The Wearin' O' The Green

[dragonlady7]

I believe it is time for my annual rant about the trivialization of Irish history and culture.

The Wearing Of The Green" (lyrics) is a symbol of support for the violent overthrow of the occupying English.

Here's A History of Ireland in Song, which, though not brief, gives a good overview of the role of traditional music in Irish culture. It is fascinating and comprehensive, and contains links to the lyrics of all the relevant songs. (Edited to Add: The song "The Wearing of the Green" and its explanation is under "The Protestant Nation".)

On 30th January, 1972, troops of the British Army's 1st Parachute Regiment opened fire on a demonstration against internment in the Bogside, Derry. Thirteen people were shot dead, another man dying later of wounds received on the day; fourteen people were injured. It is known as Bloody Sunday.

The events of Bloody Sunday will live forever in the minds of Irish people everywhere, but the wound is still too raw for songs to be sung about it. However, shortly after the event, musical succour was offered from an unexpected source, when Paul McCartney proclaimed, Give Ireland Back to the Irish ! We must give Paul McCartney and his late wife their due, for at a time when many stood on the sidelines, they made their sympathies clear and plain. I like to think that should he ever play this at a concert, he'd introduce it with "this is a Rebel Song!" The song was recorded on 1st February 1972, two days after Bloody Sunday, and issued on the 25th of that month. The good old BBC, impartial as ever, promptly banned it. Not to be out-done, John Lennon also recorded a song inspired by Bloody Sunday. Sunday Bloody Sunday puts its vapid namesake by U2 to shame. Although neither is of course part of the Irish folk tradition, I've included them here.

It is impossible to be fair and objective about history, Irish history in particular.
I do not object to people choosing to show their support for a political cause.

What I do object to, strongly, is the trivialization of the entire thing. The Irish used to be considered savages; the Romans completely failed to conquer them. They were then considered sub-human, and the Americans refused to hire them. Now?
Now they're all fwee and twa and faeiries at th' bottom o' th' garden, and I do find it quite insulting.

Not to take anything away from your enjoyment of your green beer, but please, understand the significance.

Comments

[reverend-dave.livejournal.com]

They were then considered sub-human, and the Americans refused to hire them. Now?
Now they're all fwee and twa and faeiries...

Recommended reading: How The Irish Became White (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415918251/) by Noel Ignatiev. A throughly researched eye-opener about how urban politics and white supremacy - both relatively new trends - changed the perception of the Irish in America.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Haven't encountered the book but have certainly encountered the title-- the Irish definitely didn't used to be "white" and as recently as the 1920s were considered another race entirely.
At this point, however, having exported so many of their number, probably 40% of Americans are in some way or to some degree Irish, so that's been thoroughly coopted...

Shall have to check it out. Thanks.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Having read the synopsis and reviews, must add that i have studied a bit about the Irish in the (American) Civil War. The Irish have always had a strange and conflicted relationship with the African-Americans in this country-- they were in direct and sometimes fierce competition for the same menial jobs, for quite a number of years. (I think to an extent this continues in the current skinhead movement, which I know best through the songs of Dropkick Murphys (http://www.dropkickmurphys.com/)-- not necessarily racist, but very pro-workingman and pro-union. I get the feeling the racist issue is present but the cleverer ones try to kind of skate around it because they wisely see that it gives them all a pretty bad name and obscures the issues they really care about. Pff, not like I'm gonna sign up...)
I do recall a quote from a primary source booklet I was reading about the Civil War, that said roughly that Southerners preferred using Irishmen for dock work because if they got their backs broke it was cheaper to replace them than to replace the 'niggers' who were mostly slaves, and thus if they were killed someone was out of pocket.

A more contemporary reference is in the Roddy Doyle book The Commitments, made into a movie about ten years ago-- they whitewash the quote in the movie but still use it (in the book it's the n-word, which is a bit more evocative but controversial). The main character, in a sort of twisted pep-talk, tells his friends:

It's like this, see: The Irish are the blacks of Europe. Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And North Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

(p.s. The Roddy Doyle quote is funny because he's trying to convince his friends that their idea, which is to form a soul band, is a good idea because they've as much right to the music as the people who created it: i.e., blacks. And in the end they're a good band...)

[reverend-dave.livejournal.com]

I have the soundtrack to that movie! Shame on me, I never knew it was based on a book.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's an excellent book. :D
*feels clever to have known something about a movie that you didn't*

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Now, now, let's not get into one-upmanship. A lot of peoples have been repressed by a loto f other peoples throughout the ages, and who's to say whose lot was worse? (Personally I'd have a lot more to say about the handling of the Irish by the British, myself; at least the Americans broke their backs with menial jobs rather than just letting them starve while they continued to export the grain they'd grown, which was pretty fucking eggregious if you ask me. (And, you know, more recent events.)


But I just about tore the head off an African-American woman in my convenience store years ago who, when I refused to refund her money for something she hadn't purchased in our store, said "It's like we back in slavery day." And I said, "Slavery day? Excuse me? Slavery day? One of my ancestors died in Andersonville, woman, and most of the rest of them were slaves in their own country with the original inventors of sharecropping, I will have you know. Don't you talk to me about slavery day." My coworker had to kind of wrestle me in to the walk-in cooler and I stayed in there for an hour in my tank top muttering about "slavery day".