The Irish And the Jewish People

August 17 2014                  Happy Birthday Mary Dwyer

The matter of the Jewish state and Arab potential state is dominating world politics and has for decades, literally. Some folks say they are tired of it all. When you look at what an incredible job the Jews did building that State since the 1940, well you gotta give them credit for a job well done.
As a Irish and Canadian citizen I often wondered why the lessons of the Irish troubles and their cautious, long suffering solutions are not viewed as a good template for the resolution to this conflict. Or at least a good window to view what can happen.
We know the Jews and Irish share a unique respect, for they share a mutual history of persecution at the hands of others for mostly religious reasons.
A little history;
The British were relentless in their hated of the Irish and starved to death, some estimate, between 3 and 5 Million people in the 1845 to 1855 period, commonly called the Irish potato famine when in fact it was not famine but murder and neglect, set brazenly under the noses of all the world.

Indeed the London Times quoted Charles Trevelyan, (who was the British point man for handling of the Blight , as they called it) as saying..."The judgement of God sent the calamity, to teach the Irish a lesson, that calamity must not be too much mitigated... The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse,and turbulent character of the people" To add insult to injust the Queen knighted the SOB.
 His "Savage Nature" as has been depicted only long after the 1850's,  were met with calls to; Forgive and Forget. Which the Irish Catholic majority largely did. But the British persecution continued into the 1900's and finally Ireland got a partitioned free state in 1921. But the British could not fully relent and disallowed those in the Northern portion, run still by British, the right to vote to those who did not own land. And those people of course were most all Catholic. The troubles raged on. Finally after more vicious and violent terror, the Good Friday accord and baby steps to peace which has held.
Forgive and forget was easier for the British than the Irish but we did.
A good friend of mine Pat Quinn jr, once told me he thought the peace came about because the Celtic Tiger had landed in Ireland, thanks to them joining the European Union and billion poured in creating a economy, the likes which few countries had ever experience in such a short time.
The wars and killing and hatred had the potential to kill it all and destroy the party. Everyone had a job. A new car, and new homes. Whatever the reason, peace arrived and has held. Even through the bust whch circled the financial world through 2007.Peace will come to Middle east. Let's do our bit to nudge it along. Let's get the Irish and Jews talking and become better friends.