David Campbell: Ireland continues to bury its national head in the sand over the ethnic cleansing of southern Protestants

While Sunday’s National Holocaust Commemorations focussed primarily on the genocide perpetrated by the Nazi regime, mention was also made of other campaigns of genocide and ethnic cleansing since, for example in Bosnia, Rwanda, and recently in Myanmar.

One country which continues to bury its national head in the sand over ethnic cleansing is the Republic of Ireland, and attempts to have it properly examined and addressed traditionally meet with derision and ignorance.

The facts however speak for themselves. At the beginning of the twentieth century the Protestant population of the 26 counties that were to become the Republic of Ireland stood at over 10%.

One century later and that had reduced to 3%. This did not happen by accident but was the result of a campaign of murder, intimidation, and a national policy of discrimination and economic exclusion directed against the Protestant population in general and the remnants of the Irish unionist population in particular.

Most Protestant families with connections in the Republic of Ireland will have personal examples.

A close friend and business colleague of mine recently passed away from cancer at the age of 49. He had grown up in Dublin but left for university in England and never returned. He told of the employment discrimination his father had encountered, and how as a member of the Boys Brigade he was spat at and verbally abused when parading to church (this was the 1970s and 80s).

He further explained that his family had moved to Dublin from Co Cork in the 1920s after their 400 acre farm was stolen from them and the family house was burned down. I tried to persuade him to take a test case for compensation but he was too fearful for the repercussions that might be exacted upon his remaining relatives in Dublin.

Farming families were particularly targeted, a campaign which continued to be waged against protestant farming families in border areas of Northern Ireland during the Troubles and which I believe is still being waged today albeit more subtly.

I recently raised this whole issue on the Nolan Show and was greeted with disbelief and ridicule by the audience.

Why are we expected to deal with legacy issues here when a much larger can of worms remains hidden south of the border? If there is to be a real rapprochement on this island then any new Irish government must address this disgraceful chapter in their national history.

This should begin with a public inquiry inviting families who suffered discrimination and dispossession to register their experiences and their claims and an appropriate restitution fund should be established.