Convenience Big Store: Ireland has become a “tinderbox”

30 November, 2023

In the headlines

Three Israelis have died in a shooting in Jerusalem, after two gunmen affiliated with Hamas opened fire at a bus stop during morning rush hour. The attack raises fears that the Gaza truce, which Hamas and Israel have extended by continuing to exchange hostages and prisoners, could be jeopardised. Henry Kissinger has died aged 100. The former US secretary of state, who won the Nobel Peace Prize but was also accused of war crimes, advised a dozen US presidents and helped establish relations with communist China. Elon Musk has told advertisers boycotting X (formerly Twitter) to "go f*** yourself". Brands including Apple and Disney have pulled ads from the billionaire's social media platform over his endorsement of an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, a move Musk says is "going to kill the company".

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The burning streets of Dublin last week. Peter Murphy/AFP/Getty

Ireland has become a "tinderbox"

Ireland's political class loves to tell itself a simple story, says Finn McRedmond in The New Statesman: "St Patrick himself was an immigrant." It's a "handy parable" for those of a liberal disposition. Because the patron saint was a non-native – he arrived in 432AD – it is "encoded in the Irish psyche" to welcome outsiders. The Celtic phrase céad míle fáilte ("one hundred thousand welcomes") is the establishment's preferred slogan on the international stage. The Dublin elite styles the country as the "final stronghold against the tidal wave of populism sweeping Europe", and the antithesis of "uncivil Brexitland" next door. Well, not any more.

Rioting broke out in Dublin last week, triggered by the stabbing of three young children, and a care assistant who tried to shield them, allegedly by an Algerian-born naturalised citizen. Days earlier, a Slovakian immigrant was sentenced for the murder of a 23-year-old primary school teacher. Last year, two gay men in Sligo were murdered – "and their bodies mutilated" – by an Iraqi man who migrated to Ireland as a child. These attacks, and the fact that immigrants are exacerbating the country's "severe" housing crisis, have transformed growing unease over migration into "unfettered wrath". A full fifth of Ireland's five million residents were born abroad. The government continues to see this huge shift in the country's demography as a "taboo subject". But after last week, it can no longer maintain this pretence. The land of a hundred thousand welcomes has become a "tinderbox".

Food and drink

Instagram/@madamegeorgenyc

Sandwich-inspired drinks may be at the "extreme end of social-media-induced gimmicks", says Robb Report, but foodie cocktails are filling up menus across New York. At Madame George, the NY Bodega Sour features bacon-washed whiskey, egg whites and "everything bagel seasoning" – all served in a bodega-style coffee cup (pictured). Patrons at Reyna can get a Bored in Buckingham, a Thanksgiving-esque extravaganza made of duck-fat-infused bourbon, blueberry syrup and spiced bitters. There are even whispers of "blue-cheese-flavoured sake".

Noted

Although Israel has portrayed civilian deaths in Gaza as "a regrettable but unavoidable part of modern conflict", the numbers far outstrip military campaigns elsewhere, says The New York Times. Even conservative estimates of the death toll in the Palestinian territory are over 14,000, of which 10,000 are women and children. That body count, from less than two months of fighting, dwarfs the roughly 7,700 civilians killed by Western forces in the entire first year of the 2003 Iraq invasion, and is comparable to the estimated 12,400 civilians killed by the West in Afghanistan over "nearly 20 years of war".

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On the way back

Endangered Wildlife Trust

A shimmery mole that burrows through sand has been rediscovered nearly 90 years after wildlife experts thought it had gone extinct, says The Daily Telegraph. De Winton's golden mole, named for its shiny fur, hadn't been seen anywhere since 1936. But scientists recently spotted four of the tiny mammals on a beach in South Africa, and confirmed their identity using DNA from a specimen in a Cape Town museum. Their fur is iridescent because they secrete an oil that makes it easier to "swim" through the sand.

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Shanghai: not short of a few bob. Getty

China can no longer "cry poor on climate"

When the first major climate change conference was held, in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, China's per capita income was below that of Haiti, Niger and Pakistan, says David Fickling in Bloomberg. "Its airports saw fewer departures than Norway's." Per person, it wasn't even in the top 50 carbon emitters. Today, as the world gathers in Dubai for COP28, "things have changed beyond recognition". China is on track to emit "more carbon than every developed nation put together" this year, and generates more pollution per person than most countries in western Europe. It may also soon become rich enough to be officially classified by the World Bank as a "high-income country".

This all means China can no longer "cry poor on climate" and be given leeway on reducing emissions. Its leaders used to team up in negotiations with the "Group of 77" developing nations against the rich G7. But the climate change affecting the G77 these days – floods in Pakistan, droughts in Africa – is increasingly caused by China itself, which is second only to the US in terms of cumulative carbon emissions. Beijing has to accept that it is now a rich country, and "behave accordingly", by pumping money into net-zero infrastructure in developing countries and taking advantage of Joe Biden's absence from COP28 to "seize the role of the world's undisputed climate leader".

Zeitgeist

The King in 1979: one of the original Bopeas. Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty

Dancing on tables at private members' clubs and shopping on the King's Road are considered "awfully passé" by today's young bluebloods, says The Times. The "upper-crust Chelsea crowd" is now full of "Bopeas", short for "bohemian peasants". Among their approved hobbies are rewilding, keeping chickens and cold-water swimming; no-nos include processed food, supercars and "bread that isn't sourdough". They don't make honking jokes about sex; they do chat about gut health. And obviously, "they are still rich".

Love etc

Every app can be a dating app, says The Wall Street Journal, and American singletons are increasingly trying their luck. Some are making romantic advances on the exercise tracker Strava, complimenting fellow athletes on their runs and workouts; others do similar on the language learning service DuoLingo. Even the recommendation site Yelp has been repurposed for love: Las Vegas resident Mel Chiong met his wife Terri after praising her review of a macaron bakery.

Snapshot

Snapshot answer

It's Aitana López, Spain's first "AI influencer", says Business Insider. The pink-haired poser, who has amassed 174,000 followers on Instagram, was created by the founder of a modelling agency who said he was tired of accommodating the "egos" of flesh-and-blood models. López earns her creators up to €10,000 a month, and has an account on Fanvue, a subscription platform like OnlyFans, filled with racy (digitally generated) images of her in lingerie.