The Wasps of the United States who were contemporaries of my parents had a great contempt for Ireland. I remember my mother talking about a conversation she had with an acquaintance about the backwards Irish having their "pigs in the kitchen." But in reality Ireland is a country of great learning that was spared the assault of the barbarian invasions and so avoided the darkness during the middle ages. The Irish are poets and story tellers with a rich tradition both oral and written.
Even before St. Patrick, Catholic missionaries had seeded Ireland with Christianity and St. Patrick found a people ready to hear the word of God. Patrick's evangilization inspired the monasteries, great centers of learning, whose ruins pepper the entire land. The pre-Christian culture of Ireland was also steeped in education because it respected men of learning.
The Church in the U.S. reflects the bounty exported from Ireland. When I was a girl I remember Irish immigrant priests, preaching in their lilting brogue, in almost every parish we attended as my dad was transferred from place to place with the Navy.
I had the blessing of visiting Ireland in the early 90s and remember it most for the warmth of the people and the children, everywhere the children. But even then you could see the seeds of dissolution taking hold with the newspapers discussing homosexuality and pushing for legalization of divorce. I don't think I would want to return to Ireland today to see the devastation inflicted by the European Union, the Irish sex abuse scandals, and the general collapse into moral relativism that plagues most countries.
Let us intercede with St. Patrick to raise up descendents to re-Christianize Ireland and the world.
