Why the rapper chose Dublin to launch his shows

Those feelings stretch well beyond Peadar Browns. Pro-Palestinian flags, murals, signs and graffiti dot Dublin’s city center, reflecting a deep solidarity rooted in parallels many in Ireland see with their own experiences with British colonial rule, displacement, partition and struggle for self-determination. While Israel’s offensive that has devastated Gaza has prompted outrage in Ireland and around the world, the affinity felt between the Irish and Palestinians runs deep and predates the war by decades.

So it came as little surprise here that American rapper Macklemore chose Dublin to launch his sold-out “Free Palestine Tour” — with the proceeds of the event to be donated to organizations supporting Palestinians and the Palestinian cause.

“It has been beautiful to watch the Irish people come together these last three years,” Macklemore, a Washington State native whose real name is Ben Haggerty, told a roaring crowd at the opening show Monday night. “I have been so proud to watch overseas, to watch how you guys have stepped up.”

Ireland’s Chief Rabbi, Yoni Wieder, told NBC News he worries that Irishness and support for Palestinians have become connected, which can make some members of Ireland’s Jewish community — composed of around 2,700 people, according to the World Jewish Congress — feel isolated during a time of rising antisemitism worldwide.

“It sometimes feels as though for some people, support for Palestine has become intertwined with their Irish identity itself. As though being Irish means identifying with the Palestinians, while sympathizing with Israel is somehow un-Irish,” Wieder said.

‘Solidarity’

For some seven or eight centuries, what is now the Republic of Ireland was under complete English and British control. Land confiscations, discrimination against the Irish, restrictions on the use of the Irish language and a devastating famine defined those times and remain on the forefront of the public’s consciousness.

Partition in 1921 saw the island divided into Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, which remained part of the United Kingdom. While the south eventually became the Republic of Ireland, graffiti in Dublin city center calling for “Brits out of North” is a reminder that there are those on both sides of the border who hope the entire island will one day be unified under the republic.

With Britain having held the Palestinian Mandate before the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, many in Ireland see parallels between the Israel-Palestinian conflict and Unionist-Loyalist struggle that for decades consumed Northern Ireland.

“Colonial rule and the experience all of that comes with gives us this almost predisposed sense of solidarity with other oppressed colonized people,” said Brendan Ciarán Browne, an associate professor at Trinity College Dublin’s School of Religion.

The Hamas-led October 7 attacks, in which some 1,200 people in Israel were killed and 251 taken hostage, prompted outrage and condemnation in Ireland, with then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar condemning them as “appalling.” He also warned that any response should be carried out in a “proportionate way.”

“I fear for the people of Gaza,” he said at the time.

Since then, more than 74,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, with much of the territory reduced to rubble. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began more than a year ago. At least four Israeli soldiers were killed during the same time.