They called it God's will.
A world premiere of a Famine Symphony Concert was held on March 2nd, 1996 at Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Ireland's composer Patrick Cassidy was commissioned to compose this symphony commemorating the Irish Famine of 1845 through 1850. It was a magnificent tribute and all participants are to be congratulated for presenting us with a memorable evening. The Cathedral that was built from the monies collected from Irish people, many of whom were Famine victims, who managed to flee to this new land. This is a story of courageous overcomings. We should have annual celebrations of rememberances to inspire our Irish brethern. Many of our folks have the amnesia or shame that defective people exhibit. To cover it up they tend to smile and/or crack jokes as a means to relieve their unexplained pain, until now that is.
Angelica Huston, the award winning actress who was raised in Co. Galway
read Peter Quinn's introduction. Some of the words I will transcribe here.
O Lord God of Hosts, hear our prayer. O God of Jacob, deliver us from famine.
Her Majesty's Government took up once again the perpetual nuisance of Ireland, a province united by conquest and law of the kingdom..... In theory, Ireland was an integral part of great Britain....In theory, its counties and their subjects were as precious to the Crown as the souls in English shires, but in reality they were not.
......
The poor, they said, are the cause of their of their own misery, let them bear the consequences and learn to be ambitious. The fault is not in the stars, or in the laws, but in the people's wild, wastral ways, in the guile and indolence of the Irish beggardom.
..... The famine was an exodus .... a wound that would not clot.
Lady Jane Wilde, mother of Oscar, is best remembered as
"Speranza," penned a supplication for "The Nation" (Dec 18, 1847) from
where I took these few lines:
..For our dead no bell is ringing,
..Round their form no shroud is clinging,
..Save the rank grass newly
springing
..Kyrie Eleison....
..Golden harvests we are reaping,
..
With golden grain our barns are heaping,
..But for us our bread is weeping,
..Kyrie Eleison.
Canada's "Irish Island"
Following a three year campaign by Irish activists in Canada, the Canadian
Deputy Prime Minister of Canadian Heritage, Shelia Copps, she announced
that a National Historic Site will be developed at
Grosse Ile,
or "Irish Island," The Irish Famine quarantine station in Quebec.
Grosse Ile is the burial site of thousands of Irish immigrants, who died
while fleeing from the Famine in 1847. In 1992 a Canadian government plan
would have established a national historic park at the site to commemorate
150 years of immigration caused outrage in the Irish community.
The government's plans referred to the Irish immigrants as British, and
said the "tragic events of 1832 (when thousands of Irish died of cholera
at Grosse Ile) and 1847 have been overemphasized in the past."
"I thank the goodness and the grace ..That on my birth have
smiled, And made me in these Christian days A Happy English child."
Their verse hung in every school. Our feelings expressed through a
passage from the song "Galway Bay," is "The stranger came and
tried to teach us their ways. They scorned us for being what we are.
But they might as well go chasing after moonbeams, or light a penny candle from a
star."
Spraken
Dr. Mary Hickman's new book "Religion, Class and Identity" contains
pertinent data on British newspaper Anti-Irish racism.
The British image of the Irish as dirty, ignorant, drunken, and stupid
goes back 800 years, according to the study.
Dr. Hickman is director of the Irish Studies Center at the University of
North London. She is conducting a nationwide study of discrimination
against the Irish for Britain's equal opportunities commission.
The author said the emphasis before the 16th century was on the paganism,
superstition and barbarism of the Irish.
With
the systematic colonization of Ireland under the reign of Elizabeth I,
the notion that the Irish were "stupid" became common.
The study shows that the British have historically tried to justify their treatment of the Irish - during Cromwell's time, through the Famine and up to the Black and Tan terror campaign - by racism. They portrayed the Irish as sub-human. It records written attacks on the Irish for their "filth and ignorance" going back as far as 1187. Among other findings, it traces the origin of the "Paddy" jokes - which depict the Irish people as brainless - back at least to the 16th century.
During the 16th and 17th centuries the stereotype changed and the
half-human savage became a figure of contempt. In the 19th century,
images of idleness and drinking were added, the study revealed.
Today England's German brothers call the Irish the "island monkies."
The PUNCH cartooning obviously had its impact on them and on other
ethnics who found them equally amusing. Others who may not express themselves openly
must find it similarily amusing. They having been exposed to blatant
British propaganda instruments. People Programming works - 44 million
who claim Irish ancestry are shamed, confused and frightened .....
But remember the victimizer must continue to inflict his venom on his
victim for fear that Irish people might have an awakening. My hope is that
this awareness will soon be upon my people so that we may look their
tormentor in the eye and tell him to put an end to his anti-Irish racism.
Anti-Irishness
(
Anti-Catholicism)
does'nt seem half the equal of Anti-Semitic - but its no
less a crime when directed against my Gentile people. A people who have
made contributions far in excess of their numbers. Funny, the same crowd
that pushes the demeaning sterotyping, happily claim the heritage of the
Irish as their own - this is an indication of an inadequacy or some
such defect. Notice how they tend to ascribe Irish ancestry to newly elected
American presidents. I wonder why? Maybe, the term that is never visible nor
expressed, that of the hypenated term of English-American, would upset too
many of the world's people who in one way or another have been touched by the
benevolance of the British Empire.
!Revisit top of Page OR The WWW Scene
06894 Since January 14, 1997.
