People have asked us what stood out for us from our Ireland tour. Frankly, it has all sort of run together. As I've already blogged, the itinerary was packed and we were no sooner in one place than it was time to move on to another. It was hard to stay grounded in any one experience before we were off to the next, such that "impressions" of Ireland come to the fore more readily than specifics. The photos help with the specifics and I'll get to that in the next post.
For now...impressions: The Republic of Ireland isn't all that lucky.
But it is beautiful. The coastline is rugged with the wild Atlantic crashing into towering cliffs. Cities are vibrant, modern, busy. The countryside is green. And rural. And there are dairy cows and woolly sheep everywhere. Especially sheep. Always sheep. Rolling hills, old stone fences for miles dividing multi-green-hued pastures, on surprisingly open land. I thought there would be more trees. But no...
The invading Normans first decided to take a whack at the native forest lands in the 12th and 13th centuries to create farm land. In the 16th century Ireland fell under British rule and the British pretty much decimated the rest of the forests for farming, for open space for military maneuvers, to deprive the Irish rebels of shelter, to harvest timber for ship-building and construction in England, really for whatever they wanted. This went on throughout Irish history until now 80% of Ireland's native forestland is no more. So, while lovely, Ireland still looks nothing like it should, which is one of the many ways in which Ireland has been a victim of invaders, oppressors, and bullies.
The Irish never did fully surrender to their British occupation given that Britain was a cruel and oppressive "colonizer". In 1601, an event that turned a tide and set in motion animosities that remain to this day, was the Battle of Kinsale. The Catholic Spanish sailed to Ireland to help their Catholic brethren reject British rule and chase them back to Britain. Since this is not a history book, I won't recount all the twists and turns that enterprise endured, but it was dramatic. The Spanish Armada sailed, arrived off course (not to Cork but to Kinsale) and fought with the Irish against the British. Alas, fortunes turned, and the Irish began to withdraw, as did the Spanish who surrendered and went back home to Spain, leaving the exhausted and outnumbered Irish to suffer a terrible defeat at the hands of the British. About 10 years later, after the chieftains of the northern areas of Ireland were forced out, the British rewarded these lands to Anglican (Protestant) loyalists who established this area forever for Britain, foreshadowing what would come later.
The famous Irish "potato famine" looms large in history and still seems oddly current to the Irish. They have not really gotten over it. There is bitterness. We saw many monuments and cemeteries and memorials throughout the Republic to victims of the "The Great Hunger", which some call that period. I grew to believe this is an apt description. Potatoes grew prolifically and were a staple of the Irish diet, since the ruling British forbid Irish folk from owning land. They rented small plots from British landlords and subsisted mostly on the crop that could grow -- potatoes. Then came 1845 and a potato virus from faraway Mexico that turned harvested potatoes to rotting mush. Nearly 1 million Irish died and 2 million emigrated to Britain and/or got aboard "coffin ships" that sailed with starving, diseased, and dying Irish to the United States and Canada. The population of Ireland was decreased in years to come by 50% and still has not reached pre-famine numbers.
While the rotten potatoes created a dietary deficit, it was the British (again!) who caused the misery and the Great Hunger -- they did not come to the aid of the starving Irish with any formalized social outreach. The churches doled out watery soup to families who waited in line all day to get it. The British continued to export nutritious meat, dairy products and vegetables from Irish farms to British mouths while the Irish starved. The Great Hunger is still mourned to this day, with nearly everyone having an ancestor who died or emigrated in this period.
The Irish Rebellion of 1916 was yet another attempt, of many, of the Irish to break free from British rule. The rebels thought they might have the advantage while the British were busy with WWI. But no, again, the uprising was quickly quashed leaving hundreds dead and rebel leaders to be tried and summarily executed at the infamous Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin. These men and women are remembered as martyrs.
The Irish War of Independence (Easter Uprising) began in 1920 after the Republic announced it had seceded from Britain. It resulted in thousands of deaths until finally in 1921 an agreement was reached with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing the Irish Free State. Unfortunately this did not end the fighting which went on in an attempt to bring Northern Ireland into the Free Republic, but the Republic was defeated by the Northern Loyalists who fought to remain with Britain.
Let me just say that while we were there, Queen Elizabeth died and the Republic shrugged, while in Northern Ireland the Union Jack was at half mast and the funeral day was a Bank Holiday. Some in the Republic are still agitating for a "United Ireland" while in the north they, today!, refuse to seat a government because the "unification party", the Sinn Fein, won a majority for the first time ever but the loyalists won't let them participate in governing. (Think Mitch McConnell thwarting Obama, the former president deciding not to recognize the new one, etc.) At least that's how my simple brain comprehends it. I refer you any number of Google-able sources that have long confusing stories about this.
So, I guess my impression is that Ireland is a small island nation with a long history of oppression and a sad history of North/South internal conflict that seems to have started centuries ago. It is a beautiful country of contrasts: Melancholy and hopeful. Safe. (The police do not carry weapons.) But the history of violence is memorialized everywhere. The people: Friendly. Warm. Welcoming. Realistic. Proud. Resilient. The culture: Steeped in the past, moving to the future. Festive. Musical. Creative. Fun.
As for luck? Wikipedia says the "luck o' the Irish" saying comes from the California Gold Rush where many of the most successful miners were Irish or Irish-American. Good on them. 🍀
At least, that's the view from here...©
Sources: A bunch of Wikipedia articles, ABC News, The Economist, History, Irish Central, Kinsale (book by Barry Molony), and my own faulty memory.
Photo credits: Hub, Official Trip Photographer: (CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE) Irish coastline, Irish countryside, colorful Kinsale, artist's iron sculpture of a "coffin ship" with skeletons surrounding the masts, plaque at the Easter Rebellion Uprising Memorial, sculpture in Northern Ireland with figures reaching out in friendship -- but not quite touching.
The Irish Potato Famine played into my family's history and some of my ancestors immigrated because of it. Interesting post, Donna.
ReplyDeleteIt had such a huge impact in Ireland, of course, but also in the U.S. with the influx of Irish immigrants, who were also treated poorly here. But they persisted.
DeleteI wish I could remember the book and author, but I remembber the quote. A newspaper correspondent asked a counterpart in Ireland during the Troubles,
ReplyDelete"When did they start?"
"When Strongbow invated Ireland."
"When will they end?"
"When Cromwell gets out of Hell."
Seems about right.
DeleteThanks for history lesson
ReplyDelete