Our new SIG Coordinator, Michael Greaney, needs no introduction to longtime members of the Irish SIG. His many serialized articles on page 4 were one of the best features of Litir Scéala for more than 25 years! In fact, his dedication to the SIG for so many years prompted me to ask him to become the new Coordinator when several things, including my duties in the local group, made it impossible for me to continue.
I apologize for not publishing a newsletter for so long. The first issue that wasn't published fell through simply because I didn't have enough material to fill it. Then the computer with all the SIG material on it decided to work only in Safe Mode. The members' addresses are on an ancient Starwriter, in a format I still have to export so that a modern computer can read it. With this, the demands of North Dakota Mensa (which is going through a very rough period), and the demands of life outside Mensa, I finally realized that I could do justice to you only by finding another coordinator. Michael declined at first because he didn't want to limit the SIG to those who have Internet access, and he had time only for an electronic newsletter. He later decided that it was better than nothing, and volunteered, for which I am very grateful!
I remain involved as backup coordinator and hope to contribute letters and articles to Litir Scéala. Please send Michael your letters and articles, too — the newsletter needs them! If Michael doesn't print them in full, I promise to give him a swift kick where it counts. J
And I don't close the door to the possibility of reviving the original, print version of Litir Scéala, although since Michael has been kind enough to take over, I would do so only with his permission.
Beannachtaí!
Shirley
DISCLAIMERS
Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of individual authors and may not reflect those of other SIG members or the SIG as a whole. Nothing in this newsletter should be taken as an official position of Mensa. Mensa as a whole has no opinions.
You have received this newsletter because you either signed up for it on the website of the Irish SIG of American Mensa, or it was forwarded to you. If you signed up for the monthly newsletter, quarterly publications flyer and occasional announcements but no longer wish to receive them, you may unsubscribe by clicking the link at the end of this newsletter. If they were forwarded to you, please notify the person who forwarded them that you do not wish to receive the newsletter, quarterly publications flyer or occasional announcements from the Irish SIG.
Permission is hereby given to reproduce material from this newsletter with proper attribution and credit for personal, educational, non-profit, and not-for-profit use. Material in this newsletter remains the property of the contributing authors. Please assume that the author has retained copyright even if we omit the "©" notice. Unsigned pieces are usually the work of the Coordinator, and remain his property. You may print out copies of the newsletter for your personal use, for free distribution, or for educational purposes as long as proper attribution is given, and there are no alterations (except to correct obvious typographical errors).
Submissions are welcome, but read the guidelines in the "About" section on the website before sending anything. We will not publish "adult" material, and we interpret that very broadly. There is no payment for published material.
CONTENTS
Announcements
Organization, Publication and Membership Information
Letters
News and Reports
Articles
Food
Reviews
The Fourth Page
ANNOUNCEMENTS
As this is the first issue in the new series of the newsletter, we have a lot of announcements regarding SIG business. Since most of these have to do with how to subscribe to the newsletter and register as a SIG member (two separate operations), please read these announcements carefully and take action accordingly. Even before we published this issue we had a number of people subscribe to the newsletter, but not click on the validation link in the e-mail Google sent them. Until a subscription is validated, we can't count you as a subscriber. (If the e-mail ended up classed as spam, I can understand this, but see if you can find it.) This means they won't get the newsletter. We've also had a number of SIG members subscribe and validate, but not send us an e-mail to give us their registration information. Until they do, we can't count them as members.
• The big announcement in this issue is, of course, the revival of the SIG newsletter. Current members will notice more than a few formatting changes due to the shift from a print publication to an "e-zine." Also, I don't have Shirley's (our Co-Coordinator, Founder, and Coordinator emeritus) knowledge of Irish. Headings have been switched to English. We have installed a "gadget" on the website, however, that can translate the newsletter into Irish or a number of other languages. Or claims to.
• By signing up for the newsletter you agree to receive the entire package of mailings the SIG sends out. As a not-for-profit with no dues using a free service, we can't afford the technology or the time needed to segregate the SIG mailing list. The inseparable package consists of a monthly newsletter published on the 17th of every month, a quarterly publications flyer, and occasional special announcements.
• We're trying to rebuild the SIG roster. Unfortunately, the computer on which the old membership information was stored evidently went off in a snit when the new computers refused to speak to it, so the old roster is unavailable. If you are a current SIG member (meaning you didn't get a "PLEASE RENEW!!!" stamped on the envelope on your last hardcopy newsletter), please re-register by taking the following steps.
1) Sign up as an "e-mail follower" in the space marked "Sign Up Here to Receive the Newsletter via E-mail" on the website. This subscribes you to the newsletter.
2) "Validate" your subscription by clicking on the link in the e-mail that Google will send you. This allows you to receive the newsletter.
3) In a separate e-mail send us your name, e-mail address, Mensa ID number, and the national group to which you belong. This enters you on the roster of official SIG members.
Contact information is in the "About the Irish SIG" section on the website. (Since the position of Coordinator may be taken over by someone else or we may get a Membership Officer, it's best not to put information that is subject to change in a newsletter that remains permanently available.)
• Members of Mensa who want to join the SIG follow the same steps.
• People who aren't current members of Mensa are more than welcome to join the SIG or simply subscribe to the newsletter. To receive the newsletter, follow these steps.
1) Sign up as an "e-mail follower" in the space marked "Sign Up Here to Receive the Newsletter via E-mail" on the website. This subscribes you to the newsletter.
2) "Validate" your subscription by clicking on the link in the e-mail that Google will send you. This allows you to receive the newsletter.
If you wish to be entered on the roster as an official SIG member, even if you are not a member of Mensa, you need to add the following step:
3) In a separate e-mail send us your name, e-mail address, and the country where you live. Be sure to tell us if you are not a member of Mensa. This enters you on the roster of official SIG members.
Contact information is in the "About the Irish SIG" section on the website.
• We encourage institutions and organizations to join as "Institutional Members." You sign up your organization using an official e-mail address just as an individual would, validate your signup, send us an e-mail identifying yourself as an "Institutional Member," and you get the newsletter, quarterly publications flyer and occasional announcements sent to that address. You can then forward the newsletter, quarterly publications flyer and occasional announcements to your members as a free benefit and resource for your members for discussion of Irish culture, history, literature and current events. This should be ideal for local Irish literary and cultural organizations that want a no-cost resource that comes automatically.
• While everyone is free to join, whether or not he or she is in Mensa, the group is primarily organized for the benefit of members of Mensa. Especially during this transition period from a print newsletter to an e-zine, if you know of someone who is a member of the SIG and is current in his or her Mensa dues, let him or her know he or she has to re-register, and give him or her the URL for the website: http://IrishSIG.blogspot.com/.
• You are encouraged to forward all newsletters, quarterly publications flyers and occasional special announcements to your network. The more people become aware of the unique contribution the Irish have made to civilization, the more bigotry and intolerance will be reduced for all people, whatever their ethnicity, religion, philosophy or national origin.
• As noted, the SIG no longer has dues. This is because office space and internet access are provided free of charge by the Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), a non-profit think tank in Arlington, Virginia, registered as a 501(c)(3) organization under the Internal Revenue Code. In return, we will be sending out a quarterly publications flyer to all SIG members and subscribers, of which a portion of the sales go to support the work of CESJ, including internet access. The SIG will receive no monetary benefit from the sale of publications. No other organization will have access to the SIG's e-mail list (it's hard to get to, anyway), and the list will not be sold or rented.
• We are open to having a SIG member volunteer to run a forum on Yahoo! groups, LinkedIn, or some other (free) service to which everyone has more or less equal access so that members can engage in more direct and timely discussion on subjects relating in some way to Ireland outside the confines of a monthly newsletter. If you think you'd be interested, let us know. The moderator/owner of the group must be a current, dues-paying member of American Mensa, the Coordinator and Co-Coordinator must be allowed administrative or moderator level access, all discussions must adhere to the Irish SIG Code of Conduct and the rules in the current issue of the SIG Handbook of American Mensa, and there must be no charge to participate.
• Eventually we'll be looking for a SIG "Membership Officer" who will maintain the membership roster and subscription list, a Recruitment Officer, and an Outreach Officer to coordinate the efforts of members who want to host social or informational events at Mensa and non-Mensa functions. These positions, too, should be filled by a current member of Mensa. Since the SIG has no dues, we can offer a limited amount of material and a great deal of moral encouragement, but no financial support. We can explore the possibility of publishing a request for contributions to support an event, but such contributions would be made directly to the individual running the event or the sponsoring organization, not to the SIG.
ORGANIZATION, PUBLICATION AND MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
What We Are
Litir Scéala an tSIG Gaelach is the newsletter of the Irish Special Interest Group of American Mensa, Ltd. More information about the SIG and this newsletter may be accessed by clicking on this link.
Resources
We are preparing to put together a list of resources and organizations that might be useful to our members. Due to the global scope of our readership, we are trying to limit the list to organizations that extend beyond a purely local constituency. This is a matter of simple logistics, due to the immense number of organizations out there. If you're looking for a local group to get involved with — and we encourage that — do an internet search. You may be both amazed and pleased at what you will find.
Who We Are
The Membership Roster looks a little lean, but that's easily explained. As noted, the existing roster is incommunicado, and 99% or so of the actual SIG membership is unaware of the shift to an e-zine. We need to hit a certain threshold of registered members (natural persons, not institutions) to reactivate the SIG's listing in the Mensa Bulletin or the website to let current members know so they can re-register. So you see, it's something of a Catch-22: we can't officially reactivate the SIG until we get enough members, and it's going to be slow getting enough members until we reactivate the SIG.
5 Members of Mensa
2 Other
1 Institutional Members
19 Newsletter Subscribers
27 Total Circulation (Does not include forwarded newsletters or visitors to the website who have not signed up for the newsletter — approximately 250 to date.)
LETTERS
We want to hear from you, but please keep it brief. It's hard to engage in a meaningful discussion when there's a monthly time lag, so try to make your letters interesting, informative, and "sound byte size." We're looking for a volunteer to start a chat room or internet discussion group to allow for more timely interaction.
"I am pleased that you have taken charge and decided to revive the SIG. . . . I always enjoyed the newsletter. . . . I have kept every copy of Litir Scéala." — Bonnee B., Wisconsin
"Glad to hear you are leading the revival of the Irish SIG publication. You will no doubt do a superb job with your experience. . . . We owe much to Shirley for years of yeoman work." — Pat R., Tennessee
NEWS AND REPORTS
Members of the Irish SIG don't usually belong only to the SIG, but to other groups with a Irish orientation as well. This is all to the good — the more society becomes more social, the better chance we have of influencing our institutions in a positive way and carrying out "acts of social justice" aimed at improving the common good for everybody. We want to encourage your community participation and then report on local events in which SIG members took part.
In the frenzy of getting the first issue of the e-version of the newsletter out, however, we didn't have time to review current events, and so don't have much for this section of the newsletter this month. If you have a news item about a SIG event, in which a SIG member participated, or something that would be of interest to the national or global Irish community, send it in. Try to keep it to around 100 words — we'd like to keep this section a list of bulleted points for easy reading.
• The SIG was mentioned recently in a number of media outlets, including Chicago's Irish American News and Catholic PR Wire. Getting a mention of the SIG in your local media helps raise the level of positive "Irish Awareness" in your community to counter negative stereotypes.
• The Washington Men's Camerata featured the Gladys Pitcher arrangement of an Irish-American folk song, Drill Ye Tarriers, in its annual concert at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on June 2. The theme was "Guys and Dolls: Music for Men's Voices by Women Composers." SIG Coordinator Michael D. Greaney is a First Tenor with the group. He was a few minutes late for warm-up due to the fact that Rob H, a fellow First Tenor with whom he rode, accidentally let his pet get out and he was chasing a dog in a tuxedo. How that dog got into a tuxedo we'll never know.
• The Notre Dame Class of 1977 had its 35th Reunion the weekend of June 1-3 on the Notre Dame campus. The SIG Coordinator was not able to attend due to the Washington Men's Camerata concert, but by all reports the event went very well, with most of the attendees surprised at how little and how much everybody (else) had changed.
• The Colonel John Fitzgerald Division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Arlington, Virginia, had its annual year-end (or mid-year, depending on how you look at it) picnic on June 10 at the Edward D. White Council, Knights of Columbus Hall on Little Falls Road. Financial Secretary and Certified Chef Chris O'Connor coordinated the event, ensuring that "a good time was had by all." And it didn't rain. This time. A follow-up event is being considered for September, to which prospective recruits for the Order will be invited. Let us know what your group is doing to attract (and retain) members, and to increase the participation of the current membership, so we can all benefit.
ARTICLES
Feature Article: Ireland and the Global Debt Crisis
By Michael D. Greaney, CPA, MBA
Despite talk of recovery, the economic downturn continues to wreak havoc on people's lives, especially in the "PIIGS": Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. The once awesome "Celtic Tiger" has ceased roaring, and a tsunami of debt throughout the world threatens to trigger a financial disaster that would make the Crash of 1929 look trivial by comparison.
Astonishingly, today's situation can be traced to an over-reaction to the near-farcical "Last Invasion of England" that took place in February of 1797. In support of Wolfe Tone's planned uprising in Ireland, the French rounded up some vagabonds and petty criminals, dressed them up in uniforms, and sent them on a raid in force into Wales, landing near the village of Fishguard. The result could best be described as "ludicrous." A number of the "soldiers," for example, were captured by a pitchfork-wielding housewife known tongue in cheek in local legend as "Jemima the Great" for her exploit.
Despite its comic opera aspects, word of the "invasion" swept through England, inciting a panic. People rushed to convert their paper banknotes into gold. To preserve the gold supply, parliament ordered the Bank of England to suspend "convertibility" as a temporary measure. This would last for nearly a quarter of a century.
Contrary to popular belief, the gold did not "back" the banknotes. Convertibility is a feature intended to give the public confidence in the currency and ensure uniformity of value and stability. What currently backs virtually all paper money and demand deposits is public debt representing the present value of future tax collections. There is also a limited amount of private sector securities representing the present value of existing and future marketable goods and services that will be used to redeem the securities on maturity. The value of any currency depends on the confidence that the public has that the issuer of the securities will make good on the promise that has been made.
As a result of the suspension of convertibility and a misunderstanding of what really backed the paper currency, a new and fallacious understanding of money, credit, banking and finance grew up. The British government financed the Napoleonic Wars by creating new money backed by government debt instead of relying solely on taxation or borrowing out of existing accumulations of savings in the private sector.
Speculation in this "sovereign debt" caused the "Panic of 1825" and the birth of the "business cycle." This is because the money supply shifted its backing from the present value of private sector marketable goods and services, to the present value of future tax collections by government. This threw supply (production) and demand (income) out of sync, disrupting the free market and justifying increasing government control of the economy to try and put supply and demand back together artificially by manipulating the currency.
The problem is that there is a limit as to how much money can be collected in taxes or borrowed out of existing savings. As the world has found to its cost, however, there is no limit to the amount of paper governments can print and call money — as long as people don't start demanding that the government keep its promises. Once people lose confidence that the government can keep its promises, the system falls apart.
The governments of the world must stop backing the money supply with government debt, and return to backing it with the present value of private sector hard assets. Commercial (mercantile) banks and central banks were invented to create money by accepting "bills of exchange" and issuing promissory notes. This backs the currency — the promissory notes — with the present value of private sector hard assets, and avoids both inflation and deflation.
Central banks were not invented to finance government spending. That only results in backing the currency with government debt. Central banking was invented to ensure a uniform, stable and adequate money supply for commerce backed by bills of exchange accepted ("rediscounted") from member banks or purchased on the open market.
In the 1930s, Dr. Harold G. Moulton, president of the Brookings Institution from 1916 to 1952, proved that new capital formation during periods of rapid economic growth is not financed by cutting consumption in the past, but by increasing production in the future. Moulton's book, The Formation of Capital (1935) dealt a fatal blow to the belief that the only way to finance economic growth is for the government to go into deficit spending. The problem is that (until the bubble bursts), financing government with debt is far more popular than raising taxes, and creating money by emitting bills of credit is easier than borrowing from private citizens with savings.
More than half a century ago Louis Kelso and Mortimer Adler used Moulton's analysis in their proposal to give every person the opportunity and means to become an owner of capital. In their two books, The Capitalist Manifesto (1958) and The New Capitalists (1961), Kelso and Adler detailed the importance of widespread capital ownership.
In the Preface and Chapter 5 of The Capitalist Manifesto, Kelso and Adler argued that, for a society to be economically just, it has to embody the three principles of economic justice: Participation, Distribution, and Limitation (which we now call "Harmony" or social justice). In The New Capitalists, Kelso and Adler laid to rest the idea that the only way that non-owners can become owners is to cut consumption and save, or redistribute what already belongs to others. No, as Moulton proved, new capital can be financed without cutting consumption and accumulating cash. As the subtitle of The New Capitalists put it, "A Proposal to Free Economic Growth from the Slavery of [Past] Savings."
Kelso and Adler applied Moulton's findings to the problem of financing the future without using government debt. They showed how ordinary people can become owners of capital without first cutting consumption. They can do this by purchasing capital that pays for itself out of the capital's own future profits. This technique has been used with great success in the Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, an invention of Kelso that has resulted in more than 11 million workers in the U.S. becoming owners of the more than 10 thousand companies that employ them without using any of their own savings or taking any cuts in pay or benefits.
The Center for Economic and Social Justice, a non-profit think tank in Arlington, Virginia, USA, has developed Kelso and Adler's ideas into a proposal called "Capital Homesteading for every citizen." If the proposal were to be implemented in its entirety, Capital Homesteading has the potential to turn the economy around. One projection suggests that full employment of labor could be reached in as little as 18 to 24 months, with full employment of capital in 3 to 5 years, greatly reducing the need for government funded social welfare.
Ireland is perfectly situated for such a change. Its legal system, language and culture are close to those of the United States, making it much easier to adapt program specifics designed for the U.S. to Ireland. The population of Ireland is relatively small compared to the U.S., making any change for the better likely to ripple through the economy at a much faster rate than would be the case in the more culturally heterogeneous and geographically dispersed U.S. economy.
The institutions and many of the laws needed for such a change already exist. It is only necessary to surface leaders with the political will and vision to take advantage of this fast-disappearing opportunity.
Profile: The Irish SIG of Mensa
Part of the mission of the Irish SIG is to raise the level of positive "Irish Awareness." We therefore strongly encourage people to get involved in local community groups and organizations that focus on "all matters Irish." Don't let the SIG or receiving the newsletter be your only "Irish activity." We would like to profile various local, national and international groups occasionally so that people are alerted to some of the possibilities for involvement and action. Send in a short piece about an organization in your community and we'll try to work it into the schedule. Be sure to include when the group was founded, its specific mission, notable accomplishments, membership rates and requirements, and contact information for people interested in joining. To start this off this month — since this is the Irish SIG newsletter — we take a look at the Irish SIG.
Shirley Starke of Valley City, North Dakota founded the Irish SIG in 1977. Shirley, an accomplished musician and composer, remains active in the SIG as Co-Coordinator. It is one of the oldest SIGs in American Mensa. The mission of the SIG is to promote the study and understanding of Irish history, culture, music, language, and all other matters relating to Ireland and the Irish, whether at home or abroad. Membership is open to all, and there are no dues. To subscribe to the newsletter, visit the website at http://IrishSIG.blogspot.com/ and follow the instructions. To join the SIG as a registered member, send an e-mail to the Coordinator at the address given in the "About" section on the website.
FOOD
It's considered obligatory for Irish-American publications to give a recipe for soda bread at some point. Usually they publish it around St. Patrick's Day, along with the usual salt beef and cabbage thing. Let's just get it out of the way, and any future food discussions can focus on something else, e.g., a favorite Irish or Irish-Hyphen recipe that you submit — and be sure to test your recipe before submitting it to see if it makes sense and that you can follow your own instructions.
We do not object to soda bread. We like it — but why do something that's been done and redone so many times by everybody else? Here's an interesting factoid to prove we're not hostile to soda bread. Last week a professional pastry chef from the Philippines with whom we sing in our church choir asked when baking soda was invented. He wanted to know how long the Irish have been making soda bread.
The answer? According to the Wikipedia, baking soda in various forms has been around pretty much forever. It seems to have been first commercially produced in the U.S. in 1846 by two New York (City?) bakers, and was known as "saleratus," although I've seen it "salertas."
There was no mention of its use in Ireland in the Wikipedia entry as of the date accessed (June 11, 2012). This is obviously a gross injustice, to which all right-thinking people (especially Filipino pastry chefs) should take instant exception (or do the research and add the findings to the Wikipedia, but what's the fun of that?).
Anyway,
4 cups flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Combine all the ingredients, mixing as little as possible. This is a quick bread. Yeast breads you can pound away on to your heart's delight and it only does them good. Quick breads demand as little mixing as you can get away with. Also, amounts are approximate. Flour is a natural material (more or less), and can vary widely even from day to day out of the same bag on the amount of liquid it absorbs, depending on age, humidity, and so on. Just be aware of this.
Flatten on a baking sheet to round about two inches high. Take a sharp knife and cut a cross on the top dividing the entire loaf into four parts, being careful not to go deeper than halfway down. The quarters are called "farls."
Bake in a pre-heated 425 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. That's Fahrenheit, and you're going to have to play with it. Really — you would not believe how much even the finest ovens vary from what is on the dial, and even from place to place inside the oven itself. The key to baking is to know your oven, just as you should know your other tools. Don't let a bad initial experience with baking turn you off. It probably wasn't your fault.
I understand that freshness of ingredients is the key to good soda bread. If yours doesn't rise, don't lose heart. You might have over-mixed, or the ingredients might be a little old and tired. Or you substituted regular milk for buttermilk. If you don't have buttermilk, you're supposed to be able to add a teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar to the milk to have the necessary acid, or use baking powder instead of baking soda. For brown bread, use half whole wheat flour. All whole wheat instead of half tends not to rise as well.
REVIEWS
William Cobbett's The Emigrant's Guide. Economic Justice Media. ISBN 978-0944997017. 264 pp. $20.00.
In the early 19th century a favorite pastime of the English middle and upper classes was to take a trip to the United States, then write a travel book telling how horrible Americans were. As a result, many people were dissuaded from emigrating to the United States. I am not without my suspicions that one of the things that might have motivated Alexis de Tocqueville to write his monumental Democracy in America (1835, 1840) was a desire to counter the obvious disdain the English had for all things American.
Many Englishmen, that is. There were a few notable exceptions. One, of course, was the renowned Captain Frederick Marryat, R.N., whose novels were the models for C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower and the multitude of clones of varying quality that followed. Marryat was fascinated by Americans' drive and energy. His Diary in America from a trip in the late 1830s to get the truth instead of the usual lies that circulated is an even-handed look at early 19th century America, although he believed Americans would never be able to come together as a single nation. He was almost proved right 20 years later.
Marryat included a few "stretchers" in his stories, as Mark Twain might say. His depictions of Catholics and Mormons left something to be desired. In that, however, we might not want to single him out or judge him too harshly. He was a popular novelist, and used accepted conventions and stereotypes, however false they eventually proved to be. Complete set collectors might want the few bigoted books Marryat wrote, but you don't miss anything by not reading them. Actively suppressing them gives them too much importance.
Another exception was William Cobbett (1763-1835), a "radical" journalist and politician who made three sojourns in the United States and, frankly, wasn't treated all that well. Speaking from experience he could have written a fact-based account that would have been nearly as damaging as the lies told by others. It is to his credit that he did no such thing, but made allowances. For example (as he reminded his readers) one thing you really didn't want to do in early 19th century America was criticize Americans in your English accent . . . .
In the 1820s Cobbett wrote a series of pamphlets setting the record straight, encouraging people to leave England and go to America if they wanted to better themselves, there being in his opinion little hope of reform in England. In America you could become an owner of capital, rather than being treated as "human capital" as in England. In America you could own rather than be owned. Cobbett's emphasis on the importance of ordinary people owning capital is why G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc regarded Cobbett as "the Apostle of Distributism," distributism being a policy of widely distributed ownership of capital, with a preference for small, family-owned farms and businesses.
Cobbett later collected the pamphlets together and published them in 1829 in book form as The Emigrant's Guide. The Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) in Arlington, Virginia, USA, recently published an annotated edition of The Emigrant's Guide under its "Economic Justice Media" imprint, including an extensive foreword correlating Cobbett's thought with CESJ's "Just Third Way," especially the work of Louis Kelso and Mortimer Adler and their three principles of economic justice, participation, distribution, and harmony.
The "value added" in the foreword and annotations gives what would otherwise be an interesting but somewhat dated work a relevance for today, when many of the problems that plague Ireland and the United States (to say nothing of the rest of the world) could be reduced or eliminated entirely by implementing a feasible program of expanded capital ownership. You don't have to be Irish or Catholic to appreciate the wisdom of what Pope Leo XIII wrote in 1891 in the encyclical Rerum Novarum,
"We have seen that this great labor question cannot be solved save by assuming as a principle that private ownership must be held sacred and inviolable. The law, therefore, should favor ownership, and its policy should be to induce as many as possible of the people to become owners." (§ 46.)
The "Irish connection" with Cobbett, an English Protestant, is that in 1826 he wrote a series of pamphlets that he later turned into A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland. My personal opinion is that this book may have had a significant influence in the fight for Catholic Emancipation in Ireland, maybe even swaying the opinion of the Iron Duke of Wellington himself, possibly the best known Anglo-Irishman of his generation.
THE FOURTH PAGE
For the past twenty-five years or so, the newsletter has featured articles on Irish history, culture, or literature on its final, fourth page, usually as part of an ongoing series. For this first issue in the revived newsletter we thought we'd have a stand-alone piece, then decide for the next issue whether to pick up the current series where we left off, or start all over again.
"More Irish than the Irish"
A couple of years ago I published an article in Military History magazine on "The Norman Invasion of Ireland." I closed by mentioning that, while the Normans started out as "foreigners," like the "Danes" (a generic term in Ireland for Scandinavians), they became assimilated over time, becoming, in the words of one chronicler, Hibernicis ipsis Hibernior, Latin for "More Irish than the Irish."
Well. You'd have thought I proposed breaking up the Blarney Stone to build an outhouse, or drink Scotch. There was a flurry of letters to the editor, coached in terms of absolute outrage that I would dare to use such terrible Latin. One writer loudly proclaimed I was an idiot for using the masculine dative ending for "Hibernia," clearly a feminine noun. Others were less polite.
My response came directly out of Wheelock — a standard Latin text in a number of high schools and colleges. I used it when I took Latin. Basically what I said was, "Sorry to disillusion you, but you are somewhat mistaken.
"First, 'Hibernia' is derived from 'Hibernicus,' a thirteenth century legal term meaning a free tenant who has sworn fealty to a lord but does not owe any feudal dues. Most Irish tribesmen, when a Norman became their chief, swore this type of oath, hence were "Hibernici," a term that in general usage came to mean the native Irish.
"'Hibernia' is an early modern construction, not medieval. It is feminine because one does not ordinarily refer to one's country as masculine (unless you're German). In ancient times and the early Middle Ages, Ireland was known as "Scotia." When the Scotii — singular "Scotus," as in "Duns Scotus" — an Irish tribe, moved into Caledonia from Ulster and conquered the native Picts, they took the name with them.
"Second, the phrase Hibernicis ipsis Hibernior is not 'nonsensical gibberish,' as one complainant whined, but an excruciatingly correct use of a rare Latin construction dating back to the days of Cicero: the 'ablative of comparison.'
"Third (and finally), it was not my use at all, but a direct quote from the chronicler. The quote has been used many times by many authors. One cannot read any amount of Irish history without having come across it at least once."
Okay, so I didn't put it exactly that way, but you get the idea.
The moral of the story is, that if anyone comes up to you on the street and starts to harangue you about the Latin grammar employed by Irish chroniclers in the Middle Ages, you are now fully prepared to kick him (or her) directly (if metaphorically) in the boiled potato.
The "Potato Famine"
Let's get this straight, now and for all time. Not one single potato died of starvation in An Gorta Mór, the "Great Hunger" that struck Ireland from 1846 to 1852 (and killed off most of my collateral ancestors).
Further, there was enough other food grown in Ireland to stave off the famine and to spare. Landlords sold the food to satisfy gambling debts and buy presents for their mistresses.
I will accept "Irish Famine," "The Great Famine," "The Great Irish Famine," or even "The Famine," but (for some strange reason), "Potato Famine" strikes me as stupid as my Latin quote struck the readers of Military History.
Shepherd's and Pot Pie
Contrary to what some people may believe (and regardless what food packages may tell you), "pot pie" is not a synonym for a meat pie. At one time all pies were meat pies. Fruit pies are an American invention. A pot pie is a Pennsylvania Dutch invention. The only "real" pot pie consists of a thick stew with the "crust" in the form of noodles added to the hot broth and cooked quickly just before serving. In my mother's family ham is inevitably the meat used. One of my aunts doesn't give a damn about the meat once it's flavored the noodles, and feeds it to "the boys" (her two dogs, Rufford and Dukester, her names, not mine). Saffron is used to flavor the broth, and peas are almost always added.
The traditional meat for a shepherd's pie is kid or lamb. As with Irish stew, these meats were used because the male animal was usually killed — you only need one ram in a flock (unless you're particularly keen on sheep fights). I use whatever meat or poultry I happen to have, even sausage. I have a Pyrex dish that will hold one pound of frozen mixed vegetables, one pound of chopped or ground meat, one or two chopped onions, garlic, cumin (very little), salt, black pepper, a squirt of soy sauce (if using poultry, not for sausage), a pint of beef bouillon made from cubes, and instant mashed potato flakes for thickening. I make "real" mashed potatoes for the top.
#30#
