“Kiss Me, I’m About to Explain the Colonization of Ireland”

graphic by jenny katz

On March 17th, everyone is Irish. Or no one is. Saint Patrick’s Day was formally established in the 17th century, and today, it is celebrated worldwide. It’s a day that is traditionally exempt from the Catholic practice of Lent, which meant it was the one day that food and alcohol could be consumed indiscriminately during a strict period of fasting and self-denial. This led directly to the stereotype of overindulgence in relation to the “drunken Irish person.” And yet, we often associate an atmosphere of lightheartedness and community that makes this holiday so easy to celebrate without understanding the real story behind it.

Unpacking the broader history behind Saint Patrick’s Day makes for a difficult conversation. You can make the argument that the legend of Saint Patrick represents the first colonial story of Ireland. He was a 5th-century British missionary whose goal was to convert the Celts to Christianity: did he do so with a sense of humility and genuine grace, or was he a warlike bishop? Did he lead a willing congregation, or were the original religions of Ireland forcibly stamped out?

That was far from the last time English hands reached over the Irish sea. In the 16th century, the iconic bastard man, Henry VIII (the guy with the reeeeallly bad divorces), established himself as King of Ireland and by the 17th century, Ireland had been conquered. Then, Oliver Cromwell, the cousin of Henry VIII’s minister Thomas Cromwell, led a campaign of sheer brutality against the Irish in 1649. Estimated deaths range from 200,000 to 600,000 (versus populations of 2 million and 1.4 million respectively). It was ethnic cleansing and to this day, the Irish spit at his name.

The land was confiscated from Irish landlords (especially the Catholics) and used to create the system known as the Plantations of Ireland. We think of Ireland as the place of rolling green hills, but what we don’t know is that Ireland was once heavily forested — almost all of which was cut and cleared to build English ships. The native wolves were hunted to extinction and Irish, Welsh, and Scottish Gaelic were banned.

And of course, as we all know, the Great Famine of the 1840s was completely artificial. Great quantities of food (corn, wheat, animal products), produced on the Plantations were shipped directly to England, leaving nothing to distribute among the Irish population as 2 million people starved to death. 

Instead of calling a colony a colony, there are still many who insist Ireland was a kingdom and that the English brought civilization to Irish shores. I have had the privilege to live and work in Ireland, to visit Ireland, to study in Ireland, and to claim Irish-American heritage. Like any other nation, it has a complex story.

I love Saint Patrick’s Day. I make soda bread and I wear green. I try to be mindful of the wounds that still bleed in Ireland today. All that being said, I think if there was ever a way to say “fuck you” to colonialism, it’s to eat and drink and be merry!