American Gun Culture Gerry OShea I have spent about half my life in the United States and the remainder in Ireland. From early on in New York, I was struck by the glaring differences between the two countries in the area of gun ownership. In America, there are more guns around than people; to be precise, every hundred residents possess, on average, one hundred and twenty firearms. By comparison, in Ireland the number of people owning a gun in the same proportion comes to just seven. The historical context for this Irish number merits reflection. After the Anglo-Irish Treaty was approved in the Dublin parliament in January 1922, a strong minority, who believed that the agreement was a sell-out, took up arms in defiance of the new government and a short but often savage civil war ensued. To help deal with the crisis, the ruling cabinet set up the Special Infantry Corps (SIC), an armed group of about 4000 men divided into eight battalions, to impose law and orde
Immigration and Replacement Theories Gerry OShea The economic and political impact of immigrants and refugees on American lives has become a lightning-rod issue, sparking strong feelings on both sides of a widening political divide. Many people, nearly all associated with the Republican Party, feel that foreigners, mostly coming from Central and South America, take the jobs of locals and, if allowed to settle, will eventually lead to Democrats stealing political power in Texas and beyond. Opposition to non-white immigrants is often wrapped up in what is now dubbed the Great Replacement Theory. Americans first became aware of this cockeyed idea when far-right activists organized a rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, and they marched through the center of the town chanting menacingly about Black Lives Matter and Identifying Jews as heading up white replacement strategies. One counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was murdered by a neo-Nazi driving his car at full speed