Cheers!

The earliest victims of Western European imperialism were other Europeans. Some 800 years ago, Ireland became the first colony of what later became known as the British empire. A part of Ireland still remains under British occupation.

To this day, the English stereotype the Irish as drunken losers, a notion that goes back to Elizabethan times.  As a matter of fact, the BBC series I am watching now, House of Cards, has a character, an addled charmer of an Irishman named Roger O'Neill, who is a drunk and a cocaine addict, victimized by the stone-hearted anti-hero Urquhart.

In truth, for many, St. Patrick's Day is an excuse to get plastered, so I think it would be wise to watch this informative video on the consequences of overindulging.

 

It is nice to reflect that we have an Irish president!

So our Irish ancestors had a rough time, here and in the Homeland, but we have survived and thrived!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone, and don't overindulge now!

 

 

Comments

[Musings]

Happy St. Paddy's Day, Marianna! We have some Guiness we bought for a party tonight but our friend caught the flu so our corned beef will have to wait until next week.

[psilotum]

I loved House of Cards (BBC version). I couldn't believe it ended so fast. We are on Netflix hiatus, so I haven't been able to try the remake yet.

[barbara]

Coming from a large Irish family with large family extensions from the east coast to the midwest, that are far from being overly indulgent with "drinks," I always find that being labeled as drunkards is just one big stereotype. Now I know where it started -- with the British. Funny how stereotyping starts and why it starts -- power and privilege.-- barbara

[Henry Butler Chapin]

I'm using my full moniker today, the one on my birth certificate from Kenya, oops, I mean, well, whatever, because I was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, honest I was. And who would fib about that? Anyway, my mother was a Butler, a grand old Irish name.

Alas, there is an alcohol problem in Ireland. In-your-face priests have been known to single out drunks who are not providing for their families right in front of a whole congregation. I've seen public fall-down-and-stagger drunkenness myself in Ireland. I even saw a little girl leading her weaving, staggering father home. Isn't there a song on the subject? "Father, Dear Father, Come Home With Me Now" or something lke that.

When I first came to Hawaii, the Irish Rovers (famous for the Unicorn song-- "A long time ago when the earth was green/ There were more kinds of animals than you've ever seen") gave a concert on St. Patrick's Day. It was great. But then I also noticed one song after another was a rollicking, rowdy hymn to, what else?, drinking. It was a great concert. Hey, it was on St. Patrick's Day.

The English did plenty of damage, don't get me wrong, and it's a melancholy history. You'll never find an Irish lad named Oliver because of Oliver Cromwell. And William is also rarely used as a name, because of William of Orange, a bad king. Liam is more common.

I developed and taught a course in Irish Literature. Not everybody knows that Irish literature in English is totally outstanding and, arguably, the best 20th Century writer in every genre was Irish. Poetry? William (oops) Butler (ahem!) Yeats. Drama? George Bernard Shaw. Or, more cutting-edge modernist, Samuel Beckett of "Waiting for Godot" fame. Short story? Frank O'Connor or Sean O'Faolain or James Joyce. The Essay? Hubert Butler (ahem!) The novel? James Joyce. And, as with any Renaissance, there are back-up writers supporting the leading lights. That's what a Renaissance is, a general flowering of creativity, not just the existence of a single genius. So the Irish like to point out that THE ENGLISH GAVE US A LANGUAGE AND WE GAVE THEM BACK A LITERATURE!

[Brandon]

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you and everyone. I don't drink but I wore green and will eat corned beef and cabbage for dinner tonight.

[Hattie]

This is interesting:
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistory/comments/14wicq/wherewhen_did_the_irish_drunk_stereotype_come/

[cloudia]

here's to YOU!

ALOHA from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral
~ >

[Henry Butler Chapin]

I would say that my anecdotal observations, true as they are, are not science. My statement was "there is an alcohol problem in Ireland," which seems like a true statement to me. Obviously other cultures drink a lot. Human beings drink a lot. I know alcoholics of every ethnic group in Hawaii. In my opinion, we in Hawaii lean towards what I would call "beeraholics" as people who are hooked on beer get a free pass and are somehow not classifed as alcoholics--except by me. Heck, I have them in my own family. Everybody does. Whether the Irish lead the league in drinking and alcoholism was not my statement or my stereotype. Reddit seems so tangled and, gasp!, anecdotal that it's just one more collection of opinions. What is Reddit anyway? I do appreciate, however, the way Hattie digs stuff up on the internet which is new to me.

The statement I found most useful in Reddit was that there is a temperance movement in Ireland. This is true. These kids wear little round paper stickers they got at church indicating they are tee-totalers. Maybe tee-totalers exist as a movement because drinking and alcoholism are a big worry in their families and homes and country.

The Furey Brothers, an exemplary Irish musical group, have an album entitled ALCOHOLIDAYS, obviously intended to be slyly humorous. If you want to have good fun, listen to the Furey Brothers with Little Davey Arthur. You'll enjoy them unless you have a heart of stone.

The Irish joke is akin to the Portagee joke in Hawaii. What the heck is it all about? Our very cosmopolitan aunt from Greece asked us once while visiting us, "what is this in Hawaii about Portuguese jokes? There's nothing considered particularly humorous about them in Europe."

[Hattie]

Hank: You are right about the "beeroholics." That's what I see here, too. Not too much into the hard stuff. I was trying to remember what I thought about the Portuguese when I lived in Europe, but I draw a blank. Nice architecture, people told me, but the food wasn't very good. Or was that Greece? I have known a few Portuguese from Portugal in my life, but I could not make any pronouncements on their national character, except to say that they were all quite different from each other.
Alcoholism was a scourge in my mother's family. They were the Donahues. Very vigorous people. "Working alcoholics."

[Maria]

Thank you so much for the Michael Parenti link. I am embarrassed to admit I never read him before.

[Hattie]

Maria: I've heard Parenti speak two times: Once in Portland and once in Hilo. The Hilo papers made no mention of his appearance here. He is an excellent, forceful speaker.

http://www.typepad.com/site/blogs/6a00d8345163e269e200d8345163e669e2/post/6a00d8345163e269e20133f5d05352970b/edit

Here is a vid of a one hour talk he gave a while ago, that might interest you, if you have the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-ofKI8QFWY

And here is the talk he gave in Hilo that I heard, in ten minute segments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkoXWmqUj14
I'm somewhere in that audience, but I could not spot myself.

[Annie]

We indulged only slightly here. Some Guinness and colcannon.
Both of us keenly aware of our Irish heritage, the positive as well as the darker stuff.