Richard Boyd-Barrett’s Sectarian Split-infinitives

Richard Boyd-Barrett (creative commons)

Richard Boyd Barrett – the dogged, pro-Palestinian leader of the socialist political party – People Before Profit – announced that he has been diagnosed with cancer. He will step aside from public appearances for the time being.

Boyd Barrett has been an outspoken critic of many Irish governmental initiatives. His breathless, passionate outrage has condemned many policies on housing, homelessness, health, banking, corporation tax and climate change. For left-leaning, social democrat liberals what’s not to like? Israel, of course…

Between Feb 2015 to April 2025, it seems that he mentioned Gaza positively / Israel negatively circa 1,139 times.(1) It’s almost like he’s aiming for an uncontestable entry into The Guinness Book of Records.

So, what’s the political backstory to this ceaseless anti-Israel agitator?

In late 1987, the 18-year-old Boyd Barrett worked alongside Palestinian day laborers from the refugee camps in Al-Khalil / Hebron. On his return to Ireland, he began advocating for the Palestinian cause, became involved with the antiwar movement and socialist politics. (2) At least Boyd-Barrett has actually visited Israel and Gaza – unlike most of the uninformed, mouthy, daily demonstrators in the west.

By October 2023, Boyd-Barrett said people must keep increasing pressure on their governments, urging them “to demand the expulsion of Israeli ambassadors…to demand sanctions against the state that can commit these atrocities, to demand the arrest of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and his gang of criminals.” (3)

Demand, demand, demand. The dialectics of damnation in the language of Lenin. No face-to-face parliamentary-toned dialogue. No needful nuance of the other side of the story. Much endless antisemitic invective got magnified on social media.

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‘It is, of course, much easier to shout, abuse, and howl than to attempt to relate, to explain’ – Vladimir Lenin
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Gone the DeValera doctrine of the ‘friendly neutral’ Irish government. Abandoned Ireland’s benign foreign policy principle of ‘diplomatic relations (being) between states and not between governments’. (4)

Israel-critical attitudes in Ireland have been near-universally adopted by thousands of partisan-prejudiced individuals, NGOs, trade unions and other civic groups. Understandably, the constantly-assailed Israel eventually retired the rationale of having an embassy in Ireland.

In December 2023, at a large Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally outside the Irish government, where Boyd Barrett spat out many sectarian split-infinitives.

“The only thing you can do with a state like (Israel) is resist it and bring it down. That is what has to happen with the filthy, apartheid, racist, colonial settler regime that is Israel….The only answer to this is intifada.”

Irish government leader, Mr Michael Martin, described the resumption of the Israeli bombing of Gaza as “unconscionable” – but he said Mr Boyd Barrett’s comments would appear to suggest that Boyd Barrett was “denying the right of Israel to exist or indeed the Israeli people to live in Israel” (5)

Perhaps Boyd-Barrett’s absence from the political scene will help to dial down antisemitism temporally. Time will tell. No doubt some other pungent, pugnacious politician will take on that “messianic” role, testing keffiyeh mantles for size.

There are no simple solutions to the timeless turmoil in the Middle East, regardless of those who vainly vaunt themselves as “having the answer”. Richard Boyd Barrett has had many unchallenged opportunities. Now I suggest that Paul the apostle should have the last word.

“…(God) has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising (Jesus) from the dead.”

– Acts 17:31

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• Side note: Boyd-Barret may see himself as a working class “hero” but his pre-political pedigree is one of monied upper-middle class: a private education and a master’s degree in English literature from University College Dublin.

Sources:

(1) Oireachtas Debates by Boyd Barrett on Gaza

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/search/?q=boyd+barrett+gaza

(2) Meet the Irish politician and activist fighting for Palestinians https://www.newarab.com/features/richard-boyd-barrett-why-ireland-must-stand-palestine

(3) War of words over Islamist’s Irish visit

https://web.archive.org/web/20111118224620/http://www.independent.ie/national-news/war-of-words-over-islamists-irish-visit-1116976.html

(3) ‘Apartheid settler colonial state’ Israel built on ethnic cleansing of Palestinians: Irish lawmaker https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/-apartheid-settler-colonial-state-israel-built-on-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestinians-irish-lawmaker/3053165

(4) Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1989) Eamon de Valera and Hitler:An Analysis of International Reaction to the Visit to the German Minister, May 1945 https://www.jstor.org/stable/30001759?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

(5) Boyd Barrett defends labelling Israel a ‘psychopath’ state as Tánaiste accuses TD of spreading hate https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2023/12/04/boyd-barrett-defends-labelling-israel-a-psychopath-state-as-tanaiste-accuses-td-of-spreading-hate/

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* Richard Boyd-Barret’s  website offers English, Irish, Arabic and Hebrew language options https://shorturl.at/SI1cr

Are Palestinian lives less valuable? – Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett’s speech: Opposition Leaders Question to the Irish Government, November 16th, 2023

People Before Profit is a Trotskyist political party formed in October 2005.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Before_Profit