Multiculturalism in Ireland
Multiculturalism - the presence of, or support for the presence of, several distinct cultural or ethnic groups within a society.
Back in 2013, my brother and I went on a mission trip to Ireland. We spent most of our time ministering to the people of Dublin. The city of Dublin is one of the most culturally diverse cities that I have ever been to. I met people from Scotland, The United States, Austria, Northern Ireland (a different culture in and of itself); I met people from at least these four places. Despite being from everywhere, the people that I met were able to embrace each other's culture and live together in community. I mentioned people from all of those places, but I didn't mention that I lived with each one of them in a castle for a whole month!
Embracing other cultures is difficult. Many times, I just downright don't want to do it. I like being comfortable in my own little world. I think all of us are like that to some extent. It took a lot of courage to finally be able to even begin to try to embrace the many different cultures all bound up in the same castle. The castle itself was the main doorway to getting to know the cultures. The castle was called Charleville. It was named after a man who escaped the Napoleonic war; he came to Ireland seeking refuge and found this beautiful spot, nearly overlooking the ocean. He claimed it as his own and built a magnificent home atop the hill. This castle (which I will hence refer to as Charleville) was the place where we lived. We ate every weekday meal in the tiny dining room of this huge house. We all slept in our own quarters, only a few feet away from the next occupant. We shared bathrooms and showers. We did the same chores every week and were assigned others. Everyone pitched-in to the community to show support for one another. This forced those who did not want to embrace different cultures to have to.
For the longest time, I sat thinking about how I didn't want to change, but the more I thought about that, the more change needed to happen. How can we live in a place with so many different cultures and not embrace any of them? I think that is one of the reason there is so much racism and hatred of people in our American context. People do not want to or hate the thought of embracing other cultures. The truth is, multiculturalism is always going to be here. It will always be an issue. Not embracing the cultures doesn't help with our problems. Even if embracing them still did not help our issues, then where is the harm in doing so?
Back in 2013, my brother and I went on a mission trip to Ireland. We spent most of our time ministering to the people of Dublin. The city of Dublin is one of the most culturally diverse cities that I have ever been to. I met people from Scotland, The United States, Austria, Northern Ireland (a different culture in and of itself); I met people from at least these four places. Despite being from everywhere, the people that I met were able to embrace each other's culture and live together in community. I mentioned people from all of those places, but I didn't mention that I lived with each one of them in a castle for a whole month!
Embracing other cultures is difficult. Many times, I just downright don't want to do it. I like being comfortable in my own little world. I think all of us are like that to some extent. It took a lot of courage to finally be able to even begin to try to embrace the many different cultures all bound up in the same castle. The castle itself was the main doorway to getting to know the cultures. The castle was called Charleville. It was named after a man who escaped the Napoleonic war; he came to Ireland seeking refuge and found this beautiful spot, nearly overlooking the ocean. He claimed it as his own and built a magnificent home atop the hill. This castle (which I will hence refer to as Charleville) was the place where we lived. We ate every weekday meal in the tiny dining room of this huge house. We all slept in our own quarters, only a few feet away from the next occupant. We shared bathrooms and showers. We did the same chores every week and were assigned others. Everyone pitched-in to the community to show support for one another. This forced those who did not want to embrace different cultures to have to.
For the longest time, I sat thinking about how I didn't want to change, but the more I thought about that, the more change needed to happen. How can we live in a place with so many different cultures and not embrace any of them? I think that is one of the reason there is so much racism and hatred of people in our American context. People do not want to or hate the thought of embracing other cultures. The truth is, multiculturalism is always going to be here. It will always be an issue. Not embracing the cultures doesn't help with our problems. Even if embracing them still did not help our issues, then where is the harm in doing so?
Comments
Post a Comment