Labour messes up its attempt to suck up to the Irish on St Patrick’s Day

The ‘grownups in the room’ who are denying Irish reunification show their incompetence again and insult Patrick, the Irish and the Church

The Labour party has completely screwed up its awkward attempt to curry favour with the Irish on St Patrick’s Day, managing to insult St Patrick, the Irish people, the Church and, arguably, God.

Labour’s official Twitter/X account posted (shown above) a ‘Happy St Patrick’s Day from all of us at the Labour Party’ with a background of what they imagined is a shamrock, the sacred symbol of the day – but it wasn’t a shamrock, it was a four-leaf clover.

The shamrock, unlike the four-leaf clover, has only three leaves and is traditionally linked with St Patrick because he is said to have used it as an illustration of the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Confusing it with the four-leaf clover – associated with superstition, mere luck and even sorcery – and more with England than Ireland – is at best an extremely stupid mistake and one that insults a sacred tradition inherently linked with Christianity and Celtic faith and substitutes a superstition of the English oppressors for the one cherished by the Irish.

The insult is made even worse by the fact that it has been issued by the party of Keir Starmer, who has shown contempt for both the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement (GFA) and Irish Catholics and others who want Ireland to be re-unified instead of the continuing under British occupation in the north.

Starmer has said, on the most inflammatory day he could have chosen, that he is opposed to Irish unity and will not hold the referendum on Irish unity that is legally required under the agreement – even though the GFA mandates strict impartiality on the issue on the part of the British government. The referendum is meant to be held as soon as there is a realistic prospect that more than half of the people of Northern Ireland would vote for independence – and, with more of its population now Catholics who would be likely to do so and polling suggesting a majority want independence from Britain, it should be held without delay.

The Labour right still likes to claim that it represents ‘the grown-ups in the room’, despite the right’s regularly-demonstrated incompetence and ingrained racism. Both are again on show today.

Skwawkbox needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (Skwawkbox will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount as it has to be entered by us). Alternatively, if you prefer to make a one-off or recurring donation by simple card payment, please use the form below:

Thanks for your solidarity so Skwawkbox can keep doing its job of inconveniencing the right and helping to build the left!

If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so, but please include the donor information above – see here for more.