20150317.0704

Yes, it is St. Patrick's Day, and yes, I am wearing green because, yes, I am, at least in part, of Irish descent. (I probably ought to mark St. George's Day, as well, since I am also very much of English descent. And it is possible I should note St. Andrew's Day, given the likelihood that there is Scot in my family history, as well. Maybe St. Boniface, too, although I am not as attuned to the sliver of German heritage I have as I am other parts of my background.) Yes, too, we will be having corned beef tonight, as well as cabbage and potatoes, with Smithwick's to drink and Baileys as an after-dinner cordial. Sherwood Cottage will have all of the "traditional" bits in place, indeed.

I find that I marvel at the way Irish heritage is celebrated now after a long and storied history of Irish oppression, from repeated imperialist and colonial imperatives enacted upon Ireland by England (which can be argued to continue in the existence of Northern Ireland) to indentureship in the American Colonies and the nascent United States and forward through persistent discrimination to the anti-Irish signs in storefronts (the existence of which as a prevailing practice in the United States is contested by Richard L. Jensen in the Journal of Social History 36.2 [2002]). Irishness becomes a celebratory veneer in many respects, at least to my eye, eliding the turbulent history of the concept, and it seems to me irresponsible not to remember that history--particularly if other historically marginalized groups are lauded for maintaining their own collective memories of oppression and denigration.

I am not saying that such groups should not. I am saying that there is a strange disjunction in how groups of people who have been persistently oppressed and discriminated against, historically and currently, negotiate their group identities and the coopting thereof by dominant groups. It at least strikes me as a strange one, and I end up participating in it, as noted above. I never order a black-and-tan, and parts of my family make much of some stereotypical features of Irishness to explain some of the members' behaviors, but of such things as the Pope-sanctioned conquest of Ireland by England and the centuries of grinding conflict that followed, or of the rapacity of landlords and famine in later years (read Swift, ladies and gentlemen, if you've not), little if anything is said--and that usually by me as a result of my studies. Nor are such things bespoken in mainstream media, certainly not to the extent of other oppressions that have been perpetrated--even if those oppressions are of lesser historical scope (i.e., occupying fewer years).

There is much to celebrate in Irishness, as there is in any ethnicity. But we do not do well to neglect remembering the suffering that the group--that any group--has endured. St. Patrick's Day is, after all, the commemoration of a death, and even a death that ostensibly leads to a better and more perfect life is still a thing to be mourned.