As an American of Irish heritage - my family until very recently lived in an Irish American community in South Boston for generations - I can't stress enough how little I share these feelings. I know I'm not "Irish", but my life is presumably a consequence of the same decisions that the author is upset about. It seems that the author is using historical events to justify political resentments that are very current and very local. To me that is unhealthy.
With respect I suggest that this comment is borne of a similar lack of familiarity that 'the English' are acccused of in the article.
As an English person in England I can only agree. The lack of knowledge about the situation in Ireland, current and historical, is abysmal. I doubt many young people even know about the bombings in their own country, let alone what led to it.
The question of the border in Ireland and what will happen when the UK leaves the EU has been kicked around as political football with very little regard given to the human consequences. Politicians have taken their cue from public apathy and committed some really egregious intellectual dishonesties.
> It seems that the author is using historical events to justify political resentments that are very current and very local.
There have also been very real consequences of that lingering political resentment. For years, Irish Americans from Boston and NY were the primary source of funding for the Irish Republican bombing campaign in Britain.
> using historical events to justify political resentments that are very current and very local
There is no lack of continuity though. In 1609 the English stole land from Irish people during the plantation of Ulster. In 2019, the six counties vote to stay in the EU, but the Monarch's parliament across the sea decides otherwise. A garrison of the occupation troops remain in the Thiepval barracks.
Six county Brexit (against the will of six county voters) and the Thiepval barracks are a sign of a continuity that is very current but unfortunately not very local.
It's not about your life being the consequences. It's about you not as soon as you moved out of South Boston being the butt of jokes etc.
And the Troubles are much nearer in time than the famine. There is a continuity of conflict you haven't had in South Boston compared to what was going on in Ireland.
(Besides, not wanting to single you out, but I'm sure we could find many prevalent unhealthy resentments present in Americans in general, rooted in historical events.)
