Every year in Ireland, state tourism agencies Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland spend millions to first attract and later entertain moneyed travelers. With the help of large promotional campaigns, Ireland’s political class projects onto itself a particularly rosy strand of multicultural social liberalism: former taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar is a gay man of Indian heritage, the country voted overwhelmingly in recent momentous referenda to legalize abortion and same-sex marriage, political interventions frequently invoke progressive values, and pop sociology informs us over and over of the small state’s openheartedness.

The reality in Ireland is unfortunately a bit less rosy.

Shannon Airport on the country’s west coast moonlights as a stopping point for the US military. In Dublin, lawmakers have no qualms about entrenching the disenfranchisement of Irish Travellers. Further afield in Brussels, Irish MEPs often align themselves with the far-right “Fortress Europe” ideologues to vote against resolutions meant to save migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean.