Ahead of Bastille Day, John Gray, reflects on America's 250th birthday.
Many events are being held in Ulster to mark the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence backed by £400,000 in funding from the Department of Communities.
There is a danger in all this that we merely engage in uncritical praise for our undoubted relationship with the United States while hoping for increased tourism and inward investment.
Reclaim the Enlightenment is offering a more penetrating view. There are positives. There is no question that the American declaration was a moving and mould breaking document. Equally it is clear that it was informed by the ideas of the radical Ulster born Presbyterian philosopher, Frances Hutcheson, and that Ulster Presbyterian emigrants also played a key part in the revolutionary army.
And yet we should not be blind to the enduring taint in the new American order of things. The leaders of the revolution were slave owners and the 1787 constitution enshrined the continuance of slavery.
For a very different take on the celebration of American independence consider the words of the celebrated escaped slave, Frederick Douglass, in 1852: "What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him … the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license."
And what part did those Ulster born Presbyterians take after the revolution. Some were to the fore in progressive developments but others, including former United Irishmen, became slave owners. Yet others on the frontiers of white settlement massacred native Indians.
We make much of Presidents with an Ulster connection. The one with the most immediate link, Andrew Jackson, President from 1829-1837, was both a slave owner and a persecutor of the Indians.
Where do we stand now? Be aware that, even before Trump’s rise, the United States, while the wealthiest country in the world, was an unequal and unjust society on any number of metrics – poverty, illiteracy, longevity, the number of prisoners, the continuance of the death penalty etc etc.
While we should cherish the many links and friendships across the Atlantic, we should avoid at all costs the siren song of those who suggest that Ireland, whether north or south, should follow the American model.
And why should Reclaim the Enlightenment mark the anniversary of the American declaration on Bastille Day? Because French support for the American revolutionaries played a crucial part in their victory.
The intervention almost bankrupted the French state and the Americans' democratic revolution encouraged French radicals. Both factors led to the onset of the French revolution and the seminal fall of the Bastille in 1789.
John Gray, co-founder of Reclaim the Enlightenment will speak at a special event in St Joseph's Sailortown this Saturday 11 July — Bastille Day — from 2-5pm to mark the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence. Tickets are free and available on Eventbrite.
Speakers: John Gray: ‘Every breeze from the west brings news of fair liberty’
Marty Todd: ‘Francis Hutcheson and the Declaration of Independence'
Stephen McCracken: ‘United Irish exiles in the United States’
Sylvie Kleinmann: ‘Lafayette, nous voilá ; Wars, ideologies and Ireland’
