The Green Zone and The Pale of Settlement

[David Bergdahl]

Typically the English domination of Ireland is dated from the 12th-C;
after William of Normandy ("the Bastard") conquered England and was
crowned king on Christmas Day, 1066 he systematically replaced English
minor nobility and church leaders with Normans.  By the 12th-C
Anglo-Normans colonized eastern Ireland.  These men "went native" (the
stereotype of this is speaking Irish and going shoeless) and in later
centuries Englishmen were admonished to use English surnames, speak
English and follow English customs--or risk forfeiting their lands
(Statutes of Kilkenny 1366).  After Henry VIII's break with Rome,
Irish became the catholic language and English the protestant one. The
OED gives 1547 for 'the Irish pale.'  By the time of union with
England (1803) the Ascendency [as the English ruling class was called]
were thoroughly English, educating their children in England.  It's in
the 17th-18th-C that the pale divided populations of Anglo-Irish from
Irish and Hiberno-English speakers, protestants from catholics.  Think
of Israel's "security fence"/wall dividing 2 populations differing in
religion as well as language.

So the term comes to be used in the mid-16th-C but the reality of
English domination of eastern and southeastern Ireland is centuries
older; the Reformation crystalizes the difference between the 2
Irelands. After the birth of Eire in the 1920s, the old Kingdom of
Ulster (minus the counties of Moynahan & Caven) remain English and the
rest of the country becomes independent.  The modern pale would be the
border of Ireland with the UK.

On 3/31/06, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: The Green Zone and The Pale of Settlement
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wasn't it the case that the Irish pale also had the purpose of keeping the
> English in as well as keeping the Irish out? When the English occupation
> began, under the auspices of Pope Adrian VI / Hadrian VI, the first and, so
> far, only English pope, the British Isles were still uniformly Catholic and=
> ,
> according to some (mainly Irish) writers, the English tended to go native,
> if given the chance, thereby accounting for the fact that there are a lot o=
> f
> Irish Catholics named "Smith" and even "Gray," though not your humble
> correspondednt, of course, who, a Catholic, is nevertheless not Irish.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 3/31/06, David Bergdahl <dlbrgdhl at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       David Bergdahl <dlbrgdhl at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      The Green Zone and The Pale of Settlement
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > On 3/31/06, hpst at earthlink.net <hpst at earthlink.net> wrote:
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       "hpst at earthlink.net" <hpst at EARTHLINK.NET>
> > > Subject:      Re: The Green Zone and Related Terms
> > >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> > >
> > > Out of curiosity is anything outside The Green Zone beyond the pale?
> > >
> > > Page Stephens
> >
> > It depends on which pale is used as a template: Russia or Ireland.
> >
> > Since Jews lived outside the pale in Russia --living within the pale
> > was restricted to Russians-- I doubt there are many Jews outside the
> > Green Zone.  I remember a New Republic article after the invasion in
> > which a journalist tried to discover how many Jews were left in
> > Baghdad--I think she located eight.  This in a city that had a
> > plurality of Jews in 1920.  So 'beyond the pale' as the area for
> > undesirables--Jews in the case of Russia in the 19th-c-- isn't a good
> > template for Baghdad today.  We undesirable Americans are holed up in
> > the Green Zone like the army fort in Indian territory, unlike the Jews
> > 'beyond the pale of settlement.'
> >
> > The other pale--in Ireland--is more appropriate.  The area of English
> > settlement in the east and southeast was the area of colonization:
> > 'beyond the pale' lived the Irish.  (It's instructive that in Dublin
> > there's a district called "Irishtown")  If Anglo-Ireland is the
> > template for the Green Zone, with a nod to St Patrick!, and we are a
> > colonial occupier, like the English in Ireland, then everything beyond
> > the Green Zone is also beyond the pale.
> >
> > -db
> >
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