Declan Chellar October 8th, 2007
In 1986 I was on a train from London heading towards Holyhead in Wales so I could catch the ferry to Dublin. This was an old-style train with six-seat compartments and a corridor running down the side of the carriage. Each compartment had blinds, so what typically happened was the people inside a compartment would pull down the blinds so that passers-by would not see that there were seats free. That’s human nature, isn’t it? We all want our own space and we are reluctant to share it.
On this particular occasion I found all the blinds were down in the compartments and I got tired of knocking on doors asking if there was room (and I didn’t even have a pregnant wife and a donkey), so I gave up and resigned myself to standing in the corridor for the duration of the journey. Little did I know that I had decided to stand right outside a compartment that only had three people in it. They knew I was standing there, because one of them peeked out and saw me. Anyway, I was saved by the conductor, who ushered me in when he saw that there were seats inside .
Now here’s the bit where human nature really kicked in. Once I was inside, I didn’t suggest we raise the blinds. There was nobody sitting opposite me and I liked the leg room. Raising the blinds might reveal the free space in my compartment. That’s right… my compartment. My luxury didn’t last, however, as a short while later the conductor opened the door again and ushered in another passenger. I confess, to my shame, I felt a modicum of resentment.
So why do I bring this up twenty-one years later. Well, firstly, because blogs didn’t exist in 1986 and secondly because the memory was triggered by something I saw on TV this morning.
I am on a business trip to the USA at the moment and there was a report on the TV about Mexican immigrants (both legal and illegal) and how many Americans resent their presence and resent their speaking Spanish when the official language of the USA is English. Well, it may be the de facto language but it is not yet the official language. Many of the people interviewed were talking about introducing legal reforms to oblige immigrants to speak English. The irony for me watching that programme is that all of those English-speakers are immigrants themselves. What would be a good analogy here? I don’t know, perhaps kind of like how the people of the Sioux nation might have resented all those pesky Europeans who just refused to learn to speak any dialect of the Sioux language. Those English speakers are just people who were once in the corridor and are now inside the compartment. Indeed, the ancestors of those interviewed took California, New Mexico and Texas from Mexico by force of arms.
Texas is a great example. Spain stole it from the indigenous tribes. The Mexicans stole it from the Spanish when they kicked them out. The Mexicans then allowed some US immigrants to settle there. Instead thousands of US families swarmed illegally into Texas and decided they now owned it. Hmmm… perhaps Mexico is planning to turn the tables. Every country has a mere veneer of legality. Every country was stolen at some point from someone.
I’m not having a pop at the Americans. The same is true in Ireland. The Irish are a mongrel breed (I myself am Irish only on my mother’s side). Everyone likes to think of themselves as Celts, but in the mix you’ll find Viking Norman, English, Welsh and Scottish at the very least. There is also a smattering of Italian here and there. Even Ireland’s mythology is full of stories of one people being conquered and replaced by another. Nowadays, if you walk down the streets of Dublin you’ll hear all sorts of languages being spoken. I believe some of the newspapers in Ireland even have supplements in Eastern European languages. Of course, just as in the USA, some people bemoan the influx of foreigners who don’t speak our language. Irony layered upon irony, I love it!
Firstly, it’s not our language. It’s the language of our English conquerers.
Secondly, everyone in Ireland is descended from immigrants.
Thirdly, if the economy didn’t need those immigrants, they wouldn’t be there.
It’s the same in the UK and in Spain the descendents of Moorish invaders bemoan the arrival of Moroccan immigrants. And if we all think it’s bad now, just wait until global warming melts all the glaciers and 40% of the world’s population starts migrating away from endless drought.
The world is divided into two groups of people: those in the corridor trying to find a compartment and those in the compartments trying to keep them out. Just remember that everyone inside the compartment was once in the corridor too.
Bonus points if you can tell me what film the title of this post comes from.