The Green Zone and The Pale of Settlement

[Wilson Gray]

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 of
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:
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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
>
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> On 3/31/06, hpst at earthlink.net <hpst at earthlink.net> wrote:
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> > 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
> >
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> >
> > 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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