Ireland: a history of conflict
by Travis Combs
The Metropolitan

Metro’s Honors Program recently held a panel discussion of Ireland’s turbulent past and current issues.

Jeremiah Ring professor of history at Metro, and Dolph Grundman, professor of History and Metro Honors Program director hosted the informal event Thursday at the Golda Meir House to discuss the centuries-old struggle for Northern Ireland’s independence.

Ireland, especially Northern Ireland, has been under various forms of colonial rule by the English and then the United Kingdom for centuries, according to Ring.

“The recent troubles in Northern Ireland have been the end-game for centuries,” Ring said. “The Anglo/Irish problem goes back 800 years”.

Ring said that the Chieftains of medieval Ireland recognized England as the lords of their land, but a process of colonization began in earnest under the English rule of James Stewart, who recognized the volatile nature of the “Irish problem” and set out to populate the island with Protestants.

“James recognized that Ireland was a turbulent country, and it would be best if some of the Irish would disappear”, Ring said. “If they didn’t agree to disappear, then they would be replaced with plantations of good, honest, God-fearing Protestants.”

After several decades of relative peace during the colonization period in Ireland, James II, a Catholic, ascended to the English, and hence, the Irish, throne. James II was expelled from the island by the Irish Parliament in a bloody war known as The War of Two Kings, which lasted from 1689-1691, Ring said.

“The Protestant minority, particularly in Northern Ireland, was determined that this would never happen again,” Ring said. “The way to do that was to disenfranchise Catholics.”

Ring said this disenfranchisement was accomplished throughout the 17th century by every conceivable means possible. By 1776, in a period called the Protestant ascendance, the land owning Protestant minority had gained control over 95percent of Ireland.

“(The Protestants) were beginning to feel comfortable that this was a Protestant country for Protestant people,” Ring said.

Though the Protestant minorities in Ireland enjoyed great power during this time, relations with the Crown of England were estranged, and England often adopted the policy of treating the Irish as second-class citizens, said Ring.

Taking inspiration from the American Revolution, Ring said, the Irish government sought autonomous home rule, which was eventually granted by the newly formed United Kingdom.  As a result, the Protestant minority gained governing authority over Ireland.

The protestant minority enjoyed self-government throughout the 19th century, but a growing demand to participate in the governing of Ireland by the Catholic majority came to the forefront, and in 1914 home rule by the Catholics was granted by the United Kingdom, Ring said.

In response to the newly acquired power of the Catholic Nationalists, the Protestant Unionists began to arm themselves, according to Ring.
“The Catholic Nationalists were happy with this,” Ring said. “The Protestant Unionists were not”.

Alarmed by the Protestants stockpiling of weapons, radical and violent factions of the Catholic Nationalists began forming, among them the IRA. After World War I, the United Kingdom founded two home rule states in Ireland, Ring said. The Catholic Nationalists ruled what was to be called the Free State of Ireland in the southern part of the island, and the Protestants, under the rule of the U.K., took control in Northern Ireland.

This division added even more tension to Protestant/Catholic relations in the Unionist controlled northern sector.

“They set it in such a way that the Catholics (in Northern Ireland) found it very difficult to find jobs,” Ring said. “They found it very difficult to find housing, and because they found it difficult to find housing, they found franchising (political participation) difficult as well. Franchise in Northern Ireland is tied into housing, so if you can’t get a house, you can’t vote.”

After failed attempts at peaceful demonstrations for equality with the Protestant Unionists in the 1960s, the I.R.A and other extreme Nationalists began using more violent tactics such as bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations, which drew international attention to the problems of the region, said Ring.

 From the 1960’s through the 1980’s,The I.R.A gained a tremendous amount of recruits in response to violent conflicts between the Catholic Nationalists and the British army. One of the most notable of those conflicts, was the Bloody Sunday incident in January of 1972, during which fourteen Catholic protesters were killed by the British Military, Grundman said.

“You have tremendous tension,” Grundman said. “In thirty years, 3700 people were killed in Northern Ireland. Everyone in Northern Ireland knows someone who has been killed or injured as a result of the troubles.”

According to Grundman, throughout the twentieth century Catholic Nationalists in the Northern Irish cities of Belfast and Derry would win elections Northern Ireland’s Parliament but would refuse to take their seats.

“This was done to demonstrate their (Catholic Nationalists) strength,” said Grundman. “At the same time what was really symbolic of this was the unwillingness to recognize British of Protestant institutions.”

A cease fire was initiated by the IRA in 1994 and secret negotiations between the Irish Nationalist Catholics and the U.K. government took place for the following four years which cumulated in the signing of the Good Friday agreement in 1998 Ring said.

“The British government really wants to be rid of this problem,” Ring said. “There is absolutely no reason to be hanging on to Northern Ireland. The problem is that the Unionists in Northern Ireland need to be convinced to change their minds.”

The region has enjoyed relative peace since the Good Friday agreement, according to Ring, but the issues facing Northern Ireland are still unresolved.

“That’s what the problems in Northern Ireland are all about,” Ring said. “The Unionists don’t want to change anything and the Nationalists want to change everything. The Unionists believe their salvation lies in London and the Nationalists believe their salvation lies in Dublin.”

‘The Unionists believe their salvation lies in London and the Nationalists believe their salvation lies in Dublin.’

- Jeremiah Ring, Ph.D., Metro history professor
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A review from Under the Gaslight
by Jonelle Wilkinson Seitz
The Metropolitan

Metro Theatre’s production of “Under the Gaslight”, directed by Dr. Marilyn Hetzel, combined Augustin Daly’s script, a capable cast, musical interludes and audience involvement for a lighthearted evening of amusing melodrama.

Pianist M. B. Krueger led the audience in a sing-along at the beginning of the show and after the intermission, and gave instructions to boo and hiss when the villains came onstage.  At first the audience was tentative, but by the final act mean old Byke and Judas (Jose Retureta and Kimberly Luckie) could barely be heard above the booing.

Krueger, who had a vital role in the show’s success, was also the music director for the play.  She provided background music that punctuated the actors’ dialogue and emphasized important developments in plot.  In between scenes, she accompanied the actors and chorus as they sang musical interludes called olios.  The entertaining olios served a purpose similar to that of the chorus in ancient Greek drama: they summarized the previous developments, interpreted them and served as a link between scenes.

The play is set in 19th century New York City and deals with the superficial social conventions of the middle-class.  Laura Courtland (Lindsay Goranson) is a young socialite who is shunned by society when her secret past life as a street urchin is revealed.  She is brushed aside her fiancee, Ray (Steve Root), and pursued by vile villains who claim her as their daughter.  Pearl (Melissa Shearer), Laura’s supposed cousin, is a sympathetic but naive companion to her.  A one-armed soldier-messenger named Snorkey (Ryan Williams) helps Laura evade Byke and Judas, and when they turn against him Laura frees Snorkey from the tracks of an oncoming train.

Goranson has a powerful presence, and her Laura spoke with a clear conviction. Because of this strength, she is appropriately associated with the allusions in the play to women’s suffrage. Shearer was an adorable, prim confection as the naively self-centered Pearl.  Both actors are comically gifted.  In Ray’s first scenes, it seemed that Root did not share so much of this gift, but his deadpan look proved to be a basis for comedy later on, as he stood still and silent at the most inappropriate times.

Snorkey’s role carries much of the social commentary and irony of the play, and Williams filled the role completely.  He drew laughs of increasing intensity from the audience each time he digressed into a speech about his service in the Civil War.  In several scenes, Williams displayed his talent for physical comedy, and the nighttime scene on the pier, which involves Snorkey rowing a boat with his one arm and ends with him fighting off Byke with a life preserver, was hilarious.  Stacey Nelms was endearing as the squeaky Peach blossom.   

Retureta, as Byke, was an ominous figure in his black cape, and Luckie’s Judas, comically disheveled, was the parody of a wicked witch.  Both displayed above-average singing and comic talent in their olio, which got louder and cruder as their characters became progressively drunker.  The entire cast had singing parts, and although singing was not everyone’s forte, they were all, at least, adequate. 

Sets designed by David Kottenstette, a member of the Theatre department faculty, were clever in their flexibility.  Three walls, which rotated and moved around to suggest different locations, were supplemented with basic furnishings and, later, train tracks.  Hetzel’s staging of the courtroom scene, in which actors entered from the back of the house and used the center aisle to get to the judge’s podium at the edge of the stage, was brilliant.  Because of this staging, Judge Bowling, played by Gregg Vigil, who uses a wheelchair, seemed towering and formidable.  The train, suggested only by lights and smoke, was thrilling, as it seemed to come from the back of the stage and head directly into the house.
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The Met Files
Kristi Starns
The Metropolitan

A new kind of predator is rising out of the animal kingdom.  That’s right, you guessed it – squirrels.

They try to appear so innocent and sweet, but many people are finding out the hard way that these cute, cuddly squirrels can be as vicious as an animal 10 times their size.

Metro student Sabina Letchford was one of those people.

“I was having lunch, and a little squirrel came up to me looking all cute, and he gave me the look of ‘Can I have some of your lunch?’” said Letchford.

But as she tried to toss a piece of cereal bar to the squirrel, “He literally grabbed my hand, pulled it towards him, mistook my finger for the cereal bar, bit my finger.”

Worrying about rabies led Letchford to the Health Center, where she found out there hasn’t been a case of a rabid squirrel in Colorado in almost 50 years.

She also discovered the truth about Auraria campus and squirrels.  Between six and 12 people end up at the Health Center each year with concerns about being bitten by squirrels on campus.

Now, some may say it’s the person’s fault for trying to feed the squirrels, but the reality of a squirrel’s life may be completely different from what it appears to be.

That’s what makers of the website Squirrel Hazing “The Untold Story,” thought about the bizarre behavior of squirrels. Normal squirrel behavior seen everyday, like dashing under cars at the last second and stuffing their cheeks full of food, may be the results of squirrel hazing. Go to website http://web.wt.net/~psherr/squirrel_hazing.htm and decide for yourself what you think is responsible of the behavior of squirrels.

If you have any ideas or questions for The Met Files, email Kristi at:

themetfile@hotmail.com.
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A look back in anger review
by Jonelle Wilkinson Seitz
The Metropolitan

UCD Theatre production of John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, directed by Laura Cuetara, had issues in casting and characterization. However, the production had its valid aspects and allowed, at the least, a chance to see the important and riveting work.

The play, written in 1956, depicts a generation that does not know what to think of itself. Set in post World War II England where the older generations are generally content just to be in a time of peace, the play focuses on three individuals of a younger generation who are anything but content. Jimmy Porter is angry (his character began an onslaught of “angry young men” in British drama and literature), and his anger is constant, misdirected and effusive. Allison, his wife, is somewhat out of place and vulnerable, having dropped from a middle-class family into the flat she shares with Jimmy and their roommate, Cliff. Cliff is a strange character, thriving on Jimmy’s abusive outbursts and Allison’s need for reassurance. The entire, difficult play takes place in the Porter’s flat.

Jason Garner possessed the Jimmy’s infernal energy in his voice, but lacked it physically. Osborne, in his description of Allison, said she is “tuned in a different key . . . of well-bred malaise.” Shannan Leigh Reeve’s Allison seemed only sad side-effect of the household, and, especially after seeing her prim parents (Dominique Leavitt and Bill Selig), did not seem to retain any carriage or manner from her upbringing. Cliff, played by Neil Truglio, was the star, lacking in requisite unphasedness but possessing something else that worked and attempted to balance the other characters. Truglio displayed a strong physicality and one could wonder why Cuetara did not cast him as Jimmy and Garner as Cliff.

Haley Johnson as Helena Charles, a friend of Allison’s who helps Allison leave Jimmy and then takes her place in the flat, was a strong figure. Johnson made Helena’s falling in love with Jimmy clear and understandable— a difficult task. However, some element or another (the lighting, perhaps?) gave Johnson’s shiny dark hair a grayish tint, taking away from her otherwise vixen image.

The costumes, by Jane Nelson-Rud, were confusing. Jimmy’s bright green cardigan in the first act seemed to be trying a bit too hard, and it seemed that the outfits of Helena, an actress, would have been more stylish. Allison’s mismatched wardrobe contributed to the difficulty in associating her with her middle-class parents. The set, by Bill Curley, was meticulous, and its pastel tones created the feeling that the Porters’ flat was a world separate from the one outside.
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Bhagavad-Gita finds an audience on campus
by Travis Combs
The Metropolitan

Photo by - Eric Eames Swami “The Wandering Monk” educates students traveling to classes during the afternoon hours of April 1 by the flagpole.

Moving into the hallowed halls of academia, followers of the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita, Holy Scriptures from India, commonly known as the Hare Krishnas, have established a Bhakti Yoga Club on the Auraria campus.

Offering assistance to those who wish to explore their spiritual growth, the yoga club provides instruction on various forms of meditation and class discussions on the teachings of Bhagavad-Gita, which is the basis for their system of beliefs.

Embracing the principle of the Dharma, Swami The Wandering Monk, a member of the yoga club, said the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita Hare challenge humanity to see the reality of never ending change, which characterizes the whole of existence.

“It’s not a question of believing or not believing,” said Swami. “Its just a matter of seeing it. Bodies are not a fixed point of energy but a river, so you blink your eyes and your body is changing.”

Citing the Bhagavad-Gita as his source, Swami said that every human being is reincarnating, and will continue to live, die and be reborn until a state, called Nirvana, is reached when the cycle is broken.

“We are all spiritual beings from one spiritual source. Even though we have different kinds of bodies, we wear them like different pairs of clothes,” Swami said. “We have different races and religions, different genders and different species in the world, but there is the same spiritual being which is animating everything. In this sense, we are all one.”

Attachments to the material world, with its various desires, fears and aversions, keeps humanity shackled in the binds of the never-ending cycle of reincarnation.

“You change your mind, your attitudes, and your attachments, your desires, and you change your body,” Swami said. “So, ultimately, in order to become free of material existence, and not to take birth again, we have to come to a level of consciousness that we are spirit and that we don’t need anything material in order to satisfy spirit.”

Often associated in mainstream culture with images of shaven headed monks, giving away flowers in airports, the Krishna’s have gradually grown in both numbers and acceptance and have established bases of operations on college campuses throughout the country.

“Education should be to raise consciousness, not just to memorize data,” Swami said.

When asked about the Krishna’s stance on the recent invasion of Iraq by a U.S led coilation, Swami said that it was too early to comment on the justness of the war.

“Sometimes violence and war are necessary if there is a proper time and circumstance,” Swami said. “We don’t have any conclusion on it because it’s really hard to tell what’s going on and who’s telling the truth.”

Believing in a common spiritual ground for all of humanity’s religious faiths, Swami said that much of the conflict on a global scale has been the result of perceived differences in religions.

“A lot of strife in this world today is between different spiritual beliefs,” Swami said. “Ultimately, if we are going to harmonize and have peace in the world as a whole, it is important for people to see the what is the essence behind their particular philosophy or religious path.
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Ski lesson with X-Games bronze medal winner
by Elena Brown
The Metropolitan

Did I tell you about the time I bought Keir Dillon?

I’m at Garfinkle’s club (what the locals call Garf’s) during the Black Ski Summit in Canada and there’s this auction benefiting the Four Season Northwest Scholarship Fund going on, and one of the things being auctioned is Kier Dillon. Well, not him personally, although I would’ve paid. You can’t have too many Kier Dillons laying around.

So, my bid wins! A 45-minute lesson with the Bronze Medal winner of the 2002 X-Games! Very cool.

Now, I’ve never said I was  ‘all that’ on a board; I can pretty much get down the hill. It may not always be pretty, but I can get down. Kier said we could work on that. Wondering if he meant him making me pretty or making sure I get down the mountain with flare. Either way we head up Blackcomb. It’s a sunny day and the snow is not the best but I am smiling. But oddly so is Keir. I mean he’s not really a down-to-earth normal guy, right? He’s just being nice and hoping not to kill me, seeing as how I didn’t sign a waiver or anything.

While riding in the gondola, we have a rash of conversations: my riding history (mostly A-Basin, Breck, and Keystone, Colorado), his new wife (of 9 months), why I have a leash on my board, (which he thinks is about as sane as seatbelts on an airplane) and his physiotherapy for his foot, which according to him, is why he “sucked big at the X-games.”

We can’t help but get on the subject of race. “Well, I ain’t white, that’s for sure.” Keir said, both of use being black in what is generally viewed as a ‘white sport’ causes you to stand out, but Kier has crossed color-barriers to become the first and only black professional snowboarder.

I don’t see many black folks on the mountain – especially black females. Now don’t get me wrong, there are black female snowboarders but j like the Yeti, or a Canadian who understands the usage of the word “Huh,” I haven’t seen either one of them.

On that day, along with the more than 3,000 National Brotherhood of Skiers wandering, exploring, skiing and riding in Canada, we didn’t stand out We were doing our part to make Whistler-Blackcomb a salt-and-peppered mountain.

We get in two runs down the mountain and Keir Dillon is checking me out. (Ok, ok, he’s observing my riding style, but it’s my story so I’ll tell it my way). “You’re better than you think,” he tells me.

Keir is a very patient when I fall and he’s comforting, telling me, falling happens to everybody. But most importantly he’s fun. He even took out my camera for some pictures while urging me to give him the “money shot”.

We work on balancing out my heel and toe edge, getting more speed and controlling my carves.

But this is intimidating— I’ve fallen quite a few times using that whole “try switching” idea— and he waits below. I stare down the mountain where below me  is a professional snowboarder with high expectations. Looking behind me I see a school of 6-year-olds with no poles showing me up.

“Come on, you can do it,” he yells with a big smile. “If you ain’t fallin’ you ain’t learnin’.”

I must’ve learned quite a bit on that run.

I get up and we ride down.

“So what do you really want to learn?” he asks while tightening and changing my bindings at the tools stand. That’s right, Keir Dillon is on his knees hookin’ up my board (ok, ok, the tools were on the ground-but as I said, my story, my way).

“The half-pipe.” I answer, thinking about my goals.

“Ok, let’s go,” he says.

Hold up, wait a minute. Not today. I meant ultimately, I would like to learn the halfpipe.  I also would like to win the lotto, don’t mean it’s going to happen.

He was serious and I was in fear. This man has won a Bronze in the halfpipe, and here I am on my butt and secretly slightly secretly scared of blue runs.

“I think you can do it,” he says with another dimpled smile. A man with dimples. Can’t resist that, right? I weigh it out, pretty sure he’ll take care of not killing me. I then uttered two of the most unconfident sounding words: “Let’s go.”

We cut across Cruiser Bumps,  under the ropes to the halfpipe in the terrain park. My heart is pounding. We go to the top of the half-pipe and sit. He said folks might be mad that we are just sitting there,

“But screw ‘em.” He said. “Everybody’s gotta learn, right?”

As it turned out, they weren’t mad. In fact, some folks shouted out a happy, “Hey Keir!” He answered with a smile and a wave, then got down to serious business.

Keir explained how the toe and heel edge we were working on would come into play. He explained that my turns would come more smoothly as I got higher and higher up the sides of the pipe. And he said he would be behind me all the way (ahem).

So I hit it. It was probably the most pathetic event ever witnessed (and there were witnesses but I made it down. I was like some adrenaline-rushed kid. Running  all my words together, smiling big, and looking for approval.

“It went so quickly can we do it again how about my turns I think I have a problem with my toe edge do we have time please, please say yes!”

“Yes. Yes. Good. Just turn your body more, and Yes.” he answered.

Great! Where’s the lift?

This question produced some real hearty laughter from Keir. “No lift,” he explained. “You gotta walk it back up.”

If my first run on the halfpipe was the most pathetic thing witnessed, then seeing me walk back up was a close second.

Keir was sitting in the middle of the pipe, on the phone, checking on his physiotherapy appointment. He had already checked in with his wife by the time my sorry, out-of-breath self plopped down beside him. He tells his wife he loves her and that he’ll be down shortly.

We hit the pipe again. A much better run this time. I tell him I will surely die if I have to walk back up. He agrees, as we begin riding down to the bottom, Keir had a few last minute pointers. “Even when you’re cruising,” he told me, “just think about, ‘how can I be better, what can I work on?’ If you have a chance to some snow, use it.”

It was 2:50 and he was quite apologetic, but he had to leave me to make his appointment. No problem with me, I tell him. Kier wraps his arms around me (ok, ok, it was a congratulatory and good-bye hug, but, well, you know the storytelling rules by now).  I thank him for his time and patience. He tells me we need a black female snowboarder on the circuit and next season you’re all in there. I smile. He smiles, waves, and is gone.

Not bad for 120.00 dollars Canadian.

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St. Patrick's Day Parade

Thousands gather downtown to mark a
well- known Irish cultural celebration

Photos by
Joshua Buck

Unseasonably warm weather graced parade participants casting shadows all along the parade route. The spirit of the Irish was felt by the sounds of The 79th Highlanders and Colorado Youth Pipe Band.	Attending the Parade, along with thousands of others, Samantha McCrory,7, points to a stray balloon while sitting atop a newspaper box March 15.
A Colorado Clown Association member taunts the crowd in front of Union Station on 17th and Wynkoop. Denver hosts one of the largest parades in the country drawing many people from around the Metro area.
A bagpiper with The 79th Highlanders and Colorado Youth Pipe Band walks the parade route. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade is only one of the major events the band performs at each year.

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