US HANDBOOK:"THE IRISH are an amalgam of many strains, often inconsistent and more often marked by contradiction," according to US briefing documents produced 25 years ago.
The Defense Intelligence Agency, which produced a Cultural Behaviour Handbookfor staff deployed here following Ronald Reagan's visit to Ballyporeen, advised on the character of the Irish.
Its document, dated 1986 and now declassified, found the Irish “fatalistic and full of optimism; fiercely loyal and bitter rivals among themselves; proud and self-deprecating; fighters and kind of heart, sentimental and hard realists, maudlin and above all, mirthful”.
For all the country’s difficult history and then current problems, the handbook said the Irish people were “radiating a joy in life which comes straight from the heart”.
Author JE Craddock prefaced his 40-page document, which comes complete with extensive bibliography, with a disclaimer.
His work was “a humble attempt to capture the Irish character”, he said.
Its narrative, while striving to avoid condescension, chimes in with the Guinness-and-potatoes view of Ireland and describes a country, North and South, which has changed dramatically in the interim.
“The Gaels had lively imaginations and whimsical beliefs in the supernatural which remain to this day,” it found.
“An old Cork woman who was asked: ‘Do you believe in the fairies?’ replied, ‘I do not, but they’re there’.”
In another section on Irish social mores, the handbook declares “no other institution is of greater social significance than the Irish pub”.
“ . . . the pub is a place to socialise, where the men often go for relaxation at the end of a long work day before going home.
“Dinner, as we know it has already been served in the early afternoon, and the evening ‘tea’ consisting of cold cuts and other light snacks is not usually served until 9-10pm.”
Analysing the succession of invasions, rebellions, wars, settlements and disasters, the handbook attempts to explain what the author clearly saw as the riddle of the Irish outlook – particular regarding our nearest neighbour.
“It was in the time of Elizabeth I that there was laid the foundation of traditional Irish hatred for governing Englishmen,” Craddock opined, “which was to remain so deep in Irish consciousness”.
On religion, the handbook emphasises the “deeply-felt respect for cloth by Irish Catholics,” but it also detected “a growing willingness to abandon the rigidity of some formal church positions”.