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Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
‘We Irish were never homogeneous. Always hybrids, always mongrels'
For a generation of TV viewers growing up in the early 1980s, the history of Ireland will be forever sketched by the soft, Oxbridge tones of historian Robert Kee in his magisterial series, Ireland: A Television History. The landmark 13-part 1981 series sought to explain Ireland's past during the height of The Troubles, firstly, to an English audience left ignorant by 'the distorting lens of unquestioning assumptions laced with post-imperial incomprehension', as his obituary later described. From Sunday, June 8th, a new telling of Ireland's story from its very first inhabitants to the present day, narrated by Dublin-born Hollywood film star Colin Farrell , will begin on RTÉ . Entitled From That Small Island, the four 50-minute programmes, filmed in 17 countries from Barbados to Australia, are written and produced by Bríona Nic Dhiarmada and directed by Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy. READ MORE From the off, the series seeks to merge the skills of historians, archaeologists and scientists to tell the island's history in fresh ways that will both inform and challenge many long-held readings of the past. In the first episode, viewers will come face to face with 'Rathlin Man', whose Bronze Age remains were discovered on the island off the North Antrim coast in 2006 during the clearing of land for a pub driveway. In the past, an artist's impression would have been used to convey to viewers what he looked like in life, but today, advances in ancient DNA sampling mean that an accurate facial reconstruction is possible. 'We know this man's face, the muscles, the structure, the colour of his hair, the colour of his eyes. He's got the gene for haemochromatosis , the supposed Celtic disease. He was lactose tolerant, which shows his diet was very much dairy,' says Nic Dhiarmada. History professor Jane Ohlmeyer is the series' historical consultant and associate producer, as well as the co-author with Nic Dhiarmada of an accompanying book to be published next year by Oxford University Press. The very first people to come here were hunter-gatherers. We don't know where they came from, but they came by sea. That's the only thing that we're sure about — Bríona Nic Dhiarmada Sitting in Ohlmeyer's office in Trinity College Dublin, Nic Dhiarmada and Ohlmeyer enthusiastically describe the origin of the TV series. The idea grew from conversations the two had when they met in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2016, where they agreed to work together to tell a new history of the island from a time without written records – 'pre-history' to historians – up to today. The search into the past was not only useful, but necessary to throw light on the present: 'Gabriel Cooney, the eminent professor of archaeology at UCD, says that what comes before determines what comes after,' says Nic Dhiarmada. The two have clearly enjoyed the experience of nearly 10 years of work and the hundreds of hours of recorded interviews gathered by Nic Dhiarmada: 'Do you know how much fun it is? It's work, but it's powerful craic as well,' says Ohlmeyer. Old shibboleths will be tackled: 'This homogeneous Ireland idea, this little Catholic thing, was never the case. We were never homogeneous. Always hybrids, always mongrels. We didn't set out to prove that, but that's what came out,' Nic Dhiarmada says. [ Northern Ireland youth keen on a more integrated society but feel it is a long way off Opens in new window ] The people who built Newgrange and the other megalithic creations that are so much part of Ireland's international image of today left monuments of stone behind them, but they did not leave behind a DNA heritage, disappearing from history. 'The very first people to come here were hunter-gatherers. We don't know where they came from, but they came by sea. That's the only thing that we're sure about,' says Nic Dhiarmada. [ The Irish passport at 100: Not just a travel document but a declaration of hope and of reclaiming identity Opens in new window ] 'They stayed here and then they just disappeared. They left things behind them like fish traps, or cremated remains, but the latter are not that useful because you can't extract DNA from them.' Then, the first farmers came, having migrated from Anatolia in modern-day Turkey, leaving behind in the boglands of the Céide Fields in north Mayo the earliest signs of organised agriculture found anywhere on Earth. In time, the Anatolian migrants almost entirely disappeared from the DNA record, too, though a skeleton of one of them, known as 'Ballynahatty Woman', was found in a townland near Belfast in 1855. 'They knew she had dark, sallow skin and brown eyes. When I asked what these people looked like, I was told, 'Go to Sardinia, they look like contemporary Sardinians,'' Nic Dhiarmada says. The excavation of the island's megalithic inheritance, especially the most famous of its tombs, Poulnabrone in the Burren in Co Clare, led to the discovery of the remains of a six-month-old child. From That Small Island: Kiloggin Castle From That Small Island: Leuven records 'When they analysed the DNA, they found that she had the chromosomes which showed that she had Down syndrome, had been breast-fed for at least six months and was buried in honour,' says Nic Dhiarmada. Throughout, the TV series will show how the island's history shares common threads with elsewhere, but also where it fundamentally differs from the rest of Europe, largely because it is an island. 'Being an island is hugely important because you're isolated to a degree, or things will come later, or in a different way,' says Ohlmeyer. Nic Dhiarmada interjects: 'Compared to Britain, which has pretty much the same climate, pretty much on the same geographic line, we have 40 per cent less flora and fauna than they do. 'We don't have toads, we don't have snakes, or vipers. Snakes. It wasn't because of St Patrick. They never came, they never got here, because getting to an island is much more difficult.' The later episodes will tell the often-grisly story of colonisation. 'The Catholic Irish in the 17th century suffered enormously. The expropriation of eight million acres of land, a third of the land mass. And it's the best land. And then this transplantation of people to Connaught, effectively into reservations,' Ohlmeyer says. 'That's what we saw later in America in the 19th century. So, all of this happened in Ireland for hundreds of years. Ireland is the playbook for imperialism as it unfolds around the world later. That is something that hasn't been fully appreciated.' However, the narrative so often told in Ireland today that 'we were oppressed for 800 years, that we were always very good, that we never did anything bad, that we suffered under the English yoke is not necessarily true, either,' says Nic Dhiarmada. Instead, the history of Ireland is full of endless contradictions, which need to be understood today: 'We are this exception to everything else. We were a colony, but we were agents of empire – we were colonisers as well.' In the 17th century, thousands of Irish were sent as 'press-ganged' indentured servants to the Caribbean. Many died because of the brutal conditions. 'They all suffered tremendously,' says Ohlmeyer, 'but at the end of the day, their whiteness does afford them some privilege. Over time. In Barbados, some Irish such as the Blakes and Kirwans from Galway profited hugely from sugar.' If they survived, the indentured servants were given plots of land. Some prospered. Others did not; their equally poor descendants today in Barbados are known as 'Redlegs', or 'the Ecky Beckies', as the programmes will show. I think Ireland is having a conversation in a very actually mature way that has paved the way for a very difficult conversation around empire and the legacy of empire — Jane Ohlmeyer 'On the one hand, you have people who are desperately poor, who remain desperately poor. On the other, you have people who go on to become very effective overseers on the plantations and plantation owners themselves,' she says. In Jamaica, the records are filled with stories of the Irish who made good on the backs of others – 'the Kellys, who are as rich as any other plantation owner in 18th century Jamaica, investing it in conspicuous consumption back home in Ireland'. Nic Dhiarmada says: 'The people on the island of Ireland were oppressed, were colonised. They often then went out and did the same thing to others, working for the British Empire, Dutch Empire, French Empire, particularly the Spanish Empire. Ricardo Wall, whose parents had left Limerick, 'ends up running the Spanish Empire in the 18th century, and not only is he running it, he's also then the most amazing patron for other Irish people', she says. Often, they argue, 'the abused became the abusers', particularly in the Caribbean where 'people who themselves had been transported and hideously abused go on to be the most violent and aggressive overseers themselves', says Ohlmeyer. [ 'Nobody knew things were going to get so bad': Catholic RUC officer's defaced headstone at centre of Troubles exhibition Opens in new window ] The challenges posed by the series will not just be for Catholics, or those with a Catholic cultural identity: 'For some Protestants, the 17th century or 18th century issues will be hard. To this day, some don't accept that Ireland was ever a colony,' says Ohlmeyer. Yet, equally, the rigid framing of history for nearly 200 years has hidden stories of Protestants suffering during the Famine, who were written out of the narrative: 'Cholera made no religious distinction,' as one US academic puts it. Any idea that only Irish Catholics suffered in the Famine is 'rubbish, absolutely untrue, a myth', says Nic Dhiarmada, one propagated by some in the Orange Order more comfortable with a framing of history that laid the blame for hunger at the door of 'feckless' Catholics. Jane Ohlmeyer and Bríona Nic Dhiarmada and at Duncannon Fort, Co Wexford Layering on the complications, the two tell the story of the Irish Catholics in India who formed two-thirds of the British military forces there working directly for the Crown, or the East India Company. 'Within the British Army, they were treated as if they were indigenous, just like the Indian sepoys. They could never get promoted, even though they enforced British rule,' Nic Dhiarmada says. For decades, historians shied away from telling the fuller story of Ireland's past, especially during The Troubles when everything was politicised 'by both sides in a very unhelpful way, so historians avoided it like the plague', says Ohlmeyer. 'We're in a very different space now. I think Ireland is having a conversation in a very actually mature way that has paved the way for a very difficult conversation around empire and the legacy of empire. 'History muddies the water. Were we the good guys, or the bad guys? We were both. We were the good guys and the bad guys. We had harm done to us, and caused harm to others,' she concludes. From That Small Island begins on RTÉ 1 next Sunday, June 8th at 6.30pm
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Off-colour Leinster see off Scarlets to set up URC semi-final with Glasgow
URC quarter-final: Leinster 33 Scarlets 21 An occasionally brittle Leinster will meet Glasgow next Saturday in the semi-final of the United Rugby Championship after they led from beginning to end against Welsh side Scarlets at the Aviva Stadium. Four tries, the first arriving after four minutes, gave Leinster a deserved win with Scarlets coming to within one point with a counterpunch try just before the break. Leinster started with intent, their first entry into the Scarlets 22 within the first minute. Josh van der Flier, Jordie Barrett and James Ryan pounded the defence as the ball moved right to left. Finally, with the field stretched, Sam Prendergast whipped the ball wide with Hugo Keenan helping it along for James Lowe to run in the easiest of tries for 5-0. Within minutes a purposeful and accurate Leinster were pushing forward again. Moving through the phases and the gears, Ryan Baird made the initial bump through to make ground and with support coming up both sides in the middle of the field, it was scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park who romped in under the posts for 10-0, Prendergast converting to give Leinster a comfortable early lead. READ MORE How can the provinces break France's dominance? Listen | 29:52 But the young Scarlets team were not just in Dublin for the experience of being beaten by the top seeds and on 20 minutes moved the ball right to left across the pitch from their first attacking lineout. With Leinster players fanning across, a double-handed overhead pass from outhalf Sam Costelow to Tom Rogers allowed the right wing to cut back and wriggle over the line for a quick Welsh riposte, Costelow converting for 12-7. By the half-hour mark both sides were determined to keep the ball alive as play raced from end to end, with van der Flier departing and Scott Penny coming in for Leinster. Leinster's James Lowe fields a high ball under pressure from Scarlets' Ellis Mee. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho A penalty from just inside the Scarlet's half landed by Prendergast gave the 12,879 crowd something to cheer as Leinster again nudged ahead 15-7. But a misplaced kick from Prendergast that didn't find touch and Lowe went into touch on the full just invited Scarlets back into the game before a surging finish to the half saw Leinster press for a try only to be met with a sucker punch from Scarlets. Looking threatening and pressing the Scarlet's line, the pass back from Gibson-Park to Prendergast flew over the outhalf's head. He and Jordie Barrett turned and charged back towards their posts as an alert Blair Murray got to it first and kicked on. The fullback kicked a second time, controlling the ball beautifully into the Leinster danger zone where he touched down and Costelow converted for 15-14 to Leinster at the break. Rain replaced sunshine for the restart but there were no clouds hanging over Leinster. Straight into the go-forward mentality, they left little time for Scarlets to feel they had purchase on the game and from a Leinster scrum Gibson-Park fed Prendergast, who deftly chipped over for the running Jamie Osborne. Sam Costelow in action for Scarlets. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho With Rogers on his back, Osborne managed to touchdown for 22-14 and again put distance between the sides. Costelow missed a Scarlets penalty to close the gap before pressure finally yielded reward for Leinster, when replacement Dan Sheehan blocked down a Welsh kick. Leinster then flooded the zone with the supporting Keenan floating on to the ball inside the Scarlets 22 to make it 27-14. Leinster looked safe enough, and with Prendergast making it 30-14 from a penalty it looked settled. But Scarlets' sting in the tail came less than 10 minutes from the end when Johnny Williams punched through and Ioan Lloyd converted for 30-21. SCORING SEQUENCE – 4 mins: Lowe try 5-0; 9: Gibson-Park try, Prendergast con 12-0; 19: Rogers try, Costelow con 12-7; 35: Prendergast pen 15-7; 40: Murray try, Costelow con 15-14; 45: Osborne try, Prendergast con 22-14; 59: Keenan try 27-14; 65: Prendergast pen 30-14; 70: Williams try, Costelow con 30-21; 73: Prendergast pen 33-21 LEINSTER: H Keenan; J O'Brien, J Osborne, J Barrett, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, R Kelleher, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, J Ryan; R Baird, J van der Flier, J Conan (capt). Replacements: S Penny for van der Flier (29 mins); D Sheehan for Kelleher, RG Snyman for Ryan (both 47); R Slimani for Clarkson (57); J Boyle for Porter (67); L McGrath for Gibson Park (67); M Deegan for Conan (68); Conan for Snyman (73); C Frawley for Keenan (75). SCARLETS: B Murray; T Rogers, J Roberts, J Williams, E Mee; S Costelow, A Hughes; A Hepburn, R Elias, H Thomas; A Craig, S Lousi; V Fifita, J Macleod (capt), T Plumtree. Replacements: M van der Merwe for Elias (50 mins); K Mathias for Craig (57); I Lloyd for Costellow (58); S Wainwright for Thomas, M Page for Rogers (both 64); Davis for Macleod (74); E Jones for Hughes (75). Yellow cards: Hepburn (55 mins), Fifita (72). Referee: H Davisdon (Sco).
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Ireland issues formal protest letter to Israel over shots fired towards Unifil unit in Lebanon
Ireland has issued a formal rebuke to Israel via the United Nations after Israeli soldiers fired shots into an area being patrolled by Irish peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday. The Government lodged the démarche, a diplomatic letter of protest, which describes events in the village of Yaroun as 'completely unacceptable in terms of the safety of peacekeepers and the execution of their mandated duties'. The letter said the concerns are held 'at the highest levels' of the Irish Government and Defence Forces. The Tánaiste, Simon Harris, was on Friday briefed on the incident by the new Defence Forces chief of staff, Brig Gen Rossa Mulcahy. It is understood that up to 30 shots were fired over a period of nine minutes towards a joint Irish-United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ( Unifil ) and Lebanese armed forces patrol close to the Blue Line, which separates Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights. READ MORE No one was injured, but the unit was forced to leave the area. Irish troops have all been confirmed as safe and well. 'It's clear to me that the actions of the IDF were reckless, intimidatory, totally unacceptable and a clear breach of the international rules surrounding peacekeeping,' the Tánaiste said. 'I want to pay tribute to our personnel deployed with Unifil, who are operating in an increasingly volatile and tense environment.' [ Irish peacekeepers come under fire while on patrol in Lebanon Opens in new window ] In a statement to The Irish Times on Friday, Israeli ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich said: 'The incident is still being examined, and from an initial investigation by the IDF, there was no shooting at Unifil, but at suspicious individuals who approached the Blue Line. 'There have been many recent incidents of Hizbullah harassment and attacks on Unifil. It appears that Ireland is not reporting nor protesting those incidents. Why is that the case?'
