alism. Just in recent months, the E.U.rnhas tried to clamp clown on religions instructionrnin Ireland’s schools, and thernIrish are getting tcstv’ about losing controlrnover their own fishing grounds: Accordingrnto E.U. rides written by the majorrnfishing nafions, Irish fishermen are enfitledrnto just seven percent offish taken inrntheir own waters. Even the Irish potato isrnimdcr siege, as the comitr’ is floodedrnwifli foreign tubers. One E.U. supporterrntold me rather ruefidK’ that he had drivenrnback from Tipperar’ \ ith a sack of localrnpotatoes—”real Irish spuds.”rnEor all the apparent abuses, few Irishrnintellectuals arc willing to take up flicrncudgels for a “Little Ireland” policy. Onernsterling exception is Gerard Casey, a Uni-rncrsih’ College philosoph’ professor withrnan American Ph.D. Best known for hisrnoutspoken defense of Christian moral positionsrnon abortion and divorce. Dr. Casc’rnhas also questioned the blessings of thernE.U. 0er lunch, he points out that Irishrnloalh’ to Europe was understandable inrnthe das when the union was showeringrnflic litfle island wifli dcelopment loansrnand ineshnents, but now fliat flicv arernbeing forced to pa’ up, thev arc evenrnmore loyal. Where flic Irish used to describernsomeone, in moral terms, as arn”good Catholic” or a “good Protestant,”rnthe’ now express flieir approval b’ sa’ing,rn”He’s a good European.”rnIreland’s new status as a pro incc is especialKrnevident on television. Lookingrnfor Irish news one afternoon, I foundrna short 5:00 program on the nationalrnChannel One, but it was in Gaelic, a languagernthat is less known in Ireland flianrnSpanish is in the United States. An hourrnlater, fliere was an English-language program,rnand flic lead story was the floodingrnin England. I might as well have beenrnwatching the BBC or Sky.rnRonghK- a fourfli of flie Republic’s smallrnpo])ulation lives in or around Dublin, andrnas one joumalist tells me, it is more like anrnextended illage flian a metropolis. By anyrnstandard, fliough, Dublin is a great internationalrncit’, livelier flian Chicago andrnmore aniusing than London. For all flicrnItalian restaurants and American clubs, itrnremains Irish enough to seem foreign.rnStill, we were looking fomard to our driverndown to Kilkenny and Gasliel and flienrnover to Kerr—to “the real Ireland,” asrnsomeone said.rnKilkenm and Gasliel, among flic toprntourist destinations in Ireland, were notrndisappointing, fliough the experience ofrnisiting riicm would be vasflv improved ifrnflie people in charge of Irish antiquitiesrncould be persuaded to fire their tourrnguides and burn their videotapes. AtrnKilkenny Gasfle, the little girl giving fliernguided tour explained fliat Irish womenrnin flie bad old davs iieer went outside,rnand fliey slept sitting up in their shortrnbeds because —I am not making thisrnup—thev had a superstitions fear of assumingrnthe posture of a corpse in itsrngrave. She is telling this litfle fable of flicrnsophisticated Anglo-Irish Butlers in thernskeptical age of Victoria.rnMy father did not like to think ofrnhimself as Irish, and from what I can calculate,rnhe was three-fourths Scottish,rnfliough his grandflither, James Fleming,rnhad come from Casfleisland in Count}’rnKerry. I had always imagined Castleislaiidrnas a quiet little town —somethingrnlike Castletown in The Quiet Man—surroundedrnby green, rolling hills leading,rnin a short walk, to the sea. The rollingrnhills are there, fliough the 20-inile walkrnwould be long even by Irish standards,rnand alfliough it was winter, fliey wererngreen enough, even in the dreary coldrnrain, to make it seem like spring in Kerr’.rnOur Scottish chatelaine told us thatrnshe used to find Castleisland somethingrnof a joke. The farmers would doubleparkrntheir trucks in the broad main street,rnmaking it a daunting task for any outsiderrnto pass flirough the eve of the needle. Inrnthe blowing rain, we poked around inrntwo churchyards but turned up no evidencernof any Fleming ever having passedrnfliis wa’, though fliere is a Dr. Fleming inrnthe telephone book and, so I had discoveredrnon the internet, a caravan park. Ourrnchatelaine suggests tactfully that thernFleniings vere substantial, propertiedrnpeople, but if they were, the}’ probablyrnlost eyer}’thing in a card game, as one ofrnmy father’s maternal ancestors was said tornhave lost his holdings in a major utilitiesrncompanv in Chicago or as another refusedrnto contest a large inheritancernconned out of his fiiflier by a shiffv’ SalvationrnArmy officer who befriended him inrnhis later years, saying, “I wouldn’t take arnpenn’ of the old b d’s money.”rnMonks and friars take vows of poert}’;rnmy family takes to poverty more easilyrnflian to religion. Shaking his head whenrnhe found out I was going to church, thernold man said fliat no one in our family’srnhistory had ever displayed a spiritual sidern(though his own family was devout). Irnprotested: ‘You always told me fliere werernbishops, even cardinals in flic family.”rn”Of course fliere were, but I never saidrnfliey were religious.”rnMy father left the Irish-AmericanrnChurch in his teens and only returned tornit in old age. I hear the same resentmentsrntoday from educated Irishmen that Irnheard all the years I was growing up; butrnlike it or not, Ireland can only be understoodrnin Christian terms and only survivedrnas a nation because of the Church.rnYes, many of flie greatest Irish rebels werernProtestants or skeptics; and yes, flie bishopsrnsaid that hell wasn’t hot enough forrnCharles Stewart Parnell, when his adulteryrnwas discovered; and yes, they evenrndiscouraged the teaching of Irish as a possiblernobstacle to maintaining the Faifli.rnTo find “the real Ireland,” you do notrnhave to go all the way to places like thernDingle Peninsula, where the high crossesrnand church ruins stick out of the greenswardrnlike the earth’s bones. Even inrnDublin, Catholics have still managed tornhold the line against infanticide.rnSmall nations in Europe have putrntheir confidence in flic European Union,rnhoping to find an equal place at the table,rnnot only with France and the UnitedrnKingdom, but also — as a particle of arngreat empire —wifli the United States.rnEven the Scots and the I ,ombards turn tornIreland as the great success story. Perhapsrnthey are all right; perhaps they willrnbe able to eat flieir Kilkalt}’ pudding andrnhave it, too, fliough wrapped in a Sh’rofoamrntake-away carton. If you are one ofrnthe 50 million people admitting to Irishrnancestr}’, buy your ticket now, before thernIrish all turn into good Europeans.rn7 homas Fleming is the editor ofrnChronicles and the president ofrnThe Rockford Institute.rnLetter FromrnNorthern Illinoisrnby Aaron D. WolfrnFrozen SoulsrnKelli Move has become the pretty youngrnface of America’s culture of death.rnStanding trial for the cold-blooded murderrnof her newborn daughter, she hasrnprovided us with a test case for MiddlernFEBRUARY 2001/37rnrnrn