The Irishman, finding himself in another environment, outside Ireland, very often knows how to make his worth felt. The economic and intellectual conditions of his homeland do not permit the individual to develop. The spirit of the country has been weakened by centuries of useless struggle and broken treaties. Individual initiative has been paralyzed by the influence and admonitions of the church, while the body has been shackled by peelers, duty officers and soldiers. No self-respecting person wants to stay in Ireland. Instead he will run from it, as if from a country that has been subjected to a visitation by an angry Jove.
James Joyce
My Grandmother left Dublin in the early 1900s, My Grandfather’s family was chased out by the Plantagenets, and the Bourbons, and the Hapsburgs, and any other Crown heads that made the mistake of sending a tax collector their way. Unfortunately they liked their whiskey, which had a deleterious effect on their aim when they shot at them.
And now we’ve got Joe Biden as king. Not much progress there.