The bleeding land....
For more than 800 years, Ireland has been fighting for it's freedom from England.
Stripped of their rights, degraded to second class citizens within their own land, their property seized and their language and traditions scorned and even outlawed, they refused to be a subserviant people. Forced to watch their own crops shipped overseas by British authorities, they then were helpless to do anything as over a million of their kin (almost 30% of their population) starved to death in the great famine.
Every Irish generation has risen in rebellion against their British overlords only to end in failure and often brutal supression. On Easter Sunday in 1916, the Irish rebelled, taking over the GPO (Government Post Office). The initial rebellion was crushed, but angery fumed throughout Ireland as the British authorities cracked down on the insurgents. Soon, Ireland was aflame as never before as the Irish fought back. Under the leadership of Michael Collins,Ireland brought England to the peace table and in 1921, England recognized the right of Ireland to govern it's own affairs within the British Empire. However, this treaty also contained provisions that allowed the northern 6 counties of Ireland to vote on whether or not they would join with this new Irish State-or remain a full and annexed part of the British Empire. The six counties voted to remain within the British Empire.
Irish patriots remained committed to the idea of full Irish soverienty and finally in 1949, twenty-six counties of Ireland fully and completely left the British commonwealth and became their own nation. However, it was a nation missing it's six northern counties.
And so, over half a century now, Irish patriots have continued to fight England for these six northern counties. It is over this issue that violence in northern Ireland continues to rage.
In 1998, while I was on vacation in Northern Ireland I ate lunch at a pub in the town of Omagh. Later that afternoon after I had left the town, a bomb went off killing 29 people and injuring over 300. I have never forgotten that that terrible moment when I read of the event afterwards.
Ireland is a beautiful land with a fantastically rich heritage and culture, but it remains a bleeding land. Torn by divisions and embittered by centuries of violence it is a nation that carries a deep sorrow in its heart.
Below are three videos. The first one is an excerpt from the movie "Michael Collins" that shows the 1916 rebellion. The second video shows the years of violence that continued throughout the 30's, 40's and to the present day. The last video is recent-from 2005 that shows the anger and violence that still seeths in this tragic land.
Tiocfaidh ár lá
(Our day will come)
