The Strongbows of Terror

Nobody’s Opinion: In 432, AD…a guy named St. Patrick arrived on the island of Ireland. He found some pretty spunky people, and went to work spreading Christianity, which was the reason in the long run, for the terrorism of Ireland.

And he was just trying to do a good deed…we’ve all been down that road.

He also introduced the Roman alphabet, which was a good thing. Probably more people in Ireland could read back in 432 A.D., than the population of Washington D.C. in 2006, but that’s another blog.

So, St. Patrick was more than just a reason to drink.

After reading amfortas’s comments (printed yesterday in Some of Us Are Green) on why he hates the Irish…me being an American who happens to love the Irish, (Doug Powers being my favorite Irish at the moment) I wanted to know more.

Why were some of the Irish so upset all the time? Why become terrorist killing innocent people?

For that matter---why do the Muslim terrorists do it? Why indeed?

Before I start, I do NOT put out this question as the usual liberal “we should UNDERSTAND them” in order to find solutions to something that mankind has always participated in, killing innocent people…and will forever participate in.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Terrorists are here to stay.

I’m more in the state of “know your enemy” camp.

Bill Clinton (the man who introduced oral sex to all the teenagers in Ireland and is loved dearly for that fact) has said that long historical memories, are the reason for the hatred that terrorists feel. He blames the West for the Muslims hatred. It was the Crusades that they are still mad about he says. (He always says this stuff overseas, the coward.)

Mankind’s history is filled with stories handed down for centuries of one group of people doing horrible things to another group of people.

The Muslims and Christians have been fighting for thousands of years. Frankly, I think we should just have a bull-riding contest and get it over with.

Wouldn’t you like to see bin-Laden ride a bull and get busted? I would.

Here in the West, in the 21st century, the thought of killing innocent people to make some kind of point is just not in our national makeup. We are just happy to download our movies and make our bills on time.

Holding vast historical resentments are not exactly high on our list.

Even after 9/11, we are willing to forgive and forget it seems. Go figure.

For years we have known that somewhere over in the desert sand, are a bunch of Arabs. We could have cared less how they lived---until they attacked us.

We couldn’t have been more surprised.

But, it not just the Muslims who make good terrorist, there are Irish that can claim that title and amfortas brought that home rather quickly. He remembers the lives lost, friends, family…and for what?

Hollywood has glamorized the IRA as “freedom fighters” using Brad Pitt as Irish bait.
Brad Pitt confuses this nobody, so to the Wikipedia I went. What’s the REAL beef I thought?

So…here in a VERY short nobody synopsis is a look at Ireland’s history:

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First you have the usual cave guys, farmers. Then the Romans came, but they didn’t stay long. Next came good old St. Patrick, who brought Christianity.

Because of St. Patrick, Ireland had built a LOT of monasteries, which were perfect for looting (being gentle souls) by the Vikings of Norway (800-1166). The Vikings liked the weather and the women so much, they founded quite a few towns like Limerick, Waterford, Wexford, Cork, (my favorite) and Dublin. Yes, it was Olaf the White, who founded Dublin. There were of course the original Irish nobodies who were just trying to get by…

Picking clover or whatever.

Then the humans started to gather in groups, (which humans tend to do) and all the groups (clans) then started fighting and so one day a guy from an Irish Clan went to get help from the Normans. (Who were NOT in Ireland.1167-1185)

They found a guy named Richard de Clare, (strongbow) and that’s his wedding photo. (see picture)
He got an English bride for his efforts, and by the looks of it, lots of leftovers.

Of course England’s King Henry II got upset about this guy Richard, being a rather jealous person, and so he took a boat, set his foot on Ireland and declared himself the King of Ireland. He later gave the whole island to his son John, who also had a lot of friends, so he just passed out land to them all making them all Earls.

The nobodies started making up Irish songs, something had to cheer them up.

All this passing lands out to Earls from England was not fair to the common nobodies of Ireland, but we pretty much did the same here in America to the Indians.

It happened everywhere, in every country, pretty much, you know…those nasty things called “invasions.”

In 1315, Edward Bruce of Scotland came to help the Gaelic Lords, and together they fought the British (even though Mel Gibson was tortured) and the local Irish lords got some land back.

Then, the black plague (1348) came and really hit all the leftover British hard, as they were all in the cities. The original Irish common folks, who lived with their sheep in the fields, made a big comeback. (Point being, refuse the vaccine, buy some farmland.)

But a strange thing was happening. The British people started turning Irish. In fact, they loved being Irish! Those Irish bosoms must have had something to do with it.

The Crown TIRED to pass a law saying that those of English descent could not speak the Irish language, wear Irish clothes, or inter-marry with Irish. They also could not smoke inside the castle.

It didn’t work.

Then came Henry the VIII, the man who was admired for centuries for the clever and creative ways in which he got rid of his wives. Henry broke with the Pope because the Pope would not give him a divorce, (sort of like firing 93 federal judges) and therefore the Protestants took over…everyone, but the Irish Catholics.

This meant if you were an Irish Catholic, you lost all power whatsoever.

Not that I’m sticking up for the Catholics. Everyone knows the real reason priests were not allowed to marry was because they wanted all the land to stay in the Pope’s possession.

And we should worry about the Pope, because as the Bible saying goes, it is very hard for a rich man to get into heaven, and who is richer than the Pope? Have you ever seen his house?

Men have always use religion as an excuse to take property. Religion is a powerful force in any war. Psychologically speaking, it gives you an edge.

This is another point for us to think about.

If you have a country of liberal atheists who would not give their life to any nation, going up against Muslim fanatics who will die for Allah? Who will win?

That’s the point of the new movie, 300…300 men who will die for freedom…their god.

If you will die for a God, or an idea, your chances to win the war just went up ten-fold.

Anyway..back to Ireland, and the Catholics.

Henry the VIII wanted to put Ireland under English government control so the island would not become a base for future rebellions or foreign invasions of England. (Sound familiar?) So Henry proclaimed himself King of Ireland, and went back to chasing merry maids.

The nobodies continued to try to live and kill the snakes.

This English takeover succeeded except they just couldn’t get the Irish nobody people to give up being Catholics.

Then the British royalty came up with the marvelous idea, called, let’s just send a bunch of people over and colonized the place!

I like to compare this to the Mexican plan of taking over America, or the Muslim’s plan of taking over the world. The British called this “plantations.”

Not to be confused with the plantations of our South.

From the mid-16th century until the seventeenth, the “crown” sent Scottish and English Protestants, in fact a whole bunch of these “elites” to colonize Ireland for the future ruling class.

Once again, land was taking from the Irish Catholic nobodies.

About this time, the Irish had enough. Two civil wars broke out (1641-53, 1689-91) this pretty much did the Catholics in. They lost all of the landowning Class.

In fact, forget owning land if you were a Catholic.

Oliver Cromwell, who was admired for actually having the “nerve” to chop off a head of the King of England, was so brutal to the Irish Catholics that up to a third of them were killed or left. Any land they had was given to the British Soldiers.

Francis Drake once killed 900 of them.

Oh, the Catholics managed to survive, even through two very cold winters, starvation, and other calamities. They kept on trying; it got to be so bloody that Irish self-government was abolished by the Act of Union in 1801.

Then in 1845, came the potato blight. The population dropped from 8 million to 4 million in 1911. Most of the Irish came to New York and no doubt many a descendant died on 9/11 in the twin towers.

You would think the land grabbing would be over. But as we see here in America, it’s the one thing that powerful people want the most. From 1870 the British introduced a Land Act that broke up any large estate.

And like America, the North (where all the English Protestants had settled) and the South where the Catholics managed to survive, got into fights about Home Rule.

The Irish finally got Home Rule, but when WWI broke out, the English government put it off. Blimy.

And this is where amfortas’s story starts.

Unwilling to negotiate any longer, the Irish Republican Army was formed. ANOTHER war, then came an Irish Free State at last. The North of Ireland opted out and stayed with Britain.

AS the years passed, the Irish blamed their troubles on Britain, and remained poor, until just recently, where due to low taxes there is a great economic revival.

But the IRA continued to kill innocent lives…

And why? Because of the long history? I think even amfortas would admit, time after time the Irish were invaded and treated rather badly?

Maybe it’s like our history here of slavery. The black people are STILL angry about it, even though they are not slaves, and have endless opportunity here in America.

The people of Britain, should not be held responsible for the terrible history of the crown in days gone by.

But the IRA, continued to kill.

Why?

So, what makes a man a terrorist? Are they just searching for fame? Is it, like most famous people, someone just wanting to leave legacies on history, no matter how they do it? Just to be remembered in history as being “somebodies?”

Is this why our Hollywood stars make such horrible statements against their own country? So they will be remembered for something THEY think is worth remembering?

Our President, George Bush is now being called a terrorist.

Like Henry the VIII of old, it seems he has invaded a country for the same reasons that Henry invaded Ireland. He doesn’t want Iraq to become a future base for our enemies.

It sounds good, but I think he has the wrong country. Mexico is the country he should have invaded. The future attack to our country is much more likely to come from South of the Border.

And he does nothing. (sigh)

So, thanks to amfortas for the history lesson. If it taught me one thing, it was that men never learns from history. They just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

Sometimes they all act like a bunch of Leprechauns.

Nobody’s Perfect: And that includes everyone on the planet.
Nobody Knows: The true Irish red heads are dying out.
Nobody Cares; I still love the Irish, they have a great sense of humor, and gave as a culture gave us many wonderful things, and many bad ones…like cooked cabbage.