arise, ye sons of Erin

Scottie Bowman (bowman@mail.indigo.ie)
Thu, 26 Mar 1998 20:43:32 +0000 

	I should very much like to endorse Tim's comments about 
	`Colonials'. There is absolutely NO REASON WHATEVER that 
	Americans, Canadians, or even our coloured friends from the 
	Antipodes should feel the smallest sense of inferiority arising 
	the former subservient status of their homelands.  You have all 
	done tremendously well since throwing off the oppressor's yoke 
	& goodness knows not one of you has the slightest reason to 
	apologise for the literatures of your splendid new cultures.

	I've said it before & I make no excuse for repeating myself that 
	I find it not only deplorable but inexplicable when, time & again, 
	I encounter this automatic assumption of a vaguely second rate 
	status on the part of members of what were formerly termed 
	the subject races.  I can't really believe it's genetic & must 
	assume it to be the result of some unconscious conditioning 
	from childhood.  It's jolly well time some kind of stop was put 
	to it.

	I thought Tim's rebel ditty was marvellous.  I do hope some day 
	he can let us have the full lyrics.  

	(Mind you, I have the smallest reservation about the six writers 
	mentioned as being `as Irish as the IRA'.  I'm sure the chaps 
	themselves certainly asserted their Irishness in the salons 
	of London & Paris.  I'm afraid they weren't embraced quite 
	so unquestioningly by their contemporaries.  And, indeed, if you 
	examine them closely you may notice one feature they have in 
	common which might cast a small question mark over their 
	credentials in the eyes of the present IRA.)

	Scottie B.