Marcus Garvey said: “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” Where does the Grand child of an Irish Immigrant learn about Marcus Garvey one of Jamaica National Heroes? He learned about Garvey from his Irish Grand Father who loved watching the world go by, and always recognized a fellow brother in arms. Marcus Garvey is an Jamaican exile little Jess. England made many exiles in their own lands. I like Garvey Little Jess. Put him on your reading list along with W.B. Yeats.
Where does a grand child of immigrants learn about his roots? Not in school people! Not in some bar! He grabs the passing stories of he/she hears as their elders pass. He/she reads it in the books not assigned at school. He/she hears it in the songs never played on the radio. He/she feels it in the dancers all around him.
Tomorrow is Saint Patrick Day. I was blessed by Irish immigrant grand parents who left us a legacy of cultural thirst. It was understood and appreciated that school would teach us American history, but faith and everything Irish was left to to them to teach. We learned history through our Irish Rebel songs. We just don’t play them, we discussed them, we debated them, and we learned from them. Our history crossed that ocean in song and poem. We learned that Ireland long a province be, a nation once again. you come to know Ireland heroes through our music. Through Irish music we learned that neither 800 years of oppression, or the Great Famine could keep us down.
We learned to pray on your knees as soon as we could knee, We learned that while our faith may not be perfect, but in our darkest hour it will carry us through any storm. For our faith is our rock.
We found pride in our dancing, and we learned that our dances carried our souls across that ocean. We are Lord’s of the Dance.
Immigrant Grand Parents Thomas and Kathleen taught their children to celebrate Irish conversion to Christianity on Saint Patrick’s Day not plastic green hats and drink. It is a day of holy Obligation not a party. We go to church, we pray, we give thanks, we watch the parade, and we eat our tri-color dinner of Cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. We reflect on who we are, who we were, and who we shall stay.
Our 20017 plan for my wife and I is just like our first Saint Patrick’s day together 33 years ago in 1984 simple Mass at Saint Patrick cathedral, watch the parade, but in 2017 we eat dinner with our now New Yorker daughter, and remind her green hats and beer haven’t anything to do with being Irish.
So very Blessed to be the Grand Child of Irish Immigrants who came to call New York home, and who made it and us Irish,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner
If you like to travel down that memory lane when New York was Irish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcI... (When New York Was Irish by Mary O’Dowd) Happy Saint Patrick Day, Jesse The Walking Man Turner
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