From the Times – ‘My daughter was taken by Hamas. My Irish friends have gone quiet’. Dublin-born Thomas Hand on the Irish silence:
Hand said that while he still viewed himself as an Irishman and truly loved the country, he had been left “very disappointed” by the land of his birth. He said that despite the enormity of the shadow cast over people’s lives by the events of October 7, he believed the Hamas attacks had not had a lasting impact on public consciousness in Ireland.
“That was forgotten within two days. My daughter was kidnapped for 50 days. My ex-wife, who is the mother of my two older kids, was killed. Shot in the stomach, shot in the neck. I have a hundred people that I know that were murdered that day. I have 30 friends and people that I know that were kidnapped that day.
“But within a few days, yes, we got instant sympathy and shock, shock, horror. But since, before we even went into Gaza, before we retaliated, there were already protests. It’s unbelievable. I don’t believe it.”
Hand had moved as a volunteer to Israel and was assigned to Kibbutz Be’eri at the age of 32 after his family moved from Dublin to England when he was a child. He said he had received no contact from old friends from Ireland or any Irish politicians since the attacks, nor had he received any messages of support.
“Silence. Even my friends on Facebook that I used to have. They don’t say anything negative but also they don’t say anything positive. There’s only one or two that would. Mainly, they’re also afraid.”
Afraid of going against the raging antisemitism anti-Zionism that’s currently disfiguring Ireland…
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