Temporary use during the lockdown of Croke Park, a sporting venue with extreme symbolic significance for the Irish nation, for Islamic prayer is continuing in the post-pandemic era.
Around 1,000 Muslims were given use of Croke Park in Dublin on Saturday for the purpose of celebrating the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.
It is the third year in a row the venue — a significant cultural landmark for Ireland partly due to it being the venue for a massacre perpetrated by British forces during the country’s war for independence — has been handed over for Islamic use, a move that was initially justified through reference to the country’s hardline COVID restrictions.
However, despite all measures restricting religious gatherings being lifted, the stadium was once again provided to Muslims for the purpose of celebrating their religious holiday, with Saturday’s televised event also seeing major national politicians — including Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald attend.
During her address, the Irish leftist-republican leader praised the event as a “moving and uplifting experience” that proved that “our diversity is — in fact — our strength”, while expressing a desire to see Ireland become “a modern republic, thriving in all our diversity and difference”.
Meanwhile, McDonald also took the opportunity to allude to conflict in the middle-east, demanding that a future Ireland challenges “apartheid” regimes and that it “stands for a free Palestine”.
Despite being one of Ireland’s major politicians, the supposedly nationalist leader has for some time used a Palestinian flag as the avatar of one of her main social media accounts.
While no doubt the most prolific Eid al-Adha event that took place in the country on Saturday, it was far from the only one, with a similar event held in a GAA club in Belfast being attended by fellow Sinn Féin bigwig Michelle O’Neill, who heads up the party in British controlled Northern Ireland.
While McDonald holds seniority over her Northern counterpart, O’Neill appeared to outdo her fellow party member in terms of progressive piety, opting to wear a hijab at the event held in the Michael Davitt Gaelic Athletic Club, which is located in West Belfast.
Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O’Neill speaks during the Eid festival at Davitt Park GAA grounds in Belfast. The Eid festival is an important day in the the Muslim celendar when food is shared with relatives, friends and the poor. Picture date: Saturday July 9, 2022. (Photo by Mark Marlow/PA Images via Getty Images)
“I’m a champion of inclusion and I am here to help make this place which we all belong together a home richer in its diversity,” the politician said, despite the fact the region she is involved in ruling has been plagued by sectarian conflict for hundreds of years, to the point that a fragile power-sharing arrangement needs to be set up to ensure democratic rule.
“I’m working to build a society, not of orange and green, but of a whole rainbow of cultures, multiculturalism, which reflects who we are and where we stand today,” she went on to say.
While O’Neill is very quick to denounce an Ireland of Orange (UK Unionists) and Green (Irish Nationalists), the Imam at the helm of the Croke Park event, Dr. Umar al Qadri has in the past taken some more hardline pro-Irish positions, especially in regards to the celebration of St. Patrick’s day.
In a sermon given back in 2017, al Qadri emphatically told his congregation that they should “look up to” St. Patrick as a pre-Islamic monotheist who converted pagans, and that Ireland has been relatively good to Muslim immigrants.
“When you go for Irish naturalisation, there you are very happy and smiling… and when it comes to St. Patrick’s day then it’s haram [forbidden] and shirk [idolatrous]? You know what — please, go back to where you came from then. Seriously. Because if you cannot accept and you cannot appreciate the host, then you are not a true Muslim.”
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