Thread by @Macerty

As an historian it’s fair to say that no one should be necessarily blamed for anything their ancestors did or didn’t do in the past but in the case of today’s surviving Trevelyan family it’s a little more complicated than that!

- Via @Lovindotie lovin.ie/amp/news/bbc-j…

For a starter, BBC reporter, Laura Trevelyn’s current family has already seemingly done well enough from the ignominious actions of their four times removed Grandfather, Charles Trevelyn of the Irish famine hall of shame when they could choose to voluntarily cough up £100,000!

That not insignificant amount whilst seen as a noble gesture that was also accompanied by a formal apology for their ancestor, Charles Trevelyn’s part in the slave plantations on the island of Granada raises uncomfortable questions.

This relates to the issue of double standards ie. which part or chapters of their family history they perceive to be deemed worthy of a formal apology and any voluntary reparations extended to those descendants or foreign country affected by Charles Trevelyn’s wrongdoings?

Putting it simply why make good on the slavery issue whilst ignoring what was a crime of complete genocide which their ancestor played prominent part in by his callous decisions that resulted in the deaths of millions on the island of Ireland and the exodus of many more!

The issue strikes at the heart of why Irish people have believed for a very long time that has been etched into their psyche by the famine holocaust of suffering endured that English people are slow to acknowledge any sense of real remorse for the past when it comes to the Irish!

Fasttrack to more modern times be the coverups and repeated denial of any wrongdoing that surrounded the murder of innocent Irish people on Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy massacres on the part of both successive predominantly English led governments and soldiers involved.

Even yet like Trevelyn those responsible were never held to account and a section of the English public remain unconvinced that there is any case to answer as they are either too arrogant, brainwashed or busy flag waving to do anything else other than rally round the perpetrators

It’s a much simpler narrative to blame Irish preconceptions about English attitudes towards their past as digging up old wrongs that are best forgotten but the English public can still find it easy on the tongue to rhyme off any wrongdoing by the IRA as still highly relevant!

So that brings us back to the the missing blind spot or convenient amnesia that besets those on the English side when it comes to crimes committed in their name even to the point of being remarkably silent on those chapters in their family history that relate to the Irish.

Maybe it’s just too close to home or way too uncomfortable to even whisper in certain circles as the prevailing consensus amongst the upper English classes has been to treat mention of such crimes against the Irish as somehow more complicated or undeserving of public condemnation

It even extends to making a simple apology which to date has been like wringing it out from a stone for the successive governments tasked with investigating their past wrongdoings in Ireland with very few exceptions. It seems the Trevelyn family is no exception either!

@threadreaderapp please #unroll thanks