Those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. Read it all. Britain has a long history of brutal treatment of the Irish, and Northern Ireland as a province of the UK has a history of denying Catholics civil rights based on their religion that begins with its inception in 1921. Practice brutality, and the people will be raised with bruality bred into the culture.

I'm sorry some in the UK feel hatred for American support of the Irish Catholics. I agree that the time for violence has passed, something which the Irish themselves recognize and support, and have done for many years. I wonder, though, in view of the resistence shown by Ulster Protestants to reasonable attempts at justice, if the current progress being made toward civil rights for Ulster Catholics would even be under discussion had there not been armed attacks.

Here's a story for you about the Irish in America:

I come from a city in New York State in which there are a lot of Catholics of various ethnic backgrounds. As is the habit in some parts of the US, we all knew we were Americans, but identified ourselves by our ethnic heritages.

Many of we Irish in the community had a family history of having come over during the Famine. As you may know, Irish culture has a strong oral tradition, fed by two streams: the bardic heritage that ties closely to traditional Irish law, and the grim fact that Irish Catholics were forbidden to be taught in formal schools during the British occupation of the country from Cromwell until 1831, after which formal education designed to teach obedience and to eradicate Irish culture was instituted. The oral tradition of storytelling came over with the Famine Irish, and those family stories are passed down from grandparent to grandchild even today. It's as if it were yesterday that the family was starved by English landlords and forced to leave their homes for America. It's as if it were yesterday that those still strong enough to leave promised to send money home from exile to help those who remained, and lived up to those promises. And so, when money was asked to help those oppressed, injured and orphaned, it was given, in the tradition of the stories told that sprang from a long history of injustice, suffering and violence.

In March, in my Catholic girls' high school, we celebrated two important saint's days on a single day by excusing students from wearing their school uniforms, which were universally detested anyway.

Many people know that March 17 is St. Patrick's Day, which the Irish girls celebrated by wearing green. The Irish folk song, "The Wearin' of the Green",* which commemorates Irish patriots being hung by the British for wearing nationalist green, is still known and sung in America.

Fewer people know that March 19 is St. Joseph's Day, an important Italian holy day, which the Italian girls celebrated by wearing red.

So one day was chosen, and girls wore the color of their people if they so chose. The Polish girls would often wear red or white, in honor of St. Stanislaus, whose day is April 11. Some girls didn't wear any national color, because it wasn't required. Nobody wore orange on that day, as a mark of respect.

In 1972, in response to the policy of internment without trial by the government of Ulster (used against the Catholic community) and to the Bloody Sunday shootings, Irish girls began to wear black rather than green on the saints' non-uniform day. This was not organized by the Church, nor was it the idea of any adult group. This came from the hearts of 14- to 18-year-old American girls of Irish descent, who keenly felt the injustice from across the ocean. The family stories had new proof of their truth.

You may talk about hate if you wish. Hating the Irish has been a British national pasttime for hundreds of years. The British government is not innocent, and far more innocent Irish than innocent Britons have died as a result of the conquest and occupation of Ireland. Please remember that violence has bred violence, please remember how it started, please remember who still contributes to it, please remember who has done the bulk of the suffering and dying, and please remember the part that must be done by all sides to bring an end to it.

*

[collected by] Padraic Colum (1881–1972). Anthology of Irish Verse. 1922.

44. The Wearin’ o’ the Green

By Anonymous

OH, Paddy dear! and did ye hear the news that’s goin’ round?
The shamrock is forbid by law to grow on Irish ground!
No more St. Patrick’s day we’ll keep; his colour can’t be seen,
For there’s a cruel law ag’in’ the Wearin’ o’ the Green!

I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand, 5
And he said, “How’s poor ould Ireland, and how does she stand?”
“She’s the most distressful country that ever yet was seen,
For they’re hanging men and women there for the Wearin’ o’ the Green.

An’ if the colour we must wear is England’s cruel red,
Let it remind us of the blood that Ireland has shed; 10
Then pull the shamrock from your hat, and throw it on the sod,
An’ never fear, ’twill take root there, though under foot ’tis trod.

When law can stop the blades of grass from growin’ as they grow,
An’ when the leaves in summer time their colour dare not show,
Then I will change the colour, too, I wear in my caubeen; 15
But till that day, plaise God, I’ll stick to the Wearin’ o’ the Green.