Since It's STILL St Patrick's Day Weekend...One More Celtic Post on; The Irish Roots in the Caribbean

Montserrat

Yesterday, I posted about the Irish in Latin America, so today, I figure the Caribbean might be another destination worth looking at, since it was the hub of England's "Irish Slave Trade."

So...how did the Irish wind up in the Caribbean?

Krystal D’Costa of Scientific American notes that after the Battle of Kinsale, in 1601, the Irish clan system was abolished and around 30,000 prisoners of war were shipped off and sold as laborers to the colonies of the Caribbean and United States.

“The first Irish slaves were sold to a settlement on the Amazon River In South America in 1612. It would probably be more accurate to say that the first “recorded” sale of Irish slaves was in 1612, because the English, who were noted for their meticulous record-keeping, simply did not keep track of things Irish, whether it be goods or people, unless such was being shipped to England.”

“In 1629 a large group of Irish men and women were sent to Guiana, and by 1632, Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat in the West Indies. By 1637 a census showed that 69% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves, which records show was a cause of concern to the English planters.”

The Irish were a more desirable “slave stock” than Africans, who had to be bought, or bartered for, because the Irish could be obtained for free and sold at a profit. The term "kidnapping" was coined during the period, to describe the British practice of abducting Irish women and children on Ireland's roadways.

Because they were “cheaper” the Irish would often suffer harsher punishments from their plantation masters.

So, today, a lot of different groups have some Irish admixture. It's a good thing to keep in mind....and a sad, but real truth that out of this period of Colonial abuse, came this mixing of diverse people's that should serve to unify various segments of humanity. ((https://www.google.com/…/irish-roots-in-the-caribbean-run-d…

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The Irish Celtic Legacy...

Bernardo O’Higgins

One of the more endearing traits of the Irish is that they rarely take themselves...or anyone, else too seriously.

One of the things the Irish DO take seriously is freedom/independence and they generally do so with a revolutionary fervor. They did so at home and they've done so elsewhere. (https://www.google.com/…/the-irish-who-fought-for-latin-ame…

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While most people are familiar with the Irish diaspora, many mistakenly believe that it was largely confined to America and Australia. That's not the case at all, as the Irish have been a presence in Latin America for eons, thanks to their being welcomed by places like Chile and Argentina. (https://www.google.com/…/ten-things-you-might-not-know-abou…

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Chillán, a village in Chile is famous for being the birthplace of Bernardo O’Higgins, one of the country’s founding fathers, who'd played a major role in that nations wars against the Spanish in the early nineteenth century and served as Supreme Director of Chile for six years.

Bernardo was the illegitimate son of Ambrose O’Higgins, who'd scrambled up the social ladder from rural poverty, as a tenant farmer’s son in Ballynary, County Sligo, to become the Viceroy of Peru, the most powerful Spanish governor in South America.

Bernardo’s mother was Isabel Riquelme, born in Chile to a family of Basque ancestry.

Ambrose O’Higgins sent his son to Europe. It was there that the young Bernardo, still intensely proud of his Irish ancestry despite his poor relationship with his father, he became infused with the revolutionary spirit that was pulsing throughout the continent at the time. He resolved to return home to free Chile from Spanish control.

In the nation of Uruguay, a frigate is named after Peter Campbell of County Tipperary. The memory of Daniel Florence O’Leary, the son of a butter merchant from County Cork, who left Ireland to fight with Simón Bolívar in the jungles, plains and mountains of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, is recalled in a city-centre plaza in Caracas.

Burdett O’Connor province in Bolivia is named after Francis Burdett O’Connor, from Bandon, who fought to secure the independence of his adopted country.

The founder of the Argentinian navy, William Brown, from Foxford, Co Mayo, is another South American hero of Irish descent.

As author Tim Fanning notes, "...I realised that for every Bernardo O’Higgins or William Brown, whose fame carries across oceans and centuries, there were thousands more less well-known but equally fascinating stories of Irish men and women who came to Latin America during the independence era in the first decades of the nineteenth century. They were emigrants and soldiers, merchants and spies, priests and farmers."

In my time, the FDNY introduced me to many exceptional men of Celtic descent; Eddie Keating, Mike Finer, John L Sullivan, Jimmy Graney, Paul Mannix, Paul Rogers, Ed Hefele, Vinnie Halloran, Pat Concannon, Brendan Manning, the late Brian McCarthy, to name only a few.

Eddie Keating, the late Captain of Engine 50 in the South Bronx, was one of my favorite figures among many I met in the FDNY. When I was in 43 Engine, he was in "the R group," covering occasional tours in that Company.

Every time Ed entered the firehouse he'd yell out, "2,000 YEARS! Never AGAIN!"

I'm 3rd generation American, part Irish, part Italian and a bunch of other things thrown in. I was not raised ethnic in any way, so I was curious about the Captain's routine refrain.

One day, I asked him directly, "Cap, what's that mean? Is that some kind of Holocaust reference"? That was the only reference I'd ever heard the phrase, "Never again," associated with.

He looked at the Irish name sewn on my uniform and stared at me balefully and crestfallen, then asked, "Son, you don't even know your own heritage"?

I was going to reply, "My heritage is American," but he looked so doleful, I merely shook my head. He went on to regale me with the mournful history of the Irish Celts, and of Oliver Cromwell's attempted genocide, culminating in the Irish slave trade to the America's, mostly the Caribbean.

I came away from that encounter stunned and doubtful. I'd never heard of such things. I vowed to look them up and found he was right and his historical accounts were well documented in books like, "White Cargo" (White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America https://www.amazon.com/…/B…/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i3tRAb796HQJV

), "To Hell, or Barbados" (To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland https://www.amazon.com/…/0…/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_V5tRAbPG0ZSM8

), and many other accounts.

It was a group nearly exterminated by Cromwell, who brought Ireland's population from 1.7 million to under 500,000 during the 17th Century. It was a country torn apart, its people exiled across the globe, BUT the Irish story ISN'T just one of despair, of oppression and man's inhumanity to man, it's also one of redemption and transformation and the ability to overcome and adapt.

In that regard, it is a universal story.

It's humanity's story. One EVERYONE can relate to and celebrate.

St Patrick; The Slave Who Became a Saint

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According to his own work, "The Confessio of Patrick," he was born to a well-off Roman-Britain family. His exact birthplace and date of birth is unknown. However it's believed he was born around 375AD in Scotland. His parents were Calpurnius and Conchessa. They were Romans living in Britain, in charge of the colonies.

His real name is believed to have been Maewyn Succat. He allegedly took on the name Patrick (Patricius) upon being ordained a priest.

At about age 16, he tells of being kidnapped by Celtic pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland to herd and tend sheep on Slemish mountain, in County Antrim.

During his six-year captivity, he became fluent in the Irish language and turned to God in prayer.

He escaped captivity after having a dream, he believed was sent from God in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast where he would find a ship that would return him to Britain.

He's believed to have found his parents again in Wales before travelling on to France where he became a priest and later a bishop.

Later, Patrick would had another dream in which the people of Ireland were calling to him to "come and walk among them once more."

He began traveling Ireland, teaching Christianity to the polytheistic Irish and building Churches.

Patrick preached and converted all over Ireland for 40 years. The date often cited for when Ireland was converted to Christianity is 432.

There's still debate over when and where he died. It's believed he died on March 17th, 461 AD at Saul, Downpatrick. Which is why Saint Patrick's day is celebrated on March 17th. Some have also suggested that he was also born on March 17th, though that seems unlikely.

It's said that, "After 40 years of living in poverty, teaching, traveling and working tirelessly, Patrick died on March 17, 461 in Saul, where he had built his first church."

Today, St Patrick's Day has morphed into a global celebration of Irish culture that often obscures the history of the man who so aptly represents the Irish passion for transformation, as he was the wealthy son who became a slave, a slave who became a priest and a priest who became a Saint...and the Patron of his adopted country.

In that regard, St Patrick's tale of transformation is the transformational story of mankind itself.

SHOCKER!...

Bill DeBlasio

This just in, "96% of NYPD cops HATE Bill DeBlasio."

WAIT! That's not a shocker, Bill DeBlasio has been pro-thug, anti-cop his entire tenure. What? So they should love him for that?

No chance.

Here's some good news for the NYPD, if Mr Bill really has aspirations for center stage (national politics), he'd better move fast.

Across the river, Phil Murphy is smarter, richer, more charismatic, more articulate, better looking...and on time. IF DeBlasio wants to take a stab at national politics, his window looks like it's closing very fast.

75 y/o Vietnam Veteran Charged Over Planting American Flags on V.A. Property...

Robert Rosebrock

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs claims he was misled by his inner circle about a case involving an elderly Army veteran criminally prosecuted for displaying the American Flag at a southern California VA facility.

"Incredibly, the story is real. Robert Rosebrock was federally charged for supposedly hanging a four-by-six-inch American Flag on the outside fence of a VA facility in West Los Angeles on Memorial Day in 2016."

Disturbing video in the link here: (https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/in-the-news/94051/…)

WHAT country is this, again?

https://www.judicialwatch.org/…/va-sec-prosecuting-army-ve…/

Our Global Awakening...And the False Claim of "The Failure of Democracy"

George Carlin

Many have suggested, that in one sense, the last election was "A failure of democracy," BECAUSE "the common man chose Trump."

What it proves is that we DON'T HAVE a democracy. The choice in 2016 was between two extremely flawed candidates. Hillary's a monster and Trump is an unworthy champion of the Nationalism sweeping the globe, though a champion of that movement, he is, right now. BOTH were effectively put in place by political Parties owned and run by various multinational conglomerates. Only the logos that own them differ between Democrats and Republicans. George Carlin WASN'T kidding and he WAS right when he spoke of "the owners of America" (https://youtu.be/QT0OJEFlq7A)

Yes, to a degree, Trump, a lifelong NY Democrat hijacked the GOP, but that vehicle, that Party, is STILL owned by Internationalist interests.

That "failure of democracy" argument is what's behind the inane call to make America less a Republic and more of a democracy.

The TRUTH is that it's pure democracy that brought down Rome. That's why all of America's Founders reviled pure democracy with Ben Franklin defining it as, "Five wolves and a sheep, deciding on what's for dinner."

Mob rule/pure democracy has been a very destructive force throughout history. The idea of "rule by the common man," sounds noble, but it hasn't worked out well in practice.

What we're really witnessing today, is a transition, and an important one.

The Anglo-American Globalism that our political-media class trumpets is actually a Neo-Colonialism that seeks to pave over mankind's disparate and diverse cultures and heritages.

Nationalism began sweeping the world with the pan-Asian movement, followed by the Jihadist movement, or traditional Islamic movement, which was, at heart, an anti-Western movement resulting from the forced Westernization of the Arab Middle East and North Africa.

It's an irony then, that the West would be the last place to turn toward this new Nationalism.

Europe because of the mass Muslim migration that's brought on a clash of moralities - Sharia Law demands the death penalty for apostates (those who leave Islam), gays and adulteresses and a 3rd class citizenship called dhimmitude on non-Muslims - has been late to the movement, the USA, even later.

For the West, BREXIT was just the first symptom, followed by the raft of Nationalist leaders from May to Macron to Kurz, across Europe.

Trump was America's BREXIT.

There's no turning back...and decent people SHOULDN'T want to.

At heart, Anglo-American Globalism is a movement that seeks to, in effect, eradicate the diversity of mankind. It truly is a racist, Colonialist movement...unworthy of America.

What we're seeing today is a great awakening. Mankind's differences are OK....in fact, more than OK, they're absolutely necessary.