The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #55190 Message #858409
Posted By: Big Mick
04-Jan-03 - 09:47 AM
Thread Name: BS: Protestant State!
Subject: RE: BS: Protestant State!
I am not qualified to comment on most of this, but several observations can be made by the likes of myself safely.
First, I want to say well done to Jimmy for his observations about the working class Protestants and the Catholics having much more in common than apart. I have been organizing Unions for over 25 years. I have been studying the history of the land of my people for my whole life. The union activities have taught me one thing as an absolute. When one sees a sectarian divide..........track the money and you will see the real root of it all. Our cousins on the Protestant divide have been used as a tool to play the Orange card by the industrialists to maintain the status quo. This status quo was begun by the English centuries ago and it has taken on a life of its own. There have been various times in the history of the troubles when working class Protestants and Catholics started to band together for mutual benefit, and low and behold, the Orange card got played, and the money managed to split them again. Now that the money is starting to see that there is more profit to be gained by a unified "Celtic Tiger", all we are left with is the victims of this 300 year old policy spouting the rhetoric that they have learned over generations. This is not a situation peculiar to Ireland. It has happened in the US with the African descended peoples and the Irish descendants. It has also happened in the steel towns with the various Eastern Europeans. It happened in England, as well. It is always about the rights of capital as opposed to the rights of people.
There is no sense trying to mitigate guilt. The defenders of English policy in Ireland always do this. They continually try to use the actions of the victims to justify the system they created. Of course there are IRA men who commit acts of terror. Victims of oppression committed by forces with overwhelming numbers and weapons always turn to this tactic. What else do they do? I am not saying that it is OK, but one must never deny the root of this. All that has happened has been a response to the genesis of this. That genesis lies in the intent of the English monarchy and government to make Ireland a part of the Empire. They used this to justify plantation, starvation, and colonialism. They used it to justify their attempt to kill the native tongue, the religion, to take property, and ultimately to try and partition a part of the country from its people.
And what does it come down to now? It seems, in the opinion of one of one of your American cousins who loves the land and its people, that it is time to take these memories, couple them with an understanding of intent, and move forward. The time for guns is over. The time for ancient hatreds has passed. Use the lessons to craft a future. Never forget the past..lest you repeat it. But stop this old load of shite that attempts to divide folks. Recognize that moneyed interests sold you that. Recognize that you are all Irish........and move ahead.........if not for you, then for the weans.
Mick