THE WEARIN' OF THE ORANGE
I would like to join the Smoking Christian in wishing you all a happy St. Patrick's Day. Do you wear green or orange on St. Paddy's Day? Our family comes from the north of Ireland and happens to be Protestant so we wear orange. This is the color of King William of Orange, the Dutch prince whom the English parliament brought over after they got rid of James II who in there eyes was a dangerous papist. It's a long story.
King James I of England and VI of Scotland followed his cousin, Elizabeth I, to the throne of England. He is famous for authorizing the translation of the Bible that bears his name; thus, the King James Version and the Authorized Version are the same thing. He took advantage of the hatred most of his English subjects bore for Roman Catholics to expand his possessions in Ireland. During the reign of Elizabeth I vast tracts of land were confiscated in retaliation for a Catholic rebellion. These, of course, were given to loyal Protestants while the rightful, Catholic owners were put out or executed. This practice was called "Plantation." James I continued and increased this practice. This is where the Moorheads come into the story.
We're Scots. The name used to be spelled "Muirhead." Scots will take anything if it's cheap, or better yet, free. All we had to do was swear the loyalty oath to good King Jimmy and the land in Ulster was ours. It was in County Antrim, the far northeast corner of Ireland. Our branch of the Moorheads didn't stay in Ireland very long. (Many others did stay and many more never left Scotland.) For some reason, our Moorheads left for the American colonies in the very early 1700s. Probably more free land.
So the Moorheads are technically Scots-Irish. We wear orange because we are Protestants, part of the people who were responsible for driving the Catholics into poverty (or to the American colonies where they took over New York and Boston). We are part of the reason for the "troubles" in Northern Ireland. Now I don't really know how my ancestors figured into all this. They may not have taken any free land at all. They were probably poor or they never would have left for America. Maybe they didn't hate Catholics. Nevertheless I would like to apologize for the Protestants who cared more about getting land than they did about loving their neighbors. There was no need for all the religious hatred and fighting. St. Patrick would not have been proud of us.
So, in the spirit of brotherly affection and good will to all, I would like to share a very interesting factoid I read today. Doctors have recently said that drinking one Guiness every day is the equivalent of taking one aspirin a day. It is good for your heart because it lowers the cholesterol deposits in your arteries.
We're all Irish on St. Patrick's Day! Thanks for stopping by. Cheers!
King James I of England and VI of Scotland followed his cousin, Elizabeth I, to the throne of England. He is famous for authorizing the translation of the Bible that bears his name; thus, the King James Version and the Authorized Version are the same thing. He took advantage of the hatred most of his English subjects bore for Roman Catholics to expand his possessions in Ireland. During the reign of Elizabeth I vast tracts of land were confiscated in retaliation for a Catholic rebellion. These, of course, were given to loyal Protestants while the rightful, Catholic owners were put out or executed. This practice was called "Plantation." James I continued and increased this practice. This is where the Moorheads come into the story.
We're Scots. The name used to be spelled "Muirhead." Scots will take anything if it's cheap, or better yet, free. All we had to do was swear the loyalty oath to good King Jimmy and the land in Ulster was ours. It was in County Antrim, the far northeast corner of Ireland. Our branch of the Moorheads didn't stay in Ireland very long. (Many others did stay and many more never left Scotland.) For some reason, our Moorheads left for the American colonies in the very early 1700s. Probably more free land.
So the Moorheads are technically Scots-Irish. We wear orange because we are Protestants, part of the people who were responsible for driving the Catholics into poverty (or to the American colonies where they took over New York and Boston). We are part of the reason for the "troubles" in Northern Ireland. Now I don't really know how my ancestors figured into all this. They may not have taken any free land at all. They were probably poor or they never would have left for America. Maybe they didn't hate Catholics. Nevertheless I would like to apologize for the Protestants who cared more about getting land than they did about loving their neighbors. There was no need for all the religious hatred and fighting. St. Patrick would not have been proud of us.
So, in the spirit of brotherly affection and good will to all, I would like to share a very interesting factoid I read today. Doctors have recently said that drinking one Guiness every day is the equivalent of taking one aspirin a day. It is good for your heart because it lowers the cholesterol deposits in your arteries.
We're all Irish on St. Patrick's Day! Thanks for stopping by. Cheers!
2 Comments:
I too, I must confess, am an Orange (Kinney) on my maternal grandmother's side. Growing up, however, we were always too busy being English to notice. Not a bad thing either.
Dear Yakimaniac,
Your confession is good for the soul. I wonder if they would accept us if we went back to Ireland and tried to help them get their land back?
I want you to know that I will step over the English thing and be your friend anyway. You know we Scots haven't much use for the English. But we will be best of friends just to prove a point!
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