Dr Liam Kneafsey and Dr Miceal Canavan joined Hugh Linehan on the Inside Politics podcast to discuss why Ireland cares so much more about Israel–Palestine than almost any other country in the West? After conducting a survey of 1,547 people across the Republic, they found a few things:
- Irish people are strikingly engaged — 76% say the conflict matters to them, far above Spain, Germany, or even the US. Almost nobody says “don’t know.”
- Sympathy for Palestinians is broad and crosses party lines — including voters of the centre-right governing parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
- It isn’t about antisemitism, an explanation often raised in commentary. We found very low levels — and if anything, more Islamophobia.
- What really sets Ireland apart is its own history. People who feel Ireland suffered historical oppression are much more sympathetic to Palestinians, and many made that connection to Ireland’s past themselves, unprompted.
The past, it turns out, casts a long shadow over how we read the world today.