Dakota Beacon

With my considerable Celtic background, St. Patrick’s Day for me almost always involves some cultural, musical event and this year was somewhat typical, for I had the pleasure of playing my harp at Ferguson Books and Media in Grand Forks.  This means going through music and choosing what would be interesting and fun to play for others and that means reading lyrics along the way.  As most of us are aware, a lot of Irish music is nationalistic and patriotic, as befits a country that has fought invaders for seven centuries (mostly from the island of Great Britain).  One of my own favorites is “The Foggy Dew”, lyrics by Father O’Neill, melody’s origin lost in the mists of time.  The gist of it is that O’Neill was decrying Ireland’s sons being slaughtered on the battlefields of Europe in World War I and previously in the backwaters of the British Empire, ostensibly in an effort to bring freedom to other people. His point was: when would the Irish themselves be freed?  And why not die in that  effort, if die one must? That question is relevant to the situation in which Ireland finds herself today. 

During the Easter Rising of 1916 - that of song and legend - it is a fact that many Irish across the country opposed a free Ireland. It implied “treason” against Great Britain and her empire  – which might be no big thing, except that their sons were in Belgium or France, defending it and dying for it.  Some objected vehemently to rebels soliciting aid from the German Kaiser, as America had solicited the decisive aid of France in our Revolution.  Truly, the Irish were divided on this important issue - until Easter of 1916.  This is when, in a nearly hopeless strike for freedom, James Connolly led his army through Dublin, Patrick Pearse and Joseph Plunkett took over the General Post Office and throughout the city of Dublin, key facilities were commandeered by the Irish.  Still, the people were not ready to follow.  They balked until, upon witnessing a civilian woman and child gunned down by British fire, Pearse surrendered.  As we all know, ten men, many signatories to the Proclamation of the Republic, were arrested and summarily executed. They knew they would be. However, the brutality with which this was accomplished galvanized the people of Ireland and led irrevocably to a separation from Britain.

Why is this important to us now?  Well, as I said, it was recalled to me by browsing in my catalog of Irish songs and seeing the same message over and over and over, the same desperate and eternal yearning for freedom and affirmation of Irish nationhood, the laments for the deaths of heroes and the entreaty against the oppression of an invader.  It didn’t matter the politics of the subjects of the songs, for, despite the fact that Irish politics will never, ever, be monolithic, Irish patriots have always been nationalistic. 

Fast forward to the late 1990’s.  “Cinderella” Ireland had become the “Celtic Tiger”.  With a literate, skilled and hard-working people, a temperate climate and healthy tax scheme, it was a paradise for investors and business.  Employment went up and the economy burgeoned.  By St. Patrick’s Day of 2011, it has all caved in.

It seems that the government started telling banks they had to make insupportable loans.  Then politicians became a bit greedy, and the next thing you know, we have our canary in the mine.  We have the vision of what will unquestionably happen to America one day in the not-too-distant future.  Of course, when everyone defaulted banks began to fail, and so the rest of the economy.  In two years, Ireland went from the second-lowest unemployment nation to the second highest, with a rate of 14%  Somehow, in 1999, in the midst of their economic boom, Ireland gave up her own currency to buy into the Euro.  Now, this is where they lost me.  How in the world does a people stroll up to the European Union and, without a shot fired or even a threat delivered, offer up its sovereignty – after nearly 800 years of unremitting struggle to attain it in the first place? 

Well, I suppose if a nation decides to indulge in delusional lending practices and permit grafting politicians to feed on this subversion of sense as well, we could expect the descent of any nation into servitude once more.  And thereby hangs a tale.  Our freedom was won over 200 years ago.  Ireland’s was won in the actual memories of many living today.  Her liberators would be our grandfathers’ and great-grandfathers’ generation.  The people who died in Kilmainham Jail were personally known to them.  If freedom and nationhood can be lost in so brief a time, after having been centuries in the winning, what does that teach us?  What does it tell us about “uniting” with other nations and blurring our own boundaries?  What does it tell us about maintaining our own currency and shoring up its valuation?  What does it teach us about irresponsible spending?  Where are the real differences between the course on which Ireland crashed and the one we’ve started on? What does it tell us about the tenuousness of sovereignty and culture?

There is always hope for Ireland.  Perhaps the flame still burns in the Irish heart for freedom and self-determination.  If so, her new leaders will have to get a handle on this mess and figure out how they will extricate themselves from the kind of bailout they’ve gotten into with Brussels.  Eighty-six percent of every tax dollar is committed to repayment for the foreseeable future.  But this month the Irish went to the polls to elect what in EU terms is a “center-right” government and they’ve sent the message to their leadership to stop spending.  I hope it works over there and I hope it works over here, because if it doesn’t we’re going to lose our nationhood as well. 

The Irish experience has much to teach us historically and politically – so much, in fact, that there’s no beginning and no end.  We know that in Europe’s Dark Ages Ireland was a radiant light of learning, and that during times of English oppression the flame was kept alive in hedge schools, where Irish children learned to read and write to spite their occupiers.  We know that many, many political factions create chaos.  We know that you cannot push freedom-loving people too far or there will be a heck of a donnybrook.  We now know that no matter how hard-won, no matter how dearly, no matter how recently wrested from the grip of a tyrant nationhood is, it can be swiftly lost if the leadership is allowed to become corrupted or the people demand the unreasonable as an entitlement from government.  We know that national sovereignty is tied to sovereign currency. We know now that the best policy for a peaceful, non-aggressive and successful free nation is to remain independent and act, as a nation, only in its own (peaceful) national interest.

I would take it that we should quit spending, act to correct our mistakes from the Clinton years, of irresponsible lending and unbridled spending; that we should root out corruption in our leadership; that we should disentangle ourselves from unnecessary international pacts if they are not in our own NATIONAL interest – whether they are “environmental” schemes, monetary schemes, trade schemes, “multilateral” military actions or any other scheme; that we must avoid splintering our two- party system into multiple factions which require coalitions and weird compromises; that we should STOP borrowing before it is too late for us, as it seems to be for poor Ireland.

I wish the new Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, well and send my best wishes to the current crop of Irish patriots for their success in the long and difficult journey back to solvency and independence.  This battle might just require even more fortitude than that provided in 1916 by that generation’s legendary heroes, and be less rewarding in terms of “glory” ...as our own journey back will require discipline, resolve, endurance and courage as well.

Sally Morris is a member of Americans for Constitutional Government and a member of the Executive Committee for the Valley Tea Party Conservative Coalition and eternal student of all things Celtic.