No Man Is an Ireland”

1 “NO MAN IS AN IRELAND” “I know histhry isn’t thrue, Hinnissy, because it ain’t like what I see ivry day in Halsted Street. If any wan comes along with a histhry iv Greece or Rome that’ll show me th’ people fightin’, gettin’ dhrunk, makin’ love, gettin’ married, owin’ th’ grocery man an’ bein’ without hard coal, I’ll believe they was a Greece or Rome, but not befur.” — Dunne, Finley Peter, OBSERVATIONS BY MR. DOOLEY, New York, 1902 Karl Marx would express, in his THE CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE, 1848-1850, the sentiment that “The origin of states gets lost in a myth, in which one may believe, but which one may not discuss.” On the 1st page of Theodore W. Allen’s introduction to his 1st volume,2 this independent scholar asks our “indulgence for only one assumption, namely, that while some people may desire to be masters, all persons are born equally unwilling and unsuited to be slaves.” I find that remark remarkable indeed! When in our Declaration of Independence we said to ourselves “All men are created equal,” we were of course writing as lawyers and in a lawyerly manner. We were purposing to level others, such as those overweening overbred British aristocrats, down to our own lay level, but meanwhile it was no part of our purpose to level others, such as our wives and slaves, up to our own exalted situation —we were doing this to benefit ourselves at the expense of others, and not doing this for the benefit of others. What we meant back there in Philadelphia several centuries ago, by such a trope as “All men are created equal,” was “We want, 1st, to sound almost as if we were saying that while some people may desire to be masters, all persons are born equally unwilling and unsuited to be slaves, and we want, 2dly, to sound as if we were struggling to express something like that without actually declaring anything like that — because it is essential that in this new nation of ours (based as it is upon human enslavement) we avoid any such issue. Our equality here is to be founded upon the inequality of others, and this grand-sounding trope ‘All men are created equal’ is being provided so that it can function as our cover story, enabling such viciousness to proceed unhindered.” As Edmund Burke expressed on February 16, 1788 during the impeachment trial of 1. Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago. 2. Allen, Theodore W. THE INVENTION OF THE WHITE RACE, VOLUME ONE: RACIAL OPPRESSION AND SOCIAL CONTROL. London: Verso, 1994 HDT WHAT? INDEX IRELAND IRELAND Warren Hastings for maladministration of the British rule in India, “There is a sacred veil to be drawn over the beginnings of all government.” The African Association was founded in England to explore the interior of Africa. In the usage of the trope “peculiar institution” that is today ordinary or usual, this trope is deployed of course in oblique reference to the unmentionable crime of human chattel bondage. It is nowadays used in implicit criticism of enslavement. Not so originally! In its initial usages, to refer to slavery as “peculiar” was not to attack it but proclaim it to be defensible. “Peculiar,” in this archaic usage, indicated merely that the legitimacy of the system was based not upon any endorsement by a higher or more remote legal authority, but based instead upon the “peculiar conditions and history” of a particular district of the country and a particular society and a particular historically engendered set of customs and procedures and conventions. This trope went hand in hand with the Doctrine of States Rights, and went hand in hand with the persistence of the English common law. What Allen, however, refers to by use of this trope “peculiar institution” is, instead, the invention of the so-called “white race” which has here been used to legitimate our local version of thus unmentionable crime, our local version of a solution to the problem of social control. It is for him this biologistic cover story, itself, which constitutes the quintessential “Peculiar Institution” we have been forced to construct. “Only by understanding what was peculiar about the Peculiar Institution can one know what is exceptionable about American Exceptionalism” (Volume I, page 1). In this he acknowledges that he is following a seed that had been planted by W.E.B. Du Bois in his BLACK RECONSTRUCTION. Allen’s 1st volume is made up of an elaborate parallelization of the Irish and Scottish experience under English colonialism, and the American antebellum experience: Every aspect of the Ulster Plantation policy aimed at destroying the tribal leadership and dispersing the tribe is matched by typical examples from Anglo-American colonial and United States policy toward the indigenous population, the “American Indians” — a policy we clearly recognize as racial oppression of “the red man.” I have been looking into an Irish mirror for insights into the nature of racial oppression and its implication for ruling-class social control in the United States. 2 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX IRELAND IRELAND 7,400 BCE The 1st known settlers came to Ireland, Scandinavians moving across a land bridge that then existed from Scotland. 3,500 BCE Neolithic man arrived in Ireland: farmers began to dominate and New Grange and passage tombs were being built. 3,250 BCE Charcoal from the Newgrange and Knowth tombs in Ireland yield dates ranging from 3,250 to 2,800 BCE. 3,000 BCE Plant Name Place Garlic Allium sativum Western Asia Rhubarb Rheum rhaponticum Asia Minor OTHERS At about this point, Megalithic tombs were first being constructed in Ireland. Sorghum was known in sub-Saharan Africa. PLANTS At about this point in the growth of the branches of the Indo/European language family, there occurred the Tocharians and the Gutians. THE INDO/EUROPEAN LANGUAGES 700 BCE Celts began the invasion of France and Spain. Celts arrived in Ireland from parts of Gaul and Britain. Ireland was divided into provinces. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 HDT WHAT? INDEX IRELAND IRELAND 4 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX IRELAND IRELAND 600 BCE In about this year Massaliot (Marseillais) Greek explorers visited the British Isles, finding the Qreteni (Cruithin or Pretani) to be there the dominant population. IRELAND 510 BCE Himilco the Phoenician visited Sacra (Ireland). 500 BCE In the following two centuries the first “iron age” peoples would be reaching Great Britain. IRELAND 350 BCE It was in about this year that Aristotle wrote of two islands Ierne (Ireland) and Albion (Great Britain) which lay beyond the land of the Celts. He recorded that it was said that after people had begun to mock Thales of Miletos for his poverty, he had on the basis of his knowledge of the heavenly bodies forecasted a large olive crop and had bought up all the available olive presses for the going rate during the preceding winter, then reselling these presses at a considerable markup as this huge crop of olives began to ripen. 100 BCE Celtic-Germanic Belgae colonized south coast of Albion. At an unknown date, Belgic tribes (Fir Builg) settled in modern Ulster and Munster. IRELAND ANNO MUNDI, 3873 “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 HDT WHAT? INDEX IRELAND IRELAND Chronological observations of America to the year of Christ 1673. Britain unknown to the Romans was first discovered to them by Julius Cæsar, 54 years before the Birth of Christ, who took it to be part of the Continent of France, and got nothing but the sight of that part called afterward England, which is the South of Britain. From the year of World BY John Josselyn Gent. 54 BCE Crassus attacked the Parthians with a Roman army, but was overthrown and killed at Carrhae in Mesopotamia. His lieutenant Cassius would collect together what remained of the army and prevent the Parthians from conquering Syria. Cato the Younger became praetor. In about this year Albius Tibullus was born wealthy, perhaps in Pedum near Praeneste, probably as a member of the Roman equestrian order. His lover would be a lad named Marathus. The south-eastern coast of Albion was brought under the protection of the Pax Romana. The Dumnonii (Veneti or Loegrians) of southwest Albion migrated to Caledonia (Scotland). IRELAND 27 BCE Marcus Terentius Varro died. The North Iberian Celts surrendered to the Roman legions. THE PAX ROMANA 6 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX IRELAND IRELAND 82 CE Agricola invaded Galloway and Strathclyde; incumbent Damnonian Gamanraid fled to modern Connaught. Agricola considered invasion of “Iverna” (Hibernia). At an unknown date, Loegrians (Lagin) settled in modern Leinster. Ireland was partitioned into four “Parts” — the Parts of the Iverni (or Erainn, a Belgic tribe), the Lagin, Ol Nechnacht (i.e. the Damnonian Gamanraid) and the Uluti (another Belgic tribe). 150 CE Feni (a Q-Celtic tribe) from N. Iberia under Tuathal Techtmar invaded east coast of Ireland; colony of Midhe was created. Part of the Lagin reduced to vassal state; the island was divided into five “Fifths” (Cúige). 199 CE Conn of the Hundred Battles, grandson of Techtmar (?), became King of Midhe? IRELAND 305 CE For a couple of years the parts of the Roman Empire would be run by Constantinus Chlorus and Galerius. The empire stabilized as Christianity became the official religion. At an unknown date, Irish Celts (principally Laigin) colonized Anglesey and Lleyn in modern Wales (they would be driven out). The term “Gael,” meaning foreigner, entered common use, describing the Iberian Celts (Eoganachta and Connachta) and their allies.

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