Thoughts On My First Trip to Ireland

Ireland is one island I’ve always wanted to visit, and it didn’t disappoint

Photo by the Author taken in a small Irish pub in County Claire

Having attended Catholic schools for most of my life (elementary, high school and law school) even though I’m technically not Catholic, I’ve always (luckily) been around people of Irish heritage. But that is not the only reason why I have felt a kinship with the Irish.

Growing up as an Arab American during the 1980s and 1990s, I also found kinship with the Irish because while Arabs were (and still are) the primary “terrorists” in movies and television shows, the Irish (specifically the IRA) were also represented as “terrorists” in 1990s films like “Patriot Games,” “Blown Away” and “The Devil’s Own.” And while I struggled (and still do) with the damage on my psyche from watching people that looked like my relatives being portrayed as terrorists even when I knew my relatives were great and loving people, I found solace in knowing Irish folk also looked like and spoke like the fictional terrorists when I knew they were wonderful people too.

Thankfully for the Irish, the “Good Friday Agreement” has helped stop the tide of terrorism that once plagued Northern Ireland and other parts of the United Kingdom during The Troubles, and depictions of Irish terrorists has…