Studied international conflict resolution for a bit. It's always more nuanced and more complex than you can catch in a bumper sticker. I toured Belfast with a retired Black Taxi driver and spent some inadequate time studying at Queen's University. Details get hazy and people forget that the 1916 rebels were Catholic, Protestant, and atheist. Foggy Dew is a product of that intense bonfire building between 1916 and 1920. The IRA reached back to it. They used it. They still try and paint themselves as the torch-bearers of Irish rebellion but there are sizable gaps in that narrative. Your post is from someone who prefers junk history.
Yeah, not an expert. It's been a minute. Most of my experiences are outdated. And to quote someone wise and intelligent, "And remember that unless you are a very special person, there are forces at work much older and deeper than you and your meagre experience can comprehend."
A facebook memory came up today - "It's remembrance day, my father's generation knew the axe would fall like his fathers before - I'm glad my sons will never have to experience war"
Quite a difference five years makes. I'm not so sure anymore.
Well, you've earned your $5 for this month, Professor Smythe ...
I'm also descended from someone who "got into trouble" being an obnoxious Prod in Belfast around the turn of the century, which is why I don't have the surname he was born with (... or possibly because of anti-Irish prejudice in Liverpool, or possibly because of the tax man; telling the same story twice is *such* a bore). Ironically, two generations down, my parents are very very Catholic, and uncritically Republican, albeit from a safe distance across the sea. I think some people can know perfectly well that history is complicated and the situation nuanced, but they go ahead and pick a side anyway, because it's just easier not to have to think all the time. Plus, you get cracking tunes. And Romantic Sentiment. "Yes, Well, No, You See It Was More Complicated Actually" is not a soul-stirring Broadway musical, as far as I know. (I'd pay real cash money for a West End adaptation of Simon Schama's "Citizens", though.)
Studied international conflict resolution for a bit. It's always more nuanced and more complex than you can catch in a bumper sticker. I toured Belfast with a retired Black Taxi driver and spent some inadequate time studying at Queen's University. Details get hazy and people forget that the 1916 rebels were Catholic, Protestant, and atheist. Foggy Dew is a product of that intense bonfire building between 1916 and 1920. The IRA reached back to it. They used it. They still try and paint themselves as the torch-bearers of Irish rebellion but there are sizable gaps in that narrative. Your post is from someone who prefers junk history.
Thanks for this; I am always learning and it's great to hear from someone who knows more about the nuances than I!
Yeah, not an expert. It's been a minute. Most of my experiences are outdated. And to quote someone wise and intelligent, "And remember that unless you are a very special person, there are forces at work much older and deeper than you and your meagre experience can comprehend."
A facebook memory came up today - "It's remembrance day, my father's generation knew the axe would fall like his fathers before - I'm glad my sons will never have to experience war"
Quite a difference five years makes. I'm not so sure anymore.
"And if at times I curse bit,
you need not read that part of it.
For all through like horror runs,
the red resentment of the guns.
And you yourself would mutter when,
they took the things that once were men,
and sped them through that zone of hate,
to where the dripping surgeons wait.
And wonder too., if in God's sight.
War ever, ever can be right"
-Robert Service
Well, you've earned your $5 for this month, Professor Smythe ...
I'm also descended from someone who "got into trouble" being an obnoxious Prod in Belfast around the turn of the century, which is why I don't have the surname he was born with (... or possibly because of anti-Irish prejudice in Liverpool, or possibly because of the tax man; telling the same story twice is *such* a bore). Ironically, two generations down, my parents are very very Catholic, and uncritically Republican, albeit from a safe distance across the sea. I think some people can know perfectly well that history is complicated and the situation nuanced, but they go ahead and pick a side anyway, because it's just easier not to have to think all the time. Plus, you get cracking tunes. And Romantic Sentiment. "Yes, Well, No, You See It Was More Complicated Actually" is not a soul-stirring Broadway musical, as far as I know. (I'd pay real cash money for a West End adaptation of Simon Schama's "Citizens", though.)