Irish spunk vs. authority: A lesson from the time of the Troubles for the COVID era

American Thinker ^ | August 14, 2021 | Molly Maffei Baldwin

[CheshireTheCat]

....Among the governmental policies to remind those Irish of who was in charge in the U.K. counties of Northern Ireland, the insidious ploy of hiring Irish Catholic women while leaving Catholic Irish men without a source of employment was the meanest. What it told the man was that he and his abilities were worthless, but the wife has something to contribute. The family would live on what she earned while the man of the house could idle away his time. Not only was this playing with Irish income, but it was playing with Irish heads.

When any government proposes to tell you what you are worth, you are in danger of believing it if you have no internal resources to fight back. Efforts to belittle you because of who you are or what you think will succeed as long as you allow it.

When any government proceeds to make you dependent on their largesse, you will lose your self-esteem and worthiness. Efforts to make you feel comfortable by paying you to remain idle at home is a dangerous step. Those Irish men had no choice because no jobs were open to them.

Americans have a choice. Sitting on your duff while collecting a check may make you feel smug inside when it should make you squirm. When the payments stop, you may have lost the ability to secure employment at a level with which you are comfortable. And a bit of your self-worth just slipped a rung.

Irish men went "on the dole" by collecting government handouts. While the wife worked, the husband waited. Many a time a pint in the pub brought scant solace....

[CheshireTheCat]

I once knew a rather conservative, definitely religious, black female professor who taught courses on race relations. She actually included lessons on how the British treated Irish Catholics to make a point about it isn't about race; it's about elitism and the will to subjugate.

[KC_Lion]

[Noumenon]

Come Out Ye Black and Tans

[sauropod]

So true.

[dfwgator]

I hate spunk!

[Dr. Sivana]

I hate spunk!

Lou Grant to Mary Richards.

[gattaca]

bmp

[JimRed]

Among the governmental policies to remind those Irish of who was in charge in the U.K. counties of Northern Ireland, the insidious ploy of hiring Irish Catholic women while leaving Catholic Irish men without a source of employment was the meanest. What it told the man was that he and his abilities were worthless, but the wife has something to contribute. The family would live on what she earned while the man of the house could idle away his time. Not only was this playing with Irish income, but it was playing with Irish heads.

From the Irish ballad "The Town I Loved So Well"...

In the early morning the shirt factory horn
called women from Creggan, the Moor and the Bog
While the men on the dole played a mother's role,
fed the children and then walked the dog