Irish racism in England

[angell84]

I am shocked. I am half English, half Irish. My Irish mum lived in England for a long time, gave birth to us children there with her English husband, and then moved back to Ireland.

The reason that she always gave me for returning to Ireland, was that, "she could not take the nastiness to her anymore". She described one incident of many to me: she went to my brother's primary teacher in England, and said that he had lost something, he must have been six at the time, and the teacher said to her , "sure what do you expect - he is half Irish".

I always thought of it in an abstract way, I never really understood what she meant. Until I spent quite a long time in the U.K this year.

I was absolutely shocked at the hatred and nastiness, and calling Irish people stupid.

How can it be possible? The U.K stole alot of Ireland's land, committed mass genocide during the famine, eradicated the Irish language,

And yet instead of apologising, many people are going around calling Irish people stupid.

Isn't it nearly unbelievable? It would be like a German going up to a Jew and calling them stupid. That it was their fault , thhat everything happened the way it did.

I am really shocked

My parents are Irish but have lived in England since the 60s. I could call myself Irish, but I choose not to as I have absolutely no affiliation with Ireland.

They have never experienced any racism. They, on the other hand, are pretty racist in their own way.

Here's my tuppence worth;
I am from a middle class and very privileged background in Ireland.
I have an Irish accent but have been told I don't , on many occasions.
My biggest gripe is fellow Irish people and/or of Irish decent making assumptions about me, for example, "My family were poor and I grew up eating bacon and cabbage, etc."
I didn't , we had a housekeeper who shopped and cooked. Some express total disbelief when I tell them this, especially English people.
It is very insulting.

And to answer the question, I believe it was genocide as weather conditions created the blight but the English created the famine by shipping the other food sources produced here to England. They created the famine, there was food which they choose to remove thereby creating a famine.
They believed the Irish to be inferior and a wild uncivilized people and held them in contempt.
My great grandparents lived through the famine, should I deny the truth of what they lived through in order to not offend people today.

roisin You weren't protestant by any chance?

I am half Irish and DP is Irish but both from areas were it’s very common to have Irish heritage, still have to sit on the outsiders bench when I visit family in Ireland on the mandatory church visit. This is mainly due to location in Ireland. Village mentality happens in all of the UK and Ireland. I get treated worse there than when the visit us.

I’ve not read the thread, so sorry if this has been said, but I think it’s quite classic for the oppressor to come up with stereotype of the population they oppressed that attempts to let them off the hook. Slave traders let it be known that Africans were animals in human form, and therefore ok to enslave . The same was said about native Americans.
The english decided to daub the Irish as stupid, making their oppression less if a crime because no sense= no feeling.

It’s a bully’s script.
I remember growing up on the 70 s the thick Irishman punchline in jokes was normal Saturday night TV viewing.

I'm a Londoner but have Irish parents & all the rest of the family are in Ireland. In the last yr I've been told that I must have supported the IRA & that Irish people are untrustworthy (I have an Irish name). I'm in my 30s & had no idea people think like that. My dad would get stopped in the 70s & 80s every-time he flew (frequent flier).

There is definitely ignorance over the Troubles.

@DoTheHop I would highly doubt that Roisin is a Protestant I don’t know one Protestant with an Irish name but maybe she will surprise us!

@DoTheHop why are you asking that question? Is it because surely only Protestant Irish could possibly be wealthy with a housekeeper??

I have heard irish people being the but of the joke many times along with the stereotypes about irish men being drunk wife beaters, serial cheaters and of course being described as "backwards" (thick)

@DoTheHop why are you asking that question? Is it because surely only Protestant Irish could possibly be wealthy with a housekeeper?? hmm

Yes.

Why?

I am from a middle class and very privileged background in Ireland.

we had a housekeeper who shopped and cooked

I'll remove myself from this thread and MN altogether if she's not protestant.

No Irish (Catholics) are from a privileged background.
No Irish (Catholics) had housekeepers in presumably the 70's/80's.

If they had, they wouldn't be coming on here bragging about it.

You seem to forget that Catholics had everything stripped from them. I'll surely eat humble pie if she can come on here and recite the Hail Mary!

The premise of this thread is that the English are racist to the Irish.

A number of posters think that the Potato Famine should be taught in schools here in Britain.

The obvious point is where are you going to find these non racist English to change the curriculum so that this point of Irish Identity and history is addressed? If your premise is right, it will never happen.

The Germans have been made to refer to their history regarding the Holocaust not because they are very moral people but because they lost the war. It would be lovely to imagine otherwise, but Germany didn’t suddenly change morally overnight after they lost the war and a lot of them considered they’d committed no crime. We, the British, wrote the law that applied to them afterwards.

I suspect she finds it offensive to be labelled with the common Irish. Plus she has been told she doesn't have an Irish accent.

I wonder why?

I think you’ll be eating humble pie @dothehop!

She can claim whatever she likes.

@roisinagusniamh I'm in a different boat, I hate being in America and having to admit that bacon and cabbage is my favourite dinner or when the conversation inevitably goes like this;
American :oh I met someone from Ireland once
Me: Actually it's not that small, I probably don't know him/her
American: Their name is joe and they're a teacher from Galway marrying a cork girl called Mary.
Me: Yeah....that's my granny's next door neighbour

Is Ireland that small or is it just that we're all in each other's business?

www.cambridge.org/core/journals/irish-historical-studies/article/rise-of-a-catholic-middle-class-in-eighteenthcentury-ireland/39820CD28EE1A242F66C86B6E3767F3D

There has always been an affluent Catholic middle class in Ireland but that does not fit the nationalist narrative.

we, the British wrote the law that applied to them afterwards
And you don't see any irony in that sentence? The English were able'to dictate the correct thing for the Germans to do but were unwilling to do the same themselves.

genocide badge wearing trolls
Wow! I suggest you read this and get a grip of yourself.

mises.org/library/what-caused-irish-potato-famine

If my time on MN and in England has taught me anything is that generally people in Britain have very little knowledge of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the history of how it all came to be. And let's be honest it's because it paints the mighty Empire in a pretty poor light. The starvation of 1000000 people could have been avoided had the food been distributed to those who needed it. People were evicted because they were unable to pay rents on land their ancestors owned. The roofs were burned so they couldn't squat in the houses.
For a nation that loves to honour their history, wear poppies in remembrance, preserve old trees this particular part of history is conveniently left for people to seek.

Food Banks are on the rise and you are under another Tory government. People are getting evicted and can't afford food statistics are on the rise. Brexit is your potato blight.