Word: irelands
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Irishmen have always had cause to be wary of Englishmen who "observe the Irish fondly." Wilfrid Sheed's Essay [June 20] typifies the paternalistic view of Ireland that Englishmen have expressed in varying degrees for more than 800 years...
Immigrants to Ireland began to form second and third branches of the Irish soul. It was and is not uncommon for Souths and Norths in any land to diverge on the issue of charm v. hustle. But in Ireland the normal geographical split was widened by the nature of the settlers. In Ulster, these tended to be tough Presbyterian Scotsmen, with little taste for England but less for the Pope. Their role in an island without history was to keep the 17th century's religious acrimony and long-faced industry alive and to form a kind of museum...
...poor drudge, looking for a little pleasure between childbirths: the husband is simply too old and loveless to provide it. The court decrees a whipping for all bachelors, and the poet wakes up in a cold sweat. There is a thriving Merriman cult in both this country and Ireland, and small wonder...
...Official Ireland, the beloved woman of the old patriotic songs has been a special hag to her poets, chasing them and censoring them like a worn-out scold. But that war is nearly over. A middle class, as conventional and tolerant as anybody's, is now growing up in the cities, and the Charm is being taken over by the Tourist Board. Bogus castles, renovated pubs and professional colorful characters may be all that survive of it, unless the Irish pass a miracle that has defeated other folk people and keep the flower without also keeping the dunghill...
Pessimism may be the last part of the heritage to go. The Irish are leary of hope look at where it got them in the past! But no one under 50 takes refuge in the Patriot Game any more, that truculent dirge over Ireland's glorious failures...