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Cultural/Ethnic Viewpoint of Alcoholism Among the Irish

fact that the vast majority of the indigenous Irish population was Catholic, while Ireland's British masters were Protestant. This argues that there is a Protestant provenance for Irish Catholic alcoholism. It is relevant to MacManus's analysis that it occurs in a highly charged contest. The book was originally copyrighted in 1921--one year before the Irish Rebellion that eventuated in the partitioning of Ireland between the [Catholic] Republic of Ireland and the province of [Protestant/British] Northern Ireland.

To be sure, the culture of alcohol in Ireland appears to have developed a life of its own since the 17th century. A persistent theme of that culture revolves around the nexus of economic hopelessness and alcohol consumption. In the popular memoir Angela's Ashes, McCourt describes growing up in 1930s and 1940s in an Irish family defined by bleak stereotype: grinding poverty, the "shiftless loquacious alcoholic father," who repeatedly and programmatically "does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey" (McCourt 210). Thus the stereotype contains a striking coincidence with historical (or at least family) truth, if MacManus's analysis is taken as any guide.

The figure of the genial drunk is a fixture of not only nonfiction memoir but also modern fiction about Irish Americans. In Alice McDermott's Charming Billy the title character's good and trusting nature and hidden despair lasts literally for years driving Billy into the alcoholism that kills him. The novel opens with Billy's death from drink; he has been physically transfigured into a corpse that is bloated and has skin so discolored that his best friend Dennis initially fails to identify him for the police.

That image can be interpreted as a symbol of the power of alcohol to transfigure Billy's life, as the narrative makes clear. McDermott's account of Billy's biography hinges on a failed love. Just after World War II Billy falls in love with Eva, who...

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Cultural/Ethnic Viewpoint of Alcoholism Among the Irish. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 05:37, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709579.html