This is one of my favorite Irish Rebel songs, full of insults and curses. It was a coded message, the Drake being a reference to Robert Emmet (1778-1803). Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers recorded it once, but here’s a decent version.
If you can’t read it proper, here’s the transcription, with explanatory footnotes compiled with help on the Irish slang from Mr. Eoin Shalloo, Curator of Rare Books, National Library of Scotland, after the break.
(more…)
Although I still support the U.S. and coalition forces decision to liberate the people of Iraq from Saddam Hussein, and protect us from what then was an understandable fear of weapons of mass destruction, this was not what I would have expected would be the outcome of our effort.
As is unfortunately typical of Islam, they are once again taking over a Jewish holy site, erasing any connection to its Jewish roots, and turning it into a Mosque.
Islamists Erase Jewish Identity from Ezekiel’s Tomb in Iraq
(h/t: Israel Matzav)
NEW YORK (December 29, 2009) – The Iraqi news agency Ur News has revived fears that under pressure from Islamic political parties, the original Hebrew inscriptions and ornamentation on the walls around the tomb of Ezekiel are being (or have been) removed, this under the pretext of restoring the site. According to sources, the Antiquities and Heritage Authority in Iraq has been pressured by Islamists to historically cleanse all evidence of a Jewish connection to Iraq–a land where Jews had lived for over a thousand years before the advent of Islam.
Four months ago a German-based Iraqi journalist tipped off the Association of Jewish Academics from Iraq in Israel that plans were afoot to build a mosque on the site of the shrine of the Jewish prophet Ezekiel at al-Kifl…. The rumours were investigated by a philo-Semitic Iraqi Shi’a, Dr. Jabbar Jamal al-Din, a lecturer in Jewish Thought at the Kufa University. They were denied by the shrine’s director. Now a report by Ur News revives fears that in the absence of Jews on the ground, nothing, not even UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), stands in the way of politically-motivated plans to erase all Jewish traces of this ancient holy site.
…
Drastic changes taking place currently at the tomb of Ezekiel will change its character and prompt UNESCO to delete it as a protected site on the World Heritage List, similar to what happened to the historic city of Babylon, where old buildings were demolished and new layers of construction added.
…
Hebrew writings will or already has been erased from the site and from the room that houses the shrine. Restoration work includes skimming the walls, 3 metres high in the yard, 2 metres high inside the shrine. Sources say that the media are not allowed to take pictures and visits to the shrine are limited to pilgrims.
…
Iraq – the Biblical Mesopotamia -is almost as rich in Jewish history as the Land of Israel. The tomb of the prophet Ezekiel dates back to the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BCE. It was there in Iraq that Abraham discovered monotheism, and it is where the prophets Ezra, Nehemiah, Nahum, Jonah and Daniel are all buried.
Other similar instances:
–Before Islam, Medina Was Originally A Jewish City
–Minarets: A Symbol of Imperialism and Colonialism
–The Jewish History of “Arab/Muslim” Hebron
–Jewish History In “East” Jersualem
–Muslims Erasing Jewish Connection To Temple Mount
–History of Hagia Sofia; Church Converted To Mosque
–Muslims Destroy The Jewish Holy Temple Artifacts, 2, 3.
–Islamists Destroy Buddhist Sculptures, 2
–Muslims Destroy Joseph’s Tomb, 2,…twice
–
“Forasmuch as it is the indispensible duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received…together with penitent confession of their sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor; and their humble and earnest supplications that it may please God through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance…it is therefore recommended…to set apart Thursday the eighteenth day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feeling of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor…acknowledging with gratitude their obligations to Him for benefits received…To prosper the means of religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth ‘in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost‘.” – Samuel Adams, before the Continental Congress, November 1, 1777
Thanksgiving is perhaps one of the most desacralized holidays on the American calendar today. For many Americans, perhaps for most, this day will be about nothing more than engorging themselves on turkey and watching football games. Unlike Christmas and Easter, which have obvious overtones of Christianity, and therefore have to be relegated to the realm of non-existence, it is still possible in corporate America to wish someone “Happy Thanksgiving” without ending up in human resources. This has come, however, at the expense of understanding and acknowledging what the holiday is really all about.
As the extended quote from Mr. Adams above indicates, America is a nation that was saturated with reverence for God at her beginning. Despite the attempts by certain circles to deny this and to revise American history, any reasonable person who merely takes even a cursory glance at what our Founders wrote and said ought to be able to see this.
In turn, this is because our nation was founded upon religious freedom, upon being a haven for those who sought to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences. The first settlers, the Pilgrims, and later others, came here for this reason.
Indeed, they were these Pilgrims who instituted the first institutional time of thanksgiving to God. The Pilgrims settling in what was to become the Massachusetts Bay colony faced tremendous hardships – difficulties that would be almost beyond the comprehension of most of today’s fat Americans sitting down to watch their footballs games and eat their turkey. Half the Pilgrims who came over in the first wave died that winter. Of starvation and exposure.
Yet, they held on, and gave God the glory for it. They instituted a three-day holiday dedicated to praise, worship, and thanksgiving to God. Despite what the history books we learned from in school might say, they were not giving thanks to the Indians (though, of course, they did acknowledge and were grateful to them for their help and friendship). The Thanksgiving, however, was to God for His providence.
We live in a nation that is the richest and most blessed on earth. Any sane member among us must surely understand, however, that we do not deserve such blessing. The prosperity we have – in spite of the provocations that our nation, our government, our culture, our entertainment, our people, our churches, our seminaries make against Him – is due to the mercy and forebearance of the Almighty God of creation.
I urge us all to consider this as we go into Thanksgiving this coming Thursday. I do not mean for us to feel guilty about watching football or eating turkey. That was not my intention. But, let us think about the REAL meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday, not just the things that the world has tried to use to get our eyes off of that meaning.
Crossposted at Meditate in thy Precepts
Since this question seems to be getting some play in the comments section below, I’ll provide a couple of links to some good sources that deal with the Alexandrian library, and with the treatment of classical literature by early Christians in general. First, the library at Alexandria as the question is addressed by a trained historian, since this one involves a good deal of anti-Christian myth-making. read the whole thing, because it’s actually quite interesting to see the sources involved. To make a long story, short, however, the most likely culprit behind the destruction of the main library at Alexandria appears to be Julius Caesar, whose capture of the city in 47 BC may have accidentally ignited a conflagration which burned the library. Sorry, but the Christians didn’t burn it down.
To address a couple of other modern myths that are usually entertained by historically ignorant secularists,
It can safely be said that the story of Christians destroying the Serapeum library was originated by Edward Gibbon in the late eighteenth century when he read too much into his sources and this story has been repeated ever since. Alexandria Rediscovered by Jean-Yves Empereur, Cosmos by Carl Sagan and From the Holy Mountain by William Dalyrymple are just three recent books to combine this myth with the earlier loss of the Royal Library while even scholars such as Luciano Canfora and Alfred Butler have tried to interpret the evidence to support Gibbon.
The sad part is, as seen elsewhere in the article, that Gibbon wasn’t even really being honest with his sources. Secular humanists such as Carl Sagan have merely been repeating historical rubbish uncritically because it suits their agenda. Another myth is also exploded,
Hypatia of Alexandria, the female mathematician, has become a romantic heroine, a feminist icon and an archetypal victim of religious intolerance. Charles Kingsley of The Water Babies fame published his novel, Hypatia, in 1853 and it was this that started her modern cult. However the sources for her life are scanty to say the least. Socrates is embarrassed to have to report her murder, John of Nikiou revels in it and the Suda gives a few more details that need to be treated with the same caution as everything else in that Byzantine encyclopaedia. The Christian bishop Synesius of Cyrene was a pupil of hers and despite her paganism wrote her adoring letters asking for advice. Modern myths about her include that she was a Librarian of the Great Library and that she worked at the Museum. Neither have any basis in fact or the sources and there is nothing to connect her to the Royal or Serapeum libraries at all.
Now, on to the question of the Christian treatment of classical literature in general. Glenn Miller does a quite good job of addressing this matter. Again, I encourage our readers to set some time aside and read the whole thing. A good general summary, however, is this,
This is a good and thoughtful question. And, as with many questions (still!), I was at first slightly ‘afraid’ of what my research might uncover. I am generally concerned about trying to defend the acts of the post-Constantine institutional church, and this sorta fell into that arena. I was frankly surprised to find out that the church–both East and West– actually was the main preserver of classical literature during these difficult times in world history.
That rather overturns the secular narrative, now doesn’t it?
Enjoy! And please, consider this to be a Sunday afternoon open thread.
The Diary of Daedalus
website design was Built By All of Us
