Although I come from an Irish family that shared many stories about Ireland, I learned so much more about Ireland’s history from doing a cultural storytelling project. I found my research interesting and painful, yet I also found much more about the Irish strength, love, and laughter. My Irish story repertoire certainly grew along with my file of laugh-out loud jokes! However, one of things that I learned about that is not humorous is slavery.
Don Jordan and Michael Walsh write the story of the Irish men, women, and children who the British sold and duped into slavery. Jordan and Walsh’s book, White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s white Slaves in America, is based on facts they uncovered in “letters crying for help, diaries, and court and government archives” (amazon.com). John Martin states in his article, “The Irish Slave Trade – The Forgotten “White Slave” Slaves,” that enslaving the Irish began in 1625 under James II and continued for over 100 hundred years. The details are horrific. In the 1600s, in just in 11 years, “over 500, 000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300, 000 were sold as slaves.” The powers to be did not consider murdering an Irish slave a crime; the Irish had little to no value as humans. The going price for an Irish slave was 45% less than it was for an African slave. The brutalizers were not concerned about losing much money. The Irish have overcome tremendous sorrow and injustice. Thank God!
How ironic that nowadays on St. Patrick’s Day “Everybody is Irish.”
On a lighter note, I attended Ms. Elaine’s Afternoon Tea on December 1 at the Irish Cultural Center in downtown Phoenix and I am so happy I did! I had a delightful time!
I met many interesting people, and ate delicious pastries. In addition, I won the raffle’s Grand Prize! I am soon going back to the Cultural Center be trained as a docent and I am interested in taking a music or language class. Hurrah!
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