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From: odom@uiucuxc.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Notes on Evacuation Day - (nf)
Message-ID: <3754@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Nov-83 20:41:08 EST
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Posted: Wed Nov  9 20:41:08 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Nov-83 22:13:27 EST
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#R:houxk:-11900:uiucuxc:21200022:000:1961
uiucuxc!odom    Nov  9 14:34:00 1983

I think the slurs on the Irish began more around
the last potato famine than the Revolutionary War.
There was at the time of the Revolution, a strong political/
cultural majority from Britain and that may have 
begun the bigotry rampant during the 19th century.
By the time of the last potato famine there were
boatloads of starving people landing here and grabbing
jobs from the lower-class anglos.  This would naturally
produce a strong bias against the intruders and the
widespread ignorance on Irish history would only
encourage the belief.

At the time of the Revolutionary War, Ireland was
well-known for her "wild geese".  Men reknown
for their fighting skills who left Ireland
(for various reasons) to fight all over the
world.  They are mentioned in some of
Russia's history.  Perhaps this accounts for the
large scale participation by the Irish in the Revolution.

The Irish have never really recovered from the descriptions
of them sent to Emperor Claudius (yellow journalism).  They
have always been considered by the British as half-tamed
savages barely one step above the Welsh and several below
the Scots and the only thing that improved the Scots in
English eyes was that Britain conquered them and therefore
set about "civilizing" them.  The Welsh have been slowly
annexed, though never tamed.  But the Irish totally escape
British understanding.  A war-like people who could never
(well, only once) unite long enough to fight off any 
intruder.

The British view is pretty understandable: if they viewed
the Irish as equals how could they ever justify the brutal
treatment of her people, her economy, and her land?  Any
American prejudice, while it might stem from our British
heritage, is certainly misplaced and stupid.

I know how Britain viewed the Sinn Fein Easter Uprising,
but does anyone know what the American public opinion
was??

                                   susan odom

p.s. just so you understand the bias, i'm irish-welsh.