“The largest music festival of its kind in the world” is the phrase generally used to describe South by Southwest (SXSW), and, aside from everything else, it’s a phrase that provides us a teachable moment around public relations and language – you can claim almost anything as the largest in the world, so long as you use the phrase “of its kind”. SXSW is not anything like the largest musical festival in the world, as the figures make clear – it drew about 152,000 people last year, whereas Glastonbury in the UK drew 210,000.
Nevertheless, SXSW is still a pretty big deal, as these things go. Tens of thousands of visitors, the attention of global music moguls, and, of course, the eager sponsorship of many corporate and political giants. Including, and amongst others, the Army of the United States.
You may have heard, in recent days, that some Irish bands have chosen not to attend this year, citing US Army sponsorship as a reason, in connection with the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. That, of course, is their right: Any musical act is free to turn down the chance to play to any audience, at any time, for any reason. Good luck to them. One suspects that in the case of these relatively small Irish bands, the publicity for not attending the festival likely outweighs the coverage they’d get from attending it, given that if they attended they’d probably just blend into the lineup alongside other edgy acts like, eh, Cumgirl8 and Waterbaby. By pulling out, they get coverage that those other acts don’t. “Cumgirl8 played SXSW” isn’t going to make anyone click a story about that band since that sentence is gobbledegook to most average human beings, but “Kneecap boycotted the SXSW festival over Gaza” might at least draw the eyeballs of some fellow fight-the-man revolutionaries in Seattle or San Francisco. All perfectly rational, with no real international diplomatic repercussions to trouble us.
What’s the insanity I’m referring to in the headline, then? It’s this:
It’s understood that Arts and Culture Minister Catherine Martin is also due to attend the festival.
She has been urged to withdraw from the event by Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns.
“According to the festival’s programme, the Arts Minister (Catherine Martin) is due to attend the event tomorrow,” said Cairns.
“It is deeply disturbing that an Irish Arts Minister would attend a festival sponsored by the US military – particularly when the US is arming Israel as it slaughters tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza.”
Minister Catherine Martin has been approached for comment by The Journal.
It’s one thing for an Irish band to choose not to play at a music festival. It’s quite another for a member of the Irish cabinet to choose – as Minister Martin is being urged here – to boycott an event for the stated reason that the event is sponsored by the armed forces of one of this country’s most important international friends and partners.
Symbolism is not without its place, in politics. We saw that just last week, with the rather heartwarming photographs of Emma Little-Pengelly, the DUP Deputy First Minister, playing camogie with nationalist women north of the border. Symbolism can, and often does, matter, and often can, and does, accomplish things of note.
In the case of a relatively obscure Irish Minister attending an alternative music festival in Austin Texas, however, symbolism is limited. We can say with some confidence that Minister Martin’s decision to attend or not attend a festival in Texas will not meaningfully alter either the attitudes of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, nor US President Biden, when it comes to Middle Eastern policy. It is objectively much more likely to alter the attitudes of Texans, and Americans more widely, to Ireland, assuming that they know or care who Catherine Martin is.
Irish people who have not been to the United States probably lack a cultural appreciation of how deeply respect for the army is embedded in day to day life: At most airports, for example, army veterans will be called to board the plane first. At most major sporting events, US airforce flybys are a common sight. Veterans and those “who have served” are accorded a cultural status and respect, at least in public, that’s probably superior to the respect the British give to people who’ve been Knighted or given CBEs and other whatsits.
For an Irish Minister to decline to attend an event because of its links with the US Army would not simply be a statement about Gaza. Many, many Americans would take it as a mortal insult, of the kind they might expect from a South American communist regime like Venezuela, rather than a friendly EU country like Ireland. Of course, as I say, they might simply not notice a statement from Catherine Martin, but that would be the best outcome. Akin to shooting oneself in the foot, and missing.
The Social Democrats purport to be a party ready for Government, and yet this is the kind of thing they are suggesting. One wonders how far this hostility to the US Army goes: For example, there will be serving US forces in the White House at the same time as An Taoiseach – should he also refuse to attend, citing the same reason? Would a Social Democrat Minister refuse to attend any events in the US where the military was represented?
There is protest, there is symbolism, and then there is childish student union politics without thought to diplomacy. Not the for the first time, from Holly Cairns, this only fits one of those categories.