Opinion & Reviews

ong before those words were spoken in America, Irish families already understood the feeling behind them. For generations, much of Ireland lived under systems shaped elsewhere and controlled from afar. Rents rose. Tithes were collected. Decisions affecting daily life were often made by people far removed from the families forced to live with the consequences. The issue was not simply taxation. It was distance. Distance between those making decisions and those expected to carry them; distance between ordinary people and any meaningful voice in the direction of their own lives.

My father was a high school English teacher. Because of his hours, he was home in the early mornings and late afternoons. As my mother worked long hours and erratic shifts at the hospital, my dad was there to comfort and protect. He specialized in stirring up his self-declared specialty:

When the Vikings did arrive, they found Scotland and Ireland were worlds they fit into quite well. They found it was a barbarian region, with local rulers or overlords providing protection. More accurately, it was extorted protection from nearby settlements.

Smile, open your eyes, love, and go on. See the What’s the Craic?, Taking the Fields of Glory, and so much more within, and all these stories, more pics and other stories not in the print edition, at iirish.us.

The Black and The Green is a remarkable, under told story of the direct and significant influence the American Civil Rights struggle had upon the Irish fight for justice in the British manufactured statelet, and a chronicling of the universal fight for freedom throughout the world. Available on the Criterion platform.