I don't know that this translates across the pond very well, Mr. Harlow. Daylia knows, as you may not, that I am a Canadian citizen. Your continued focus on Americans being unduly sensitive to criticism, alluded to twice on this thread and frequently in others, is valid in its own context, but I think you are mistaken in applying it in this situation.

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For those of us who've lived and studied outside Eire, the decidely Irish propensity towards war and violent crime is "common knowledge", verified by not only history and crime statistics but also the content of Irish TV, movies and music.

However, when I've mentioned this on Mudcat I've been puzzled at the response from Irish Catters (and GUESTS) - often, they either deny it outright or display large gaps of knowledge concerning their own 'national character', at least as it's seen by other nations.

I wondered why this was so ... have English historians and sociologists doctored statistics and taught lies about Ireland then? ... until I found this article yesterday - Violence is the Irish Way.

It claims, among other things that "The reality untaught in Irish schools and textbooks is that war – whether on a large or small scale – and domestic violence have been pervasive in Irish life and culture from this country's earliest days over 4000 years ago. Violence, in varying forms, according to the leading historian of the subject, Richard Maxwell Brown, "has accompanied virtually every stage and aspect of its national experience," and is "part of its unacknowledged (underground) value structure." Indeed, "repeated episodes of violence going far back into its Celtic past, have imprinted upon its citizens a propensity to violence."

Thus, Ireland demonstrated a national predilection for war and domestic violence long before 1969, but its leaders and intellectuals through most of the last century cultivated the national self-image, a myth, of Ireland as a moral, "peace-loving" nation which the Irish population seems unquestioningly to have embraced."

The article contains some very interesting statistics and analysis. Please note - I'm not posting it here to point the finger at anyone, but to hopefully generate some peaceful - and eye-opening - discussion about the claims it makes.

Thanks all - (hoping to deepen my understanding of my neighbours).