Is it St. Patrick's Day?

Remember, the Irish lived under a brutal oppression by the English. Before there was English oppressing Africans in Rhodesia and South Africa, before English oppression of Indigenous Australians, before the English subjugated Hindus and Muslims on the Subcontinent, the English were practicing how to control a foreign people in Ireland.

The greatest grievance of the Irish against the English was the Great Famine, aka the Irish Potato Famine, 1845-52.

When the Civil War began in 1861, the United States conscripted large numbers of Irish to fight against the Confederacy. In 1863, people opposed to conscription held demonstrations that turned into the New York Draft Riots which...

the protests degraded into "a virtual racial pogrom, with uncounted numbers of blacks murdered on the streets". The conditions in the city were such that Major General John E. Wool stated on July 16, "Martial law ought to be proclaimed, but I have not a sufficient force to enforce it." The military suppressed the mob using artillery and fixed bayonets, but not before numerous buildings were ransacked or destroyed, including many homes and an orphanage for black children.

David Kincaid

Here's some more Irish music for St. Patrick's Day.




Those videos are from The Pogues.

Sunday, I went to the South Side Irish Parade. My girlfriend and I left early and went for a bite and drinks at North Eye's Bar, 2701 W. 87th, Chicago. A local had told us it was an Irish bar frequented by cops and firefighters. The bar is decorated with the posters that portray a romanticized version of Ireland. (Malachy McCourt, the brother of Frank McCourt, has been very critical of Irish-Americans who neglect the real issues facing Ireland by romanticizing Ireland excessively.) The bar also had a sign about the kitchen, "Help Wanted, No Irish Need Apply".

The bar had the South Side parade on the television (ABC-7). The announcer mentioned that President Barack Obama has Irish ancestry. One of the guys at the bar chimes in that Obama is from "the County of Coon". This guy further expounded that if the government didn't force neighborhoods to change there wouldn't be any hate crimes. I didn't engage him on the details of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. This guy was no old-times, he looked to be in his early 20s.