[SOC] Ireland from an Irish Brit (long)

Fri, 7 Mar 2003 19:40:27 -0000

Rather well stated, I think.

Paul

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Redding" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 7:05 PM
Subject: [SOC] Ireland from an Irish Brit (long)

> Now that the tragic 'war' in Ireland is hopefully ending, and the long
slow
> 'healing' process has started, we are still left with another problem.
> In the days when the war was being 'fought' physically, terrorist groups
on
> both sides funded their operations largely from the proceeds of organised
> crime. But now, these same men who at one time justified their shady drug
> smuggling / protection / prostitution rackets with the 'respectability' of
> working 'for the cause' are still reluctant to lose control of their
> lucrative rackets. This is continuing to plague Northern Ireland and will
do
> so for many years to come, because there is just too much money to be made
> from
> dividing people against each other.
> As for the republican view...well (in common with a percentage of the
Brits
> which would surprise most Americans), I can well understand it. Ireland is
> not morally British soil. It was a seperate nation,
> well on the path of civilisation when the Brits were still painting
> themselves blue and throwing rocks at Romans, and it was not the British
who
> 'took' Ireland anyway, but the Normans centuries before.
> The evils that were carried out by both sides (especially since the
> reformation) have been carried on to a ridiculous degree, and (in strictly
> territorial terms) it is nowadays difficult to justify the continued
> annexation of (what
> could be argued to) be foreign soil, since (for example) the likelihood of
> the Spanish using Ireland as a launch-pad for their armada has faded
> somewhat in recent centuries.
> With due respect, using the potato famine to justify things is ridiculous
> and over-simplifies the problem. This tit-for-tat mentality can be traced
> back through time through Omagh, Bloody Sunday, the potato famine, Oliver
> Cromwell's brutal campaign, the
> Drogheda massacre, the Boyne etc etc, until nobody knows any more who
> started it in the first place. We have reached the point now where the
only
> way to stop the violence is - well - to stop the violence, and let the
deep
> wound start to heal.
> Thankfully there are many people of goodwill in Ireland on both sides who
> are prepared to 'bite the bullet' and let this happen, knowing that
perhaps
> they themselves may not live long enough to feel the real benefits. When
> these brave pioneers have all died of old age, and a new generation has
> grown up
> having never experienced sectarian violence, this tit-for-tat chain will
be
> broken (as it has been in the rest of the UK outside maybe urban Glasgow).
> I'm sorry if I cause any offence by saying the next bit, but many
Americans
> sometimes tend to see the world in strict black and white / right and
wrong,
> while
> the Brits (having made so many tragic errors of foreign policy in the
past)
> are
> perhaps more receptive to subtle shades of grey.
>
> From 4000 miles away, many Americans seem to view the Irish situation
> something like this:
> "The brutal protestant British, having failed to ethnically cleanse
Ireland
> of the hated Catholics by starvation during the potato famine, continue to
> enslave and oppress the native Catholic community, for the benefit of an
> imported alien Protestant community, and out of a lingering desire to hold
> onto the last pathetic patch or their former empire."
>
> This ignores one fact: Britain is not staunchly Protestant. Nine percent
of
> us are Roman Catholic. Most of the rest of the native Brits belong to the
> Church of England - a very moderate church (known in the USA as
> 'Episcopalians'), and are either protestant (with a very small 'p'),
> 'anglo-catholic (with a very small 'c') or neither depending on whom you
> ask. I do not even know or care which church any of my workmates or
> neighbours belong to, and nobody has ever asked me.
> Britain is no longer holding Northern Ireland in captivity - we are still
> there, in many ways reluctantly, to keep the peace, although we know that
we
> have made some terrible mistakes (such as Bloody Sunday) doing
> this. A dwindling majority of Northern Irish want (for the time being) to
> remain
> part of Britain, although there are now few people in Britain who do not
> believe and/or hope that
> someday all Irishmen will eventually stand together in a free, peaceful
and
> united Ireland.
>
> Whether we should ever have gone there in the first place is debatable,
and
> we did outstay our welcome, but
> we cannot now simply wash our hands, walk away from the place and allow it
> to
> fall into hell, like we did in Israel, India/Pakistan, and for that matter
> Iraq. For our past sins, we at least owe the Irish better than that.
>
> One point to note is the difference in the republican 'thread' on opposite
> sides of the Atlantic. Because of the history of the thing, most emigrants
> to America were Roman Catholic. But whereas many Catholic 'ex-pats' of
> republican sentiment in America tend to dig
> into their pockets for the IRA 'widows and orphans' - (a sick joke if
> ever there was), the large majority of Catholics 'closer to the action' in
> Northern Ireland itself
> do NOT vote for or support Sinn Fein/IRA. They instead vote for the SDLP,
> which is a respectable political party with long-term nationalist
ambitions,
> but
> totally devoid of links to terrorism.
>
> I would beg you, if you dream of a proud, independent, unified and
peaceful
> Ireland, to give moral support to men of peace such as these, and let them
> get on with their historic task, rather than financial support to men who
> have a vested interest in keeping the fires of hatred, mistrust, twisted
> history and ignorance burning.
>
> Thank You
> Chris G4PDJ
>
>
>
>
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