{"id":201,"date":"2014-07-28T16:20:26","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T16:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/?p=201"},"modified":"2014-08-11T16:22:27","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T16:22:27","slug":"thinking-of-gaza-as-it-turns-midnight-in-tullamore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/thinking-of-gaza-as-it-turns-midnight-in-tullamore\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking of Gaza as it Turns Midnight in Tullamore"},"content":{"rendered":"

“A common enemy makes friends of enemies”
\n~ Anon<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Dead
Dead Children in Gaza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Ireland and Palestine have a shared experience, bar in Palestine its a returning folk of the same blood, whereas those born there have changed religion, language and culture, and see the returnees as alien. Its a long way from Tullamore to Gaza, and a long way from today to a future peace, but there is hope beyond these troubled times, as we can see from our past troubled times,which we had even before the divisions of religion.<\/address>\n

In Palestine, as we watch the time, someone beneath rubble lies dead,
\nMidnight approaches in Ireland, we flick the channels instead,
\nIts all old news, how leaders abuse, their powers and peoples fears,
\nIts the same old soundtrack that plays back, slogans, bombs and tears…<\/p>\n

Imagine if in a future time, all Irish in our land,
\nBecame Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu, for Catholicism did not stand,
\nAnd in Canada, America, or in New Zealand or Oz,
\nThe Irish were oppressed being still Catholic,just that reason because
\nAnd a slur for the wrongs of a few clerics, against a Holy Man of another faith
\nWas used to oppress them, and stereotypes make the host nation irate
\nSay the Irish were massacred, the survivors set to flee
\nTo the land to which they came from, where they could be free…<\/p>\n

But there, now, still lived the Irish, under a different faith and name
\nWho didn’t recognise the returning Irish, that they from this land they came,
\nAnd the returnee’s who this landing frees, a people dispossessed
\nBeing resisted by those living there, those living there oppressed…
\nWould there be love for the returning Irish, who send those living there to refugee camps?
\nWho raze the villages of those born on the isle, and their culture down stamps
\nOppresses their current religion, makes them use passports in their own land…
\nThey returning, once from there, make it so, would those born there, for that stand?<\/p>\n

All I know is the story of my people, in my family are each both side:
\nThe Pale – where the Old English, their mayor John Drake\u00c2\u00a0 there did reside,
\nHe, according to our family lore, is a direct ancestor of our Drakes,
\nDispossessed, the O Tooles of Wicklow, attacked for survival and revenge sakes.
\nAt Bloody Banks a July morning, they were slaughtered to a man,
\nBefore the Drakes helped the English, being so, to fight the O’ Reilly clan,
\nWhich are also my people, from Breiffne lands they fought,
\nWhen they lost they signed treatys to be broken, that good Liege be, they aught,
\nThen there was no religion, men of nations to divide,
\nBut there was soon to be, and Drakes and Reillys took one side,
\nThey fought and died at Boynes waters, they fought King Williams men,
\nOn the fields of Europe as Wild Geese, they faught the British there again…<\/p>\n

So, is there hope for Palestine, for whom we Irish have such understanding and affection?
\nAnd with our story some may struggle to find common connection:
\nThe answer is yes there is, it will take a generation maybe or more,
\nAnd an enemy in common for them to see as comrades those they faught before.
\nBut here as I write in Tullamore, the words I write others have read…
\nBut Palestine has little time for poetry, as they bury their dead.<\/p>\n

There are so many parrallels with Ireland in the plantation of Palestine – and Plantation is the only word for it – and the resistance of those born there, to those who claim to be from there and are returning seeking refuge in a hostile world. The clash between the Norman \/ English \/ Scots settlers in Ireland even before the Plantations is like a script rerun in Gaza today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“A common enemy makes friends of enemies” ~ Anon Ireland and Palestine have a shared experience, bar in Palestine its a returning folk of the same blood, whereas those born there have changed religion, language and culture, and see the returnees as alien. Its a long way from Tullamore to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[118,119,33,2358,124],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-gaza","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-tullamore","tag-west-bank","column","twocol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EI4f-3f","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":191,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/gaza\/","url_meta":{"origin":201,"position":0},"title":"Gaza – What Can We Do?","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"27th July 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"What can one do, so far away? 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