Balanced treatment of Ulster history

[macwilkin]

Oh, I agree that learning about the balanced history of Ulster is a wonderful idea, but MOR, you make a poor assumption, too. Are you Irish or Scottish, or what? You play both sides it seems. In reference to Courtmount was that it seems like he was making this a spitting contest. What happened in Scotland, Ireland, or anywhere in the world, when it comes to subjugation, is despicable! No one had it worse than the other...it is all horrifying!

Learning about history is wonderful, but the comment about slavery was a bit much in my opinion, as was the comment about one side having it worse than the other. Again, it's all horrible. Unfortunately, though, it's part of our history.

No, Rathdown was raising a valid point, and he did so pretty objectively, from this historian's point-of-view. That's not to say that some historical events in Ireland were terrible, but the popular view of Irish history, especially among Irish-Americans, who have their own "spin" on things, very rarely usually looks at both sides of the issue. That's only natural, I suppose, when it comes to personal bias and the romanticization of the hatred of the English thanks to one-too-many pints o' Guiness and a stoundtrack by the Wolfe Tones, but the story is much more complicated than that.

For example, while we all know of the Great Famine in Ireland, few people know that the famine also hit the German states, which along with the political turmoil in 1848, caused thousands of Germans to immigrate to the United States at the same time the Irish were coming over. Both groups faced discrimination based on religious and ethnic backgrounds, yet the German struggle is not as well publicized as the Irish story in America.

And as the descendant of a number of Union soldiers, I tend to agree with the comment regarding the Federal army's role in ending slavery. If anything, I find it a bit troubling that you would be offended about someone mentioning the sacrifices of the "Boys in Blue" during the Civil War, especially given that we celebrated "their" holiday yesterday.

And btw, many of those "Billy Yanks" that you object to Courtmount mentioning were Irish immigrants.

T.