An Irish Perspective

Just recently, I completed an undergrad dissertation on the "Peoples Perception of the Arab-Israeli Conflict" here at National University Of Ireland Galway. This work entailed the research of a select student body on how their perception of the conflict was influenced by the media and specifically images that are readily available throughout the web. What became known was not surprising, the main themes were Identity Placement, Law and Order, Resonance with Northern Ireland and the Threat of Violence.
Where I think this fits into the dialogue of this blog is that from an Irish perspective, the respondents always located themselves to the Israel/Palestine debate. The focus group commented on the images of the conflict and what they meant to them, the consensus was such that tagging the inhabitants of the photo's with an identity/ethnicity was more important than looking objectively at the image. This is akin with our history of Northern Ireland and the formation of our present state, being premised as either Nationalist or Unionist, Catholic or Protestant, Irish or British. The perspective of my group was shaped by there local understanding of conflict.
The correlations of Israel/Palestine's plight and such with Ireland is significant. One such example today is a contentious soccer match played perennially in the Scottish soccer league between Rangers (Protestant/British Identity) and Celtic (Catholic/Irish identity). Both are Glasgow club's where during derby matches, the Celtic supporters sometimes hold up Palestininan flags in solidarity as they feel a connection with the struggle and quest of Palestinian self determination just like the war of independence quest here throughou the 700 hundred years of external rule. There is an Irish predisposition to support the Palestinian cause evidenced by a very active and well known organisation known as the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (www.ipsc.ie), while an Israeli one either does not exist or is not known among popular knowledge. See blog link in relation to Irish Trade Union stance (http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9586.shtml). This is a sentiment very much evident among an Irish perspective even if its not known or invoked consciously.
Of course there are exceptions to prove the rule and I am not advocating this as a blanket consensus of the Irish corpus of society. Its just an observation, Indeed a quick database search for the last year of the leading Irish broad sheet paper the Irish Times priorotised Israel headline coverage over Palestine headline coverage by 166 to 1 mention. However in the Irish case its emotions, sentiments and knowledge of conflict connection which I believe are more important than the descriptive discourse the media use in the portrayal of the saga. The picture of injured children in war torn area's always receive's precedence for which I think is linked to the believed conscience of the people.
There is no doubt that instance's of perspective differ depending on the geographical location of the person. Here among the student body of our small university it is clear there is a more concerted effort to proposition the cause of the Palestinian perspective, from the media analysis, I do not think they are the defining feature as to why.