The Annual St. Patrick's Day Rant
Mar. 17th, 2014 01:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydionWhy I Don't Celebrate National Make Fun of the Irish Day.
A huge number of pre-famine Irish immigrants were protestant. As a group they were and are worse off financially than those of Catholic decent, due to settling in places like Appalachia instead of the big cities. In a way, their cultural identity as Irish has been submerged and lost in the Catholic based Irish identity in this country. Traces of Ireland can be found in things like dancing, folksongs and accent.
My Father objected strongly to St. Patrick's Day. He felt it not only reinforced negative stereotypes of the drunken Irishman, but also the nostalgia for a mythical Ireland fueled the tendency of Irish Americans to fund the violence over there. It was American money from individual Irish Americans that paid for many of the bombs and weapons used to keep the hatred alive. I grew up in the tempestuous 70's with violence constantly on the evening news.
I am not going to get into the rights and wrongs of the case. There is plenty of blame to spread around. It seems to me that it would be healthier for people to focus on healing now instead of old wrongs, like coffin ships and massacres. This is not to say we should forget the wrongs and lessons of the past. It's just that there is enough hatred to go around in the world without things like Protestants marching through Catholic neighborhoods and nostalgic American Catholics fueling self-destructive nationalistic anger.
Like my father, I don't wear the green. I don't trivialize my cultural inheritance with "Kiss me, I'm Irish" badges and leprechaun pins. Instead I honor my incredibly tough ancestors on both sides of my bloodline, who worked and sweated to make a life here, even though they longed for a home they would never see again. I particularly honor the incredibly tough Great, great grandmother, who came here on her own and worked to bring her parents across. Who raised three intelligent and strong minded children. Who outlived four husbands and helped carry her family forward through good times and bad. It's a personal choice, but I think I am not the only one uncomfortable with "Paddy's Day."
I understand the desire for independence, but it's simply never okay to hurt children. It's never okay to set off bombs in public places. Americans share part of the blame here for helping fund the IRA.
As fond as I am of Elizabeth I, I can never quite forgive her for planting the seeds of centuries of grief. Yes, the English had been there since Medieval times, but it was the Elizabethan settlement program which legally privileged the English protestants over the Irish Catholics and English Catholic descendants of medieval settlers that caused the long history of violence and starvation. Later laws depriving Catholics of land rights etc. were criminal and quite deadly. Again, making war on children through artificial famine, is never excusable.
My point is that there is plenty of blood and blame to go around, but nursing the grievances only leads to more blood and more blame, not solutions. What's needed here is solutions. That means Protestants not marching through Catholic neighborhoods specifically to infuriate the locals. That means Catholics focusing on diplomatic solutions. That means Americans not feeding the violence out of some creepy nostalgia. Time for people to grow up and own up to what needs to be done. It seems to me that Ireland is moving ahead in so many ways and trying to undo a whole lot of bad decisions and trying to build something better in their place. Irish culture is that thing happening in Ireland right now, not in some mythical past.
There's a nice bit on the colours here: http://passionandsoul.livejournal.com/1040525.html?style=mine
St. Patrick's day in America is mostly an excuse to drink too much green beer, drunkenly howl "Danny boy" and foist cheesy images of leprechauns and shamrocks on people. It's so... ugh.
I am part Irish ethnically, but that doesn't make me Irish-Irish, since my last Irish relatives migrated here in the Victorian era. I think the sentimentality is creepy and toxic.
Similarly, I wince at some of the crazy Scots nostalgia over here too. Again, I've got Scottish blood, but that doesn't mean I'm Scottish. I admit, I enjoy watching men in kilts toss a kabar as much as the next person, but I refuse to go all misty at the sight of Disnified Scottish culture as practiced by Americans. It's not real, it's just people looking for roots dressing in tartans and arguing about battles that happened centuries ago. I feel like Scottish culture is that thing happening in Scotland right now, with real people. Scotland is a real place, not this creepy embalmed fantasy Americans have. Scotland has been in the forefront of GLBT rights in recent years, I think that's way more important right now than Braveheart and Bonny Prince Charlie.
Scotland is not Brigadoon and neither is Ireland. Ireland exists in the now with real people living in the modern era arguing politics. It's not some fantasy.
I think it's silly trying to flash freeze a culture, whether, Irish, Scottish, or a whole lot of other cultures we try to Dignify or flash freeze in some past time (usually the 19th century if we are talking about indigenous cultures, which gets into a whole lot of often racist and imperialistic fantasies when the people being so talked about are not white).
I'm not against looking into one's roots. I think it's cool to know both one's family history and the countries from which one's ancestor's came. I just think that the sentimentalism leads to a whole other host of problems. I know my history pretty well, but I try not to gloss over the less convenient and picturesque bits.
A huge number of pre-famine Irish immigrants were protestant. As a group they were and are worse off financially than those of Catholic decent, due to settling in places like Appalachia instead of the big cities. In a way, their cultural identity as Irish has been submerged and lost in the Catholic based Irish identity in this country. Traces of Ireland can be found in things like dancing, folksongs and accent.
My Father objected strongly to St. Patrick's Day. He felt it not only reinforced negative stereotypes of the drunken Irishman, but also the nostalgia for a mythical Ireland fueled the tendency of Irish Americans to fund the violence over there. It was American money from individual Irish Americans that paid for many of the bombs and weapons used to keep the hatred alive. I grew up in the tempestuous 70's with violence constantly on the evening news.
I am not going to get into the rights and wrongs of the case. There is plenty of blame to spread around. It seems to me that it would be healthier for people to focus on healing now instead of old wrongs, like coffin ships and massacres. This is not to say we should forget the wrongs and lessons of the past. It's just that there is enough hatred to go around in the world without things like Protestants marching through Catholic neighborhoods and nostalgic American Catholics fueling self-destructive nationalistic anger.
Like my father, I don't wear the green. I don't trivialize my cultural inheritance with "Kiss me, I'm Irish" badges and leprechaun pins. Instead I honor my incredibly tough ancestors on both sides of my bloodline, who worked and sweated to make a life here, even though they longed for a home they would never see again. I particularly honor the incredibly tough Great, great grandmother, who came here on her own and worked to bring her parents across. Who raised three intelligent and strong minded children. Who outlived four husbands and helped carry her family forward through good times and bad. It's a personal choice, but I think I am not the only one uncomfortable with "Paddy's Day."
I understand the desire for independence, but it's simply never okay to hurt children. It's never okay to set off bombs in public places. Americans share part of the blame here for helping fund the IRA.
As fond as I am of Elizabeth I, I can never quite forgive her for planting the seeds of centuries of grief. Yes, the English had been there since Medieval times, but it was the Elizabethan settlement program which legally privileged the English protestants over the Irish Catholics and English Catholic descendants of medieval settlers that caused the long history of violence and starvation. Later laws depriving Catholics of land rights etc. were criminal and quite deadly. Again, making war on children through artificial famine, is never excusable.
My point is that there is plenty of blood and blame to go around, but nursing the grievances only leads to more blood and more blame, not solutions. What's needed here is solutions. That means Protestants not marching through Catholic neighborhoods specifically to infuriate the locals. That means Catholics focusing on diplomatic solutions. That means Americans not feeding the violence out of some creepy nostalgia. Time for people to grow up and own up to what needs to be done. It seems to me that Ireland is moving ahead in so many ways and trying to undo a whole lot of bad decisions and trying to build something better in their place. Irish culture is that thing happening in Ireland right now, not in some mythical past.
There's a nice bit on the colours here: http://passionandsoul.livejournal.com/1040525.html?style=mine
St. Patrick's day in America is mostly an excuse to drink too much green beer, drunkenly howl "Danny boy" and foist cheesy images of leprechauns and shamrocks on people. It's so... ugh.
I am part Irish ethnically, but that doesn't make me Irish-Irish, since my last Irish relatives migrated here in the Victorian era. I think the sentimentality is creepy and toxic.
Similarly, I wince at some of the crazy Scots nostalgia over here too. Again, I've got Scottish blood, but that doesn't mean I'm Scottish. I admit, I enjoy watching men in kilts toss a kabar as much as the next person, but I refuse to go all misty at the sight of Disnified Scottish culture as practiced by Americans. It's not real, it's just people looking for roots dressing in tartans and arguing about battles that happened centuries ago. I feel like Scottish culture is that thing happening in Scotland right now, with real people. Scotland is a real place, not this creepy embalmed fantasy Americans have. Scotland has been in the forefront of GLBT rights in recent years, I think that's way more important right now than Braveheart and Bonny Prince Charlie.
Scotland is not Brigadoon and neither is Ireland. Ireland exists in the now with real people living in the modern era arguing politics. It's not some fantasy.
I think it's silly trying to flash freeze a culture, whether, Irish, Scottish, or a whole lot of other cultures we try to Dignify or flash freeze in some past time (usually the 19th century if we are talking about indigenous cultures, which gets into a whole lot of often racist and imperialistic fantasies when the people being so talked about are not white).
I'm not against looking into one's roots. I think it's cool to know both one's family history and the countries from which one's ancestor's came. I just think that the sentimentalism leads to a whole other host of problems. I know my history pretty well, but I try not to gloss over the less convenient and picturesque bits.
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Date: 2014-03-17 09:59 am (UTC)We all need reminders.