St Patrick's Day and remembrance

[Leif Runenritzer]

The Slaves That Time Forgot

People from Ireland emigrated to the Americas in multiple phases. To my knowledge, their causes for coming were all some of the most abhorrent, morally detestable events one can inflict on masses of people. Total war, mass-slaughter, slavery in exile, exclusion from legal rights, famine, and hundreds of thousands of lives brought to absolute ruin, shame, and an early end. My patrilinear forebears came to North America in the 1600s after their involvement in the Battle of the Boyne, i think. The circumstances of their arrival are unclear—maybe they were in exile, maybe they were enslaved.

Today, we wear green an drink alcohol to celebrate some vague notion of Irishness. Maybe the Irish drank to forget what shouldn't be forgotten.

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