A Dutchman in Ireland

I never really imagined going to Ireland. There are many other places in Europe and elsewhere I'd rather go, but since my wife had business there, I tagged along. I have to admit, I went there with trepidation. I am half Dutch and, from early in life, my father gave me a strong sense of what it means to be of Dutch heritage. Unfortunately, part of that heritage is a strong suspicion of anything Roman Catholic. With Ireland's history of religious conflict, I was a little skittish about being a Protestant minister with Dutch ancestry in that country.

The first impression I had was the remarkable similarity between Ireland and America: two countries that had to battle to get rid of the English. In some sense, there is a shared tradition of independence. There are statues all over Dublin of men who fought to liberate Ireland, just like Boston is filled with statues of men who fought to liberate America. I was feeling a bit better.

One day, we took an excursion that passed by the famous sight where the "Battle of the Boyne" took place in 1690. The tour guide explained it to me. It was an ordinary looking meadow next to the river Boyne, with cows lounging around. Yet it was a battle that still has an effect on life in Ireland.

It seems that when James II ascended the throne of England and Ireland, he turned the country back to Catholicism. This angered the protestant nobility, who eventually threw him off the throne in what was called "the glorious revolution." They crowned his daughter, Mary II, who was protestant and married to William III, or William of Orange, the King of the Netherlands (this is where the Dutch problem comes in).

James II retreated to Ireland and tried to gather up Irish forces to retake the throne. When William III heard of this, he sent his troops to Ireland. In the Battle of the Boyne, William III soundly defeated James II. Since Irish catholics rallied around James II, they were persecuted by William and Mary, and by the British monarchs ever since. It took almost two hundred years for Irish Catholics to be able to vote, to send their children to school or to own land. It took even more time for Ireland to gain its independence.

In some way, my Dutch heart leaped as we passed the sight of the Battle. Part of me was pushing for William III. Then I realized what his victory meant for the Irish and felt ashamed of my pride.

James II and William III entered into my trip later in the week, when I came to Christ Church. This church was originally a Viking church, and rebuilt by the Normans when they invaded. There is much history there. You can find the church treasures stored downstairs in the crypt of the church. This includes communion ware and candlesticks given by James II when he came to Ireland to view his domain and celebrate Mass. It also includes even bigger gold communion ware and candlesticks given by William III when he came to England as its conquering monarch and attended protestant services there.

As we came up from the crypt, one of the ministers of the church let visitors know that they would be having a prayer service for peace in one of the chapels. He told us that since Ireland has had such a bloody history of conflict involving religion, and since the Christ Church has had a historical part in that conflict, they pray for peace every day at noon.

When I heard this, I felt humbled. It brought it all back home. In my twenties, I began to get over a lot of the Dutch anti-catholic rhetoric of my childhood to see the beauty, depth and faith in Roman Catholicism. There is a lot of history that needs to be reconciled, work that is being done in Christ Church and other places. This is one reason I work for ecumenical bodies, and consider the reconciliation of all denominations as the number one priority of the church today.

Flying back, it really came to me. The reason so many Dutch are anti-catholic is because the Netherlands spent hundreds of years fighting to liberate their country from Roman Catholic Spain with William III's father and grandfather their national heroes. In a deeper sense, The Dutch and the Irish (and the Americans) do have something in common - the yearning for liberation from the oppression of a foreign power. And religion gets mixed up into the whole mess.

History is with us. The Battle of the Boyne still affects the Irish, just like the battles with Spain still affects the Dutch. Yet history does move on, miraculous things happen: liberation and peace comes to Ireland. Irish Protestants and Catholics pray for peace. Another tour guide explained the Irish flag this way: the green symbolizes the Catholic Nationalists, supporting an independent Ireland. The orange (as in William of Orange) symbolizes the protestant Unionists, the protestants who yearn for a reunion with Great Britain. The white in the middle symbolizes peace. The white expresses a hope that the green and the orange can find reconciliation and peace. This is my hope and prayer, too.