Irish Government Should Be Proud & Not Embarrassed by the Lisbon Vote

My letter below on the subject of the significance of the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty appeared in this week's Galway City Tribune:

Dear Editor,
While working in Poland in the days immediately after the referendum, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of Polish people who, upon discovering that I and my colleagues were Irish, came forward to shake our hands in appreciation for Ireland voting against the Lisbon Treaty.
Thanks to Bunreacht na hÉireann, we were able to stand up for the rights of all Europeans to have the final say in the political re-structuring of Europe and have exposed in the process the serious democratic deficit that sadly is now appearing in the EU governing infrastructure. Greater efficiency for EU administration should not be secured by sacrificing the rights of ordinary European citizens to have a real say in shaping their own destiny. It is frightening to realise that, where it not for the safeguards built into our own constitution, the Lisbon Treaty would have been voted through Dail Éireann by politicians of all hues. It is even more astonishing to know that the inhabitants of no other EU state have this constitutional protection. If they did, there is no doubt that other countries would have said ‘No’ just as France and the Netherlands did in 2005 in what was then called the ‘EU Constitution’ but subsequently repackaged as a ‘Treaty’ to deny the peoples of other countries the right to vote on its acceptance. It was our former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern that had the honesty to confirm that there was a 90% overlap between both documents.
Many voters rightly expressed anger at the legalistic, bureaucratic and technical terminology of a 400 page Treaty that represented the most un-intelligible document ever put before a European electorate. It is even more chilling to know that this was a deliberate ploy. For according to one of its prime architects, former French President Giscard d’Estaing, this was necessary in order to hide its true meaning and avoid referenda in the other EU countries.
The belief that the need to ask the Irish people to vote was considered a necessary evil by the establishment that had to be suffered (but which never again would have to be undertaken if the Treaty was passed and subsequently needed changing) was reinforced by what can only be described as displays of arrogance prior to the referendum by our Taoiseach telling us that he had not read the Treaty that we were to vote on; and by our European Commissioner stating that only a lunatic would bother reading it in its entirety!
So rather than be embarrassed at the Irish people’s decision, the government should have the pride and the moral courage to tell other governments of their own lack of a democratic mandate to say ‘Yes to Lisbon’. Giving the impression that the Irish have somehow betrayed Europe and should display a collective sense of national humiliation is wholly unjustified.

Membership of the European community has been extremely positive for Ireland in areas such as industry, education, the environment and social justice. Whilst many of the Lisbon Treaty’s clauses were beneficial to the rights of individuals, peoples and states, others were anathema to our society. For instance getting us to increase our military budget, support Euratom and finally accept the loss of a full time Irish Commissioner is not what one would expect from what is supposed to be a community of sovereign and equal democratic states.
Furthermore the behaviour of EU Commissioner Mandelson in the last few months was a portent of what we could expect in the future. For where is the economic, social or environmental benefits in forcing Ireland to be opened to cheaper less regulated farm foodstuffs produced by small South American elites who are enthusiastically destroying the rainforests in their greed to expand their own huge ranches and enormous riches?
Fair play to the Irish for showing that the final decision in shaping the EU should lie with the ordinary citizens of Europe and not with its politicians. For we do not want to experience a new version of an over-centralised and undemocratic super state that was the Soviet Union.

Yours sincerely
Brendan Smith

What did the Irish Ever do for Us? The Americas

An Irishman's Guide
to the History of the World- 'The Americas'

Irish- First Europeans to Discover America?
The great Irish writer Oscar Wilde once said, “Of course America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.”
There is a certain grain of truth in this quote. For it was probably Irish monks who were the first Europeans to sail to the Americas via the Faroes Island and Iceland as they travelled too far distant lands to seek a sacred solitude that they felt would bring them closer to God. The modern explorer Tim Severin successfully sailed across the Atlantic in a leather-skin boat that was a replica of one that could have been used by the sixth century Irish saint Brendan the Navigator whose sea voyages were renowned throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. The Celtic North Atlantic routes were probably sourced by Norse from captive Irish monks who followed their paths to Iceland and possibly Greenland and later America (Vinland).
The medieval Icelandic Landnamabok (Book of Settlements) mention Vikings exploring west of Iceland being met by indigenous peoples (Skraelings) who told them of Irish priests (papar) living amongst them.

Was the First European born in America Irish?
On the premise that all the Celtic monks living in these northern climes were celibate (unlikely!) or at least did not take their female partners across the Atlantic, the first European born on the continent came from the Viking settlement of L’Anse aux Meadows on Newfoundland in circa 1000AD. Yet though the child’s father was Norse, it is quite possible that the baby’s mother was one of his Irish slaves(thralls) forced to submit to his lusty desires. A not uncommon occurrence at the time; female Celtic slaves were common and highly sought after by Vikings. Modern excavations uncovered Irish style clothes pins amongst the artifacts found in the Norse settlement.

'Hy Brasil' – An Mythical Celtic Land
Later still, Hy Brasil – which according to Irish legends is the name of a mythical land located the far side of the Atlantic - appears on European maps, inspiring voyages of Exploration and Discoveries as well as giving its name to a part of South America.

The Irish Liberation of the Americas - A Forgotten HistoryThroughout the centuries, the Irish have made a notable contribution to their new American homelands in many fields including music, architecture, politics, religion, education, law, human rights and business. But it was in the struggles for freedom from European colonial rule stretching from the United States to Chile that the Irish left a permanent mark on the history and folklore of a whole continent. Conscious of their own struggles in their native Ireland against foreign occupation, Irish men became leaders of liberation movements in at least nine American countries.
Of course there were many Irish that sadly took on the role of the oppressor and committed great crimes against native Indians, slaves and laborers. But these 'bad apples' were more than compensated for (I hope!) by their more enlightened fellow countrymen.
Yet this proud Celtic role has oftentimes been overlooked becoming lost in the mists of time even in Ireland. So starting with Mexico, I hope that my contributions here will hopefully go some way to rekindling interest in the Celtic elements of the history of the New World.

What did the Irish Ever do for Us? Part 4 - Mexico

Was Zorro Irish?
Zorro is considered by many to be the greatest folk hero in Latin America. The dashing noble swordsman from Mexico was a champion of the downtrodden natives who fought and stole from the cruel Spanish aristocracy, giving his booty to the poor. It was not only the riches of the colonial nobility that he robbed. For many of their young beautiful daughters, married and unmarried, lost their hearts to this Latino equivalent of Robin Hood.
But amazingly, the exploits of this legendary Hispanic hero could well be based on the true story of William Lambert (aka Lampart or Lombardo) a seventeenth century soldier of fortune who hailed from County Wexford. William fled from Ireland to serve in an Irish regiment of the Spanish Army, received commendations for his bravery and eventually found himself posted to Mexico. However he eventually became disgusted with the harsh colonial regime and empathised with the oppressed peasants and the native Indians. Declared a traitor, he became a target of the feared Spanish Inquisition, the guardians of Spanish rule in 'New Spain'. Though captured he made a dramatic escape from prison and in true Hollywood style daubed the walls of Mexico City with autographed anti-Spanish graffiti!
His adventures of daring and intrigue continued for many more years. Yet even William’s final arrest only further enhanced his romantic folk stature. For he was finally caught while making love to the wife of the Spanish Viceroy of Mexico, the Marquis Lope Diez de Caderyta!!
This time though there was no happy ending and the Inquisition had him burnt at the stake in the Zocalo the main square of Mexico City.

Mexico Granted Independence by an Irishman!
Buried in Mexico City’s cathedral is the man accredited with granting independence to Mexico. General Juan O’Donoju O'Rian (O’Donohue O’Ryan) was born in Seville of Irish parents. He was the last Spanish Viceroy of Mexico who decided soon after his arrival in the country in July 1821 to negotiate with the rebels when he saw how little support Spain had. On September 28th, he signed the Act of Independence.
O’Donoju became a member of the Mexican Provisional Ruling Junta. But he died 11 days later of pleurisy.

Defenders of Mexico Against Yankee Imperialism-
the Irish Boys of St. Patrick’s BattalionIn a massive land grab, the United States in 1848 invaded and annexed the northern territories of Mexico- California, Nevada, Utah and parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming. During the war, most of Mexico’s army units did not acquite themselves well due to the incompetent leadership of Santa Anna. However one unit was noted for its bravery, namely the Los

Batallon de San Patricio or St. Patrick’s Battalion. Made up of Irish and other deserters from the US Army under the leadership of a Private John O’Reilly from Clifden in County Galway Ireland, its soldiers later paid dearly for switching sides to align themselves with a people that like them were both Catholic and of poor peasant stock fighting an invading Protestant army.

It is estimated that the Irish then made up circa 24% of the US army with another 23% coming from countries other than the United States. Many had been recruited straight off the ships as they landed in the eastern ports filled with Irish emigrants fleeing the Great Famine then devastating their homeland. The prospect of immediately securing good pay, lodgings, and clothing in the US military and citizenship understandably proved attractive to many of these starving Irish.
However their arrival as part of an foreign army invading Catholic Mexico shocked many especially when rape, murder and pillage occurred. The anti-Catholic propaganda of the American press did not help either. Nor did the harsh treatment that was meted out disproportionally to the Irish soldiery or ‘potato heads’ as they were at times insultingly called by their commanding officers. Approximately 500 (including Germans, Scots, English and a few escaped African slaves) deserted and became part of the Mexican Army serving under O’Reilly’s command. They marched under the flag of St. Patrick. The Mexicans nicknamed them the “Los Colorados Valientes” or “the brave redheads”, as so many had the Celtic features of freckles and red hair.The San Patricios performed well in their engagements against the Americans particularly at the Battle of Buena Vista, a battle that could have been won had not Santa Anna decided to withdraw. But the Irish were finally defeated at the battle for the convent of Churubusco. Though they pulled down the white flag hosted by their Mexican allies on a number of occasions, the 87 surviving brigade members out of a force of 220 eventually surrendered. Their treatment was particularly cruel. 16 were executed immediately. A further fifty condemned prisoners were taken to Mexico City. Nooses were placed around their necks and they were kept waiting for hours under the blazing sun until the US Flag flew over the last enemy stronghold of Chapultec fortress signifying its capture. Then the carts were pulled from under them and they hung until they died. 19 others including O’Reilly escaped the death penalty as they had switched sides before they formal declaration of war with Mexico was issued. But they were given 50 lashes, branded with the letter D on their faces and forced to bury their dead comrades at Churubusco.
The San Patricos have since become national heroes in Mexico and their story forms part of the history curriculum taught in schools. A memorial was erected in their honour in San Jacinta Plaza where Irish President Mary McAleese laid a wreath to their memory in 1997.
They have been praised in glowing terms by modern Hispanic revolutionaries such as subcommandante Marcos of the Zapatistas, the Mexican rebel movement.
Finally, a fine version of the song from musician David Rovics that celebrates the heroics of the St. Patrick's Battalion can be listened to by clicking here

First Mexican Ambassador to Britain was Irish!
Captain Tomas Murphy of the Mexican Army was taken prisoner at the aforementioned Chapultec and narrowly escaped summary execution by American soldiers thinking he was a survivor of the San Patricos due to his Irish name.In fact he was the son of another Tomas Murphy who was of Irish descent and became the first Mexican ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1827.
Thomas was probably a member of the Irish-Spanish merchant family of Murphys who traded from the major Mexican port of Vera-Cruz from at least the early eighteenth century.

Mexico’s greatest actor-Son of an Irish revolutionary
Hollywood legend Anthony Rudolfo Oxaca Quinn (1915-2001) was born in Chihuahua, Mexico the son of an Irishman Frank (Francisco) Quinn and a Indian Mexican mother (Manuela).
According to his biography, his father died fighting with the renowned revolutionary Pancho Villa.
Anthony appeared in over 200 films his most notable role being the lead in 'Zorba the Greek'.
He was also an accomplished painter, sculptor, boxer and architect.
(Some other biographies of his life state that his father was Mexican born to an Irishman of the same name).

Irish Origins of ‘Streets of Laredo’
The Streets of Laredo is one of the best loved Cowboy ballads of all time. Laredo was part of Mexico until the 1830s. A twin city just on the far side of the Rio Grande bears the same name (Nueva Laredo). The song has been recorded by many well-known artists including Johnny Cash, Joan Baez and Arlo Guthrie and tells the story of a dying cowboy pleading with those that listen not to follow his life of crime.
But it is almost a direct copy of a much older traditional British song entitled Locke Hospital recorded by Irish musician Christy Moore on his album Prosperous (1972). See relevant lyrics below. Locke hospitals became associated with British garrison troops for the treatment of venereal disease. Christy believes that the tune is Irish. Which should come as no surprise as the Irish formed up to 40% of the British army up until World War One.

Some verses from the Streets of Laredo

As I walked out on the streets of Laredo.
As I walked out on Laredo one day,
I spied a poor cowboy wrapped in white linen,
Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay.

Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin.
Six dance-hall maidens to bear up my pall.
Throw bunches of roses all over my coffin.
Roses to deaden the clods as they fall.

Then beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowlyPlay the dead march as you carry me along.
Take me to the green valley, lay the sod o'er me,
I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong.

Some corresponding verses from the Locke Hospital

As I was a-walking down by the Locke Hospital
Cold was the morning and dark was the day
I spied a young squaddie wrapped up in old linen
Wrapped up in old linen as cold as the day

Get six of me comrades to carry my coffin
Get six of me comrades to carry me on high
And let every one hold a bunch of white roses
So no-one will notice as we pass them by
So play the drums slowly and play the fifes lowly
Sound a dead march as you carry him along
And over his coffin throw a bunch of white laurels
For he's a young soldier cut down in his prime.

To hear Johnny Cash singing 'Streets of Laredo', click here

Gringo- Latino slang for ‘White Americans’ Comes from Irish Song
'Gringo' is the term used across Latin America to refer to white Anglo-Americans particularly those from the United States.
It is likely that the word originated during the American-Mexican War of 1846-1848 probably from Irish troops of the US Army or the San Patrico Brigade singing the popular traditional Irish song ‘Green Grow the Lilacs O’ as they marched along.
To the Spanish speaking natives, ‘Green Grow the Lilacs O’ sounded to their ears as if it was ‘Green Goes’ or ‘Gringoes’

O’Brien- Mexican Revolutionary General & President of Irish descent

With a name like O’Brien, the revolutionary general and President from 1920 until his assassination in 1924, Alvaro O’Brien or Obregon just has to have Irish ancestry!
Ciudad Obregon (meaning O’Brien’s City in English) in the northern state of Sonora is one of many places called after him.

Fox-Another Irish President of Mexico
Vicente Fox Quesada was President of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. His grandfather, Joseph Fox, was an Irish immigrant who migrated to Cincinnati and later to Guanajuato in the 1890s.
Fox was the first president to be elected from an opposition party since that other Mexican-Irish lad, Alvaro O’Brien in 1920.

Two of his daughters spent part of their education in school in Ireland.

Founder of Mexico's First TV station & popular Mexican Newspaper was Irish
Rómulo O'Farrill (Farrell) Senior founded the newspaper Novedades and Mexico's first commercial television station in 1949 which later became known as Telesistemas Mexicano and later Televisa. His grandfather was a Stephen O'Farrell from County Longford. His son Romulo O'Farrill Jnr (1917-2006) became an even more powerful and influential business person with strong links to the ruling party(PRI). He was Irish honourary consul to Mexico for circa 20 years.

Architect and painter Juan O'Gorman (1905—82) was the son of painter and mining engineer Cecil Crawford O'Gorman who arrived in Mexico from Ireland in 1895.
Juan’s greatest mural and easel paintings focused on historical, cultural and nationalistic themes and include the murals in the National Museum of History in Chapultepec Castle Mexico City and the huge murals (4,000 square meters) of historical scenes of the Central Library of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Interestingly, his fantastic mural at Mexico City airport (1937–38), was removed in 1939 by a conservative government who considered it too anti-religious and anti-fascist.
Edmundo O'Gorman (1906 -1995) was another son of Cecil who established himself as one of Mexico’s famous writers, historians and philosophers.

Sean Mallory- Fictitious Irish Republican Hero of the Mexican Revolution
The 1971 Hollywood film- A Fistful of Dynamite directed by Sergio Leone and music by Ennio Morricone- starred American actor James Coburn as Sean Mallory, an Irish republican explosives expert on the run from the British who came to Mexico to help the native revolutionaries during the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920.

The movie contains more radical and social commentary than any other Leone film whose works include 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'.

Hugo Oconór (Hugh O' Connor) was a military governor of Northern Mexico (including what is now the US State of Texas), was Spanish viceroy of New Spain from 1767 until 1777.

Irish Famine caused by Mexico!
After all that we Irish did for Mexico you would think that the country would be extremely grateful to the Emerald Isle. Not a bit of it! For the greatest famine in Irish history leading to the deaths of up to 1.5 millions and the forced departure of an estimated 2 million peoples was caused by Mexico!
For it was in the highlands of central Mexico that the pathogen 'Phytophthora infestans' originated that caused the disease which destroyed the potato crop in Ireland during 1845-1852.
It was the highly nutritious potato that provided the only food crop for most of the majority poverty stricken population of Ireland who cultivated it on their tiny strips of land. They were Irish farmers thrown off their ancestral lands by British colonists and forced to live as tenants on small holdings by their new landlords who used most of the Irish countryside to graze cattle for the export market. While a few of the landowning aristocracy were progressive property owners who established vibrant village enterprises and undertook extensive building programmes for local communities such as Lord Ashtown in Woodlawn Galway, many more were absentee landlords who enjoyed the 'high life' in Britain financed by charging exorbitant rents to their Irish poverty-stricken tenants.

References: Guinness Book of Irish Facts & Feats, Ciaran Deane. Irish on the Inside, Tom Hayden, Verso

What have the Anti-War Protestors Ever Done for Galway?

Photo: Galway City Mayor Councillor Tom Costello addressing the Anti-Salthill Airshow protest in Summer 2007

Over the last few months Michael Crowe, an auctioneer and former independent councillor who recently joined Fianna Fáil, has taken it upon himself to try and relaunch the controversial Salthill Airshow famed for its display of US military airplanes. In so doing , he has launched a series of blistering attacks on the Galway Alliance Against War(GAAW) condemning its members as a bunch of 'lunatics' and professional complainers who have never really done anything constructive in their lives.
I got fed up with hearing and reading these lies and standard cliches being made against individuals whom I have admired for their idealistic committment to others but who have also contributed in their professional lives to greatly enhancing the image of Galway. So I decided to put the record straight by submitting the following letter to the 'Galway Advertiser' prior to Christmas:

Dear Editor,
I was saddened at the comments made by Councillor Michael Crowe in last week’s Galway Advertiser when he disparagingly condemned the anti-war movement as nothing more than a “…rent-a-crowd brigade… who if they don’t like which way the sun comes up stick up a few posters…go out protesting…”
He then asks what have these people “…ever done for the city?…”
Well outside the important element of having the moral courage to increase public awareness about the glorification by the Salthill Air Show of war machines and an air force that has killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians in illegal wars over the last few decades, quite a lot really.
For example, the literary works of Rita Ann Higgins and Fred Johnston are respected worldwide and their efforts have helped establish our city as a mecca for creative writing. Author and broadcaster Padraic Breathnach co-founded Macnas which, with his many other pioneering endeavours over the last thirty years, earned Galway the accolade of being the nation’s cultural capital. Other seasoned locally-based American pacifist campaigners such as technologist Doug Foxvoug and stain-glass designer Richard Kimball are recognised globally as experts in their own career areas who have greatly benefited their adopted homeland and its citizenry.
It will be a long time before people such as Councillor Crowe or myself come anywhere close to enhancing the reputation of the city as these visionary luminaries have done.

It is also very strange to condemn these peace activists as ‘lunatics’. Especially at this time of year when we celebrate the Christmas message of ‘peace on earth, goodwill to all men’.

Finally, I would ask the Michael to familiarise himself with the history of the political party that he has recently joined. Its founder Eamon DeValera would never agree with the councillor’s recommendation to campaigners that they should “…make their views known…and (then) leave it…”. Dev was a committed international campaigner against injustice, who never gave up the struggle and warned against small nations being sucked into imperial wars of aggression that were disingenuously portrayed by their protagonists as crusades for freedom and democracy.

Check out my previous postings on the Salthill Airshow:
Galway Businesses Glorify Terrorist Bombers
Sights & Sounds of US Bombers Re-awaken Fears in Galway

A Jesus in today’s Palestine

This is the text of one of my letters that appeared in local Galway newspapers just after Christmas. It sadly portrays I believe the evil that exists masquerading on one side as "Allah or God's Will" and the other as "Defense of Democracy & Western Values" in a county known ironically as the 'Holy Land'.



Could the story of the Nativity happen today in Palestine? Unlikely.

For would a poor young unmarried teenage girl in the West Bank, who had just announced that she was pregnant, not become a victim of male ‘honour’?
Even if she did survive, she and her new husband would have found it extremely difficult to go from Nazareth to Bethlehem due to road-blocks and travel restrictions placed on local inhabitants by the occupying Israeli military; the shepherds would have probably lost their grazing lands to compulsory acquisition for the erection of the ‘Security Wall’ and Jewish colonial settlements and the three wise men from Iraq (Mesopotamia) would have being denied entry visas.
But even if the birth did manage to occur in Bethlehem, Israeli military border controls would have probably barred Mary’s family from crossing into Egypt to escape religious persecution thus sealing their faith.
Yet there is no doubt that an adult Jesus of the New Testament and of a modern Middle East would have ended their lives in a similar terrible fashion. For anyone preaching a message of peace and love, a call for people’s liberation from poverty and oppression, of respect for all races and creeds, of freedom for prisoners and an end to the oppression of women, would have made himself both an enemy of the state and of a religious fundamentalism that preaches intolerance towards non-believers and death to all blasphemers.
Yes, death would have come either from an American-made laser guided missile or from execution by a death squad after the customary gruesome torture.

'Green Lungs of the City' to be Punctured by Major Road Construction as Huge Grassroots Campaign Gets Underway

A beautiful river and forest park near the centre of Galway City is under threat from a major road development that will destroy an emerging 'ecological corridor' in a parkland officially dubbed the 'Green Lungs of the City'.

But thankfully thousands of Galwegians are rallying behind a grassroots group known as the 'Friends of the Forest' who are spearheading a campaign to stop the road construction, save important wildlife habitats and re-energise a park that has sadly falling into serious decline but was only a few short years ago recognised nationwide as a major pioneering initiative in

community-local government partnership.

It is unbelievable that a City Council, beset by internal infighting and suffering from a serious loss of public trust over the last few years due to its failure to keep by its public promises and implement a range of progressive policies on public transport, cycling/pedestrian infrastructure, provision of neighbourhood centres/recreational facilities, overcoming urban sprawl, tackling rising social crime and pollution, could consider such a regressive move.

Yet this is exactly what is being proposed in plans to terminally undermine one of the last great unspoilt city landscapes along the banks of the River Corrib.

So I have set up an Information website for Friends of the Forest to relay our message to the world on why the people of Galway must defeat plans to invade a vital green sanctuary with concrete and tarmac in what is our equivalent of the battle to stop the destruction of the tropical rainforests.

Click here

You can also sign our Petition that will be presented to Galway City Council in April requesting them to halt the road development, re-commence the annual public participation events and act on the Park's vision of creating a wonderful mix of recreational facilities and natural habitats.

Significant Irish Contributions to World Culture - No. 7641, Halloween

Halloween's Pagan Celtic Roots

Today Halloween is joyously celebrated by children across the Western world.There is a popular misconception though that Halloween is a modern American invention. Not so. Like so many other things that have brought great happiness and joy to humanity for millennia, its roots lay firmly in the culture of the Irish Celts!
(Photo- my son Dáire & 'friend'!)Yet it has to be said that the Americans, in their re-packaging of this ancient pagan festival, have destroyed many of the fine traditions that were once such an integral part of the festivities. For instance our Celtic custom of placing human skulls with candles at entrances to domestic dwellings in order to ward off evil spirits has been replaced by lights in hollowed-out pumpkins! Likewise the visits of children dressed up in ghoulish and macabre fancy dress going door-to-door looking for gifts of sweets and fruits is a poor substitute for the former visits of the ghosts of our ancestors who used to drop in once a year on October 31st for a nice meal with their living relatives (we would prepare a place for them at the dinner table).
It was said too that live captives were placed in wicker cages above huge bonfires and burnt alive (as portrayed in the classic British 1970s cult film “The Wicker Man”). But such horror stories were originally spun by those nasty Romans when they were at war with the Celts. So it was probably nothing more than malicious enemy propaganda. After all, what do you take us Celts for? Barbarians?!

As with so many other annual family festivals, Halloween has become so commercialised by 'Americanised' popular culture that its true origins and religious aspects have long since being forgotten.
So here is the true story of 'Féile na Marbh' (Festival of the Dead'):

Christianisation of 'Samhain'
Yet modern-day Americans were not the first people to re-brand the festival. In the middle ages the Catholic Church created the Christian festival of 'All Hallows Eve' or 'All Souls Day' when people were asked to remember and pray for their dead family members.
This event was superimposed onto the ancient pagan Celtic festival of 'Samhain' which marked the end of the summer season characterised by heat & light and the coming of the dark cold barren winter months.

Celtic Festivals
Typical of many agricultural societies, the Celts had four major annual festivals based on the cyclical differences experienced in the changing seasons of nature and their corresponding weather patterns. The other three were 'Imbolc' (spring) 'Bealtane' (summer), 'Lugnasa' (autumn). The latter was associated with harvest time.

Bon(e)Fires
Samhain was a time when food was hoarded as people prepared for the cold season when no plants grew. While many domestic animals such as cattle were brought indoors for the winter, others were slaughtered and most of their meat salted for storage whilst the remainder was cooked for the big feast. As with all Irish festivals, communal bonfires were lit as people gathered together at warm fires to socialise and to give thanks to the deities. Bones of the slaughtered animals were thrown into the fire as symbolic gifts to the gods, an action which give rise to the term ' bone fires' or 'bonfires'. Embers from this sacred fire were taken by local people to their households to light their own domestic fires.

Antecedents to the Pumpkin & 'Trick or Treat'
But Samhain was also a time when creatures from the supernatural world could enter into the world of mortals. 'Fairies' (Irish='Sidhe' as in ‘Banshee’/‘female fairy’) and the spirits of the dead would walk the earth. Many of these beings were benevolent and the spirits of dead ancestors; so families laid out extra food and set aside a table space for their ghostly visitors. This metaphorised into the custom of today's children dressing up as demons and witches & calling to the neighbours' houses to receive presents.
But there were spirits that came on the night of Samhain that were malevolent. Candles were placed in skulls at the entrance to dwellings as light was feared by these dark foreboding creatures. This protection against evil became transformed in modern times into the positioning of hollowed-out turnips and later pumpkins with carved out faces and internal candles at windows and doorways.
Centuries-old party games of trying to eat an apple lying in a basin of water ('bobbing') or dangling on a string tied to a ceiling ('snapping') are still popular festive past-times with Irish children.

The apple is probably the most common edible fruit in Ireland. It was also strongly associated with the spirit world and the fairies (sidhe). In the Arthurian legends, the mystical island of Avalon is where King Arthur obtains his magical sword Excalibur and where he is taken at the end of his life by the Lady of the Lake and her female fairy companions (banshee). Avalon comes from the Welsh word afal or Irish aball.

Fortune Telling at Halloween
Central to the Irish Halloween is the eating of a fruit bread known as 'Barmbrack' from the Gaelic term 'Báirín Breac' (speckled or spotted top). It is still a popular festive food today.
Various symbolic pieces were placed in the dough before it was baked such as a ring, a pea and a stick. When an item was found in the slice when it was being eaten, it told of the future that awaited the recipient. For instance, the 'ring' signified marriage within a year; a 'stick' represented a bad or violent marriage; the 'coin', wealth and a 'pea', a long wait before marriage.

Irish Export Halloween to North America
The Irish emigrants of the nineteenth century introduced Halloween and its rituals to America. Within a few decades, the festival was transformed into the fun and games event of today.

Significant Irish Contributions to World Culture:
No. 7642- 'Dracula'
Considering our national passion of asking the dead to resurrect themselves & drop into the house for a late night meal & party, it should come as no surprise that the world's most well known vampire Count Dracula was the creation of an Irishman, the novelist Bram Stoker in 1887.
His inspiration though was Carmilla, a book about a lesbian vampire created naturally enough(!) by another well known Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu.

(Photos from Macnas Halloween youth parade in Ballinfoile, Galway City)

What did the Irish Ever do for Us? India/Pakistan - Part 1

An Irishman's Guide to

the History of the World
- India & Pakistan

Ireland's Seismic Impact on the Indian sub-continent

Though we Irish did not build the Taj Mahal, write the Kamasutra or can take credit for the ancient cultures of this region's medical breakthroughs in plastic surgery and dentistry, nevertheless our little island of Ireland with its minuscule population lying at the very western edge of Europe had and still continues to have a notable influence on the history and politics of the vast Indian sub-continent.
Individual Irish men/women and Ireland’s struggle for nationhood profoundly effected the Indian independence movement, its appearance onto the international stage & the forging of a pan-India identity. Our people educated many of modern India’s and Pakistan’s leadership and helped launch the indigenous women’s emancipation movement. It was an Irishman in the mid-18th century that led one of the first military campaigns to expel the British from the sub-continent. One wily Irish rogue even ousted a native prince and set himself up as a ruler of a Raj!
Furthermore, for much of the early part of the 20th century, the most famous fictional Indian literary character in the world was the son of an Irishman!
On the other side of the coin thousands of Irishmen from the 18th century onwards provided the backbone of the British army of occupation. Sorry about that! But at least we Irish dressed up in our British redcoats probably kept out of India an even nastier imperialist power, namely Tsarist Russia.

An Irish Education unites Pakistani & Indian Leaders

What has the present Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, former prime ministers Shaukat Aziz and Benazir Bhutto and former president Pervez Musharraf in common?
Well they all went to Irish-themed Catholic schools.

What is probably the only thing that unites the leaders of the two main political parties of India?

Both men got their education in Irish-inspired schools!
(Photo: St. Columba's School, Delphi)

Where did the 3 most powerful women in Pakistan obtain their schooling? Why, where else but in Irish-founded convent schools in Rawalpindi, Karachi & Murre!

Living in the shadow of Ireland's Khyber Pass
I have a personal interest in this Irish-India connection. My childhood was spent living near the foot of the ‘Khyber Pass’ in Dalkey (photo) village, County Dublin. It was a hotel located at the top of a steep narrow rock precipice, a name probably given to it by a former British officer that served on the infamous North West Frontier of colonial India. My friendly next door neighbour for many years was an archetypal retired British colonel with a bicycle handlebars moustache, living in a rambling old mansion complete with a cricket lawn, who drove around in a beautiful old Rolls Royce and jovially reminisced about the good old days of the British Raj. Later I was taught by the Catholic Patrician Brothers who opened many famous schools in India and are led today by an Indian, Brother Jerome. One of my own brothers, Peter, worked in Mumbai, modern India’s commercial hub.

Irish Teachers Bring the Torch Of Learning to the native peoples of India

The repeal of the colonial laws forbidding the majority Irish Catholic population from receiving an education led from the early 19th century to a surge of new native religious teaching orders setting up schools throughout the country followed from the 1840s onwards in their movement with missionary zeal across the territories of the British Empire. The Christian Brothers, the Brothers of St. Patrick & the Presentation Sisters from Ireland established schools that are still recognised today as some of the finest educational institutions on the sub-continent.

Yet it was a strong sense of social justice born out of centuries of oppression that probably influenced so many young Irish to travel so far from home, many never to return, to places such as India where they devoted their lives in educating the more marginalised peoples, a tradition that still resonates with the Patrician Brothers today.

Two of Pakistan’s Prime Ministers went to St. Anthony’s High School in Lahore founded by the Irish 'Patrician Brothers' including Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Muslim League.

‘Son of St. Columba’- Gandhi!
Rahul Gandhi a President of the Indian National Congress and son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi went to St. Columba’s School (see photo below) in Delhi, an Irish Christian Brothers’ institution named after one of Ireland’s most famous missionary saints.

When the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern visited the school in June 2006, he was greeted by a chorus of pupils singing the Irish National Anthem in Gaelic (Irish)!

Bhutto taught by Irish Nuns!
Benazir Bhutto was educated by Irish nuns of the Jesus & Mary congregation. She attended their kindergartan in Karachi as a young child and later became a pupil at their primary school in Murre.
After completing her primary education, she attended the congregation's high school in Karachi where she completed her O levels before going to Harvard in the USA.
In 1993 when she was the country's Prime Minister, Benazir presented Sister Eugene Glass from Dublin, & former head mistress of the Karachi high school, with an award for her outstanding services to education in Pakistan.

‘Sons of St. Patrick’- Musharraf & Prime Minister Aziz!
Just as interesting is the fact that both the former President Pervez Musharraf & the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz were pupils of St. Patrick’s High School. Belonging to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi it was founded by a Jesuit Rev. J.A. Willy in 1861. Though I have yet to verify it, the fact that he named the school “St. Patrick’s” after Ireland’s patron saint and its symbol is a Shamrock, gives me the impression that Willy was probably Irish.

Fomer Head of India’s largest political party -another ‘Son of St. Patrick’! 
Lal Krishna Advani, former Indian Deputy Prime Minister and  leader of the nationalist Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), is also a former pupil of St. Patrick’s High School in Karachi!

Can you believe it!!

Irish Nuns educate Female Pakistani Leaders

A number of leading Pakistani women were taught at the prestigious Presentation Convent in Rawalpindi founded by an Irishwoman Sister Ignatius McDermot in 1895.
The current school principal is also Irish- Sister Julie Watson from Listowel in Co. Kerry.

Pakistan’s First Female Army General
Shahida Malik who became Pakistan’s first female general in 2002 is a former pupil.

Another former student is Nilofer Bahktiar who was forced to resign as Pakistan's former Tourism Minister after a Fatwa was issued against her by the controversial Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad. The clerics demanded she be punished & sacked when photographs appeared of her receiving a congratulatory hug from a male colleague, after successfully landing from a charity parachute jump in France, which they condemned as was "an illegitimate and forbidden act
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1820247.ece
Her resignation was not accepted though by the Prime Minister.





Irishman Leads Army to Oust British from India
From the mid-18th century the British started to expand out of their small coastal trading ports to take over large Indian territories. One of the earliest attempts to stop them was led by Thomas Arthur Lally whose father Gerard came from Tuam in Co. Galway. As French Commander in Chief in India he was initially successful. But he was decisively defeated at the Battle of Wandiwash (1760) which solidified British interests in India.

…But Defeated by a British Army led by an Irishman!
Strangely enough the commander of the victorious British forces, Lieutenant Colonel Eyre Coote was also an Irishman (born in Limerick)! Like many prominent members of the British Imperial military establishment, Coote came from the Anglo-Irish Protestant landowning class who came over to Ireland as British colonists from the late 16th century onwards. Coote had the distinction of being captain of the 39th regiment when it became the first British regiment to be sent to India in 1754 (hence its motto ‘Primus in Indus’). This regiment was first raised in Ireland in 1689 to defend British interests.

Fiery Irish Women Lead Indian Independence Movement

India’s First Magistrate- Irishwoman Margaret Cousins
-famed Radical Feminist, Nationalist & Hunger Striker
India’s first woman magistrate was Margaret ‘Gretta’ Cousins (née Gillespie) from Boyle, Co. Roscommon.
She was a life-time campaigner for women’s rights as well as for Irish & Indian independence. Her militant activism led to her imprisonment in Ireland, Britain and India.
So, how many judges do you know that have been thrown into prison in 3 different countries for campaigning against unjust laws!
In Ireland & England she was jailed for stoning & causing riots at the seats of Imperial government power in Britain (10 Downing Street) & Ireland (Dublin Castle) as part of the suffragette campaign to give women the vote. She supported Irish Independence and distrusted the moderate nationalist Irish Home Rule Party because of its opposition to universal female suffrage

Not a women to sit idly by, Margaret founded the 'Indian Women's Association in 1914 within a year of emigrating with her husband to India. In 1922 she was appointed India’s first woman magistrate. In 1928 she founded the first 'All-India Women Conference' which is still active today with over 1.5million members and over 500 branches. While still a magistrate, Margaret was sentenced in December 1932 to one year in prison for protesting against the introduction of emergency legislation curtailing free speech in India. While in Vellore Women's Jail she went on hunger-strike in support of Mahatma Gandhi who had also being imprisoned.
After her release in October, 1933 Margaret continued to campaign for women's rights and in 1938 was elected President of the All-India Women's Conference.
In 1949, the Indian government financially compensated Margaret for her imprisonment and activism on behalf of the cause of Indian independence.

India’s First International Female Celebrity
Hindu Nun ‘Sister Nivedita’ (Nationalist & Women’s Rights Campaigner) was born ‘Margaret Elizabeth Noble’ in County Tyrone, Ireland!
Highly revered today in her adopted homeland, this charismatic lady changed her name from Margaret Noble to Sister Nivedita when she was initiated into Hindu monastic life in Bengal.
This Irish woman successfully took on the role of promoting a revival in ancient Indian art, literature, religion and culture in her new homeland. In Europe and America where she undertook lecture tours, she helped to dispel the notion of India as just being a place of poverty, superstition and backwardness and that it had rich and glorious culture that had been undermined by foreign conquest and domination. The fact that she was a strong-willed white European woman made her Western audiences more receptive to her message.
But her real benefit to India was in raising the morale of native women and teaching them of their importance in a new emerging free India.
When she meet her mentor Swami Vivekananda, Margaret Noble was already a well-known educationalist, public speaker, journalist and progressive political activist.
The Swami saw her destiny lay in empowering the women of India and said to her “India cannot yet produce great women, she must borrow them from other nations. Your education, sincerity, purity, immense love, determination, and above all, the Celtic blood, make you just the woman India needs.”
It was for him her ‘Celtic Irishness’ that help mark her out as an instrument for liberation (we Irish have an ingrained rebellious streak!)
Though looked on as a saint by some, Nivedita also associated with more militant nationalist revolutionaries such as Aurobindo Ghose.

First Flag of India -Designed by an Irishwoman
Irishwoman Sister Nivedita designed the first Flag of India in 1904. It was a red flag with a yellow inset depicting a thunderbolt and a white lotus

Indian National Congress- Led by an Irishman!
The struggle for Indian self-determination has always been associated with the Indian National Congress (INC), the party of Gandhi, Nehru and Bose. Founded in 1885, it continued to be the primary political party once independence was achieved in 1947 and today forms the main bloc in India’s present government.
Yet nine years after its foundation, the Irish nationalist and MP (Westminster) for Waterford Alfred Webb became its President. A Quaker, Alfred was at the time of his election to the INC known as a committed anti-racist and anti-caste campaigner in Britain.

Close Bonds between Indian & Irish Nationalism
In fact Webb’s involvement with INC was not an aberration. For there was an understandable commonality between Ireland & India. Both countries had rich vibrant traditional cultures going back millennia who now found themselves occupied by the same Imperial power that treated subjugated races with a deep racial scorn and bigotry.
Many perceptive Irish nationalists saw the need to form alliances with other oppressed African & Asian peoples living under British colonial rule.
This was evident even before the birth of the INC.
The Irish Home Rule party at Westminster was a prime contributor to parliamentary debates on India. According to author Michael Silvestri, one of the Irish MPs F.H. O’Donnell set up a short lived ‘Home Rule for India’ movement in 1875 known as the Constitutional Society of India that consisted of Irish politicians and Indian students living in London. Silvestri even states that there was a failed attempt in 1883 to get Indian nationalist leader Dadabhai Naoroji to stand for Westminster parliament as an Irish Home Rule candidate. (He was though elected for the Liberal Party in Finsbury London at the 1892 election to become in the process Britain’s first Asian MP)

India First Independence Political Party modeled on Irish Republican Movement
The Indian National Congress(INC) was originally a debating society which met only once a year. The first full-time all-Indian political party All India Home Rule League was co-founded by Annie Besant (née Wood) in September 1916 modeled on Sinn Féin and the demands of the Irish armed rebels of the unsuccessful Easter Rising of earlier that year. It established local branches across the country which organised political demonstrations and meetings. Annie’s clarion call of ‘England’s Need is India’s Opportunity’ echoed the Irish revolutionary ‘England’s Difficulty is Ireland’s Opportunity’ as both tried to take advantage of Britain’s war (WW1) with Germany and its allies. Though born in England Annie came from an Irish family (mother Irish & father half-Irish), was extremely proud of her Irish roots and was an avid supporter of Irish self-rule all her life. When she emigrated to India, she continued her active opposition to Imperial domination and women’s rights.
Interned by the British in 1917, Annie’s ceaseless demands for self-rule led to the unification of Muslims and Hindus into one political independence party. A nationwide popular campaign led to her release and she was elected INC President (the second ‘Irish’ person to be given such an honour) which she transformed into a proper political movement.

“Had it not been for her and her enthusiasm, one could not have seen Mr. Gandhi leading the cause of Indian freedom today. It was Mrs. Besant who laid the foundation of modern India – Dr. Besant was a combination of Parvati, Lakshmi and Saraswati.”
Dr. Raj Kumar (Indian National Congress website)

De Valera –Hero to Indian nationalists
The Irish War of Independence inspired leaders of subjugated peoples across Asia and Africa. Eamon De Valera, Michael Collins and Dan Breen became international heroes for decades to come, admired and imitiated.
During DeValera’s 1919/1920 tour to the USA to gain support for the Irish rebellion, he addressed the Friends of Freedom in India in New York and talked of solidarity between occupied nations: “We of Ireland and you of India must each of us endeavour, both as separate peoples and in combination to rid ourselves of the vampire that is fattening on our blood and we must never allow ourselves to forget what weapon it was by which (George) Washington rid his country of the same vampire. Our cause is a common cause.”
De Valera quickly became a hero to many Indian nationalists and his words were used time and time again in their writings and speeches. However it has to be said that Gandhi himself had little time for the physical force methods of Sinn Féin and the IRA (unlike Subhas Chandra Bose and others who we will read about in the next episode).

New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade Become Platform for Free India!
Since the 19th century New York has hosted the largest St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) Parade in the world (in fact this celebration of Irishness orginated there in the 18th century). It has traditionally being used as a political expression of Irish nationhood.
As DeValera watched from the review stand, the 1920 Parade was transformed into a mass demonstration for Indian as well as Irish independence. Indian republicans carried large banners emblazoned with messages such as
'Up the Republic of India'
'315,000,000 of India with Ireland to the Last'
'President De Valera's Message to India: Our cause is a common cause.'
Indians also participated in other Irish freedom marches in Philadelphia and elsewhere in the United States.

But cooperation between American Indian and Irish republicans went back to the pre-WW1 period. By 1915, prominent Irish-Americans were actively involved in a failed German-Indian attempt to smuggle American weapons to India for use against the British. The main protagonist in this plot was the Indian revolutionary ‘Ghadar’ (rebellion) Party founded in 1913 and headquartered at San Francisco. The founder Lala Har Dayal had close friendships with many in the Irish and Irish-American community.

‘Hindu Sinn Féiners’
Just how much Indian and Irish nationalists in the United States already saw themselves in a common struggle against British Rule can be seen in a Ghadar article written by Ram Chandra in 1916 “…India has her Sinn Feiners. . . . the Hindu Sinn Feiners today are as influential as the Irish were in the days of Robert Emmett…”

Was the Indian Flag Inspired by the Irish Tricolour?

It was in 1921 that Gandhi and designer Pingali Venkayya created a tricolour of green, white and red as the flag of India.

It was remarked at the time that it bore a strong resemblance to the ‘Irish Flag’ and the symbol then most associated with resistance to British colonial rule.
But it was not the first time that a tricolour flag appeared in the hands of an Indian nationalist. In July 1919 De Valera visited the Indian Ghadar HQ in San Francisco. He was presented with a Green-White-Orange(saffron) tricolour by Gopal Singh one of the convicted Indo-Irish-German (1915) conspirators who had been released from prison. It was in 1931 that these 3 same colours formed the official flag of India.

* Check out the Second Installment of the
The Irish Contribution to India & Pakistan *
here. Topics include- The Irish Raj-the 'gaelic-speaking' British Army in India led by Irish Generals; 'Kim'; IRA assassination of India's last Viceroy; Chandra Bose's visit to Ireland...Don't Forget to also read the previous article in this series entitled
'What did the Irish Ever do for Us? Part 1 - Austria'