Britain's colonial legacy in Ireland under spotlight after Black Lives Matter protests - BBC News

Continuing controversy over the future of some public statues, and protests by the Black Lives Matter movement, are shining a new light on aspects of Britain’s imperial past.

For the latest in a series of reports considering the legacy of imperialism, Sophie Raworth presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Fergal Keane, who has been to the province of Munster in the Republic of Ireland, one of the early testing grounds of British colonialism.

[ronanhannon]

“Thousands died in the famine” bro our population before the famine was *8.2 million* were still only at *4.9 million* we lost half our population and you try dull that town to just a couple thousand?

[Mags]

The last line in this video, "It really is the past", strikes me as odd. To say that Munster, or any part of Ireland, is unaffected by our history with Britain doesn't ring true. The fact that everyone was speaking in English in this video shows just one way the impact colonisation still has on present day Ireland.

[bridlong]

Our country is still divided...it is not in the past. It is ever present.

[Just-Tony]

Disingenuous of the BBC to only mention Munster, like Ireland doesn't continue to be a divided nation because of British colonialism, where's the mention of Ulster in your report?

[samteedum]

Wonder why they discuss Munster, not Ireland because most of Ulster is still under British rule. Sneaky.

[tpswift]

"The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic."

[RubixCube]

Unfortunately it's not the past all over Ireland, its very much the present.

[rkevo]

The video didn't even scratch the surface

[sarahclare]

The English did make our Irish ancestors slaves. They were taken on slave ships in the early 17th.February to their colonised south sea islands. And remember the famine here in Ireland was an attempt at etnic cleansing. The food was shipped out of the country to England leaving the Irish to starve. We never did get an apology for 800 years of horror.

[ParawhoreLoL]

All this was surprising to see as an Irish man, but not one mention of the disgusting criminal removal of our mother tongue through the penal laws. It's not even called Munster, it was called An Múmhain, but the British Anglicised all our place names, surnames and then completely outlawed the use of our own language

[freethinker]

Judging from the comments below the English still in total denial about their terrible history.

[susanb]

all the irish who were transported had their histories wiped, too. i have no idea who my people were

[dasca]

A United Ireland once again. Let us Irish be a united Ireland once again.

[liketheroman]

Wow. The Brits still don't want to hear about their history. See the rage in these comments. It's hilarious.

[ahyan]

Ireland was one of the most oppressed British territories

[MandNsvideos]

Well since they allow comments...








Tiocfaidh ar lá

[Universemaster]

That poor girl at the end says she couldn't imagine what it would be like to have her culture and sense of identity stripped from her, when that's exactly what's happened. The language, customs, epic literature and modes of expression which defined the Gaelic heritage of her ancestors was forcibly dissolved by deliberate British policy. What remains of true Irish culture are mere reconstructions, theorised by poets and academics; rather than evolving organically from living, breathing modes of communication. Irish people have lost everything. This young lady should be livid.

[mrkeogh]

My old history teacher used to suggest switching the word "black" for "Catholic" and you see pretty quickly what anti-Catholic sentiment and long-standing policy in the North was.

[LimerickWarrior]

Most irish people do not want anything other than an acknowledgement it happened. History is history, learn from it, do better and move forward.

[oliverreilly]

This leaves out a lot but I supose if you only have a 5 minute segment... I was once in cork (part of Munster) when an English friend visiting from London, he was telling us in the Pub about how he was going to take the next day to visit the historic sites, our local host said "Don't bother ye burnt it all", the English friend went ahead with his plans, the next evening a paler version of this English Friend met us in the Pub an started apologising for the Black and Tans burning everything of historic relevance in the Irish was of Indepence(1919 -1921).

Perhaps the Black and Tans need to taught in English History.