Ireland has long been one of Europe’s most outspoken supporters of the Palestinians. In the latest development, the Irish government has joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. While Ireland cloaks its crusade in righteous indignation over the suffering of the oppressed, closer examination of their own dubious origins reveals why the Palestinian cause is so dear to Irish hearts. The present claimants to Irish indigeneity are, in fact, interloper populations who migrated to Ireland, drove out the local inhabitants, and then proceeded to co-opt their cultural identity.
For centuries, the Anglo-Saxons worked systematically to conquer and dominate Ireland. Beginning in the late 12th century and intensifying under the Tudors and Stuarts in the 16th and 17th centuries, they implemented brutal policies to suppress the Gaelic Irish. Land was seized and laws were put in place to weaken Irish identity. The Gaelic language was discouraged, while Irish customs and religious practices were ridiculed and repressed.
But the greatest affront to Ireland was the subsequent appropriation of the country’s native culture and nationalistic spirit. Once the conquest of Gaelic Ireland was completed with the Flight of the Earls, the new elites began to romanticize Irish folklore, music, symbols like the shamrock, and religious figures such as St. Patrick. The mythologized campaign aimed to create a new cohesive Irish ethnic nationalism, independent of Great Britain. The ultimate insult was that the very identity the original Irish had fought to preserve was now being co-opted and celebrated, but in a way that removed its political and historical significance. The newcomers had taken what they once tried to erase and sinisterly made it their own.
And so, the Republic of Ireland’s support for Palestine should come as no surprise. Just like the original Gaelic Irish, the Jewish people trace their origins back over 3,000 years in the land of Israel, with continuous communities remaining even after most were exiled by the Romans. Despite centuries of exile, Jews never abandoned their connection to the land. Their prayers, holidays, and sacred texts all centered on their historical homeland, and the dream of return remained alive.
When Jews finally began returning in large numbers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they encountered an Arab population living in the land. Many of these Arabs had migrated from neighboring regions like Syria and Egypt, particularly during the late Ottoman period and the British Mandate, when Jewish economic development created new job opportunities. At the time, they did not identify as “Palestinians.” Instead, they saw themselves as part of the broader Arab world.
It was only after Jewish sovereignty in Israel became a reality that Palestinian nationalism took shape, largely in opposition to the Jewish presence. Over time, the narrative was hijacked: Despite being the indigenous people of the land, the Jews were cast as foreign “colonizers,” while Palestinians were rebranded as the true natives. In some versions of this narrative, Palestinians have even claimed descent from the original Israelites, framing their struggle as the David figure battling the mighty Goliath, and rebranding Jesus as Palestinian. Just as the Anglo-Saxons displaced the Gaelic Irish and then co-opted their cultural symbols, Palestinian political movements have tried to erase Jewish history while simultaneously adopting elements of it.
The Republic of Ireland has successfully – albeit fraudulently – framed itself as a victim of British colonialist expansionism. And that’s the narrative it projects when it advances the Palestinian victimhood narrative of Israeli colonialism. At the core of the campaign, however, the very legitimacy of the so-called “Irish people” stakes itself on the promotion of the Palestinian false narrative. For, in many ways, the Palestinians have a stronger claim to legitimacy than the Irish. While the present-day Irish came and usurped another nation’s heritage and culture, most Palestinians do not pretend to be the original Jews.
This parallel narrative of disingenuous victimhood is not a new phenomenon. For over half a century, both the Irish and Palestinians have mastered the art of garnering global sympathy and justification, even when they have engaged in murderous terrorist activity. The IRA, the PLO, Hamas have all used the same playbook to manipulate world opinion in their favor. But remember, when Ireland frames Palestinians as the indigenous victims and Israelis as colonial invaders, they are not just distorting history, they are shining a light on the questionable origins and legitimacy of the Irish people today.
