All-around great guy and expert in lots of things R. Sherman pointed out how Irish monks were instrumental in saving western civilization. It is said that when Charlemagne was expanding his empire, he imported Irish monks to be his scribes due to their high literacy.
But the contributions go beyond this. It seems like all the Irish are painters, authors, poets or musicians -- or a little bit of each.And while I'd like to be able to associate myself with this heritage -- I do have ancestors who came here from Ireland -- my Black Irish blood has been so diluted over the years by various British, German, and other European nationalities (except for those freaky-deaky Dutch!) that I could hardly be called anything other than American at this point.
Besides, I think I've just had it too good to honestly claim to be Irish. And that's not meant to be an offense to real Irish people. Like I said, I respect the hell out of them. It's just that I think all of the great art that comes out of Ireland is the natural response to the hardships the country has faced throughout its history.
If you subscribe to the view -- as I am beginning to more and more -- that great art comes from pain and suffering, then its no surprise that the Irish are so artistically prolific.The history of Ireland is tragic and bloody more often that it's not. Viking pillaging, British massacres, religious discrimination and systematic subjugation, poverty, famine -- all of this tragedy seems to have been bred into the very bloodlines of the Irish.
Still, when someone comes up to you, particularly on St. Patrick's Day, and says "Luck o' the Irish to ye!" you're supposed to take that as some kind of pleasantry.
Luck of the Irish to me? What the hell did I do to deserve that?
tagged: Ireland, Irish, art, culture, St. Patrick's Day, Charlemagne, Yeats
Thanks for the shout out, and you're correct about Charlemagne as well as other emperors importing the monks. The Franks felt that owning books was a sign of culture and connected them to the defunct Roman Empire. Thus, the Irish scriptoria which sprung up everywhere.
ReplyDeleteAs for the luck of the Irish, my dad's experiences on St. Patrick's Day 1945 in bomber filled with Irishmen, demonstrate it does exist, although one could argue, that if they'd really been lucky, they wouldn't have ditched in the ocean in the middle of March off Alaska.
Cheers.
Fortunately, I'm sure the good Catholic leaders of our present day won't be taking any credit for pushing the Irish to more, better and higher heights in the arts, by physically and sexually abusing the children for decades (centuries?), as has been proven of late.
ReplyDeleteBut it might make a funny, if twisted SNL skit one night.
Side note: Sinead O'Connor has been vindicated several times over, I think, for her impromptu, unexpected and, after the fact, unwelcome protest she did years ago on SNL.
Good on you, Sinead. Thanks for the "heads up."
Great post, as always, Emawkc.
Mo Rage