The Spring 2023 issue of Food & Dining Magazine is now available in all the familiar places: Louisville area eateries and food shops, newsstands and online.
St. Patrick’s Day in America is a time for partying—good, bad or indifferent. So be it, but for me, being somewhat serious minded whether I like it or not, the annual Irish holiday provides an opportunity to learn about Ireland and its people.
As an aside, I’ve never really believed in a “right” to be entertained. But I accept a personal responsibility for being informed, which implies a level of participation and engagement. I appreciate humor, but when everything’s played for laughs, nothing is funny any longer.
Consequently, I resisted the urge to dye my laptop green, although naturally there has been audio accompaniment to my studies: Lankum, Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill, 70s-era Dubliners and a wee bit of Thin Lizzy. I may or may not be ready to admit liking Inhaler’s new release (Bono’s son is the singer).
As such, my coursework began at the beginning of March. First came Fintan O’Toole’s excellent memoir “We Don’t Know Ourselves,” then a video documentary about the fabulously corrupt Fianna Fáil politician Charles Haughey. I read Roman Burtenshaw’s interview with Mary Lou McDonald, current leader of Sinn Fein.
These preceding three syllabus items are concerned primarily with the Republic of Ireland, as opposed to Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland was created in 1921 when the British government split Ireland into two autonomous territories. It comprises six of the nine counties of Ulster (one of the four ancient Irish provinces), with the remaining three (Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal) staying in what is now the modern day Republic of Ireland. For this reason Ulster is a popular colloquial alternative name for Northern Ireland.
Appropriately, next on my list was an eight-hour, seven-part video documentary series called “Spotlight on The Troubles: A Secret History” (2019), which has helped me to contextualize the strife between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, largely abated now, and yet a sad and constant presence from the 1960s through 1990s.
This brings us full circle back to St. Patrick’s Day, and perhaps a little known point hereabouts.
St. Patrick” is symbolic in the United States of Irish Roman Catholicism and all it stands for. But the Protestants of Ireland, usually called “Scotch Irish,” take a very different view. The national apostle and founder of Irish Christianity is claimed...Read more
