Irishness
Sharon Winsatt ([email protected])
Thu, 20 Aug 1998 18:13:36 PDT
No one except someone who survived the holocaust...or actually served in
Viet nam...or has lived in American society as a black...or has grown up
in North Ireland can really honestly know what it is like.
We might read up on it...watch the news and listen to stories from
friends and family and come to understand after a fashion but we will
never know completely what it is like .... I don't think anyone disputes
that. I think where a lot of Americans take offense is the suggestion
that we are an ignorant lot who know nothing at all....and can't
possibly begin to even try and understand....
There is something you should understand about America....immigrants
come here..and have children but the customs,languages...mannerisms and
stories from the home country will remain in that family for several
generations. ...the influence from the home country does not dissapear
just because the second generation are Americans...it takes quite a
while for an immigrant family to lose that hyphen...especially if they
live in a large community of immigrants from the same country of
origin...in this case we are talking about Ireland..that family will
slowly become more Americanized....and it will take a while for that
Irishness to wear off.(My Irish ancestors came over in the first
wave...and my family has not referred to themselves as Irish-Americans
for over 100 years and I do not refer to myself in that way...not
because I'm not proud of it...the family has just been here long enough
to lose that particular idenity).. Until that happens in a family news
from Ireland and all thing Irish will remain very important to
them...no...they do not know what it is like..that's impossible..but
they do know more than you are giving them credit for...and I for one do
not understand why anyone would scoff at their pride in identifying with
their ancestral homeland...maybe it is so normal here that we think
nothing of it...
I do understand being angry about the money given to finance
violence...yes..be angry....but if someone is uneducated about what is
going on I think it would be better to try and educate them in a
rational manner than to brush them off with a 'Your're not really Irish
and you couldn't possibly understand...try us...you might be surprised
at how quickly we learn....
Sharon W.
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on Thu Aug 20 1998 - 18:15:04 PDT