Arthur Wellesley, aka The Duke of Wellington, aka the guy who defeated
Napoleon, was born on this day in 1769. Unfortunately (in his eyes
nonetheless), he was born in Ireland.
Now there are many greats in Ireland's history that were born in Ireland
but whose parents, or at least one of them, were English. Take some literary
figures for example. Swift, Wilde, Yeats and Stoker are not strikingly obvious
Irish names (I bet ALL of them are not Irish names), yet we definitely count them
in the list of great Irish literary figures. Heck, I'm one of the few who would
even count Shakespeare in the list!
But, we don't know for certain which, if any, would actually prefer NOT to
be counted in such a list. Wellington definitely did not really regard himself
as an Irishman, or if he did, he resented such a tag. We don't care. If he
didn't want to be one of us, we don't
want him to be one of us! So there, Wellington!
That's the way I see the 'label' of 'Irishness' - you can claim or deny
Irishness, but only with legitimate principles: and "it's St. Patrick's
Day, I'm Irish" is not legitimate!
I bring up this issue on today of all days because there's a royal wedding
happening in London. It will be watched by a couple billion people around the world,
among them many Irish. Nowadays, we Irish have a strange relationship with the
British monarchy (a relationship that will get even stranger, I bet, once and
after the Queen arrives for a visit) - many Irish bought 'Candle in the Wind'
after Diane's death, and, doubtless, thousands have tuned in today to watch the
royal wedding. I am not one of them.
So I wonder if many people in
Ireland today have done 'a Wellington'.
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