The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

THE HERALD Wednesday January Page Book relates untold story of Irish Canadians By Derek Nelson Thomson News Service There are books that are enjoyed like a favorite meal You eat straight through from beginning to end without a pause leaving the dinner table totally satisfied Then there are books that are more like a smorgasbord a buffet where one grazes sampling a delight here experiencing a new taste sensation there rejecting a disagreeable flavor at a third stop The Untold Story The Irish In Canada edited by Robert ODnscoU and Reynolds Mika Publishing Co is that second kind of book Its two volumes totalling pages are divided into 13 sections with 74 entries and touch on almost every aspect of the Insh settle ment of Canada It is not narrative history nor is it the easiest read Some parts are too scholarly for easy digestion others too parochial But for anyone intngued by their Irish roots or the roots of then- neighbors it is worthwhile perhaps a must Surprisingly even after more than a century of limited Irish immigrationand the two decades of downright discrimination against Insh immigration that began with immigration law reform in one nine Canadians sttil claim some Insh blood Perhaps three per cent of Canadas 25 million people remain of pure lineage more than most of the other peoples whove populated Canada And yet rather remarkably con that this is the age of multtculturalism virtually nothing exists in about Insh Canadians as a people or peoples Robert ODnscoU the elfish founder and dnving force behind Celtic Studies at University of Toronto set out a few years ago to remedy that omission The difficulties he faced were legion not the least of which is con fusion over who is and what being means The two volumes mirror that reality by the very color of their covers volume one is green volume two is orange Is it Insh to be Roman Catholic a political Republican a believer in St Patricks Day Parades hurl the Gaelic language and an unending stream of invective agaist England and things English Or is it Insh to be Protestant a political royalist a believer in July 12 parades soccer the Enghsh language and unending invective against Popery and things Irish Catholic TWO IRELANDS It is in fact to be both There are two two peoples two Irish traditions Thats especially true in Canadas case since probably half the Insh who settled here were Protestant and the other half Catholic It is one of the strengths of The Untold Story that not the contnbutors unders tand that truth One of the unfortunate byproducts of the labels used in Ireland to describe the two ethnic groups that comprise the population Protestant and Catholicis that people tend to think of those words in religious terms only Protestant and Catholic are simply labels for Insh ethnic groups much in the same way that the labels Hindu and Sikh differen tiate the two warring peoples of the Punjab It is to ODnscolls credit that he takes a step back from the ProtestantCatholic wars to em phasize the common Celtic hentage of all Many in Ulster today argue that long before came to Ireland the ancestors of the people who became Protestants the Cruthin and Ulaid were fighting with the ancestors of the Gaels who became Catholic But even if that were true it doesnt diminish their joint Celtic Nor does it prevent the federation of the heart that ODnscoU so ardently advocated in his march towards publication of these volumes No Protestant Irishman believes he is other than an Irishman although he may also be British And no Catholic Irishman would deny that the although some would deny the Pro testant his British dimension There are fascinating examples The Untold Story of this elemen tal Inshness that belongs to all from The Sod One was that the first St5 Patricks Day celebration in Canada on record was held by Pro testant Insh officers of the Quebec City garrison in 1765 Naturally after service all adjourned for din ner at a local tavern Thats from the Irish in Quebec one of the dealing with Irish settlement in the vanous parts of Canada It is interesting to note that just this past year the old Orange city of Toronto held a St Patricks Day parade for the first time decades and while the Orange Order wasn represented at least one Protestant band participated LIVING EXAMPLE It is a living example of the sub- theme that runs through although again not allof the essays Canada as a land of ac for both Irish Pro testants and Catholics Love wasnt the glue that bound them but mutual tolerance of dif ferences combined with tension created by those differencesa Joint acceptance of limits which is probably the definition of a truly civilized society The Untold Story is far from perfect The very nature of its makeup with scattered contribu tions of uneven quality style and intent means that while some in dividual essays are superior others fail for reasons ranging from brevity to partisanship OLaighins abuse of the word Holocaust in his essay on the death of Insh immigrants at is a example But ODriscolls vision hs sue ceeded in one elemental way His books lead the way to putting the Irish back on the multicultural map not as where the Third World oriented multicultural industry in Canada has tned to relegate them in past years but as themselves Derek Nelson a native of Ireland fs a Thomson News Ser vice columnist Frozen Boxed CHICKEN LEGS 99 AT NEW YEAR 41 a Save Iff Frozen Boxed SIRLOIN TIP STEAK Frozen Boxed Tenderized ROUND STEAKS Frozen Boxed BILLS SAUSAGE Custom Meats hours We Do Not Compromise On Quality mwi TRAFALGAR ROAD Friday 800700 Kit II SI Saturday 800400 Of Between Stewart town Ashgrove