The Irish establishment has a schoolgirl style of conformity enforcement. The style of climbing the ranks, the way unspoken rules are policed, the way that people are kicked out – for a huge portion of our society, especially media, I can think of no better model than a gaggle of mean girls cliqued up at their desk, gossiping circles around each other.
Last week an instagram infographic post by an Irish left-Republican girlo, supposedly ‘outing’ a gaeilge-influencer as having views she didn’t approve of, achieved a moderate amount of virality on the right. Now I didn’t want to jump in on the dogpile, more because I’m late to the show rather than any moral reservation, but the piece is a perfect example of what I wanted to talk about: the sly, snide passive aggression it was dripping and the fascinating total lack of self awareness of the author.