority and racial justice which had been simmering for years. Something which mushroomed into a media and political storm, the BLM discussion saw the US’s political wings diverge even further, leading to unprecedented institutional partisanship and extraordinary civil fragmentation.
As is often the case, sentiment in the political arenas of our two largest neighbours gradually comes to influence Irish public debate. And so, the hallmarks of the culture war phenomenon can be seen in recent Irish developments, most notoriously through Enoch Burke’s religious compulsion and what he believes to be the essential defence of free speech against ‘transgenderism’. An evangelical Christian, Burke has ferociously sought to defend his faith-based principles in an increasingly secular society.
While the politicisation of trans people is not necessarily new, it has only recently been explicitly demonstrated in an Irish context. Burke seems to view himself as a martyr in this fight however and having gained an inflated national profile from constant media coverage, will probably only further encourage extremists and ingrain social division á la the culture war paragon.
Similarly, hardcore anti-immigrant rhetoric was relatively fringe in Ireland until lately. With the mobilisation of large, nativist demonstrations in deprived areas however, the likes of Graham Carey and Wayne Bradley have pushed public opinion to more extreme places and triggered a debate around national values. Seen recently in working-class parts of Dublin such as Drimnagh, Ballymun and East Wall, but also outside the capital in Fermoy and Mullingar, have been inflammatory gatherings of anti-asylum seeker groups. Furthermore, these groups have proclaimed that they speak for a silent majority, with one banner at a recent march in Dublin city stating their cause speaks for 90% of Irish people. Undoubtedly, these developments have challenged the cultural perception of Ireland as ‘the land of a thousand welcomes’.
The nation’s chronic housing crisis has undoubtedly exacerbated the immigration issue. As the domestic population struggles to get onto the property ladder, disillusionment and anger has been levelled at the State’s allocation of emergency and temporary accommodation to migrants. However, such animosity is often more so ideological and part of a wider international trend of far-right populism. Seen in Trump’s anti-Mexican and anti-Muslim bombasts as well as Nigel Farage’s ‘breaking point’ analogies during the Brexit campaign, a global movement hostile to multiculturalism has unmistakably formed. This, and its inevitable countermovement of liberal, pro-diversity groups is a typical example of the culture war.
Interestingly, educational environments, universities in particular, are often at the heart of these kinds of clashes. That is not to say they are responsible for initiating such division, but that they are settings where impassioned voices converge and attract such types of debate given their intellectual basis. As reactionary and fundamentalist forces gain traction in Ireland, it is likely that educational institutions and the values they espouse will become more consequential.
In the case of Enoch Burke for instance, the school environment in which the legal controversy arose raises questions of young peoples’ right to gender identity expression. In this situation, the age factor, and the fact that schools are a place where moral principles are supposed to be developed, gives the matter a heightened sense of contention.
The gender controversy is also reflected in the recent confrontation between the Scottish and Westminster executives. Here the Scottish Parliament’s ratified ‘Gender Recognition Reform Bill’ sparked a fierce battle of values between politicians and voter groups, ultimately being blocked by the UK Government on the grounds of threatening womens’ spaces and concerns over the legislation’s application to 16- and 17-year-olds. A major supporter of the trans community in this battle however were university students across the UK.
Historically viewed as bastions of liberalism, with a more modern perception of having strictly progressive or even ‘woke’ values, third level institutions are at the forefront of culture wars. There is now an increasing sense that political correctness was the pre-cursor to ‘wokeness’, an all-encompassing liberal outlook apparently exemplified in universities.
Most prominent in the US, the classical ideal of free speech has been seen to clash with new efforts to repudiate hateful rhetoric in universities. Such a debate has witnessed certain figures rise to the status of campus and social media sensation- most notably Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and his campaign to expose what he sees as ‘cultural Marxism’ pervading colleges. According to Peterson, this term describes a sinister academic agenda that seeks to police speech and impose a rigid equality of outcome in a manner hostile to Western values.
Although still relatively emergent in Ireland, there are indicators that opinion on salient social issues is significantly polarised along lines of educational attainment and age. For instance, drug and sex work decriminalisation debates are predominantly student-led and can generate moral controversy around the reform of current legal norms.
Garnered by Hollywood’s ‘Me Too’ movement meanwhile, came difficult conversations regarding sexual assault and rape culture. Universities in Ireland have been very vocal in this area, with UCC’s ‘Bystander Intervention’ programme serving as an educational tool for understanding consent and outlining how citizens can become more proactive in situations of harassment. Despite this positive reform, ‘lad culture’ persists, with its backlash claiming that behaviour in social settings is becoming excessively policed and that young men are being stringently targeted and castigated for their actions.
Ultimately, all of these social quandaries fit the culture war label. The main commonality between them is that their style of debate is wholly reductive and based in ideological furore, devoid of nuance or tolerance. Because of the myopia adopted by the instigators of culture wars, there is very little room for common ground. As these conflicts accelerate and become more mainstream, our social fabric will be challenged and rigorous, reasoned debate must be promoted.
