105. I Didn't Know.

I didn’t know that Muhammad Ali was Irish. On the way to the cliffs of Moher we stop at McGann’s Pub in the very small village of Doolin in County Clare. It’s crowded for lunch. The walls are also crowded with meaningful paraphernalia. I notice a large photo of Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston after a one minute, first round knockout. What the heck? Why here? Well, Ali’s great grandfather left County Clare in the 1800’s for Louisville, Kentucky. He married a freed slave woman, and their daughter, Odessa, later married a Cassius Clay, Sr. Now the photo makes total sense. Especially for the Irish who historically feel collectively oppressed. And now to be World Champion. Hang this moment on the pub wall!

I knew John F. Kennedy’s family was Irish Catholic. But as I stand at Eyre’s Square in Galway’s City Center, there is a monument to him for his visit there in 1963. Like Ali, JFK’s great grandfather also emigrated to America, to be a cooper in Boston. It’s not an accident that the next day I pass by a nearby village on the other side of Galway Bay, a village called Boston.

In his speech on Eyre’s  Square, Kennedy said his great grandfather, “ . . left Ireland with only two things, his faith and belief in liberty.”  JFK reminded them that his memories of Galway would comfort him through any hardship ahead. Kennedy ends with the Irish phrase, “Mile Buiochas.” Thank You a million times. It reminds me of another iconic Kennedy moment in front of the Berlin Wall when he proclaimed, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” Both of these short phrases changed the perception of two different nations and made John F. Kennedy the beloved global figure he was.

I also didn’t know there was no Irish Potato Famine. Yes, between 1845-1952 there was a potato blight and one million died, another two million emigrated. But the Irish have a different name for this time - The Great Hunger. The devastation was not caused by lack of food. There was plenty of dairy, grain and meat in the country. But The Great Hunger was caused by British policy that basically expropriated this abundance for provisions in England and for it’s military in the far reaches of the British Empire. 

Ironically, Irish Catholics died. Not any Protestants. Catholics could not own land, so were basically tenant farmers who had to pay rent with their valuable produce. For themselves, they relied on one crop that was hardy, cheap and easy to produce. Potatoes, originally from the New World. So after England skimmed the top of the country’s food wealth, and when the remaining monoculture of potato failed, the population was decimated. There were over 8 million Irish at that time. It was nearly cut in half. Today, 175 years later, Ireland has gradually built its population up from 5 million to 7 million. It may be the only country in the world that had a higher number of residents in the 1800’s than it has now in 2025. I didn’t know that either.

I didn’t know that the Native American Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma has official social ties with Ireland if not political. The Choctaws were dislocated from their homelands in the 1830’s through the government’s forced marches during the infamous Trail of Tears. Because of this they felt a sympathetic brotherhood with the Irish “genocide” a decade later during The Great Hunger. The Choctaws actually sent relief to Ireland to show solidarity. Though small in effect, this gesture was huge in the soul of Irish Catholics. There is a Memorial today outside of Cork of giant stainless steel feathers rising form the earth symbolizing their kinship with the Choctaw. It’s called “Kindred Spirits.” Since the Republic of Ireland is wealthier today nearly two centuries later, it reciprocates that original Choctaw gesture of compassion every year by offering a full paid scholarship for an Irish University to a member of the Choctaw Nation. I didn’t know.

And lastly, I didn’t know about another strong kinship. The great orator Frederick Douglass spent time in Ireland when he was threatened at home in America. He found kindred spirits here who encouraged him to speak out against slavery. This helped transform him into the ardent abolitionist he became. He was friends with Daniel O’Connell, the Great Liberator of Irish Catholics. On one of my walks through Dublin down a cobblestone street there was of all things a very old Quaker Meeting House. A plaque outside commemorates that Douglass spoke there in 1845. Who would have thought that happened? Certainly, not I.

These are just a few examples of what I do know now about Ireland. Regarding all the things I still don’t know, I have no clue!