“Tell Drogheda it’s got nothing to be ashamed of” – A new performance of ‘Seven Jewish Children’*

By Robert Harris

* A sentence adapted from the play ‘Seven Jewish Children’: “tell her there’s dead babies, did she see babies? tell her she’s got nothing to be ashamed of. Tell her they did it to themselves.”

‘Seven Jewish Children’, the notoriously anti-Semitic play is scheduled to be performed this week in Drogheda, Louth – a relatively large town in one of the north-eastern border counties of the Republic of Ireland which is noted for trenchant Sein Fein-IRA support. The play, written by Caryl Churchill, is most noted for resurrecting anti-Semitic blood libel , a tradition within British literature albeit the charge of child murder is now alleging the massacre of Arab-Palestinians. Various writers have noted that it speaks of murderousness as a characteristic of Jews, rather than Israelis, so universalises supposed Jewish guilt for these alleged crimes just as the alleged wrongdoing which was the object of traditional anti-Semitism was universalised and directed toward the Jewish diaspora with genocidal results even in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It occurs that the use of the number seven is also directed at the Jewish identity, given the seven candles of the menorah and it reputedly being the most sacred number in Judaism.

The event’s guest speaker, Daniel Lambert, a footballer, has risibly stated, for example:

“Time and time again from the Israeli government to random zionists on twitter it goes like this: Rationale concerned person presents undeniable evidence of genocide and asks for laws to be upheld and aid to be provided. Reply: “You are a liar and antisemitic”

Lambert’s argument, typical of anti-Israel posturing, invokes the Livingstone Formulation that seeks to dismiss all accusations of anti-Semitism, particularly over Israel, no matter how extreme and from what source. David Hirsh, who published on this cultural phenomenon, noted that it is “a response to any discussion of contemporary antisemitism” which seeks to delegitimise the charge as never being anything more than bad faith. It is rather ironic to see Lambert now involved in the promotion of an overtly anti-Semitic play which merely serves to prove his critics right.

It might also be noted that Gaza had a population of 1.6 million in 2010 which has grown to either 2.2 or 2.4 million (according to numerous media reports since October 7th, 2023). This is a remarkably rapid growth rate by any international standard, and has occurred at a time when the de facto state was under embargo, and experienced several wars, so it can only prove that Israel has been maintaining the supply of fuel, water, medical supplies, food stuffs, and other essential materials, to a satisfactory extent, which is in complete contravention of the continued hysterical “genocide” commentary throughout the last two decades.

The event, on September 5^th at 8pm at Droichead/Drogheda Arts Centre, is also fundraising for the NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map), which is presumably the same as Medical Aid for Palestinians which has the same acronym. Indeed – here MAP are promoting the starvation libel  which has been proven to be false. NGO Monitor noted that a lot of their funding has been shown to fuel propaganda rather than actual medical aid.

MAP is closely affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). MAP is noted for raising anti-Semitic themes in its activism, including past promotion of “Seven Jewish Children”. There have been MAP fundraisers all across the Republic of Ireland but it seems that such activity is particularly frequent in the region of the North East as per these rather one-sided articles  indicating there has been an ongoing campaign since October 2023, which must indeed be disturbing for Ireland’s Jewish community. One might like to think that the organisers were solely responding to the war in Gaza, as opposed to taking sides after October 7th (if such a thing were indeed possible) but it must be an unrealistic notion given that their very probable knowledge that MAP is an PFLP-affiliated group and that the PFLP is an EU-designated terror organisation that participated in the atrocities on October 7th 2023. The Marxist terrorist group earned notoriety  in the late 1960s and early 1970s for a series of murderous aeroplane hijackings. How disturbing to see this is a reflection of a much broader fundraising endeavour across Ireland for what clearly is an anti-Semitic organisation, where even Dublin TD Patrick Costello  has also been involved with fundraising, as have Trocaire, according to NGO Monitor? Costello is a member of the Green Party which is part of the present government coalition.

As can be seen at the end of Drogheda Arts Centre’s webpage, it is supported by various state agencies, including employment agency FAS and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. It states that it “is supported by the Arts Council and Louth and Meath County Councils with additional programme support from Creative Ireland and a number of sponsors.” The production company (Long Slow Run Productions) running the performance appears to be associated in some way with a hard-left group, called ‘Drogheda 4 All’ as they promoted the event at an early stage. Drogheda 4 All is highly involved with anti-Israel activism in the area. A video of their weekly protests  has them singing “break free, Palestine, break free” during the song “From the River to the Sea” which is not only an obvious advocacy not only for the elimination of the Jewish-State (hence the reference to the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea), but the seeming adlib seems to suggest and advocacy for violent extremism given the aftermath of October 7th .

As if that was not enough Palestinianism for a regional town of some 44,000 persons, ‘Drogheda for Palestine’, the town’s anti-Israel protest group has a closed Facebook page  despite its declared purpose being to share information on future events! The about section for the group states “Please note no hate will be tolerated in this group.” ‘Drogheda for Palestine’ appears to be related to the seemingly older ‘Louth for Palestine’  which, for example, had a fundraiser for the Palestinian Medical Relief Society  (see March 23rd “Trail Run/Walk”). The NGO is noted to be secretive about its funding and once again has substantive ties to the PFLP. These groups all demand a boycott, label Israel an apartheid genocidal state, etc. It is interesting how anti-Israel activism messaging is so uniform!

In August, a supposedly charitable match (and associated celebrations) in Drogheda, between St Laurence’s CSC (Celtic Supporters Club) and Tom Boyd’s CSC  (East Tyrone, Northern Ireland) was again held in aid of “Medical Aid Palestine”. The local Celtic support clubs in the region echo the residual sectarianism in Scotland as exemplified by the football clubs Celtic (Republican/Catholic) and Rangers (Unionist/Protestant). Drogheda’s St Laurence’s CSC, for example, has ties to Sein Fein, as indicated by their stridently Republican Facebook  page. The match and celebrations is claimed  to have raised almost 4,500 Euro.

The match was staunchly promoted by Drogheda’s local antiques store, ‘Times Past Antiques’, located in West Street, the town’s main thoroughfare – the Scottish co-owner seemed keen to promote it when speaking to customers. Unfortunately, the store is rumoured to sell NAZI memorabilia, which is controversial but not illegal to sell in either the Republic of Ireland or the United Kingdom. A volunteer at a local charity has advised that it is known that NAZI medals have been openly on display in the antiques shop. However, it should be noted, in defence of the store, that the owner claimed he did not know that they were NAZI medals.