Why is this so difficult for Ireland. The concept of indigenous is ridiculed here, ah don't talk about the war, we've had that many waves of invasions, sure who's really Irish? This line of thought brings you right up to where we are today, a nation with a false sense of freedom unable to stand up and be proud because they don't know what it means. We don't want to be seen as anti British, we don't want to be seen as racist, we don't know who we are or what an indigenous heritage might mean to us. If we don't know our rich past how can we share a rich future with other nations?
| I visit national schools as a heritage specialist, I have designed workshops for children to explore what Ireland was like 1000 years ago (give or take a couple of years!). The history taught in schools today is appalling.......it is the same old sh1 that has been presented for years i.e. propaganda and false histories of the church and other empires that tried to conquer. Children are never encouraged to question history, to ask who wrote this and why? |  |
Anyway that's me being totally naive, which I am accused of regularly! But, I'm part of the change and doing my bit. As a specialist I get to write my own workshops for children, so I ask them lots of questions and when they have a question for me I get them thinking to see if they can come up with their own theory........I had a wonderful class the other day.
 | We were exploring what the landscape was like in Ireland 1000 years ago..what did we have more or less of. One child asked did we have more trees, I led a quick visualization of what type of trees we had back then....i.e. giant oak forests that go on for miles, walking for days without leaving a forest, then I asked the question how would life be different, what would you do if you lived in or near such big trees and forests? |
One child asked me would they have lived in big tree houses. Well, I said, the archaeologists have never found one, and there hasn't been any documents found yet stating that there was giant tree houses in giant trees, but does that mean they didn't exist? Ahh, the cogs in the mind started whirring....what if what if..............this is how we need to educate ourselves........not drilling ourselves with facts and figures written down by the fox news of the day.......one school I visited had heard so much about vikings in Ireland a thousand years ago that they literally couldn't grasp the concept that there was Irish people in Ireland at that time too.....another child in another school quickly realised and asked ............so does that mean there were Irish people living normal lives in Ireland? He asked me why are they not in the history books, why does he have to learn only about the Viking way of life.......ah the wisdom..I have hope for our little Island, the children are bright and inquisitive, it is our job to nurture this and not tell them to shhhuussh. Lets collectively explore what our indigenous culture is and what it means to us today. This isn't about being exclusive or thinking you have to go back 20 generations to call yourself Irish. It's about our country's self esteem, we have to feel worth something, proud of something, we have to know who we are and love who we are. Right now we're a fearful bunch bending over backwards for the biggest bully. Stand up Ireland, get to know yourself, dig deeper into your histories, find the glorious nation sovereign and proud.
Grá
Niamh
Grá
Niamh
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