Thank you. I will try to check out Sean O'Callaghan's book. I was in Ireland for a seminar in early summer 2001 and found it fascinating. I'm also intrigued as a Black American with Irish Protestant (IP) ancestors from northern Ireland who, around 1700, apparently decided to switch (countries) rather than fight. I find that choice rather admirable. Unfortunately, in Dublin in 2001, as it was close to "marching season", locals advised against travelling from Dublin to Belfast/Armagh, etc., so I missed that opportunity. Our IP family history comes from female- rather than male- RICE ancestors, in the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina and east Tennessee, and previously they'd lived in Virginia - possibly Northumberland County. Were the Irish actually enslaved in the Americas/Barbados? Were they perpetual, chattel property as Africans were? I don't know much about the Irish in the Caribbean compared to British North American (later U.S.) mainland, but one thing that comes to mind is "GONE WITH THE WIND" & the contradictory, romanticized image of the Irish as slaveholder, and slaveholder daughter Scarlett O'HARA. I wonder what the Irish think of their image in "Gone with the Wind". Not only is "Gone with the Wind" now virtually omnipresent across the Planet, it is probably the most widespread, most viewed and inaccurate depiction of slavery; and there are no Irish enslaved in "Gone with the Wind". Last week I was at a news kiosk in Rome, Italy, near the U.S. embassy, and there was "Gone with the Wind", the video, on sale, subtitled or dubbed in Italian. What an image to find of "home". Yes, it pulled my attention. And I felt haunted and a bit sad rather than favourably or even neutrally impressed. Needless to say I did not buy a copy. Marian Douglas www.authorsden.com/MarianDouglas Nairobi, Kenya ---------------------------------- From: <ANDREADRAMSEY@cs.com> Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 Subject: Re:Irish Slaves > Check out Sean O'Callaghan's book "To Hell or Barbados: The ethnic cleansing > of Ireland" Brandon Books, Ireland, 2000. It is available at Borders books > or check on-line. >