#biritsh empire

[reasonandempathy]

Kinda a long shot, but I was watching bend it like beckham with my friends and the scene came on when the guy says he knows what racism is like because he’s Irish. They were all taking the piss and I know I’ve seen the post talking about what he’s actually referencing and how it’s not a shitty thing to have said but I couldn’t remember enough to actually say anything. Do you know anything about what it was so I can mention it next time I see them?

There’s a phrase that I may or may not be butchering.

“England practiced in Ireland and perfected in India.”  There’s also “Ireland was where England learned to be cruel”.

There are...

Honestly, even just getting this anon made me viscerally upset.  And sure, some of that can be blamed on the times and my underlying anxiety, but...

I know nothing of my family.  Not really.  Not on my Irish side.  And part of that is me being apathetic when I was younger and older generations dying off, but my family (in part) came here explicitly because of England being...fucking abominable.

The Irish Potato Famine wasn’t an actual famine, and the phrasing of it is itself English Propaganda.  There was plenty of food in Ireland.  Irish people just weren’t allowed to eat most of it.

It is not, in any way, sense, or exaggeration to say that (historically) England did everything to control, subjugate, and kill the Irish.  Everything.  They conquered and culled political leaders with frequency.  They had full-blown genocidal culls of the Irish population.  There we multiple genocides throughout the centuries, and I include the Great Famine in that.

Most people do.  Except England.  Similar to how the Turks don’t pay attention to the Armenian Genocide.

Multiple genocides.  Both the literal “kill the Irish” of Cromwell and the “indirect” genocides of the Famine.  The cultural death of killing the language, the religious leaders, the artists.  The actual displacement of Irish folk from Northern Ireland for decade after decade.  The Troubles.  Ireland speaks English. While a number of people can speak Irish, only 2% use it in their daily lives.  In Ireland.

Literally, just the Troubles.  The sheer level of British involvement in the entire thing.

I’ve got a british last name.  My Irish family has a British last name.  And not some random shit.  The last name of Biritsh Nobility.  Of British governors of India.  That family crest has fucking slaves on it.

I know it’s a thing.  But I also know that those people aren’t my family.  I don’t know if it’s from family being renamed by the brits, being owned by the brits (not claiming forced passage or recency), or whatnot.  On a personal level, nobody even knows anymore.

Almost Nine.  Hundred.  Years.  Of conquest and murder.  And yes, Ireland’s fought and it hasn’t been consistently English rule the entire time, but fuck it.    The first invasion and conquest was in 1169.  The Republic of Ireland was founded in 1922.  The Troubles went straight up to 1998.  

829 years of British/UK fuckery.  For perspective, the birth of the Roman Republic to the collapse of the Western Empire was 986 years.  You could’ve gone from the birth of the Roman Republic through to Constantine (almost) and the adoption of Christianity.

More presciently, the initial conquest of Ireland is closer to the fall of the Western Empire than it is to today.

They’re getting this shit sandwich thrown at them.

Some reading from things I’ve reblogged recently/in the past.

1 On british bullshit in the 20th century

2 Native Americans helped Ireland during the famine more than the US or UK did.

3 Just killing kids if they’re born to unwed irish mothers.  In the 60s.  1960s.

4 The scene you were probably thinking about/that inspired the conversation.

Some fun things about Ireland to try and make you smile a little.

#ireland #original content #england #uk #politics #the famine #personal #genocide