RACISM AND SECTARIANISM (PART TWO)–THE ORIGINAL SIN OF NORTHERN IRELAND–TWELFTH SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO AND TEXT

Posted By: November 28, 2020

VIDEO LINK:  https://youtu.be/FJQ6Aqgi4jw

 

RACISM AND SECTARIANISM (PART 2)—NORTHERN IRELAND’S ORIGINAL SIN

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Hi, I’m Fr. Sean McManus, president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, Washington, DC —and Chief Judge of the World Peace Prize.

 

And this is our twelfth social-media video.

 

We are fast approaching the 100th Anniversary of England’s criminal and cruel Partition of Ireland—enacted by the London Parliament, with the assent of the King of England, on December 23, 1920. …

 

Imagine the awful racism and sectarianism it took for England to arrogantly, with the hubris of Empire, to partition an ancient country like Ireland, ripping it apart, tearing it asunder, solely in England’s interest.

Not to mention the cruelty and contempt it took to do it two days before Christmas!

Please understand this about racism and sectarianism:

Racism and sectarianism are the twin evils of this world, utilized by all Empires and oppressive regimes in the world. England first perfected this technique in Ireland, and then exported it to all its Empire: to America (until George Washington, God bless him, kicked England out of America); to the Far East, the Middle East, Africa, etc.—to one-quarter of the world.

 

And what we have today in Northern Ireland is a residue of that very same Empire. A residue of that racist and sectarian policy.

In the context of Ireland, racism means anti-Irish. And sectarianism means anti-Catholicism.

Beginning in 1169, England got a foothold in Ireland.

Yet some think the problem in Ireland was always about Catholics and Protestants not being able to get along. … Well, there were no Protestants in 1169, nor 1269, nor 1369, nor 1469. Indeed, up until the 1530s, England was totally Catholic.

 

So, what was the problem then before the 1530s? The problem was England’s occupation and domination of Ireland, except it simply used racism —hatred, and contempt of the Irish —as its mode of oppression and control, not sectarianism.

 

But after the Reformation, England added the extra, deadly method of oppression— State-sponsored hatred and contempt for Catholicism: in other words, sectarianism.

 

And in the 1600s, the Plantation of Ireland, including especially Ulster took place. England stole the land and “Planted,” Protestants from England and Scotland on the land, to hold it for the English Crown. In other words, England colonized Ireland—that’s what Plantation means in this context.

 

In 1701, England infamously and shamelessly formalized its State-sponsored sectarian anti-Catholicism in the Act of Settlement 1701—enshrining it into law, whereby it banned a Catholic from the top job in England—the King or Queen.

 

That law is now —to this very day—the foundation stone of the Royal Family and an integral part of the unwritten and uncodified British Constitution. Anti-Catholicism is not only State-sponsored but is at the very heart and center of the British constitution. …

 

So, do not first blame the extreme Protestants of Northern Ireland for bigoted anti-Catholicism—blame the British constitution, the Kings and Queens of England, and the London Parliament, because that’s where the buck stops

 

Then in 1920, when England was forced to accept it could no longer hold onto all of Ireland’s 32 Counties, it retreated to the north-east corner of Ireland —to just Six Counties and created an artificial majority of a million Protestants to a half-million Catholics…. and called this gerrymandered and undemocratic entity  “Northern Ireland.”

 

That is why it can be said that racism and sectarianism are Northern Ireland’s Original Sin.

But now, we must move forward in hope and solidarity. As Blessed Martin Luther King, Jr. loved to quote: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Change is in the air. And not just because of the Good Friday Agreement, which I support, but also because of these three points I mentioned in our eleventh video:

  • NUMBER 1. The large, gerrymandered Protestant/Unionist majority no longer exists in Northern Ireland.
  • NUMBER 2. Scotland—the spiritual and cultural home of so many Northern Ireland Protestants—now itself seems to be heading for independence… That has huge implications for the Protestants of Northern Ireland—and for the much-vaunted “Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”
  • NUMBER 3, Brexit is dragging Northern Ireland out of the European Union, even though a majority of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the European Union. And when there is a United Ireland, The North can re-enter the European Union

These three points change everything. …

And that is why our One Ireland Petition is so timely and important. It states:

“Ireland, too, has the right to be

One Nation under God,

Indivisible,

with liberty and justice for all.”

 

The Petition is posted on Change.org – On Facebook and on IrishNationalCaucus.org

Please sign and share the One Ireland Petition.

Thank you for watching.

God save Ireland.