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Summary
Travel is an act for human beings to visit new places and experience different cultures and histories. Through travel, people can actually feel historical events and people’s lives by visiting historical places and cultural heritage sites, and can gain a deeper understanding of history and broaden their own perspectives. In this section, we will discuss the historical background of the trip and the places visited based on Ryotaro Shiba’s “Kaido yuku” (On the Road) about this journey and history.
In the previous article was a travelogue of Ireland, a trip to visit the United Kingdom. This time, he continued his journey to Ireland.
After arriving in Dublin by air from London and Liverpool, Ryotaro Shiba first toured Dublin and its suburbs. Next, he returned to Dublin after visiting Galway, Arran Island, and Kerry Island. In the village of Cong, near the western tip of the island of Ireland, he examines the ethnicity of the Irish and Irish immigrants based on John Ford’s “The Quiet Man,” which was filmed there. In the Aran Islands, the documentary film “Aran” and other films will provide clues about living in a harsh natural environment where there is only bedrock and no soil. While visiting the Kerry Peninsula, Killarney, and Kenmare, he will also consider Ireland as a fairy kingdom, using Yayoi and Koizumi Yakumo as material for his discussion.
The first human settlement on the island of Ireland is believed to have occurred during the Paleolithic Era, around 7500 BC. Later, as described in “Irish Road Trip (1): Travels in Britain,” Celtic tribes invaded the island, which led to the beginning of the Iron Age. The kingdom was ruled by monks (druids), who worked as educators, scientists, poets, soothsayers, and bearers of law and history. Around A.D., the island of Britain was ruled by the Roman Empire, but Scotland, Wales, and Ireland were not invaded by the Roman Empire or Germanic tribes, and the Celtic tribal states continued, with each region gradually separating from this time with its own historicity.
Christianity was introduced around 600 A.D., and the polytheistic beliefs that had been practiced until then were exterminated, and Celtic beliefs also changed.
The 9th and 10th centuries saw the arrival of the Vikings and the subsequent settlement of Norsemen on the coast, as described in “Irish Road Trip (1): Travels in England. The cities of Dublin, Wexford, Cork, and Limerick became the largest cities in Ireland. At that time, there were several semi-independent Tuathas in Ireland, and civil war continued among them, with the aim of unifying the whole country.
English colonization of Ireland began with the Norman invasion in 1169. After King Henry II of England took control of Ireland, English influence in Ireland almost disappeared due to the Scottish invasion, the decline of English and Norman populations in urban areas caused by the plague (Black Death), and the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses in England.
In the 1500s, the religious revolution and the strengthening of Protestant rule in England led England, Wales, and Scotland to embrace Protestantism, while Ireland remained steadfastly committed to Catholic doctrine. The conflict between Protestants and Catholics would intensify with the subsequent reoccupation and colonization of Ireland by England.
One of the most famous religious events in Ireland is St. Patrick’s Day.
St. Patrick’s Day is one of the Christian Catholic festival days established on March 17. St. Patrick’s Day is the anniversary of the death of St. Patrick, who spread Christianity to Ireland, and is an event to honor his achievements and celebrate traditional Irish culture. Although not as important religiously as Easter or Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day events are held with great fanfare in Ireland and other countries and regions with large numbers of Irish immigrants, and in recent years the festival has spread around the world as a way to understand and enjoy Irish culture. The event is held on the day of St. Patrick’s Day, when the whole city is painted green, the symbolic color of Ireland. This is because Ireland is called the “Emerald Isle” after its beautiful green landscape. People wear green clothes, eat green food, and drink green beer (Ireland is also the mother country of “Guinness beer”).
On St. Patrick’s Day, the three-leaf clover, known as the shamrock, is often used as a motif. The shamrock is also Ireland’s national flower.
Ireland then gained limited autonomy between 1782 and 1800, but after the suppression of the 1798 rebellion, England hastened the process of completing the full colonization of Ireland, and in 1801 the Irish Parliament was abolished and Ireland became a constituent state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Act of Union In 1801, the Irish Parliament was abolished and Ireland became a member of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Act of Union, and was completely annexed to Great Britain. The annexation led to some improvements in the status of Catholics, but the Irish economy stagnated further as the center of economy and trade shifted to London, and the potato famine of the 1840s caused the population to decline from a peak of 8 million in 1840 to 4.4 million in 1911 due to starvation and emigration. The population declined to 4.4 million in 1911.
After the Irish War of Independence (Anglo-Irish War) from 1919 to 1921 and the Irish Civil War from 1922 to 1923, Ireland gained independence from the British Commonwealth in 1949. Protestants gathered in the north of Ireland, and conflicts with Catholics continued, and British troops were dispatched to Northern Ireland to quell the disturbances and replace the local police force to guard the city. In addition, the IRA, INLA, and other terrorist organizations and the British military repeatedly attacked and terrorized each other, and the death toll from these incidents reached 3,000. The Belfast Agreement of 1998 and the economic turnaround in both the U.K. and Ireland helped to calm the conflict.
Political instability and a lack of food due to the poor land have led to the dispersion of Irish people around the world, and it is estimated that as many as 1.2 million people have fled Ireland. This compares with a current population of 5 million in Ireland and 1.9 million in Northern Ireland. The Irish who came to the U.S., in particular, were forced to live a life of subsistence as lowly laborers, mainly in the cities of the Northeast, and then actively engaged in physically demanding occupations such as police officers and firefighters.
Later, Irish immigrants became a major force in politics, with John F. Kennedy and current President Joe Biden, both Irish Catholics, becoming supporters of the Democratic Party in particular.
Ryotaro Shiba and his group will begin their journey in Dublin, the capital of Ireland. First, they will visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the largest church building in Ireland named after St. Patrick, which is the reason for the aforementioned St. Patrick’s Day.
He also sees the statue of O’Connell (active in the aforementioned War of Independence) on Dublin’s Main Street, which reminds him of Ireland’s complex history.
Joyce’s Battery, outside Dublin, discusses the literature of James Joyce, who lived there. Joyce was a novelist and poet who wrote the novels “Ulysses” and “Dublin Citizen,” as well as short stories such as “Portrait of a Young Artist” and “Fenegans Wake.”
Ireland has produced many famous writers in the field of literature, and in addition to this James Joyce, other world-famous writers such as William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett, and Oscar Wilde were born in Ireland. In particular, the works of Irish poets are often emotional and beautiful, and they often express their love of Celtic culture and nature.
Twilight turns from purple crystal to a deep, even deeper blue. Lamps fill the streets with a pale green light. An old-fashioned piano plays a tune, a quiet, slow, lilting tune, and she bends over a yellow key and her head tilts this way. Shy thoughts and sad big eyes and people and hands that wander among the listeners. Twilight turns a deeper blue in the light of the violet crystal. From "Chamber Music" by James Joyce
From there, Ryotaro Shiba and his group went to Golwei, a city in the heart of the West Coast where the arts are thriving,
The tour includes the rocky Aran Islands and the Kerry Peninsula, where many remnants of Celtic culture remain,
He has used John Ford’s “The Quiet Man” and “Aran,” a documentary film about the Aran Islands, as clues to his thoughts on Irish life there.
Ireland is also a popular location for film production, with its beautiful natural scenery and historic buildings frequently used as film settings, contributing to the production of both domestic and international films. Irish actors and filmmakers have also enjoyed international success, and director John Ford is one of them.
The synopsis of the film is as follows: “Sean (John Wayne), a professional boxer in the United States, returns to his native Ireland after his retirement. Sean then falls in love with Mary (Maureen O’Hara), who lives nearby. However, Mary’s brother, the rowdy Red (Victor McLaglen), who doesn’t take kindly to Sean, vehemently opposes their marriage. …….” The film follows one couple as they fall in love, surrounded by the delightful villagers.
Another aspect of Ireland is what is known as the “land of fairies,” rooted in Celtic culture. There are many countries in the world with fairy tales, and Ireland is one of the countries with a strong tradition of fairy tales. There are even signs warning of fairies in Ireland.
Against the backdrop of such a culture, the person who interpreted/rediscovered Japanese folktales and legends in Japan became Koizumi Yakumo, aka Lafcadio Hearn. Koizumi Yakumo married a Japanese woman and wrote various books on Japan. One of the most famous of these is “Kwaidan” (ghost stories).
It was published in 1904 and consists of two parts: “Ghost Stories,” which contains 17 ghost stories, and “Mushikai,” which contains three essays. The stories “The Snow Woman” and “The Tale of Miminashi Yoshiichi” are probably ghost stories that every Japanese person has heard at least once.
Ryotaro Shiba also finished his trip with thoughts of William Butler Yeats and Oscar Wilde, poets and playwrights born in Ireland.
The Falling of the Leaves from William B. Yeats's Ascension's Ramblings (translated by Tsubosai Santo) Autumn has come to the leaves of the long grass that have loved us, autumn has come to the mice that nest in the straw, overhead the leaves on the nanakamado have turned yellow, the wet leaves on the wild strawberry have turned yellow Time has made our love fade and our hearts grow weary Let's part before the season of passion leaves us behind I'll give you a kiss and a tear on your downcast forehead
Oscar Wilde said To define is to limit. Consistency is the last resort of those who lack imagination. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist sees the hole in the doughnut.The next trip will be to the Echizen various roads and Fukui Prefecture.
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