"We're a nation of rebels"
That's a phrase one hears from time to time, in moments of heightened nationalistic fervor. We have a strong sense of ourselves as an oppressed people, proud nonetheless.
It is, I believe, a misconception.
A nation of rebels?
When was the last time we stood against our oppressors as a people? When was the last time we fought for anything? When was the last time we rebelled as a nation?
It was more than a century ago. In late 1879 the Land League of Ireland was born " to bring out a reduction of rack-rents and to facilitate the obtaining of the ownership of the soil by the occupiers". It comprised ordinary people, the poorest of the country, the tenant farmers - threatened with eviction by their absent landlords for refusing to pay their unjust rents. Many of the landlords did not even live on this island.
On Sunday April 28th this year a crowd of more than 4,000 people gathered in Avondale, County Wicklow - home of Charles Stewart Parnell, President of the Land League to protest against the current government's proposal to sell off Ireland's trees to private interests. Present at the gathering was Christy Moore, poet, musician and campaigner. In an often cited newspaper article Christy observed that
"we seem to have become a nation of shit-takers"
How did that happen? When did we go from being a rebel nation to being a slave nation?
The last great stand by Irish men against foreign oppressors was in 1916 when an army of no more than a few hundred nationalists took advantage of the diversion of the First World War to remove the English crown from power and establish Irish sovereignty for the people.
Since then Ireland has had nothing to fight for. Although Irish men did fight in the First and Second World Wars, Ireland itself has been a neutral country. We have been proud of our neutrality. But has it been a good for us? Have we forgotten our rebel spirit. Have we become complacent about our nationalism? Do we stand for anything? Have we forgotten how to stand against anything?
In our indepedence and peace and neutrality we began to grow as a country. We enjoyed stability, celebrated our culture, sought strength and refuge in our churches and finally began to see benefits of our creativity, our labour and our values.
We placed our trust in our government, knowing that the memory of 1916 would protect us from ever being oppressed again.
Outside of Leinster House the people put even more trust in the local Parish Priest and Bank Manager. Men we believed to be of high morals, working for our salvation and our prosperity. We didn't need to have values because the authorities in our society commanded such respect. We questioned nothing. We believed everything. .
And then the tiger came. It made us fat. It made us lazy. It made us think we were economic geniuses, invincible and destined to live in luxury for the rest of our days. Except it wasn't a tiger. It was a Trojan horse and now everything we built since we claimed our independence has been handed over to anonymous foreign landlords who own our homes, our cars, our land and our labour. And the best we can do is shout at the tv.
That's how Irish neutrality became Irish neuterality.
Has being a neutral country and a god-fearing and bank-fearing nation castrated us as a people?
Well, Ireland, it's time again to stand up to absentee landlords threatening to evict us for refusing to pay unjust taxes.
FIND YOUR BALLS!! TAKE THE POWER BACK!!
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