Re:LODE: LODE-zone Eire

EIRE

A Cargo of Questions 1992

CEANN SLEIBHE

Offshore across the Blasket Sound lie the uninhabited Blasket Islands. The last islanders were moved to the mainland in 1953. The life of the island used to include a rich tradition of the telling of stories, Gaelic folktales. Now, the Great Blasket is a national historic park, but only the ruined buildings are being restored.

"Begin with pauperising the inhabitants of a country, and when there is no more profit to be ground out of them, when they have become a burden to the revenue, drive them away, and sum up your Net Revenue!"

Karl Marx, THE NEW YORK DAILY TRIBUNE, 22 March, 1853.

This quote is from a newspaper article by Karl Marx and is the information chosen to wrap this LODE cargo because it brings home one of the continuing themes of the LODE journey:

"It is not population that presses on productive power; it is productive power that presses on population."

Tralee, the county town of County Kerry, was the port of embarkation for thousands of people leaving Ireland for the very reason given above.

Information Wrap

The Colonial Land Emigration Office gives the following return of the emigration from England, Scotland, and Ireland, to all parts of the world, from Jan 1, 1847 to June 30, 1852: English 335,330; Scotch 82,610; Irish 1,200,136. "Nine tenths" remarks the Office "of the emigrants from Liverpool are assumed to be Irish. About three-fourths of the emigrants from Scotland are Celts, either from the Highlands, or from Ireland through Glasgow." Nearly four fifths of the whole emigration are, accordingly, to be regarded as belonging to the Celtic population of Ireland and of the Highlands and islands of Scotland. The London ECONOMIST says of this emigration: "It is consequent on the breaking down of the system of a society founded on small holdings and potato cultivation"; and adds "The departure of the redundant part of the population of Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland is an indispensable preliminary to every kind of improvement. The revenue in Ireland has not suffered in any degree from the famine of 1846-47, or from the emigration that has since taken place. On the contrary, her net revenue amounted in 1851 to £4,281,999, being about £184,000 greater than in 1843."

Begin with pauperising the inhabitants of a country, and when there is no more profit to be ground out of them, when they have grown a burden on the revenue, drive them away, and sum up your Net Revenue! Such is the doctrine laid down by Ricardo in his celebrated work, The Principles of Political Economy. The annual profits of a capitalist amounting to 2000, what does it matter to him whether he employs 100 men or 1,000 men? "Is not," says Ricardo, "the real income of a nation similar?" The net real income of a nation, rents and profits, remaining the same, it is no subject of consideration whether it is derived from ten millions of people or from twelve millions. Sismondi, in his Nouveau Principes d'Economie Politique, answers that, according to his view of the matter, the English nation would not be interested at all in the disappearance of the whole population, the King (at that time it was no Queen, but a King) remaining alone in the midst of the island, supposing only that automatic machinery enabled him to procure the amount of Net Revenue now produced by a population of twenty millions. Indeed, that grammatical entity, "the national wealth", would in this case not be diminished.

In a former letter I have given an instance of the clearing of the estates in the Highlands of Scotland. That emigration continues to be forced upon Ireland by the same process you may see from the following quotation from THE GALWAY MERCURY:

"The people are fast passing away from the land in the West of Ireland. The landlords of Connaught are tacitly combined to weed out all the smaller occupiers, against whom a regular systematic war of extermination is being waged. the most heart-rending cruelties are daily practised in this province, of which the public are not at all aware."

In the ancient States, in Greece and Rome, compulsory emigration, assuming the shape of the periodic establishment of colonies, formed a regular link in the structure of society. The whole system of those States was founded on certain limits to the numbers of the population, which could not be surpassed without endangering the condition of the antique civilisation itself. To remain civilised they were forced to remain few. Otherwise they would have had to submit to the bodily drudgery which transformed the free citizen into a slave. The want of productive power made citizenship dependent on a certain proportion in numbers not to be disturbed. But with modern compulsory emigration the case stands quite the opposite. Here it is not the want of productive power which demands a diminution of population, and drives away the surplus by famine or emigration.

It is not population that presses on productive power; it is productive power that presses on population. Society is undergoing a silent revolution, which must be submitted to, and which takes no more notice of the human existence it breaks down than an earthquake regards the house that it subverts. The classes and the races, too weak to master the new conditions of life, must give way. On the Continent heaven is fulminating, but in England the earth itself is trembling. England is the country where the real revulsion of modern society begins.

Karl Marx, THE NEW YORK DAILY TRIBUNE, 22 March, 1853

What is our national income?
What is your income?
Is your identity defined by your job, or the lack of a job?
Is who you are what you do?
Is your productivity a part of who you are?
Is your creativity a part of what you are?
Who am I?; is it a different question from: What am I?

CEATHARLACH

North and east of Carlow (Celtic - Ceatharlach) the cargo was made on the banks of the River Liffey at Harristown. Harristown is set on the southern frontier of the Pale (English for 'wall' from the Latin word pālus, meaning stake, specifically a stake used to support a fence), a term used to describe the area of English occupation or influence, so "beyond the Pale" has come to mean something outside the boundary. This region was the setting for many conflicts between the Anglo-Norman presence and the displaced Irish.

Information Wrap

Cardinal Daly's articulation of the Church's viewpoint in the education debate crystallises the Church/State issues raised by the Government's efforts to legislate in education and other areas. The Hierarchy in general views society as something to be moulded and shaped according to a particular religious outlook, and where this outlook conflicts with particular individual rights, it justifies the overriding of such by reference to the rights of the "majority" to impose its will. In microcosm the issue illustrates all that is wrong in the Church/State area, and it has to be said that it is the Hierarchy's world view which causes the problem, coupled with the fact that the Irish interpretation of democracy leaves a lot to be desired. In order to qualify as a democracy it is not sufficient that a "majority" simply rules and imposes its religious beliefs on all citizens via the institutions of the State - such a State is rightly termed a theocracy, and we recognise the basic injustices of majority rule in other parts of the world, far and near.

THE IRISH TIMES, 30 June, 1992.

Is religion identity?

Is being in a majority identity?

Are majorities always right?

Is being a migrant an identity?

How is a migrant responsible for the migration?

Why do the words 'guest' and 'stranger' share so many stories?

CILL MHANTAIN

The name of the town of Wicklow in Gaelic recalls St Manten, a missionary who established a Church in the 5C. In the 9C the Danish Vikings set up a port, which developed into an important trading centre. The English name, Wicklow, comes from the Danish words for Viking Meadow. Many of the trials of those who participated in the nationalist rebellion of 1798 were staged in the town's courthouse.

Information Wrap

Leaders of the major industrial states meet this week in Munich as concern grows about the health of the international economy. Ireland has no seat at this meeting of the Group of Seven but its decisions are of intimate importance to this State. Yet another sharp rise in in unemployment was announced last week. It is now apparent that, largely because of the increased numbers claiming social welfare, government borrowing is likely to run over target this year. The G7 will be looking at what the realtively robust German and Japanese economies can do to enhance world prospects. each of these states has its own concerns, however. In the face of international slow-down, the level of unemployment in Ireland could seem so daunting as to be entirely outside the control or influence of this State. to adopt this attitude would be not only defeatist but wrong. Small states competing on export markets increase their wealth and generate jobs if their strategies of export-led growth are appropriate. this State has yet to adopt a path of industrial development which has any prospect of meeting the employment needs of its people.

THE IRISH TIMES, 6 July, 1992.

Does the viability of personal identity rest on the capability to tell your story, to make out the plot of your own life, to create a narrative?

Or, is it better to keep telling all the stories, so we can begin to see behind all our eyes?