When Irish Eyes are Not Smiling

A few months back I joined an international group of Irish people on a social media site. This is international now, so you didn't have be an Irish citizen to belong. And I posted a sentiment of mine that I really hope the Irish people were not going to abandon Catholicism in Ireland because for me it was a huge part of the way I looked at Ireland. I also wrote briefly about things we have in the states that came from Europe that you can no longer find in Europe, etc. The idea was not to suggest that my opinion should somehow force the Irish to cower and mend their ways with the Church, it was just a personal expression of hope that the Irish would keep the faith--after all I had always looked to Ireland for faithful people--including many of the priest we had who were from Ireland. And I have seen a lot in the press including things directly from Ireland that suggest a loss of faith. 

Many of us here still love their priests. 

Well, what I got in return was a lot of vinegar--commenting on how incredibly rude I was and that I would have the gall to suggest anything to the Irish, etc. So I thanked the folks, closed the social media door and never went back. I'll keep my thoughts to my own blogs and if people don't like them, don't come knocking. 

Unlike many of my relatives, I have never been to Ireland, although I would have enjoyed it. I was raising 6 children and money was always tight. I didn't hang out in bars or taverns either, although a cold Harp every now and then was appreciated. I didn't play golf or bowl or go on long holidays. I've rarely seen professional sports live, gone to plays, eaten at fancy restaurants. But for me doing my best for the kids was always the priority and frankly it was what I enjoyed most in life. But certainly I failed plenty of times. Do I have regrets? Yes, plenty of them. Would I do things different? Yes, plenty of things. 

I grew up in an Irish neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago.  My relatives were terrible singers,  good drinkers, and most were church-goers. We were no meat on Friday and respect-the-priests and-nuns Irish Catholics. And being Irish for us was all wrapped up in our Catholic parish--although in those days we had a lot of people who looked down their noses at others. It wasn't always bright and sunny in the parish, although that had little to with God and more to do with his human creation.  

But, the parish and the Church was a potent force for us. In fact the South Side Irish Parade practically steps off from from my old Parish stoop. 

My childhood neighborhood has more Irish bars than ever, and has many Irish cultural organizations. I heard today that a local Irish Restaurant/Bar had a Irish Soda Bread baking contest and they had 151 entries. Down south of the city, they have a park that features Irish sports and they are regaling everything Irish.  

And likewise when the Irish are here from the island, they have their opinions and express them--much like any tourist. 

Here in the United States people often have their ancestry confirmed by taking one of those genetic tests. That gets a laugh from people from Ireland because they say they are so authentically Irish. No test needed. But the US is loaded with people who have bits and pieces of this and that, so the test tells you some things that you may have no way of knowing. In fact, a lot of people here have been lied to by relatives all their lives, they take one of these test and find that are something completely different. 

But for many people of faith in the United States who have come from other parts of the world, your home ground where the origins of your faith were born is important. German Catholics were concerned about their people who came over here and started up farms in places like Kansas and Missouri. They sent sisters and priests along with money to build schools and help manage monasteries and convents. It's painful for a faithful German American to go back and see beautiful churches empty that are more museums than places of worship. It must be especially painful when the German ancestors sent money over to help American Germans keep the faith and it turns out that the Germans are not keeping it themselves. Hitler could not totally kill off the faith, but modernism is doing it without the guns and terror.

The Irish came over and then many priests followed. After a while, they would be likely to look at a trip back to Ireland as a kind of a pilgrimage and a comfort. When you go back to your home country and find that the churches are empty, it's disconcerting especially for the Irish when they were fighting tooth and nail to retain their faith--some even when starving--remember "taking the soup." 

I wrote about a beautiful photograph of one of my sisters walking along the coast in Ireland: 

I can't speak for all Irish Americans, but it's views like this that bring me closer to God than a grand view of Rome or even a religious site in Bethlehem.  Jesus is everywhere, but for some strange reason I can feel him in Ireland best of all, where my ancestors first got down on their knees. 

For many modern Irish, faith seems to have replaced the English as the necessary vilain in Ireland. Here in the states we have so many victims of one thing or another, many of us have grown immune to complaints. And maybe that's the rub. But a country that rids itself of faith is not a place of pilgrimage, it's a place of regret. So I'll say it once more, I hope the Irish don't give up their faith.