Its time to stop blaming the English for the Irish Famine
Being a Scot(ish) member of the commonwealth there is nothing I like more than to cast aspersions on the english sassenach. As a matter of fact I see it as a cornerstone of our cultural identity.
My love of history however has made me realize that most of the crimes we lay at the feet of the English should actually be blamed on those ravagers of Europe the Normans.
William the Conqueror the first Norman ruler of Britain alone is responsible for the Harrowing of the North, the conquest of Ireland and the imposition of catholicism on the irish ( Yes St Patrick Belonged to the Celtic Church).
In the Brave Heart story (however innaccurate the movie was) the traitor then saviour Robert de Bruce was a Norman and the evil wrongdoer Edward longshanks was also a Norman.
I think the only invasion that can be properly blamed on the english is Cromwell’s but that invasion ,in my opinion, had less to do with conquest and more to do with breaking the onerous chains of roman catholic domination of country and people more on that in another post.
To be clear when I speak of roman catholicism I”m speaking of the political domination practiced by the state religion of the roman empire not the religion practiced by all those great people who’ve fed me all that terrific food over the years, unlike the english who are stingy mingers when it comes to sharing food. There i go harping on the english again sorry old habits die hard.
Back to the potato famine most of the lords ruling Ireland at the time(both “english”and “irish”) were normans. These are the people famous for exporting grain while the country starved. Another overlooked aspect of the potato famine is the preceding
population explosion facilitated by the fact that a family could feed itself well with just potatoes and dairy and poor quality land that wouldn’t grow other crops could grow a profusion of potatoes.
The potato was introduced to Ireland in 1589 at which time the population was estimated to be just under 2 million fast forward 250 years and the number was closer to 8.5 million just before the famine[ http://www.grantonline.com/grant-family-genealogy/Records/population/population-ireland.htm ].
The final historical realization came from a new genetic study of the british isles. It turns out that the irish aren’t celts, the scottish aren’t celts the welsh aren’t whatever you thought the welsh were and the english aren’t anglo-saxons whatever the roots of their languages. The ethnic genetic make up of all four is overwhelmingly Basque [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/science/05cnd-brits.html ] that’s right all people of the british isles share a common ancestry with the basques of the iberian penninsula a people well known ( i never knew this, the only basque i ever met had dark hair and an olive complexion) for their red hair. Sound familiar, people who have red hair? Recently a youtube vlogger (do people use that word) Lauren Southern took a genetic test and went over the results on her video. Going into the video her family history told her that she was danish, irish and english so she expected to be scandinavian,anglo-saxon and celtic. Much to Lauren’s surprise the genetic test revealed that she was west german, scandinavian, some anglo-saxon englishry and good percentage iberian! Lauren quickly realized that the west german dna map overlay part of the scandinavian dna map on the danish peninsula but her “spanish” ancestry baffled her. Well the iberian dna was basque dna which is the dna of the first inhabitants of the british isle whose ancestors still dwell there to this day.
not my content
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Not my video used for reference only
To sum it up most of what we (scots, irish, welsh of the commonwealth diaspora) consider english historical crimes can be attributed to the Normans the same group of french speaking vikings who dominated much of europe.
So the next time the irish girl won’t stop reciting joyce when your just trying to get your drink on or your scottish cousin passes out in your bed and pisses himself or your english friend starts acting all gods gift to civilization or your welsh friend won’t stop thinking too much, remember its all your fault.
What are all us non-english british types supposed to do with our time now that our historically based righteous indignation towards pommies has been tarnished.Never fear none of us have ever let facts get in the way of our tribal rivalries and the english God bless them are always a good target for some good hearted piss taking. Let me give you a good example. I was standing in front of a bar and an englishman was talking to some saudis. He stopped talking to them and walked over to me and started complaining to me in his thick english accent about how if the saudis were to come to Canada they should learn to speak english properly because he couldn’t understand them. To which I replied ,with glee in my heart for this wonderful opportunity, “ I know how you feel I couldn’t understand a word you just said” exit stage left fuming englishmen last man standing smug colonial. Piss Taken!
(tongue in cheek bruv you know I love you)
Ah ha ha ha - hilarious. You have a very amusing writing style.
Although now I'm itching to check some facts but I just don't have time for it. I mean, what do you mean that the "English" who over-saw the famine were Norman and not English, it was only about 170 years go.... the Normans sort of frittered out as a firm cultural identity somewhere around 1200/1300 I think, so I just don't understand the logic on that one.
Also- what are you trying to say when you explain that the population exploded due to the introduction of the potato. Does that somehow make it all right to execute a cultural genocide as a sort of form of population control??? I think you'd best revisit the logic and moral couching on that one!
Also, what is ethnicity anyway??? Is it just the barcode of our genes? Ask an anthropologist and they'll probably tell you that genes is the least important ingredient in an ethnic identity.
As a bitter chip to haul about on the aul shoulder the famine is the all-time Irish favourite sore wound to constantly return to to lament and complain about English imperial c@$£ishness. So I'm sorry, but I don't think you can deny an Irish person that cherished national past-time on the supposition that it were Normans wot dunnit.
Adored the article, very amusing. Cheers!
The Normans in northern Italy consider themselves Italian yet they still have a much greater wealth and power than southern Italians. Just like the Normans in England who considered themselves English but still preserved their power through language, they still spoke french, accents matter even now, here's an article on contemporary Norman privilege,
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/10/last-1000-years-families-owned-england/
By talking about the population explosion I'm highlighting the cause of the famine that being a large population explosion based on a single crop(I believe a single strain of potato) and the failure of that crop.
This doesn't deny the callousness and outright malice of the government of England(controlled by Norman families) in its response to the famine.
So now we must ask why did they act with such hostility to the irish nation( except for their Norman cousins the Fitzgeralds and Fitzwhatnots who I guarantee didn't starve)?
I would say that the many times Ireland has offered to serve as a platform for the foreign invasion of england up to and including the Nazi's is a pretty good reason for enmity. To be fair to the Irish the Normans started it by invading their country, imposing catholicism on them( before that they belonged to the Celtic Church that Saint Patrick belonged to. The church that boasts the first above ground christian church) and dominating them for centuries.
I just like to point out the falsity of some of the stories that make up your and my ethnic identity like the Irish and scottish are celts, the english are anglo- saxon and the welsh are whatever their supposed to be when in fact they are just a bunch of cantankerous Basques with Norman overlords.Its fun shattering comforting myths.
I would never deny your right to castigate the english! As a matter of fact its our duty as Irish, Scottish, Welsh, people from Cornwall and all Colonials of the Commonwealth to only speak of perfidious albion in the most denigrating of terms otherwise they are insufferably puffed up!
All criticisms aside I still consider myself a Cromwellian Monarchist because I like the system I grew up under, I think we have the best mix( in the real world, proven and time tested) of stability and freedom.
PS. Do you know what a Shillelagh is? Every time I bring it up with Irish people they have no idea what I'm talking about. I wish I had a Shillelagh.
Thank You for reading!💞
Shillelagh is like a walking stick made out of blackthorn, it's really black and shiny. My grandma on my dad's side and my grandad on my mum's side had one. I don't really know much about them except that they seem pretty iconic as a sort of traditional thing. Also blackthorn is quite a mystic wood, with lots of associations with the faeries and witchs and what-not, for sure it's cos it's a real hard wood that it is used though. They used to smelt coke using fires burning blackthorn cos it burns the hottest, the wood is hard and doesn't split. Normally a stick is chosen that has a natural knob at the top, and sometimes they can twist and gnarl in really interesting aesthetically pleasing shapes.
Re all the above information, that's very interesting. Recently I've been feeling like I'd like to revisit a bit of Irish history as I have a ropey grasp. I'd already heard about the genetic pool not being anything like what the popular imaginative is, he he. Although it never seems as though anyone has any response as regards how the basque came to scatter their genetic seeds so profusely! There's also a very strong Iberian influence as regards the biodiversity, with much of the vegetation having somehow come from Spain/Portugal. Were sailors such avid horticulturalists as a side-line?? I'd love to travel back in time and do a couple of ethnobotanic interviews with some Basque sailors!!!!
Yes an irish person who has heard of a Shillelagh, I think the knob is a rootball.
I have a wicked book about the basque coming to north america and visiting a chinese city in new brunswick I think, Its called Seven cities I think(non-fiction).
The thing about the british isles is the basque were the first inhabitants and still make up 74% of the genetic heritage, 80% in Ireland. Red hair is a basque thing.
Have you heard of the black Irish(another Irish thing I learned about in school, The Donnelly's.....MURDERED!!) plus I know a family of them the Collins, they look lebanese.
Hmmm. You've lost me on the black and Lebanese Irish!
The Black Irish look lebanese, the most common explanation for them is the spanish armada shipwrecks but I prefer the explanation Uriel's Machine puts forward; The Tuatha de denann were the jewish tribe of Dan coming to learn at the crystal house. Uriel's Machine is the best book I've read about Henges.
Ahhhh....Black Irish....there's quite a few in Donegal actually! Have a proper Spanish sort of look to them. My favourite beach (in the whole wide world) is called the Murder Hole, on the Rosguill peninsula, one of the stories goes that a ship from the Armada sunk off it and all the poor sailors had there heads taken for rewards from the English. Although if you see how remote the peninsula is and think about what transportation options were in those days, and then I put my self in the place of an Irish woman living there, I'd totally be more interested in the good looking Mediterraneans as material for husbands than some short term monetary reward! Although maybe that would give the Irish lads all the more reason to be murderous!
who calls us white?
approach an englishman with the notion that because he is white, he shares the same race as the irish and you might expect a firm but polite admonishment to the contrary.
posit the same to an irishman and his admonishment won't be as polite.
race is another tool used by the state to maintain division among the conquered.
who calls us white?
I never called the Irish white (lol, or anyone else for that matter) I said Basque! Irish, Scottish, English and Welsh are all genetically Basques.
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