We’ve come a considerable distance in our study of Ireland. We started with geology — plate tectonics, the changing shapes and locations of lands and seas — and mythology, using a very brief version of The Book of Invasions where we learned about the giants, shape-shifters, and people of the goddess Dana who were believed in Medieval Europe to have been the first migrations to Ireland. After moving fairly quickly through the Celts and the arrival of Christianity, we then met the Vikings, who established the first towns as well as raiding the monasteries for their treasures. Invaders become settlers who are invaded by another group over and over — in Irish history and elsewhere. The Norsemen became the Normans in what is now France and invaded Ireland after they had gained control in England. As the Anglo-Normans became “more Irish than the Irish,” their assimilation became a concern to the English rulers, most notably Richard II and later, Henry VII. Rebellion and resistance, the shifting control of lands, and conflicts among the most powerful families as well as with England led to years of armed struggle.

Then came Henry VIII and his split with the Pope over his desire for a divorce from his first wife. At the same time, Martin Luther was raising questions (95 of them!) about the practices and integrity of the Roman Catholic church throughout Europe. What started out as a reform movement within the Catholic church became an increasingly-deep schism between the various groups of so-called Protestants and the traditional Catholics. We spent time on this on Tuesday, as much of this information was entirely new to the group and had them feeling a little confused about the difference between Martin Luther and Martin Luther King. We explained that one of the reasons that the founders of the United States wanted there to be a total separation between the national government and any specific religion was their knowledge of the turmoil that this linkage had caused in the past. Ultimately, what the Reformation meant to Ireland was that the secular conflict became entangled with religious differences. The legacy of that emotion-laden blend remains an issue in Ireland and Northern Ireland to the present day.

As the week ended, we had moved through the Tudors (including Elizabeth I and her meeting with the pirate queen known as Grace O’Malley), the reigns of James I and Charles I, the “Protectorate” era under Oliver Cromwell after Charles was executed, and the numerous waves of plantation settlers from England and Scotland who were under strict orders to avoid any kind of assimilation with the native population. As the plantations expanded, the Catholic Irish were moved off their lands and pushed into the less-fertile western province of Connacht. We’ve had some interesting tangential conversations. Cromwell’s name is hated in Catholic Ireland to this day — but the worst actions were done by his successors. Isn’t this a bit like naming Columbus as the singular villain of New World colonization and atrocities? How is some of what we are learning about the plantation of settlers in Ireland similar to what went on in the United States as our wagon trains full of settlers went west? Why were they encouraged (through the promise of free or cheap land as well as an appeal to their patriotism) by the government to take such a risky journey? How did the split within Christianity affect the alliances and clashes among Catholic France and Spain and Protestant regions such as the Dutch Republic in the Netherlands as well as Great Britain? All of this is very new material for most of out students, and we aren’t expecting them to remember all of it or understand the full complexity. At the same time, we’ve heard some excellent insights and questions as we’ve read, watched videos, and talked.

As I keep reminding our students, any fragment of these times and places could form a topic of study for a full year (or more). But our goal is to give them a learning experience that is different from what they have done before — not a deep look at a short time period, place, and/or event (such as ancient Egypt or the Civil Rights movement) but a longitudinal sweep across a single place from its geological beginnings to the current day. Those boundaried studies of specific events don’t occupy an isolated place — they are part of a whole mainland of history rather than being detached islands, and the causes and effects go on and on in both directions..

Our students are starting to make some wonderful connections. One child commented this week on the fact that we are getting close to the time of the American Revolution, and that he could now see the problems facing Britain in their efforts to control the distant 13 colonies because they were also engaged in conflicts in Ireland and in the rest of Europe that consumed money, troops, and political attention.  Some of the tunes and songs that we have been doing on our pennywhistles and in our Wednesday sing have taken on new meaning. As we watched a video documentary about Irish history, they were interested to see a statue of Thomas Moore, who wrote the words to “The Minstrel Boy.” They also saw and responded to a painting of Turlough O’Carolan, who composed (among many other tunes) “Planxty Fanny Power.” We’ve been playing that on pennywhistle for a while, always taking a moment to giggle over how the title name sounds to our modern ears. In the video, they heard O’Carolan described as a musician who “straddled both worlds” in Ireland — composing tunes in the classical style for the Protestant Ascendancy but still being an itinerant harper in the ancient tradition. When students saw that the first performance of Handel’s Messiah took place in Dublin in 1742 and heard some of the music played, most recognized it and, again, felt that something had acquired a new context.

We have a lot of enthusiastic pennywhistle players in our group at this point. Without being asked, some have brought their whistles to our Wednesday sing to accompany The Minstrel Boy. We are finding a place of convergence with Diane and Jeri’s study of the American Civil War as that song had 2 more verses added at that time, almost certainly by an Irish immigrant soldier in the Union army, probably serving in what became known as the Irish Brigade. We’ll be adding to those opportunities to find common ground among our two social studies topics, our sing, and our pennywhistle playing.

Finally, a bit of a personal and tangential information. I got an email this weekend from Sam Agre, a Miquon student who is now about to graduate from American University. He said that he was cleaning out his “old room” (which I took to be at his family home) and discovered his pennywhistle. He was wondering if I could send him some of the tunes we had done when he had been in our class, as he would like to start playing again. And, of course, I will. You never know, do you? It really made me smile.