oh, and shamrocks aren't lucky, either. you're thinking of a four-leaf clover.

i have some bad news. you may want to sit down for this, as it will probably come as a surprise.

ireland is a fucked up place.

i have been thinking about this since i posted on pseudo-ethnic identity and whatnot earlier this week. i realized that post addresses two different issues, and i have more to say on each of them. but it also brought up a third issue that i have, and that is the undue romanticizing of ireland by americans. this is a rampant phenomenon, and i know that i risk offending people who still see the “emerald isle” through emerald colored glasses, as it were. i don’t blame you if you feel this way, and I understand that many years of societal conditioning may have lead you to believe that across the ocean there is a land of “comely maidens dancing at the crossroads” and good-natured peasant folk and free-flowing Guinness in the streets. ok, well maybe you didn’t quite believe that last part, but you understand what i’m getting at: most of what you believe to be true about ireland is, well, not quite true.

at this point you’re thinking, well who died and made you an expert on ireland? first of all, no one had to die to make me an expert on ireland. that’s just illogical. second of all, i’m actually not an expert, but my parents spent an inordinate amount of money on my undergraduate education and i spent a lot on my graduate education too, so by telling you about what i do know, it’s almost like that money wasn’t wasted!

here’s the thing about ireland, in a nutshell: they can’t get past their past. i will admit, it is quite a past. america has got nothing on ireland in terms of fucked up pasts (even with the slavery, and the sixties, and the Ronald Reagan). i mean, we’ve done some crazy shit in 230 years, but ireland has had 2,000+ years to beat up on each other, and the end result of that is a really battered collective psyche. they spent centuries fighting with the british, and then amongst themselves as anglo-irish, “black” irish, catholic irish, etc about what it really was to be “authentically irish.” so what we understand to be “authentically irish” – the shamrocks, the red hair and freckles, the predisposition to drinking and roundabout arguments – is actually hotly contested ground in ireland. a lot of these traits were actually used against the irish by the british, to try to illustrate that they were incapable of governing themselves.

of course, the irish tourism industry has done a great job in the last ten or so years of selling this stuff to americans, capitalizing on the misplaced nostalgia of people with irish heritage and what those folks believe ireland is about. they run commercials of ruddy faced men wearing knit sweaters in pubs, busty redheads with “come-hither” looks on their faces, step-dancing little girls and horses galloping through fields. and sure, you can find all of that in ireland (especially if you’re on the guided tour). but that’s not reality. reality is much more complicated, and it includes a catholic church desperate to maintain its power over the populace, illegal abortion and greatly restricted reproductive rights, a rampant xenophobia coming to light with the recent waves of immigrants to the country, and an abiding sense of victimhood that permeates many of the things the irish do and create. reality is a messy history of persecution, displacement, bloodshed, guilt, fear, and hatred, just like any other place where you get your passport stamped.

hey, i like ireland. i don’t say these things because i think it’s a bad place. i say these things because it’s a real place, with real people and real history and real problems. and i hate to see it reduced to a caricature, a reduction of the complexities and confusions that made it what it is. the story of ireland is a fascinating one, and if you identify as irish, it is a story worth trying to understand. it doesn’t deserve to be pared down to a celtic cross, a pint of beer, and a green “everyone loves an irish girl” t-shirt.

you know, parnell hated green.