how long? how long must we--

[starlady]

I was immensely gladdened yesterday afternoon to hear that at long last the official British inquiry into the matter has found every single one of the victims of the Bloody Sunday massacre perpetuated in 1972 by the British Army in Derry, Northern Ireland, to be innocent; Prime Minister Cameron called the murders "unjustified" and "unjustifiable" on the floor of the House of Commons, and apologized.

While in Ireland in 2006 I met a man who was present at the massacre; Jan. 30, 1972, was actually Tony's 18th birthday, and many of those killed were his classmates. Among many other things about growing up in the North and living in the Republic, he told us that of his entire high school class only three guys including him aren't in prison or dead. I actually looked for him in the photos of the people gathered in Derry to hear Cameron's speech; I'm sure that wherever he was, it did him some good at least to hear the British government acknowledge its soldiers' actions. Justice may be cold comfort, but it is real, and it is a real component of reconciliation, just as real and important as apologies.

Elsewhere in the Dept. of Long Delayed Recognition, the Shinnecock Indians of Long Island, N.Y., have finally been recognized as a tribe by the federal government. It only took 32 years for Uncle Sam to acknowledge that, yes, they've been living in the Hamptons since at least the 1600s.

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Via everyone, to make a segue, ephemere's post Itys, about anger and speaking out (with bonus Aeschylus quotation!) needs to be read by everyone.

And via oliviacirce, these posts focus specifically on writing: impertinence on policing our own racism before it leaves our heads, newredshoes on how to write with consideration, and petra recs a story that does it right.

Comments

[themeletor]

I Agree With This Irishness Post.

[starlady]

Yeah, it was good.

[eumelia]

We were in Ireland the same year :) I was there Summer 2006 but in the Republic, though I was dying to go to the North, but didn't have the time... next time.

It's interesting that you put these two issues together is this post. I don't if you meant to or if it was unconscious or what, but it's a good thing you did.

a) Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware that Cameron made a formal apology, it's good to see history acknowledged.

b) The Irish Troubles have always been romanticised in fiction, a back drop to a different narratives, some of them better than others... but there's always fail.

[starlady]

I was there for January; we started in Galway and did a semi-circle around to Dublin. The North was quite a contrast to the Republic, but not in the ways I assumed it would be.

In Galway I met a woman who pointed out to us that the Irish are romanticized ("Irish Irish Irish fairies fairies fairies Guinness!"), period, which I'd never considered before but which is really true when you go look for it. And...yeah. I tend to identify imaginatively with history fairly easily, but in both the Republic and the North it wasn't even necessary to use my imagination to see the history of violence; it's written on the landscape and in the people and is plain to read. (One story: We were driving along the seacoast in the northwestern Republic one day and Tony up at the front of the bus got on the mike and told us that this was the bay in which the IRA blew up Earl Mountbatten and his grandson on his boat in 1979. Oh.) Which is a roundabout way of saying that having even an inkling of the suffering that violence and disaster entails on the people who live in that place kills my ability to romanticize the violence and disaster per se, anyway.

And, yes. Apologies are vital, but they are only one component.

[lilac-ayame.livejournal.com]

It makes me wish it's happening here, the government publicly acknowledging their wrongs. Bloody monday happened here too but with no end in sight :(