Irish ImpressionsChesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
History
Irish Impressions
Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
Ireland -- Civilization; Irish question
But this is a parenthesis; because the point here is that the man in
the street (as distinct from the man in the field) has been separated
not only from his private but from his more public description. He has
not only forgotten his name, but forgotten his address. In my own view,
he is like one of those unfortunate people who wake up with their minds
a blank, and therefore cannot find their way home. But whether or no
we take this view of the state of things in an industrial society like
the English, we must realise firmly that a totally opposite state of
things exists in an agricultural society like the Irish. We may put it,
if we like, in the form of an unfamiliar and even unfriendly fancy. We
may say that the house is greater than the man; that the house is an
amiable ogre that runs after and recaptures the man. But the fact is
there, familiar or unfamiliar, friendly or unfriendly; and the fact
is the family. The family pride is prodigious, though it generally
goes along with glowing masses of individual humility. And this family
sentiment does attach itself to the family name; so that the very
language in which men think is made up of family names. In this the
atmosphere is singularly unlike that of England though much more like
that of Scotland. Indeed, it will illustrate the impartial recognition
of this, apart from any partisan deductions, that it is equally
apparent in the place where Ireland and Scotland are supposed to meet.
It is equally apparent in Ulster, and even in the Protestant corner of
Ulster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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