Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018
How can we learn from history if we never even studied it in
the first place?
How can we understand where we are today without reference
points which will help us to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past?
With Brexit and the rise of populism, old animosities,
mistrusts, and misunderstandings have risen again. And some people have shown
an astounding ignorance of the troubled history between Ireland and its nearest
neighbour.
Just over a year ago, Irish people were shocked by the
reaction of TV viewers in the United Kingdom who showed that they really did
not have a clue about the devastation the British Empire caused in Ireland.
British TV viewers jammed switchboards, and took to Twitter,
to express dismay at the depiction of starving Irish people during the Great
Famine. A period drama called ‘Victoria’, beamed into their sitting rooms on a
Sunday night, was the first they ever heard of a disaster which claimed a
million Irish lives and saw another two million emigrate to North America.
Many British TV viewers had never heard of the Famine which took a million Irish lives |
They were horrified to hear the Great Famine described as “the judgement of God” and an "effective mechanism for reducing surplus population” by the British civil servant whose job was to provide relief to the starving Irish.
Irish people need no introduction to the callousness of Lord
Charles Trevelyan, because we teach our children history and he’s immortalised
through the words of sports anthem ‘The Fields of Athenry’.
As hundreds of thousands died of starvation, Trevelyan
persuaded the British Government to do nothing to halt mass evictions. As corn
left the Irish ports for the ‘mainland’, he preferred to leave the fate of the
dying peasants to the free market.
Most people in Britain had never heard of him, because Irish
history is not taught in British schools.
And, just to prove that history can repeat itself, Tory MP Priti Patel said this week that warnings of food shortages in Ireland should have been seized upon by the British. She said her Government should been more firm, to force the Irish to drop the 'backstop' which has caused so much controversy during the Brexit debate in Britain.
She sees the possibility of food shortages in Ireland, a smaller country with a much more open economy than Britain's, as an opportunity for our former colonisers.
Such wilful - or deliberate - ignorance.
And, just to prove that history can repeat itself, Tory MP Priti Patel said this week that warnings of food shortages in Ireland should have been seized upon by the British. She said her Government should been more firm, to force the Irish to drop the 'backstop' which has caused so much controversy during the Brexit debate in Britain.
She sees the possibility of food shortages in Ireland, a smaller country with a much more open economy than Britain's, as an opportunity for our former colonisers.
Such wilful - or deliberate - ignorance.
But let's not forget there are huge concerns that the same level of
ignorance could spread to the Irish, as it is planned to remove History as a
core subject in our secondary schools.
By making History optional, is it possible that Irish
children will not even learn about the horror of the Great Famine and the
impact it had on the psyche of our people?
In generations to come, could be we become as ignorant of our past as many people in the UK?
In generations to come, could be we become as ignorant of our past as many people in the UK?
Here’s a few other things our young people need to be
mindful of, while arrogant Tory Brexiteers are so quick dismiss concerns over a
‘hard’ Irish border and a potential return to ‘The Troubles’:
The decline of the Irish language since 1800. Source: Reddit.com |
Imagine an Irish child growing up without any awareness of
the Penal Laws and the impact they had on our native language and culture.
Would they even question why we speak English and why Irish is largely confined
to the remote western fringes of our island? Would they know about the ‘hedge’
schools which sprung up when Catholic people did not have a vote and their own
language was banned from schools in Ireland?
Would they learn that the number of Irish speakers fell from
four million in 1841 to just 680,000 in 1891? This shocking decline was all
part of the process of colonisation. People were taught to mock and taunt
native speakers, to see them as backwards, and they forget that hundreds of
thousands of the impoverished Irish who landed on the east coast of America did
not even speak English until they arrived in New York or Boston.
A mural in West Belfast recalls the fight for Irish freedom Photo by Ciaran Tierney Digital Storyteller |
Why is Ireland
partitioned?
It is almost hilarious to hear Unionists and British Tories
proclaiming that the UK could never be divided, given that the partition of
Ireland in 1922 led to a bloody Civil War and has led to bitter divides on both
sides of the border to this day. Ask anyone in Derry or Tyrone if they are
“less Irish” than people in Galway, and yet many of them faced discrimination
in a sectarian state for decades.
Thankfully, the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) of 1998 brought
an end to decades of conflict and discrimination against the Catholic minority.
How could any Irish teenager understand the divisions which run through the
island without some knowledge of 1609 and the Plantation of Ulster?
The arrival
of planters from Scotland and England changed the face, culture, and language
of the northern province. The descendants of those settlers still consider
themselves to be British today and the GFA respects that.
What ‘terrible
beauty’ was born?
The Easter Rising of 1916 was just one of a long litany
of heroic failures as generations of Irish people struggled to break free of
the British Empire. It was also seen as a stab in the back of the Empire, given
that thousands upon thousands of Irish men were fighting on the same side as
the British in World War One at the time.
It’s important to remember that the Irish rebels who rose up
against their colonisers had little support from the ordinary people of Dublin
in 1916. The city centre was destroyed and people were angry at the
destruction. They abused the rebels as they were being taken away by their
British captors.
But the execution of ten rebel leaders at Kilmainham Gaol showed ordinary Irish people the ruthlessness of the British justice system. They rose up against the colonisers. The rebels may have failed in the short-term, but, in the words of poet W.B. Yeats, a “terrible beauty” was born.
But the execution of ten rebel leaders at Kilmainham Gaol showed ordinary Irish people the ruthlessness of the British justice system. They rose up against the colonisers. The rebels may have failed in the short-term, but, in the words of poet W.B. Yeats, a “terrible beauty” was born.
A cheeky depiction of modern Ireland |
Who were the Black
and Tans?
In 1919, Irish nationalists began a violent campaign against the
British forces but, unlike three years earlier, they used guerrilla tactics
such as ambushes and assassinations. Instead of taking over city centres, they
would attack and disappear. With the republican
leaders such as Michael Collins and Eamon De Valera, who later fought against
each other in a bloody Civil War, in hiding, the British decided to send in
reinforcements.
The hated Black and Tans became known for their violence and
vengeance, sometimes against innocent civilians, throughout the island. In
1920, they opened fire on the crowd at a football match in Croke Park, in what
became known as the first Bloody Sunday. The gunfire was in response to Irish
terrorist attacks. In one day, 32 people were killed, including 13 members of the
British forces, 16 Irish civilians and three Irish republican prisoners.
Without any knowledge of history, people would not understand what a monumental
event it was when the Irish rugby team hosted England at Croke Park in 2007.
The respectful silence during ‘God Save The Queen’ showed that time really can
heal old divisions and animosities. Respect can grow from a knowledge of our
shared history.
Bloody Sunday: scarred the city of Derry and boosted recruitment for the IRA |
What caused ‘The
Troubles’?
After partition, Northern Ireland – which stayed part of the UK
– became a “Protestant Sate for a Protestant people” and the Catholic minority,
who made up a third of the population, found it difficult if not impossible to
get a house or a job. The province was made up of six of the nine counties in
Ulster and partition was introduced to maintain this “artificial” Unionist
majority.
Strangely enough, the wider availability of televisions in
the 1960s played a huge part in bringing about change. Catholics in Northern
Ireland saw images of African-Americans marching for Civil Rights in the United
States and felt that they, too, were entitled to be treated as equals.
Heavy-handed policing turned their peaceful protests into
riots and led to the British Army being deployed onto the streets in 1969. One
particularly appalling atrocity, when soldiers fired on peaceful protesters in
Derry, killing 14, became known as the second Bloody Sunday.
The horror
inflicted on civilians boosted recruitment to the Irish Republican Army (IRA)
and prolonged the conflict for decades. It’s impossible to understand ‘The
Troubles’ without understanding the atrocities and humiliations which alienated
and angered the nationalist people of Northern Ireland.
Our fragile peace has vastly improved life across Ireland over the past 20 years. |
Why is the Good
Friday Agreement so important?
In 1998, there were celebrations all across
Ireland when people on both sides of the border voted in favour of a hard-won
peace agreement. People were sick of violence and the old tribal hatreds. The
document guaranteed that Northern Ireland would stay part of the UK as long as
the majority wanted to do so, but it also gave the Republic some say in the
governing of the North and guaranteed
equal rights for the minority.
It brought an end to three decades of violence and, indeed,
centuries of tribal hatreds. Anyone who understands Irish history recognises
what a monumental agreement this was and how appalling it is to hear anyone
talk about a return to a hard border and our ancient divisions.
Thankfully, the Minister for Education, Joe McHugh,
announced this week that he is set to review the decision to remove History as
a compulsory subject in Irish schools.
If we don’t study History in our schools, the Irish too
might come to forget how much progress we have made in turning conflict into
peace and animosity into a shared sense of respect between our two islands.
Faced with such an uncertain future, the more we know about
(and understand) the past, the better.
* Ciaran Tierney won the Irish Current Affairs
and Politics Blog of the Year award at the Tramline, Dublin, last month. Find
him on Facebook or Twitter here. Visit his website here
- CiaranTierney.com.
Blogger for hire! Did you know that I also blog for businesses and charities. Send an email to ciaran@ciarantierney.com to see if you can avail of the services of an award-winning Irish blogger!
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