McDonough: Tenacity saved the Irish

Pat McDonough, of Westbury, is a psychologist, educator and the founder of familyfaithonline.com.

It's St. Patrick's Day, and the air is once again filled with Irish jokes, many of which point to our penchant for pubs and a piety so thick with guilt that we can't even enjoy our sins. But while all humor contains tidbits of truth, there's yet another truth about the Irish, something too profound for Patty's Day amusement.

The Catholic faith so critical to the formation of Irish family life is sewn seamlessly into the Celts' love of their land, in the soil that held the seeds of their nourishment and in the earth that cradled their beloved dead when no nourishment could be found.

I hail from a large Irish-Catholic clan that gathered often to make craick: a sharing of song and story, shots of whiskey (at least for the adults), a meal of meat and mashed potatoes, and always, a moment of remembrance. A sacred silence would come over the table before a fork was lifted, and then a hushed prayer of thanksgiving, born in the descendants of the Great Hunger.

Whispered words of gratitude for the food before us accompanied the memory of those who died from its scarcity. We remembered generations of Gaels who starved from lack of sustenance and lack of British compassion for those who embraced St. Patrick's faith. We said a prayer for those we loved, the Celts who consecrated this world with their courage and kindness, their humor and love of an ancient island, and last, their fierce loyalty to its faith.

Remembering who they were reminded us of who we are.

Oliver Cromwell and his troops invaded Ireland in 1649, crushing Catholics, confiscating their land and redistributing it to the English. Those who rebelled were slaughtered, those who survived endured poverty and oppression. The penal laws prevented Irish Catholics from holding office or buying land. They couldn't vote or go to school. Their faith was outlawed.

Centuries of uprisings filled Irish history, giving the Gaels a reputation for being a tenacious clan, a pugnacious people. It was only the cruel fate of famine that left them no alternative but to sail from Erin's shores. Many of the starving Irish landed in the United States.

Fueled by centuries of oppression, they arrived with a fury for freedom's fight and rapidly claimed their place among American politicians and the leaders of faith. They became the firefighters, joined the police force, and excelled in the fields of education, medicine, the military, entertainment and athletics.

Their fierce passion for freedom found the Irish embroiled in the fights born with new centuries. Irish-Americans like New York's Cardinal John O'Connor became known as passionate defenders of life, labor unions and health care, always advocating for the poor, the hungry and the homeless. Dorothy Day, Dr. Tom Dooley, Sister Maura Clarke, Robert Kennedy, Tip O'Neill, sons and daughters of Erin's famine immigrants, joined the fight to assure that all people enjoyed the justice for which their Irish ancestors fought.

And now, the new millennium brings with it new fights. People around the globe struggle to survive, fighting for freedom, food and the dignity of work. Today, the Emerald Isle welcomes those who seek what it fought so hard to gain, claiming among the highest percentages of foreign-born citizens in Europe.

We should let the lessons and perseverance of those who came before us serve as models. Our Irish ancestors beckon to be remembered as a people who fought for freedom, not only for themselves, but for all humankind. If the Irish lived any other way, the English who persecuted the soul of Ireland would have won.