A network for people of Irish heritage
Untold Stories
I read Karl's invitation to us all, asking for tales of our ancestors - how they landed where they did, how they faired in the new land. These stories are really important I think, they are the raw material of the Diaspora. But what struck me as I thought about this was the many many stories that have gone untold. The Irish Diaspora was forced on the Irish to a large extent by the social and economic pain in the Ireland of the past. The Diaspora was uninvited and as people left Ireland they left behind stories they'd rather not tell. I think this is a really interesting area.
I know of one example where a young girl in Donegal fell pregnant to a British soldier in the late 1920's. She traveled to Dublin to give birth and hand her new born over to a Dublin orphanage. She then moved to the North of England to start again. There she raised a family who never knew the true story of her past and the relation they would never know of, let alone meet. That little boy, handed over to the Dublin orphanage, was my Dad. I never knew any of his English relations and nor did he.
I think the notion of the Irish leaving Ireland and consciously deciding not to take their stories with them is powerful and defining. These stories are painful, even multiple generations down the line, but I think it's really important that we encourage them to be told. These 'secrets' tell us more about the early Diaspora than any romanticised and practiced fairy-tale of success and good luck.
I know of one example where a young girl in Donegal fell pregnant to a British soldier in the late 1920's. She traveled to Dublin to give birth and hand her new born over to a Dublin orphanage. She then moved to the North of England to start again. There she raised a family who never knew the true story of her past and the relation they would never know of, let alone meet. That little boy, handed over to the Dublin orphanage, was my Dad. I never knew any of his English relations and nor did he.
I think the notion of the Irish leaving Ireland and consciously deciding not to take their stories with them is powerful and defining. These stories are painful, even multiple generations down the line, but I think it's really important that we encourage them to be told. These 'secrets' tell us more about the early Diaspora than any romanticised and practiced fairy-tale of success and good luck.
Comment
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Comment by Nick McElwee on June 11, 2009 at 8:43am - totally, those internecine squabbles can get addressed, a truth a reconciliation tribune as in South Africa for example. But when the hard-liners exit it doesn't happen and instead the position is fermented and hardened across the diaspora.
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Comment by Terrance O'Dwyer on June 10, 2009 at 12:05am -
Nick--
just to clarify
1. by the phrase << Republican fervor is a spiritual phenomenon>>, I did not mean 'religious'; spirits-filled might have been more accurate--but there is no humour in that'.
the essence of the point is one of the consequences of ICW was the emigration of many Republican hard-liners. while we frequently attribute anti-Brit sentiment to an excess of alcohol, i wonder how much of that sentiment is due to emigration of Republican hard-liners.
or, to put it in other terms, how different would the Irish diaspora have been without a civil war.
with respect to Northern Ireland, I used to think it was purely a socio-economic conflict. now, i think religious intolerance on both sides is also a fundamental cause when trying to understand the past. the irony here is the non-christian and the atheist outsider must have had a great laugh or cry seeing this aspect of chrristianity in action.
nick, i think we aree that internecine squabbles fights and war are, in some sense, the worst.
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Comment by Nick McElwee on June 9, 2009 at 6:04am
- Anti-Britishness is such an over-simplification of the struggles and conflicts in Ireland over the years it seems to me. Much of the antagonism was inside, not outside surely. Same as Northern Ireland - I always thought to a large degree Religion was the excuse and not the reason for the troubles in the North. And when it comes to not telling the truth and pretending things didn't happen, what better example do we have but the Roman Catholic Church!!
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Comment by Terrance O'Dwyer on June 8, 2009 at 7:40pm
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It is quite amazing how this site works, with one story inspiring another, and Nick’s observations about not talking about the past hit home.
My Dad came to the US in 1927, and used to say that he came here to join his brother, who came to North America a few years earlier [unsure whether he first went to Boston or Montreal]. In any case, John Dwyer felt compelled to leave home around 1924.
Why?
Well, we are from the western part of ‘the People’s Republic’ –Bantry Bay---and my family on the wrong side of the Civil War---an event in Irish history that no one likes to talk about. We never did, and it was only with reluctance that my Dad ever let on. I’m sure he took his fair share of secrets to points beyond. And, I really do not want to know them.
Over the years, I have noticed that Irish anti-Brit sentiment can be pretty strong here in NY. Who in NY doesn’t know the words to ‘A Nation once Again?’ [another gift from PRC]. And admitting that Republican fervor is a spiritual phenomenon, I wonder how much is related to Civil War related emigration.
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