I Skyped with my husband yesterday and got an added bonus when, while we were in mid-conversation, he stopped and said, "what's that noise? It sounds like an airplane engine!' -- The noise? Over 20,000 Abate and USMC bikers in their annual "Toys for Tots" ride. So, there I sat, in my office in Belfast, watching the procession go by via laptop screen. I even got to see Santa in a Hummer! Where else but in the good old U.S.A., huh?
Today, I spent a bit of the morning doing Christmas cards. A couple of weeks ago, I had seen some nice cards with the phrase "Merry Christmas from Belfast" emblazened across to the front. At the time, I thought -- 'how clever' -- and planned that I would have to come back to purchase some at a later date. Well, unfortunately, by the time I returned, they were all sold out. No surprise - given the diversely global student body at QUB. So, I settled on some Oxfam Ireland Christmas cards. The profits from just one pack of christmas cards can help to by life-saving buckets especially designed to keep water safe and clean for Irelands overseas work. I figured that trumped 'clever'.
One can tell the semester is coming to a close. The Monday 1:00 p.m. seminars hosted by the Institute of Irish Studies ended last week. So, I did not have the opportunity to break up the day with a bit of Irish culture. Additionally, the lecture crowd, usually milling about my office around this time of night, was absent. The halls, usually devoid of much activity, are even quieter than normal today. I could go see 'Monsters' - a movie written, shot, directed and created by Gareth Edwards about a monster movie ((massive octopi from space) and wrong-side-of-the-tracks love story (young photojournalist tracks down rich-kid daughter of boss to save her from harm)-- think District 9 meets It Happened One Night -- or there's always 'Machete'. Maybe it's me, but the choices here do not particularly seem exciting. It seems whenever I am up for a movie at the Queen's Film Theatre (QFT), there's nothing particular I want to see.
I spent the afternoon finishing a couple of books on the exile of the Irish from Ireland -- some of those 'exiles' constructed historically due to the conflicting identities of British Protestantism and Irish Catholicism. For many, Irish identity was primarily rural and Catholic; Irish nationalism was inward-looking with values of self-sufficiency. British identity was primarily urban and Protestant with an outward-looking imperialist attitude to nationalism. According to both authors, you could actually tell much about people through their jobs, their houses, the number of children they were likely to have -- once they were categorized as either 'Irish' or 'British'. Almost none of this is neatly categorized any more; there's been a number of factors that played a part along the way (media access, tourism, diversified consumer products, the global economy, the EU). One change was an almost ambivalent mass conversion to Protestantism - or, the right of individual conscience - accepted by the great majority of Irish Catholics.
One author pointed out some of the bigoted responses of some who inhabited the island. And there is always the Church. Not so long ago (1948), It and the then Government had seriously discussed the idea, put forward by the Archbishop of Tuam, of banning young women from leaving Ireand at all, so as to protect them from "moral, national and social perils". In the end, the plan was considered unfeasible. And it's been only since the mid-1980's that a woman could legally divorce - although, to do so still brought with it a mark of shame in some rural areas. One woman I recently interviewed is still scorned by a few narrow-minded people in her town. She filed for divorce several years past to escape from an abusive relationship. Sometimes, one wonders why such things still occur - in the modern 21st century and in this part of the world -- afterall, we're not talking about a third-world country. Of course, the recent hushed (and some not so hushed) conversations regarding one politician in the not too distant past - mainly the fact that he was 'd-i-v-o-r-c-e-d' (raising questions of his suitability in the political office to which he was running) occurred back home. So, I guess we're all not that different...
Yet, in some areas, Ireland (both North and South) is still a place where people consider being Irish as 'less than'. And for many, there is the perception that to engage in practices to preserve the culture through such measures as providing Irish immersion schools is yet one more 'unfair advantage' "given to 'Taigs' who already get preferential treatment from the government-- they get enough help already as it is". These sectarian comments --steeped in misconceptions --bear no resemblance to the truth. Sometimes, identities placed upon groups by others, remain far removed from true existence.
Yet, I am optimistically cautious that Ireland's cultural identity revival - through such endeavors as Irish Immersion education - will succeed, at least in some small part. The language and the culture are much more important than the politics. As Colm Mac Aindreas (one of the original nine students who attended Bothar Seoighe - the first all Irish school in Belfast-1971), "politics come and go...but the Irish language has been around for thousands of years...and will be for thousands of years to come". Irish writer Mairtin O Cadhain once said that the biggest indication that the Irish language movement had failed was that they hadn't managed to re-gaelicized one street in Ireland. That was the inspiration behind Bothar Seoighe. And Belfast students today are aware of that important history. So, while there definitely is a 'ways to go', the first few important steps have been taken. And steps to preserve one's culture are always a step in the right direction.
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