Bleeding Ireland And Black America Essay, Research Paper
Bleeding Ireland and Black America
Fall Road is deserted. Only a few dirt-caked, barefoot, Irishmen can be
seen shivering in the adjacent park. We walk past the Catholic neighborhoods
knowing, at any moment, buildings might explode and automatic weapon fire could
lacerate the air on every side of us. Belfast is charming, apart from the harsh
reality of guerrilla warfare and terrorism being common occurrences. For the
first time, throughout my three month tour of seventeen different European
countries, I feel truly threatened. The tension carries itself into a nearby pub
where an old man asks ?Are you jus daft? Or do ya have relatives here?? His
words hinted at my grandfather’s blunt, yet kindly, expression concerning his
birthplace in N. Ireland, ?If you haven’t been there yet, don’t go there.?
I can remember the lyrics of a Naughty by Nature song blaring over my
car radio, ?If you have never been to the ghetto, don’t ever come to the ghetto,?
as I put in a tape. My thought stream continues as it takes me to another place
where guerrilla warfare and terrorism are a part of daily life.
The gunshots and unruly pitbull barking registers over the calm of the
wet playground. Trash strings the streets and every dwelling has an eight foot,
black, metal fence circuitously about it. Two white faces gape over the hood of
a parked Cadillac. Besides the police parked down the block, they are probably
the only Caucasians in a five mile square radius. Two companies of drug dealers
fire at will scrambling for control of a superior capital making outpost. Even
at nine o’clock in the morning the combat tract roars on.
I was one of those faces peering over the car hood with horror and
revolution in my eyes. N. Richmond is a product of the same type of oppression
and violence that hacks deep into the people of N. Ireland. In the logical
evolution of an oppressed people a civil rights movement was essential. ?It was
necessary to bravely confront our most explosive issues as a people:
Racial[religious, gender, class...] hierarchy and the maldistribution of wealth
and power.? 1If only for a brief moment we achieved this, at least it happened.
We must study the past in order to get to the future. If you don’t know where
you came from, how can you possibly figure out where you are going and that is
why many people stay rooted in the same place.
For centuries, England has kept Ireland under its colonial thumb,
starving its people and manipulating them as slave labor. England stole much of
Ireland’s homeland and gave it to the Protestants allies from Scotland. Earlier
this century, England divided Ireland into two, claiming the six northernmost
counties as its own. The large number of Protestants, who remain loyal to the
Crown of England, have created a system of oppression similar to the Jim Crow
laws of the US. Oppression and second-class citizenship have limited the
Catholics of N. Irelands opportunities and taken many lives. A Civil Rights
movement was the only logical step. But first, we must discuss what lead up to
this logical step-the history.
In January 1919, the Anglo-Irish War began with the first shots being
fired at Solobeghead. Over the next year, the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC-
British Loyalists) became the target of a Sinn Fein (The beginning roots of the
IRA) terror campaign By mid-1919, the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood-Part of
Sinn Fein) had infiltrated the leadership of the Volunteers (Irish Militia) and
were directing its pace on the violence. In an effort to assert control of the
group, Volunteers declared the Army of the Irish Republic.
Britain responded with violence. Special forces were sent over to impose
curfews and martial law on the Irish. These forces became known as the Black and
Tans after a popular Limerick hunt group, and because of their dark green and
khaki uniforms. Another force of veterans from the Great War, called the
Auxiliaries, joined them. Thus began a pattern of assassination and reprisal.
The IRA employed guerrilla tactics, using duck and cover strategies to attack
British troops. Their knowledge of the countryside made up for their lack of
arms. On 21 November 1920 IRA squad assassinated 14 British officers,
effectively destroying the British Secret Service in Ireland. In reprisal, the
Black and Tans fired on a crowd watching a football match at Croke Park. Twelve
people were killed, including one of the team players. The day became known as
Bloody Sunday.
After several months of mass bloodshed, a compromise was met and a ‘
Treaty of Allegiance to England’ was signed by Ireland. This split the IRA into
pro-Treaty or anti-Treaty forces. Treaty loyal troops became the Free State Army,
while the anti-Treaty forces became known as the Irregulars. On 6 July 1922,
Opponents of the Treaty rallied to the cause. Fighting brakes out in Dublin-the
ten-month civil war had begun. The first phase was bloody and brief. The Civil
war ends with many of the irregulars still controlling the South. Logically,
when the country was split the south was free and the six northern most
counties were taken by England and the Northern Protestants.
The Catholic minority of the north suffered greatly during the next
twenty years of oppression. The IRA was still at work, only it moved more
cautiously due to its growing Communist/Marxist nature and some ideological
dissension between its members.2 Data exhibits, just as the inner cities of the
US, that the rates of poverty, unemployment, serious crime, single-female headed
families and welfare dependency in N. Irelands Catholic slums, rose drastically
during this time. There was an increase in drugs, alcoholism (in Ireland?!),
guns, bombings (from both sides)3 which all created a virtual hell as ravaging
as any N. Richmond/E. Oakland-Hunterspoint/if not worse in its own way.
Structural discrimination in employment has remained a feature of
British government rule in the Six Counties. Discrimination has, in fact, been
synonymous with British rule. Unionist loyalty (Northern Protestant)-the rockbed
of the British presence – is in part, conditional on the maintenance of the
economic privilege, often marginal, which employment discrimination has
conferred on unionists.4 In one aspect, unemployment, the situation of Catholics
has actually deteriorated. Unemployment in the Six Counties in April 1989
officially stood at 107,623, representing 15.6% of the workforce. Almost half of
that figure is Catholic while they only represent less than 20% of the
population.5
Discontent with the apartheid system began to emerge in the late `60s
and led to the formation of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (The
CRA which was secretly back by the IRA). Its moderate demands were aimed at
trying to reform and democratize the state. The issue of partition was not part
of its agenda. Unionists, however, interpreted any form of political dissent,
however moderate, as a threat to their privileged position and the union with
Britain.6
Peaceful civil rights supporters were, due to Protestant paranoia,
viciously attacked by the RUC and B-Specials (Both ‘English Suppresser Groups ‘
which came out of RIC and the Black and Tans). The violent reaction of the
state shocked the world as television cameras relayed scenes of unprovoked
attacks on civil rights marches and demonstrations. The British government was
not prepared to allow its financial interests to be compromised by widespread
political unrest. At 5 p.m. on August 14th, 1969, substantial numbers of British
soldiers moved into Belfast and Derry. The British army was injected into the
situation under the pagoda cover of being a peace-keeping force deployed ?to
keep the warring factions apart?. The ‘religious war’ myth was regenerated as
justification for the occupation.
In reality, it had been introduced as a life-support unit to sustain a
state which was under threat of collapse. The bad dream of partition was about
to be come the ‘nationalist nightmare’. Within a relatively short period, the
British army’s real job became apparent. With the unionist government acting
like they still were in control, the actual power behind the throne was the
British government’s agent, the British army.
Some two decades ago, people in the Six Counties were marching for civil
rights, Justice, equality and self-respect. The moderate and just demands of the
Civil Rights movement were: One man, one vote (sic); An end to the gerrymandered
local government boundaries; An end to discrimination in the allocation of
housing; An end to discrimination in employment; and The repeal of the Special
Powers Act (SPA).
Pursuit of those demands and the North Protestant regime’s reaction to
it brought the state to a point of collapse. In one year the civil rights
movement had done more to end injustice than fifty years of anti-partion
policies had begun to do.7 But, it wasn’t enough and people began to riots;
tearing apart the major cities of N. Ireland. Only the life-support system was
provided by the British army warded off the collapse, and in the process of
attempting to sustain the state they have exacerbated the situation. The
protests got rid of the SPA but three equally, if not more, repressive laws
have replaced it. Since its birth, the Six-county state has been continuously
governed by totalitarian apartheid legislation which continually causes
descent among the factions.
The provisions and effect of these and other pieces of repressive
legislation has meant that: Anyone can be stopped by British forces anywhere, at
any time. They must give their name, address, where they are coming from, where
they are going to. Anyone can be arrested anywhere, at any time. A detainee can
be held for up to seven days for interrogation. More than 60,000 arrests have
thus taken place. No further legal action was taken against the overwhelming
majority of those arrested. Powers of arrest, therefore, are used largely for
purposes of gathering information and intimidation. Some 7,000 people have been
charged with politically motivated offenses. A substantial percentage were
charged solely on the basis of statements of admission extracted through torture
and maltreatment. More than 2,000 people were interned without charge or trial
between 1971 and 1975. Extensive powers to search have led to the searching of
hundreds of thousands of premises.8 Residences, schools, industrial premises,
sports grounds and farmland have been seized for use as military installations
due to the British government over extending its powers.
Rubber and plastic bullets have been used as a means of intimidating
and deterring demonstrations. Since 1973, more than 50 thousand of these lethal
projectiles have been fired at the civilian population. Seventeen people, eight
of them young children, have been killed, most in circumstances which amount to
murder. Hundreds have been seriously injured. Injuries include serious mental
and physical disablement. Over 300, mainly unarmed, nationalists have been
killed by members of the various security agencies, the British army and the RUC.
British forces have been given virtual immunity from conviction. In 20 years,
only one British soldier has been convicted for murder while on duty. Despite
receiving a life sentence, the soldier was released after serving only two years
and three months, and was immediately reinstated in the army.9
As well as the unjust trauma and suffering on the streets, nationalist
opponents of British rule in Ireland were selected for very special treatment
inside British prisons. The struggle for decent conditions, dignity and
recognition as political prisoners has been constant throughout the past 20
years and continues today. Of all the prison campaigns, the most publicized,
because of the numbers involved and because of the toll of lives extracted, was
the `blanket protest’ which consummated during the hunger-strikes of 1980 and
1981. Deprived of political status in 1975, republican prisoners refused to wear
prison uniforms and clad themselves in blankets. Within a short period, the
punitive actions of the regime forced them to live in their cells surrounded by
their own excrement. Beatings and degradation were used, in an attempt to break
the prisoners’ will. For four years, the prisoners persevered in the most awful
conditions.
On October 27th 1980, a hunger-strike began which was to last 53 Days.
It extracted sufficient concessions from the British government to make a
settlement possible. Having secured the end of the hunger-strike, the British
said they would give in-they lied. A second hunger-strike was initiated on March
1st 1981. It lasted 217 days, ending on October 3rd where the prisoners were
given ‘international political status’ and entitled to more rights, which
Britain ignores to this day.
Civil Rights in Ireland did not accomplish its goals. Since the British
government undemocratically and violently created the State of Northern Ireland
in 1920, Catholics have been discriminated against in almost every way,
particularly in employment. All their many protests failed because the
effectiveness of protests depended on the good faith of the British government.
That good faith was not there then, it is still not there today. The marching
and fasting didn’t work and as of last year- it is back to IRA bombs in London.
As W.E.B DuBois put it:
?The Irish resist, as they have for hundreds of years, various and exasperating
forms of British [colonial] oppression. Their resistance is called crime and
under ordinary conditions would be crime; in retaliation not only the ‘guilty’
but the innocent among them are murdered and robbed and public property is
burned by English ‘guardians of the Peace’!?10
No one else should be able to understand the history of Ireland better
than a black man in the US. It works like this: You kick a man in the head and
you have him arrested for assault. You kill a man and hang the corpse for
murder. From 1776-1964, 188 years, blacks endured theses conditions all over the
United States. It still happens today when the ‘guardians of peace’, the police,
abuse their powers and racially biased legislation is passed. Since Irish and
African Americans have so much in common, why haven’t they been the best of
friends? Commonality often leads to conflict. No people in the world have in the
past gone with blither spirits to ?kill niggers? from Kingston to Delhi and from
Kumassi to Fiji.11
Noel Ignatiev’s ?How the Irish Became White? explains the history of how
the Irish immigrant rose from racially oppressed to racial oppressor. The
oppressed themselves, have continually been used to further domination over
others that are oppressed, in the interest of the universal oppressor. This is
the only book I know of, to focus not on how the Irish were assimilated but how
they assimilated as “whites.” Utilizing newspaper chronicles, memoirs,
biographies, and official accounts, Ignatiev traces the history of Irish and
African-American relations, revealing how the Irish in America used unions, the
Catholic Church and the Democratic party to help gain and secure their newly
found place in the ‘White Republic’ and continued to oppress blacks. On their
arrival in America, the Irish were thrown together with black people on jobs and
in neighborhoods, with predictable results. The Census of 1850 was the first to
include a class called “mulattoes”; it enumerated 406,000 nationwide.12
The interaction between Irish and Afro-Americans was not limited to
sexual affairs: in New Orleans Irish moved into the black district, and
frequented “Black Rookeries”; the Twelfth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia
was presided over after 1837 by an Afro-American minister and baptismal records
for the next twenty years suggest that one-third of the members were Irish.13
But things rapidly changed and “instead of the Irish love of liberty warming
America,? the winds of republican slavery blew back to Ireland. The Irish had
faded from Green to white, bleached by, as Daniel O’Connell (head of IRA in 1920′
s and known throughout Ireland as ‘the Liberator’) put it, something in the
“atmosphere” of ?America?. Cornel West puts this ?atmosphere? into a clear
statement:
?Without the presence of black people in America, European-Americans would not