While Mel Gibson’s “with Braveheart” gave a global resonance to Scotland’s struggle against the British, Liam Neeson “with Michael Collins” did something similar to Irish independence, and this year marks its centenary. The anniversary has been a little quiet so far, perhaps because the Irish did not get the full result in 1921, so they do not know exactly what to celebrate; Ireland, which had been severed from Ulster a hundred years earlier, had conquered autonomy, but had become a British domination like Australia and Canada, and any institutional relations with London were dissolved only in 1949. In fact, some open wounds remain in 2021: the border between Eire and Ulster, which was almost abolished in the EU by the 1998 Belfast Accords and the general membership of the Irish and British, was restored through Brexit. There are many factors that still give prominence to the Irish question, apparently nominal, but actually the center of history: it was the first country to be colonized by the British, who carried out the first (intense) experiments on the empire as early as the Middle Ages. ., And then became the first person to gain independence from London in the twentieth century, setting an example for India and other parts of the foreign empire. Many judgments have been played here. Wounds may not start bleeding again.

Before overcoming the fate of England, Ireland had started well from a historical point of view. During the Celtic era and its golden age, Ireland’s hero Cù Chulainn (who accidentally inspired Conan the Barbarian’s appearance in fantasy literature and cinema) was the setting for the wonderful story. It easily passed from the time of the Druids to the time of the Christian monks, and thanks to the conversion promoted by St. Patrick (385-461), Ireland worked very well for all Irish, even in the Dark Ages. In the early Middle Ages, the island not only ignited the flames of Christian and Roman civilization, but when barbarian occupations suffocated almost all of Western Europe, it sent missionaries to Christianize a large part of it from the beginning. Along with the continent and San Colombano (540-615), the Irish came to build monasteries even in northern Italy.

Things began to get complicated when Ireland faced the Viking occupation in the 9th and 10th centuries, but it was not over. After several conflicts, two populations, local and Scandinavian, merged, and even Irish participated in the population of Iceland; Who knows, they may have made a cultural contribution to the extraordinary storytelling of the Icelandic people.

But when the British came to Ireland, yes, it was a shock; The island entered an eight-century-long dark tunnel.

We have only mentioned the background; An article in the Newstand issue of Iron Magazine tells the sequel to the story of the British occupation and domination, followed by the (actually) freedom struggle led by Michael Collins. In addition to various scientific and contemporary issues, the October Heron deals with other historical issues: in particular, the reality and epic surrounding Cleopatra’s appearance, which St. Francis (in a very different context) distinguishes. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the other major wars of 1941; They were wars eighty years ago, but since then the world has changed so much and created so many twists and turns that those events will appear farther away than those of Cleopatra. Let’s refresh the memory.