英语访谈对话 533 Irish History
Eucharia: Sure well, I think most people know of St Patrick’s day and that it is an Irish festival which celebrates being Irish. Well, St Patrick was brought to Ireland in 460 as a slave from Wales and then he left and went to Italy where he was converted to Christianity and then he went back to Ireland to bring Christianity to the Irish Celtic people. So, skipping ahead a few years. The Celtic people were always quite unique within Europe because we… the Celtic people always believed in equality between men and women and therefore there were women warriors in Ireland which used to frighten many of the potential invaders away because a lot of men didn’t like to be beaten by women back then and maybe it’s still true today.
Then the next biggest thing in history was the colonialisation of Ireland by England, starting in the 16th century until the early 20th century. And it wasn’t taken to readily because of the nature of the Celtic warriors. It was probably the bloodiest period in history because the Celtic people did not like to be colonised, so there was a lot of fighting and battles between the English and the Irish even though the English had, to all intents and purposes, colonised, it was not an easy colonisation. But the single most effective tech that the Eng used in the colonisation came in 1822 when the English implemented a national education system. Before this the Irish people used to go and learn in schools called ‘hedge schools’ ,so they were outside and they were given by people who wanted to teach, so genuine academics and people learned stuff like ancient greek, latin, so most people have this tradition of speaking other languages, mathematics… So when the education system was changed in line with the English colonial system it became illegal to speak Irish in the classroom and it became illegal to speak Irish in many places. Now in my city there’s a lovely trading area called ‘The Old English Market’ and its called ‘The Old English Market’ because there is a sign inside the door: ‘Anyone who will speak… who will speak in Irish and not in English will be sent to jail’. So it was really strictly enforced and it was a very… I can’t say laudible technique but… it was a very effective way of colonisation. Nowadays in Ireland people spk English and people speak Irish, both, and it’s considered bilingual. All documents, all street names are written in Irish and English.
1922 there was what was known as the civil war and that was the beginning of the end for the English so the firstt Irish constitution was written in 1935 and it stated that Ireland is a neutral country so therefore Ireland did not enter World War 2 and it was declared a Republic in 1949.
Todd: Thanks. That was a good history!
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