Finds Wrong Image Of Ireland In N.Z.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30447, 22 May 1964, Page 2

Finds Wrong Image Of Ireland In N.Z.

New Zealanders have a completely wrong picture of Ireland, says Miss Ruth Kingston, a graduate of Trinity’ College (Dublin), now teaching at Kaikoura District High School. “They seem to think every Irish person is a labourer who lives in a thatched cottage with a parlour of pigs, using words like ‘Begob’ and ‘Begorra’ which belong only to the stage,” she said in an interview yesterday.

One in 25 of the Irish is a university graduate; the Irish have made some of the finest contributions to English literature and the country’s culture dates back to a preChristian era. Anything younger titan 500 years old is not considered very interesting in Ireland today, she said.

Miss Kingston, who comes from Lismore, County Waterford, says her countrymen have a great respect for learning, probably because they were deprived of it for nearly 200 years between 1685 and 1829 under the Penal Laws.

Children have to learn the Irish as weU as the English alphabet from the age of five. All public notices are in both languages. A free-lance teacher. Miss Kingston taught in Ireland, England and Switzerland before coming to New Zealand seven months ago. “In New Zealand, because education is free, people are not availing themselves of it to the full,” she said. “If they had to pay for it they would probably value it far more.

“It does seem rather terrible that so many teachers have to be imported to New Zealand,” she said. “Perhaps overseas teachers do bring in an outside interest to the schools, but at the primary level children need people from their own country to teach them.

The term “fighting Irish,” another misconception held

in New Zealand, she finds most irritating. "We are certainly rebels; we always question the authority of Government,” she said. “We think nothing of staying up till 2 a.m. having discussions and getting quite heated about them, but we remain good friends. We may be hot-tempered, but brawling is not a national pastime.”

The Irish made good soldiers, she said. There were more Victoria Crosses a head of population in Southern Ireland than anywhere else in the world.

Oblique references to religious friction in Southern Ireland she had heard outside the country were also wrong, she said.

“Ten per cent of the population there is Protestant and very proud of the Church of Ireland,” she said. “President de Valera—a wonderful person now in his eighties—does not discourage religious distinction in any way. It is much more evident in Northern Ireland.” Family Unit “The family unit is very strong,” she said. “We don’t have divorce: we respect our parents, teachers and the Church more than people of most other countries.”

Teeming with history,.) Southern Ireland was a tre-l mendous attraction for tourists, she said. They appreciated the old; round towers, Norman) castles, the ancient Celtic I

crosses, the Dublin Horse Show, the Abbey Theatre, and the fishing and hunting. “Above all, tourists like Southern Ireland because there is no rush—roads are not overcrowded, the cost of living is lower than in other countries and people always have the time to stop and talk to them. We love having overseas visitors to stay with us in our homes,” she said. Miss Kingston’s family home in County Waterford is about 200 years old and is set between the Duke of Devonshire’s castle and the Trappist Monastery’ at Mount Mellerary.

All this area once belonged to Sir Walter Raleigh. It was given to him by Queen Elizabeth I.

“It is great hunting, fishing and hurling country and whenever there is a race meeting everything else is dropped,” Miss Kingston said.