#obv there’s ~ nuance ~ but I’m just stream of consciousnessing this

[badolmen]

Bloody Sunday Massacre anniversary is tomorrow. My dad grew up hearing from ill informed Americans about how it was an ‘age old religious conflict’ (those Protestants and Catholics never get alone). How the violence in the north, the arrests and raids and terrorizing was justified (they had to stop those awful carbombing IRA terrorists!). How it was impossible, the country had been conquered for centuries (why would they see freedom now? they lost the war. let it rest).

And of course, it isn’t completely free and perfect. This year I’ve seen the “Irish Unification of 2024” Star Trek meme a dozen times. It’s heartening to think that such a thing could be possible, by chance to coincide with a scifi show’s alternate history.

(But all I think of is Palestine. The lies and misinformation and the propaganda machine oiled in innocent blood.)

Even today you cannot publically display the names of the killers of the Bloody Sunday Massacre in the UK. The families of the murdered have yet to see justice. Some doubt they ever will.

(I think of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians starving, grinding animal feed for flour in a manufactured famine.)

The Choctaw and Cherokee nations sent donations during An Ghorta Mor. The Sultan sent ships of food and aid only for the British to turn most away.

(I also think of the thousands of Gaeltacht after the language was pushed to the brink of extinction. I think of the homes built on ancestral land, no more landlords or laws prohibiting Irish claims. I think of the music and laughter and dance of my family who once fled as refugees of a manufactured famine - we call our cousins across the sea and sing Come Out Ye Black and Tans over choppy phone connections.

I think of a free Palestine, and I see it - because I can see a free Ireland, more free than she’s been in centuries, closer to unity than she’s ever been. It won’t be easy or pretty - it won’t end over night, or over a few years. But that never stopped the spirit of a people dedicated to their own liberation. I know because I’ve seen it, I’ve lived among the fruits of freedom.

We can hold their hand and say, we know your pain. We see your struggle. We understand the injustice your face. We are proof that it is possible to overcome these horrors and see days filled with peace and joy. We will walk with you.)