Quote from: Oraisteach on February 04, 2011, 08:00:15 PM
Evil Genius, I ask this in earnest. As things stand today, in your opinion, what percent of the descendents of Planter stock would label themselves as Irish? And what percent would opt for the term Ulster-Scots or British? I certainly consider them Irish but wonder if they themselves do. In my young day—I know I sound antediluvian—I hazard a guess that the vast majority of them would have been unabashedly British, but I sense a movement away from that characterization. Maybe I'm wrong.
On a separate note, I watched the show, found it enjoyable for the most part, but was a little unsettled by a couple of things. First, the segment about O'Neill and Carrickfergus Castle intimated that the Plantation occurred at the behest of the native population, a sort of latter-day Dermot McMurrough/Strongbow, implying that the natives willingly surrendered their lands, rather than a land grab. Second, Senator Webb lauded the Scots Presbyterians for their spirit of independence, and their belief in freedom of worship, equality and democratic principles. How I wonder, did they justify/rationalize casting off those latter two principles in ignoring the election of 1918 in Ireland and subsequently denying those two qualities to the minority population of Northern Ireland. I write this not to be incendiary but to reflect on Sen. Webb's description of the Ulster-Scots ethos.
Im a prod and i certainly consider myself an irishman, much to the chagrin of a few of the bigots on here i might add.
I watched the show, thought it was very simplistic and sweeping to be honest, i suppose a two hour documentary covering such a lot of ground was always going to suffer from this though.
I have to say i had a different take on the carrick castle story, simplistic yes, but the 'natives asking for it' no, just a person with power/wealth doing whatever it takes to hang onto some semblance of it, its been repeated through history ad infinitium.