Post by snacky on Dec 22, 2014 16:31:00 GMT
After watching "The Prince and the Rebel" I looked up the Fenian Raids on Wikipedia;
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_raids
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_Rising
To boil this down: Ireland had wanted to throw off British parasitic rule for a long time, and massive Irish participation in the American Civil War (thanks to the earlier famine migrations...) gave new hope for a military organization and uprising.
Note the geography in play here:
The Irish Civil War vets are in America.
Canada, right next door, is still a dominion under the British empire. Lot of British military and government outposts there, as well as general symbols of civilization like thriving Canadian cities.
The most convenient way for the Fenians to harass the British is to take action not in Ireland (though they did that, too), but in Canada. Hence the "Fenian raids" against British forts and such.
I'm not sure about people in Canada, but most people in the US have only the vaguest idea of what happened in the 19th century - even the Civil War (unless they are some sort of Civil War buff). But the Wikipedia article said that the Fenian raids were part of what gave Canada a national identity and strongly motivated confederation. They also motivated the development of Canada's armed forces. Seems like an important topic in Canadian history!
When I see Irish/Orangemen conflict on MM, I always associate it with US or British history. I know about the Potato Famine migrations (thanks Tom Cruise!) and I know about the British/North Ireland conflict that is still ongoing today. Because Canada is no longer under British sovereignty, it was a leap of imagination just to extend that British/North Ireland conflict to Toronto - but this has been a regular part of the MM "cosmos", so now that's a little education in history I actually got from MM.
The Fenian Raids, however, are meaningless to me, and I wish they had been brought forward a bit more. The British were still sending out guards against these in the 1890s. I think it's an important part of Canadian history that MM is in a position to convey. Maybe veterans could be highlighted somehow.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_raids
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_Rising
To boil this down: Ireland had wanted to throw off British parasitic rule for a long time, and massive Irish participation in the American Civil War (thanks to the earlier famine migrations...) gave new hope for a military organization and uprising.
Note the geography in play here:
The Irish Civil War vets are in America.
Canada, right next door, is still a dominion under the British empire. Lot of British military and government outposts there, as well as general symbols of civilization like thriving Canadian cities.
The most convenient way for the Fenians to harass the British is to take action not in Ireland (though they did that, too), but in Canada. Hence the "Fenian raids" against British forts and such.
I'm not sure about people in Canada, but most people in the US have only the vaguest idea of what happened in the 19th century - even the Civil War (unless they are some sort of Civil War buff). But the Wikipedia article said that the Fenian raids were part of what gave Canada a national identity and strongly motivated confederation. They also motivated the development of Canada's armed forces. Seems like an important topic in Canadian history!
When I see Irish/Orangemen conflict on MM, I always associate it with US or British history. I know about the Potato Famine migrations (thanks Tom Cruise!) and I know about the British/North Ireland conflict that is still ongoing today. Because Canada is no longer under British sovereignty, it was a leap of imagination just to extend that British/North Ireland conflict to Toronto - but this has been a regular part of the MM "cosmos", so now that's a little education in history I actually got from MM.
The Fenian Raids, however, are meaningless to me, and I wish they had been brought forward a bit more. The British were still sending out guards against these in the 1890s. I think it's an important part of Canadian history that MM is in a position to convey. Maybe veterans could be highlighted somehow.
