What a historic visit the Queen has made to Ireland. It is a good rather than a bad event, even if there are factions that think otherwise.
Irish nationalism should equal pride in our heritage. Even if it is a mix of cultures. I am a descendant of the French Huguenots who fled catholic persecution to take refuge in Ireland. Go figure!
Ireland has a checkered history least of which is the reign of Eamon De Valera. The oracle that is Wikipedia documents a life that few Irish people know.
De Valera was born in New York City in 1882 to an Irish mother; his parents, Catherine Coll (subsequently Mrs Wheelwright), an immigrant from Bruree, County Limerick, and Juan Vivion de Valera, a Cuban settler and sculptor of Spanish descent, were reportedly married on 18 September 1881 at St. Patrick's Church in Jersey City, New Jersey. However, archivists have not located any such marriage certificate or any birth, baptismal, or death certificate information for anyone called Juan Vivion de Valera or de Valeros, an alternative spelling. On De Valera's original birth certificate, his name is given as George De Valero and his father is listed as Vivion De Valero. The first name was changed in 1910 to Edward and the surname corrected to de Valera.
There were a number of occasions when de Valera seriously contemplated the religious life like his half-brother, Fr. Thomas Wheelwright, but ultimately did not pursue a vocation. De Valera was throughout his life portrayed as a deeply religious man, who in death asked to be buried in a religious habit. While his biographer, Tim Pat Coogan, speculated that questions surrounding de Valera's legitimacy may have been a deciding factor in his not entering religious life, being illegitimate would have been a bar to receiving orders only as a secular or diocesan cleric, not as a member of a religious order.
Juan Vivion died in 1885 leaving Catherine Coll and her child in poor circumstances. Éamon was taken to Ireland by his Uncle Ned at the age of two. Even when his mother married a new husband in the mid-1880s, he was not brought back to live with her but reared instead by his grandmother Elizabeth Coll, her son Patrick and her daughter Hannie, in County Limerick. He was educated locally at Bruree National School, County Limerick and Charleville Christian Brothers School, County Cork. Aged sixteen, he won a scholarship to Blackrock College, County Dublin, where he began playing rugby. Later during his tenure at Rockwell College, he joined the school's rugby team where he played fullback on the first team, which reached the final of the Munster Senior Cup. De Valera went on to play for the Munster rugby team in the mid-1900s in the fullback position and remained a lifelong devotee of rugby, attending numerous international matches up to and towards the end of his life despite near blindness. He also developed an intensely close relationship with the Holy Ghost Order and its Blackrock College school from this time.
De Valera chose to keep Ireland neutral during WWII but allowed the German's access to Irish ports. Many of his country men signed up and gave their lives to fight against the Germans and to protect our freedom. As they have always done. The Irish are nothing if not brave and idealistic. That's what sets us apart and yet makes us special. We embrace everyone in the same spirit as they do us.
I am proud to be Irish.
I am not proud of my countrymen who persist in violence in the name of freedom.
It is time to put bigotry aside and make a future worthy of our ancestors. And that goes for all factions.
There were a number of occasions when de Valera seriously contemplated the religious life like his half-brother, Fr. Thomas Wheelwright, but ultimately did not pursue a vocation. De Valera was throughout his life portrayed as a deeply religious man, who in death asked to be buried in a religious habit. While his biographer, Tim Pat Coogan, speculated that questions surrounding de Valera's legitimacy may have been a deciding factor in his not entering religious life, being illegitimate would have been a bar to receiving orders only as a secular or diocesan cleric, not as a member of a religious order.
Juan Vivion died in 1885 leaving Catherine Coll and her child in poor circumstances. Éamon was taken to Ireland by his Uncle Ned at the age of two. Even when his mother married a new husband in the mid-1880s, he was not brought back to live with her but reared instead by his grandmother Elizabeth Coll, her son Patrick and her daughter Hannie, in County Limerick. He was educated locally at Bruree National School, County Limerick and Charleville Christian Brothers School, County Cork. Aged sixteen, he won a scholarship to Blackrock College, County Dublin, where he began playing rugby. Later during his tenure at Rockwell College, he joined the school's rugby team where he played fullback on the first team, which reached the final of the Munster Senior Cup. De Valera went on to play for the Munster rugby team in the mid-1900s in the fullback position and remained a lifelong devotee of rugby, attending numerous international matches up to and towards the end of his life despite near blindness. He also developed an intensely close relationship with the Holy Ghost Order and its Blackrock College school from this time.
De Valera chose to keep Ireland neutral during WWII but allowed the German's access to Irish ports. Many of his country men signed up and gave their lives to fight against the Germans and to protect our freedom. As they have always done. The Irish are nothing if not brave and idealistic. That's what sets us apart and yet makes us special. We embrace everyone in the same spirit as they do us.
I am proud to be Irish.
I am not proud of my countrymen who persist in violence in the name of freedom.
It is time to put bigotry aside and make a future worthy of our ancestors. And that goes for all factions.
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