“Just what we need…another fooking Yank!” Hate-filled eyes pounded me like fists.
I didn’t expect my arrival at Gloucester House, the prep school for Portora Royal, in Northern Ireland to start off like that at all. I exited swiftly to the relative safety of my dorm wondering what had I done to deserve this.
I hadn’t done anything, but it didn’t matter. I soon found out the one whose welcome set the tone was a Roman Catholic, and his cohort a Protestant, and I found it strangely ironic the two would be united against me who was just minding my own business trying to be friendly. “They hate each other – you can’t expect them to hate you any less,” Mom said later trying to console me. I didn’t see any evidence of them hating each other – just them hating me. There had to be another reason, I thought.
It didn’t take long to find out that America was responsible for much of the terror. They supplied the guns, ammunition, and money. Was America still fighting the Revolutionary War like the British still referred to America as the Colonies? Not exactly; America was full of Irish, especially in the North East, and there was the core of support for the IRA.
I learned about a group called NORAID who ran fund-raisers and bake-sales for The Cause. I learned later that persons linked the committee also ran guns for the IRA. In 1981 NORAID was forced to list the IRA as their principal benefactor, though NORAID was allowed to challenge the ruling. American guns, ammunition, and money again flowed to Ireland.
Support for Irish terrorism wasn’t restricted to private citizens either. I just finished watching a 2010 St. Patrick’s Day breakfast with Gerry Adams, in Boston, featuring Senator Jack Hart thanking the local faithful for their support in the cause. “We couldn’t have done it without you,” he says. And then there’s Senator Peter King who once said, “We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry.” He made many other comments, too, like, “If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the IRA for it.” This is the guy who held hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims just recently.
I know all this now, of course, and my opinion is less-pointed than it had been as I learn more and more about what everyone was fighting for, but even if I’d known it then it wouldn’t have mattered. The kids in Ballygawley, Northern Ireland, Protestant and Catholic alike, never seemed bothered by each other or me. In fact we got on fine; they were friendly and curious, asking if my family had a television and how much did a loaf of bread cost and did I know anything about fishing and building big fires.
Truth is it took only a short while before I learned the root of the hatred at school. Wanting to avoid conflict as best I could, I minded my own business all the while observing and listening, and I noticed they’d mostly react strongly and negatively to American television shows. Comments like “Americans think they’re so much better than everyone else,” and “Americans have to have everything bigger and better” told me what I needed to know – their hatred was fueled by a Hollywood portrayal of America coupled with a resentment of the vague truth that America was the land of plenty. In other words: ignorance.
Then again, isn’t ignorance the root cause of most hatred?
