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The scene at Skibbereen, west Cork,
in 1847. From a series of
illustrations by Cork artist James
Mahony (1810–1879), commissioned by
Illustrated London News 1847. “The
first Sketch is taken on the road,
at Cahera, of a famished boy and
girl turning up the ground to seek
for a potato to appease their
hunger. ‘Not far from the spot where
I made this sketch,’ says Mr.
Mahoney, ‘and less than fifty
perches from the high road, is
another of the many sepulchres above
ground, where six dead bodies had
lain for twelve days, without the
least chance of interment, owing to
their being so far from the town.'”
Feb. 20, 1847
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By
James J. Brodell
March 17, the day of the amateur drinker,
rapidly approaches. The meaning of St.
Patrick's Day, originally a religious
feast day, has been flipped on its head to
become a secular celebration well removed
from its Irish root.
There will be no accusations of cultural
appropriation on this day this year even
though the festivities portray the Irish
as a superstitious and alcoholic rabble.
In Chicago they will turn the river green,
and in other major cities a theme parade
will step off, virus restrictions
permitting.
Curiously St. Patrick's Day is really a
North American holiday, although the
custom has recently been adopted in
Ireland itself.
Few understand that the Irish for many
years in America were the uneducated
underclass who faced Jim Crow-like
discrimination. Few also realize that the
first major arrivals of the Irish in the
Western Hemisphere were as virtual slaves,
having been exported by their British
masters.
There is a lot of quibbling among
academics if the Irish in the 17th century
really were slaves or if the better word
might be indentured servants. For the
estimated 300,000 or more who were were
forcibly banished in the mid-17th century
to hard labor in the Amazon or Caribbean
islands, the semantics makes little
difference.
St. Patrick, of course, was a Brit who was
himself carried into slavery to Ireland
and later returned as a priest to bring
Christianity to its people. He died in
461, and March 17 is the traditional date
of his death. That connection will be lost
on the many revelers who drink green beer
and cultivate hangovers this year.
Historians say that the first celebration
of the day in what is now the United
States took place in 1601 in St. Augustine
Florida, then a Spanish holding. A local
priest organized a small march. Later
British troops stationed in New York
marked the day. A high percentage of
redcoats were Irish because its own people
became a major export for the small
island.
New York contractors imported 5,000 Irish
to help dig the Erie Canal around 1817.
Canals were a major transportation network
in the early and mid-19th century until
the development of the railroad. After the
European potato fields were hit with
disease in 1845 many more Irish arrived in
the United States. They were the wetbacks
of the day who occupied the lowest rung of
society. They held the menial jobs. The
men dug ditches or worse. The woman were
the domestic workers. The jobs were
similar to those held today by illegal
Mexicans and Central Americans.
A small item in an upstate New York
newspaper of the time simply noted that
“An Irishman named Burke was found dead
floating in the Chenango Canal Saturday
night.” A lost dog would have earned more
news space.
The underclass was feared. After all, they
were Catholic in a mostly Protestant
United States. They owed their allegiance
to a foreign prince, the pope, claimed
their social betters. The Irish Potato
Famine killed the Irish for seven years.
More than 2.5 million died, and at least a
million emigrated, many to the Americas.
English officials had conquered the land
and imposed its own nobility. The
famine opened the door to genocide to
sweep away the native inhabitants. Even at
the height of the Potato Famine, great
quantities of grain, beef and other
foodstuffs were exported to the mother
island. In some places in Ireland, the
soup kitchen only served those who would
renounce their Catholic faith and accept
the Anglican Church.
The descendants of the Irish remember this
treatment even today.
Irish immigrants also were recruited to
the U.S. military. A largely Irish and
Catholic detachment deserted and joined
the Mexican Army during the
Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848.
This artillery brigade, called the
Batallón de San Patricio, was one of the
most effective Mexican units. They are
heroes in Mexico even today, but most were
hanged by the U.S. Army at the victorious
conclusion of the campaign. Historians
attributed the desertion, in part, to
discrimination the Irish Catholic soldiers
faced from their comrades.
Meanwhile in America, the tattered
immigrants were willing recruits to the
urban Democratic Party. Those who
viewed “Gangs of New York,” which starred
Leonardo DiCaprio, saw a bit of the
Protestant-Irish conflict that raged for
much of the 19th century.
Many of the newly arrived Irish were
drafted into the Union Army. Many others
joined willingly for the financial bounty
enlistees received. The draft triggered
days-long riots in northern cities. An
estimated 150,000 Irish wore Union
uniforms during the conflict. And some
units fought under a green flag. There
were significant although lesser numbers
of Irish fighting for the Confederacy.
Despite many being in military service,
many northern Irish were suspicious of the
freed blacks because they feared workplace
competition from the former slaves.
Although he was of Scottish descent and
not Irish, William Tweed, was highly
effective in recruiting the New York Irish
to support his political objectives. Boss
Tweed and his Tammany Hall cronies became
famous as the most corrupt politicos of
the day. He was the prototype of the many
Irish-American bosses who controlled major
U.S. cities through World War II and into
the 1960s. The primary tools were
patronage and kickbacks.
The St. Patrick's Day parades of the day
were mass protests against the abuse the
Irish were suffering. The color green
predominated because wearing the green was
a protest against British domination of
the island. The color also relates to St.
Patrick and his parable of the shamrock to
explain the Catholic dogma of the Trinity.
Irish Catholic and Protestant conflicts
continued through the 19th century. Even
in 1960 John F. Kennedy had to confront
anti-Catholic prejudice by addressing
Protestant clergymen in Houston, Texas.
Some interpreted the opposition in the
U.S. Senate to Supreme Court nominee Amy
Coney Barrett as evidence that U.S.
anti-Catholic prejudice continues to
exist.
The training that some Irish immigrants
received during the U.S. Civil War was put
to use in fighting against the British in
their homeland. Not until 1949 did the
Irish Republic gain full independence. The
six counties of Northern Ireland remain in
the British sphere, and the
Catholic-Protestant divide remains a
flashpoint.
There may be a character flaw in the Irish
that keeps them from unifying. Elizabeth I
of England was able to gain control of the
island mainly because the Irish chieftains
could not unify against the British.
The book “How the Irish Saved
Civilization” by Thomas Cahill recounts
the critical role the island's elite
played in preserving intellectual history
during Europe's dark ages. The monks of
the period were responsible for the
spectacular illuminated manuscripts, among
them The Book of Kells and The Book of
Durrow. Although the most popular of these
Eighth and Ninth century manuscripts are
religious in content, monasteries were
required to maintain libraries, so books
on many topics were collected, copied and
maintained.
The prehistory and history of Ireland has
been one of invasion after invasion and
battle after battle. The capital Dublin
began as a town founded by Viking
invaders. The British exploitation
starting in the 16th century reduced
the native Irish to little more than
tenant farmers with gradually dwindling
land allotments. The impact of the potato
famine was magnified because most farm
holdings were so small that only potatoes
could provide the sustenance for a family.
The native Irish were reduced to the
uneducated, untrained rabble depicted in
so many contemporary accounts. The
Catholic Church, too, bears responsibility
for its own brand of exploitation and for
promoting superstition.
The Irish might even be better known for
their superstitions than their love of
strong drink. Banshees, fairies,
leprechauns and all sorts of other
fantastic creatures populate Irish tales
and, frequently, beliefs. Many have been
exported to the Americas. The propagation
of superstitions is easy to understand
among a people living a hard life, denied
education and facing an early grave. Such
superstitions go hand-and hand with strong
drink.
There is something about the Irish
personality, the love of tall tales, and
the the pure joy of talking that sets them
apart from other nationalities.
Consequently the Irish and the
Irish-Americans have excelled in politics,
literature, religious life and other
enterprises involving the written word.
All that in spite of strong drink.
As columnist Jim Bishop once said,
quoting his father “God invented
whiskey so the Irish wouldn’t rule the
world.”
Posted March
12, 2021
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