THE IRISH

For centuries Ireland existed as one state. The first date that belongs to Northern Ireland rather than to Ireland as a whole is 1609, when thousands of Scots Presbyterians were brought over for the Plantation of Ulster. The hatred between colonised and coloniser was underlined by the difference in their religions, and the Irish were persecuted not only for being the natives but on the basis of being Catholics as well. From then on they never quite sorted out religion from politics.

The march of the Orange Order which was founded in 1795 to keep up the traditions of Protestantism in Ulster takes place every year. In fact, it is a semi-religious, semi-political organisation. All over Northern Ireland on July l2th, branches of the Orange Order march off some three or four miles to a field where a meeting is held.

It's the same thing, but in reverse, when it comes round to the 1916 Commemoration day, or to August l5th the Nationalists, the Catholic Tories of Northern Ireland, keep it as their day, and sing anti-Orange songs; meaning every bitter word they sing.

Polarised into their religious sects, and set against each other, ordinary people have not been able to combine and fight politically for their real interests. At the bottom of the social pyramid with nothing to lose, the Catholic working man doesn't really fear the Protestant; but the Protestant working man, who has very little feels the need to hang on to his Protestant identity in case he loses what little he has. He fears the Catholic because he knows that any gain made by the Catholic minority will be his loss; for the businessmen and the landowners, Orange or Nationalist, are not going to suffer losses on anybody’s behalf.

Where discrimination hurts most is in employment and housing. You come to a factory looking for a job and they ask you which school you went to. If its name was "Saint Somebody" they know you are a Catholic and you don't get taken on. Until the civil rights campaign forced a promise of reform, housing was the burning issue in Northern Ireland, because only householders have a vote in local elections: subtenants, lodgers, adult children living at home are all without the vote, and thus a quarter of the electorate cannot participate in election. So it is very important where you build houses and for whom you build them. Too many houses for Catholics could upset the majority on a Protestant council, or vice versa. The policy in both the Protestant-run councils, which are the majority, and the few Catholic-run councils, is to control the way the votes go by having separate housing estates for people of different religions, and by awarding tenancies in the interests of political dominance.

The Irish are known for their charm and vivacity, as well as for the beauty of the Irish girls.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1176