When the Irish were Palestinian

"Terrorists," "subhuman animals," "extermination"... there's always more to the story...

(Source: Getty Images)

Bill Bonner, reckoning today from Poitou, Ireland...

My Lord of York, try what your fortune is.
The uncivil kerns of Ireland are in arms,
And temper clay with blood of Englishmen.
To Ireland will you lead a band of men,
Collected choicely, from each county some,
And try your hap against the Irishmen?

~ William Shakespeare

It’s easy to get discombobulated by the propaganda press. The lurid headlines attract your interest like a kind of newsporn – fascinating, intriguing, but ultimately fake.

The media wants to keep the narrative simple enough for a popular audience. You’re either with us or against us. Good guys vs. bad guys. Pro-Israel or anti-semitic. Orioles vs. Blue Jays. No middle ground…no ambiguity.

It wants us to ask no questions…to take sides…to cheer for the hometown and curse the out-of-towners. 

More to the Story

But there’s always more to the story. And in the financial world it’s always the “more to the story” that is most important. What ‘everybody knows’ is already fully priced. Investors have bought or sold, depending on what they read in the newspapers. Left under-priced and undiscovered are the things everybody doesn’t know. That’s where the big pay-off comes.

In the mortgage finance crisis of 2008, for example, everybody knew that house prices always went up. Except John Paulson. He knew they didn’t always go up.  When they become grossly overpriced—so that the average family can no longer afford the average house – they tend to come down. His hedge fund bet against the housing market, and while 4 million people lost their homes, his fund reportedly made $20 billion.

Michael Burry is probably better known, since he was portrayed in the movie, ‘The Big Short.’ He, too, saw the ‘more-to-the-story’; he shorted (sold) mortgage debt and made $100 million for himself on the trade, and another $700 million for his investors.

In politics, the ‘more to the story’ is the part they don’t want you to know. Huge efforts – backed by billions of dollars – are spent to keep you from knowing it. People with ‘more to the story’ thoughts are calumnied as traitors, Russian assets (as Hillary Clinton said of Tulsi Gabbard), “racists,” or today’s favorite, “anti-semitic.” And for most people, who have neither the time nor the energy to look further, that’s all the story they need to hear. Spin efforts are usually successful. Russia, bad. Ukraine, good. Israel, good. Palestine, bad.

“Human Animals”

So, it must have been that when Irish ‘terrorists,’ led by the Fitzgeralds of Desmond, attacked the English in the 16^th century. English, good. Irish, bad. Thousands were slaughtered as the Irish tried to push the invaders out of Munster. As many as a third of the population of the region died. Finally, in 1583, the Earl of Desmond died and the uprising was over…for a while.

Back in London, the ‘more to the story’ was unnecessary and unwelcome. The English had been attacked by Irish rabble. The ‘terrorists’ should be eradicated…exterminated. After all, they were little more than ‘human animals’ or even subhumans…some said they were the remnants of the Neanderthals who once inhabited all of Europe. And England had a right to defend itself!

Irish terrorists were a constant threat. They attacked English soldiers. They couldn’t be trusted. They were uncivilized. They spoke a barbaric tongue…and to top it off, they were Catholics, taking their cues from a hostile European Pope. How long would it be before they would invite the French or Spaniards into Ireland…and use it as a stepping stone for an invasion of England?

In 1594, the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O’Neill, had asked for help from Spain. Long promised, finally, four thousand Spanish troops managed to land at Kinsale in Southwestern Ireland…but ill-equipped and ill-prepared for the Irish winter.    

Meanwhile, an “English” force from Dublin arrived…and made an alliance with an Irish contingent under Donogh O’Brien. Soon, the combined armies had the Spanish besieged in Kinsale. The Spaniards were running out of food, while the rebel Irish armies of O’Donnell and Maguire slugged through the autumnal mud, hoping to relieve them.

The final battle took place on the hills outside Kinsale as the Spanish anxiously awaited the outcome. It was decided by cavalry. The English cavalry attacked the Irish footsoldiers, who fought them off with the traditional ‘hedgehog’ formation of long spears. Unfortunately, as the English withdrew, the Irish cavalry, mounted on their scrawny ponies, thought they were in retreat; they charged wildly, hoping to cut them down as they fled. Instead, the English, with better, heavier horses and a more disciplined approach to warfare, turned and stood firm, absorbing the shock with hardly a flinch. Then, when the Irish withdrew they did so in poor order, giving the English an opportunity to inflict great damage. Seeing their cavalry defeated, the rest of the army fled.

No Mercy

Soon after, the Spaniards surrendered…and the surviving Irish took to the hills. At this point, the Irish were defenseless. Like Palestinians in Gaza, they could harass, but they could mount no serious challenge. Ireland was at the mercy of English troops…who had no mercy to give.

The Irish nobility was hunted down. Speaking Irish was forbidden. Catholics weren’t allowed to own land. The Irish justice system…its laws…its customs – all were outlawed. Many of the celtic nobles, what was left of them, fled the country.  “The flight of the earls,” as it was called, left the island with few native leaders to counter the English. 

In 1641, Irish ‘terrorists’ once again attacked the English…particularly settlers in the North. In what was to become a popular theme for political propaganda, cartoons showed the rebels impaling Protestant babies on their pitchforks! This gave the war mongers and land grabbers an excuse. Once again, more Irish land was confiscated and sold to fund the military campaign. 

By the middle of the 17^th Century Irishmen had a grim choice – ‘To Hell…or to Connaught.’ British historian John Morrill calls it ‘the greatest exercise of ethnic cleansing in modern European history;’ thousands of the surviving Irish had to pack up and move west – to the poorer land on the Atlantic coast. (Incidentally, their descendants, farming small plots in West Ireland, suffered most heavily in the Potato Famine 200 years later.)

Many Irish tried to escape the violence by going up into the mountains. In the first invasion, in the 12th century, the Irish fled into the forests, where they were known as ‘wood kerns’ (see Shakespeare, above).  In the 17^th century, they were known as ‘tories.’ Being a “tory” was itself punishable by death, with ‘tory hunting’ encouraged by the settlers. Meanwhile, the English troops burned crops and barns and took any animals or food stocks they discovered. The result was widespread famine.

But violence works! The brutal campaigns – especially Oliver Cromwell’s scorched earth approach – did the job. Ireland was pacified and ruled by an Anglo-protestant ‘Ascendancy’ for the next 300 years.  

Regards,

Bill Bonner