Overseas Project Katie Kraft

Abstract #2 T550
Logue, P. (200). Being Irish: Personal reflections on Irish identity today. Dublin: Oak
Tree Press.
Summary
The reading for this abstract was actual a bunch of different articles from a
book. The editor of this book wrote and challenged a lot of Irish people to write back
to her and describe what they think it means to be Irish in the present. Once the
editor received 100 responses she put them together in this book. The types of
people who wrote back to the editor include famous, commoner, Jewish, Catholic,
Traveller, Irish-American, etc Each of the articles in this book had some similar
answers mainly describing how Ireland is on its way to maturing and is growing to
be big economical entity in the world. Even though these main themes brought the
articles selected in this reading together, they were all different accounts because of
so many different backgrounds and thinking.
Ireland was talked about in these articles as a nation in much need of growth
from the past, but also an up and coming powerhouse in the world. Each article
described something of how the Irish nation is spread all across the world because
of the poverty and hardships of the past relocating people. They describe how even
though someone may not live in Ireland, they are still Irish by the pride that they
have in their heritage. Aengus Finucane wrote in his response, I learned that it is
our Irishness that defines us. The sum of our differences adds up to not being
English, French, German, or anything but Irish. (p. 56) This sum is usually
described in the other articles as the pride the Irish nation has all across the globe.
There are a lot of differences in these articles because so many different
people contributed their thoughts on what being Irish meant to them. One of the
biggest differences was how the Catholic and stereotypical Irish people responded
on how hospitable and welcoming the Irish are and how others such as Irish-Jewish
or Travellers leaned to discrimination towards their people. Ronit Lentin (an Irish-
Jewish woman) say in her response, Racism, as well as restrictive immigration
policies, are nothing new. (p. 125) This is just one example from the many
responses written that talk about these issues in Ireland today.
Evaluation
I think a key strength in this book is that the responses are all real accounts
from different Irishmen and Irishwomen all over the world. This makes the accounts
so much more meaningful and helpful to someone who is trying to understand the
Irish nation. It is hard to pinpoint one quote from this reading to help describe this
strength because there are so many different responses from different people. Each
article/response in itself is an example of this strength because of all the individual
voices.
A weakness in this book is also how so many different people contributed to
this book. It makes it hard to pinpoint what exactly everyone is talking about and
extremely hard to remember who is who in what account as you continue to read
through so many different stories. Again it is hard to come up with a specific quote
to describe this situation. It is really just reading through all the responses at once
that make this weakness present.
Since there are so many different people who have contributed to this
reading (20+) it is hard to pinpoint specific biases based on the authors. The editor
of the book only makes a brief statement at the beginning of this reading and from
this I will talk about her biases. If anything her bias is how much she thinks highly of
the Irish people. All of her history points and summaries all talk about how Ireland
is growing and how its people have been through so many hardships but have
grown from them. She mentions, If our [the Irish] birth has been slow, dark, and
mysterious and our adolescence moody, introspective, furtive, and violent, our
arrival at maturity has been attended by peace and prosperity, omens of good
fortune. (p. xxii) This statement includes herself among the Irish people and she is
praising their growth and independence.
The article does not connect too much to education, but it does have a
connection to US culture. The Irish as stated in the introduction by the editor, have
started to receive a lot more immigrants than emigrants (which they are use to from
history). Immigration is what the United States is built on with so many different
cultures. The Irish are similar in the fact that they are starting to have a lot of racism
problems being brought forth which the US has had to deal with for much of its
history.
Application
My first idea on how to apply these articles is how I can really understand my
host family as well as my students. This comes from the reading in how different
every person is that responded to the editor. I need to understand that like the
United States, there are a lot of different cultures inside the tiny island of Ireland
and I still need to respect each one. An activity that I can do with my class would be
to have each of them write me a letter on what they think it means to be Irish and
how why their family specifically is Irish. In readings these letters I can better
understand where my students are coming from and give them a chance to form
their own opinions and thoughts on their culture. This activity could also be used in
my classroom in Indiana as well for the same purposes. Although instead of asking
about being Irish, I would ask them about being a United States citizen.
Another idea that came from this reading will help me in my music
classroom. This idea came from the response by Jill Fergus. (p. 53) In her response
she talks about a singing contest that she participated in which took place in Ireland.
She describes how everyone but her sang a tune that was familiar to all the native
Irish people in the audience. I would like to take this idea and have my students
research their own culture and find some sort of song or music that they can present
to the class. I wouldnt require the students to sing if front of the class, but they
could present the music in anyway they wanted whether it be a CD, playing the
piano, etc The main thing the students will have to include in their presentations is
a little history behind the music, why it is a part of their culture, and what it means
to them. I will also ask the students to write a reflection after their presentations
describing what they discovered in their research and how it helped them to
understand their culture further.