For pennance, you need to visit the Irish Famine Memorial in Boston.
Posted on 03/16/2006 4:40:06 PM PST by SJackson
For as long as I can remember, all I've ever heard about the Irish in general or the Irish in America or the meaning behind St. Patrick's Day was ... drink, drank, drunk. That's it. And I'm not alone.
Back in 2001, social activist Tom Hayden published a stunning book entitled "Irish on the Inside: In Search of the Soul of Irish America"; it's a memoir-social history-travelogue combined.
In a chapter called "Drinking, Sexuality, and Assimilation," Hayden writes: "Drinking was the only Irish legacy passed along to me. You drink because you're Irish, I learned, which soon became you're Irish because you drink. Writ large, it was a coping mechanism for the Irish as a whole."
Much of Hayden's book sharply examines how the catastrophe of the Great Potato Famine of the 1800s led to the exodus of millions from Ireland. After more than 150 years, the episode of the Great Hunger is emerging from the shadows of history. It's a long-overdue subject for study.
Hayden sums up this epoch: "It was the Great Hunger that created Irish America, or at least Catholic Irish America, as 2 million people began a forced exodus in the 1840s that did not abate for decades. According to one famine expert, 'in no other famine in the world was the proportion of people killed as large as in the Irish famines of the 1840s.'"
The disastrous effects and aftereffects of the Great Hunger were never merely a matter of any so-called natural disaster. In every social, economic and political way, the starvation, humiliation and shaming of the Irish in the era of the potato blight derived from the cruel and unusual policies of the brutal English colonial powers who had grotesquely exploited the Irish for many centuries.
And in every revolting manner possible, those same English colonial masters found ways to profit from the suffering and misery that impelled millions of ill-kempt, starved and poverty-stricken Irish to board the verminous Famine ships (aptly dubbed "coffin ships"), thus inducing an Irish Diaspora.
And yet, as a rule, those of us who grew up in Irish-American families learned little (if anything) about our history of oppression and persecution. Hayden is eloquent on this subject as well:
"Experiencing amnesia as a coping mechanism is not unique to the Irish. To my surprise, in the immediate years after World War II many Jewish Americans experienced a similar reluctance to face the trauma of the Holocaust. And, according to the historian Charles Johnson, 'in the black communities for many years after the emancipation there was great shame and embarrassment about the memory of enslavement.'"
So to paraphrase novelist Mario "The Godfather" Puzo, I'd like to make you a drink that you can't refuse. Alcohol-free, that is. It's high time we celebrated the true essence of the Irish.
What's that, you ask? Well, this St. Patrick's Day we could start by celebrating the exquisite use of Nobel-winning Irish poet W.B. Yeats' "Lake Isle of Innisfree" as a motif in Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning "Million Dollar Baby." And three cheers to Clint for making "Mo Cuishle" (Gaelic for "pulse of my heart" or "my darling; my blood") an internationally revered expression.
This year, in fact, I suggest that we inaugurate a new annual pattern: On St. Patrick's Day let's shine a light on a sample of Irish or Irish-American literary achievement. That's where you'll find the "deep heart's core" of the Irish persona. And if Nobel laureate Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" is too heavy for you, then you can opt for the Celtic wordplay and pugnacious ridicule on display in Pulitzer winner Maureen Dowd's twice-weekly New York Times columns.
If reading isn't your thing, then indulge in some music by the Chieftains or Mary Black. If you require visual splendor, you're in luck. There's a handful of "Riverdance" videos and DVDs, and about this mythopoeic dance phenomenon, Tom Hayden is also historically instructive: "The fabled Irish step dance was a legacy of post-Famine church sexual morality that insisted on limiting the body's movement to below the knees. 'Riverdance' unveiled and unbottled the sexual energy locked within the dance step, and freed an uninhibited dimension of the Irish soul."
Instead of yielding to the Leprechaun-soaked-in-ale stereotype, I'll binge on a slew of Irishman Jim Sheridan's best films ("My Left Foot," "In the Name of the Father," "The Boxer," "In America").
St. Patrick's Day should be about overcoming amnesia, not perpetuating it by getting drunk.
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The Irish have a special gift that is experienced through the ears. Their music and their language are a dynamic poetry that touches the soul.
As for drinking... An Irishman once said, "If I did not drink then I would surely believe that I was free of all vice and that would be vanity, the most deadly sin of all."
If you want to understand the Irish in America and America from its foundings, you have to study Scottish and Irish history in Britain. Much of the platforms written against tyranny in our bill of rights and constitution are a result of Scots-Irish Presbyterianism. They came to America and brought with them the Westminster confession of faith. Some came during the potato famine, some came as slaves during the periods of Roman Catholic persecution of the "protestants". Yes, Virginia, White Irish Protestants were slaves in America too; but, we don't much hear about that cause it isn't pc to be a white slave evidently.
I am Scots-Irish and German. The Irish didn't give us St. Patrick's day. Rome did. The guy from what I know of the tale wasn't even Irish. He was a foreigner if he existed at all and was attempting to convert from the culdees and others. Culdees, as it happens, were Christians that had long since beat Rome to Britain and Christianized it. Irish and Scottish History are largely characterized by a war of faiths - Christian verses Roman, A war over governance - Self verses foreign. I would say British rather than foriegn; but, The french were not Brits any more than the Scandanavians or Italians were. And when freedom was won, finally, one would be hard pressed to Call William Wallace or Robert Bruce either foriegn or Catholic.
As A person who shares Irish and Scottish blood, a day awash in green beer might be the way my people tried to forget what they'd been through under domination and tyranny both civil and religious; but, I'd rather they be thought of for their stand for freedom against tyranny, civil and religious. Much of our foundation in America is owed to the writings of the likes of John Knox. When do you suppose we'll get a day commemorating him?
My ancestors came from Ireland in 1760 and settled in Western South Carolina. Had 12 children, as was common in those days and worked the land themselves. I haven't found any records of Revolutionary War service, but I'm sure it was there.
And you, of course, have sources for this.
I like to believe that maybe we were just mature enough not to identify ourselves based on some notion of "victimhood" based on something that happened to our ancestors several generations ago.
Anyone who uses the term "our history of oppression and persecution" in reference to his racial or ethnic background is a professional malcontent, in my opinion.
"Sligo was one of the principal ports of emigration on the western seaboard and it became known as the embarkation point for the 'COFFIN SHIPS', as the poorest of the poor walked here and sailed from this town. Many thousands of others walked from Sligo to Dublin, the main departure port along the Quays of the River Liffey."
http://www.moytura.com/sligo1.htm
Of course I have sources for this. I don't make it up!
From one Scotch-Irish to another.....well said.
I grew up only knowing my Irish roots. It wasn't till later that I learned my mother was Scotch. And Northern Irish Scotch to boot!!!
We should relish our Irish thirst for freedom.
Yes, there were white slaves. They also tried to enslave indians, but they tended to get away and return with the rest of the tribe, causing much blood shed. They enslaved whites, but they managed to get away, and blended in among other whites.
Negros were enslaved, and the Negro codes forced free negroes to leave, so that others would not become disgruntled. Free negroes were thought to be a bad example for other slaves, and indeed they were.
I always think of my Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors as stubborn resourceful survivors and celebrate that.
For pennance, you need to visit the Irish Famine Memorial in Boston.
And of course you don't lie, Donald.
But are you going to keep all these sources a secret?
"In the spring of 1846, under his control, the British attempted to implement a large-scale public works program for Ireland's unemployed. Similar temporary programs had been successfully used in the past. But this time, Trevelyan complicated the process via new bureaucratic procedures that were supposed to be administered by a Board of Works located in Dublin. The understaffed Board was quickly swamped with work requests from landowners. At the same time, local relief committees were besieged by masses of unemployed men. The result was confusion and anger. British troops had to be called in to quell several disturbances.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Peel came up with his own solution to the food problem. Without informing his own Conservative (Tory) government, he secretly purchased two shipments of inexpensive Indian corn (maize) directly from America to be distributed to the Irish. But problems arose as soon as the maize arrived in Ireland. It needed to be ground into digestible corn meal and there weren't enough mills available amid a nation of potato farmers. Mills that did process the maize discovered the pebble-like grain had to be ground twice.
To distribute the corn meal, a practical, business-like plan was developed in which the Relief Commission sold the meal at cost to local relief committees which in turn sold it at cost to the Irish at just one penny per pound. But peasants soon ran out of money and most landowners failed to contribute any money to maintain the relief effort.
The corn meal itself also caused problems. Normally, the Irish ate enormous meals of boiled potatoes three times a day. A working man might eat up to fourteen pounds each day. They found Indian corn to be an unsatisfying substitute. Peasants nicknamed the bright yellow substance 'Peel's brimstone.' It was difficult to cook, hard to digest and caused diarrhea. Most of all, it lacked the belly-filling bulk of the potato. It also lacked Vitamin C and resulted in scurvy, a condition previously unknown in Ireland due to the normal consumption of potatoes rich in Vitamin C.
Out of necessity, the Irish grew accustomed to the corn meal."
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/begins.htm
As the above test and link shows, The English did provide aid. The scale of the tragedy overwhelmed that aid. Irish farmers exported food from Ireland while Irish peasants starved. The Irish farmers had their own issues. They needed to sell grain to make money to pay their rent. The landlords were in debt to their eyebrows, and needed to collect rent to pay their debts.
For food the Irish were nearly completely dependant on the potato. Of course the loss of the potato crop caused horror. How did the Irish become dependant on the potato? It provided nourishing meals, satisfactory bulk, and important vitamins, and this supported a large close knit family, far more than would be sustained without the potato. All the pain of family separation, emigration and poverty fell on a single generation.
I have been there. Also been to Ireland. I have cousins both north and south of the Irish border.
Sadly, the world had not much experience with aid to famine.
Book Review:
How the Irish Saved Civilization
http://www.allaboutirish.com/library/bookrev/rev-saved.shtm
Day-Lewis' other film should be titled "In the Name of the F***ing Father" for all the profanity that it spews out.
The Scots-Irish settled western Pennsylvania and led the drive westward. For many decades following the American Revolution, the Presbyterian Church was the majority religion in western PA, although other faiths were represented, mostly Anglican and Catholic.
I think "redneck" comes from slave-owners getting sunburned.
Nope, hush my mouth, there's some discussion of both http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/rednecks/rednecks.html
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