This Side of the Pond

There are two topics I love to read about in the news: the kindness we humans are capable of showing one another, and stories that link my side of the ocean with yours. I’ve come across another tale that combined these two things and I confess it brought a tear to my eye.

It starts with a monument in Midleton, Ireland, with tall, stainless steel feathers that curve in at the top towards the center of the circle. Called Kindred Spirits, it was unveiled and dedicated in 2017 to commemorate something that happened a very long time ago.

All the way back in 1847, the Choctaw Nation was living in a state of hardship and poverty, having recently been relocated via the Trail of Tears. Suffice to say that there wasn’t much largesse to go around.

But across the pond, in the country next door from mine, times were just as tough. This was the worst year of the Great Hunger, otherwise known as the Irish Potato Famine.

A blight had infected potato crops throughout Europe and caused deaths across the continent, but Ireland was affected more than most places. Around one million people died and another million emigrated – some estimates suggest that Ireland lost a quarter of its population.

The year of 1947, the worst of all for the people of Ireland, became known as “Black ‘47”. Back on these shores, American newspapers began to report on the famine and appeal for the public to provide relief. The Choctaw Nation heard about the suffering of their fellow man and felt the need to do something about it.

They felt kinship and empathy towards those folk across the ocean, having lost thousands of their own to starvation and disease not long before. The Choctaw people didn’t have much, but they were able to collect $170 – around $4700 in today’s money – to send to people in Ireland who were starving.

It wasn’t much, in the grand scheme of things, when you consider the scale of Ireland’s devastation. But as the parable of the widow’s offering teaches, the person who gives everything they have shows far more generosity than the person who offers a large sum, but has plenty more in their purse.

Fast forward more than 170 years and we find ourselves enduring a global pandemic. The Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation have been badly hit by the crisis thanks to issues such as a lack of running water for a third of the population.

There’s a high number of elderly people and those with health conditions, while access to groceries is limited. On behalf of the Rural Utah Project Education Fund, an online fundraiser was organized to raise money for the essential items needed within those communities.

It was met with a generous response, as one would like to expect. But then, all of a sudden, the total raised began to skyrocket. At time of writing, the total had topped $3 million from over 56,000 donors – where was all of this kindness coming from?

I think you can guess. “Ireland remembers,” is one of the top comments from donators on the web page.

Donations were flooding in from Ireland, a remembrance of the kindness shown by the Choctaw Nation all those years ago.

“When you had nothing, you gave something to help Ireland,” said another.

The generosity of strangers had never been forgotten – indeed, one commenter pointed out that songs have been written about the moment when the Choctaw people gave what they could to help those they did not know. The favor could finally be returned.

Fundraiser organizer Vanessa Tulley responded in an update that, though the Navajo Nation is experiencing the darkest of times, “In moments like these, we are so grateful for the love and support we have received from all around the world. Acts of kindness from indigenous ancestors passed being reciprocated nearly 200 years later through blood memory and interconnectedness.”

It’s not the first time the kindness has been remembered. In 1992, a group of Irish people walked the Trail of Tears to raised $170,000 for the famine relief efforts in Somalia; specifically, $1000 for every dollar given to them by the Choctaw Nation in 1847.

Seven years later, a Choctaw citizen came to Ireland to lead a famine walk of their own. And then, of course, there’s the monument standing proud in Midleton, still speaking to the connection between the two peoples.

Through an act of generosity, a friendship now spans the centuries. By keeping that gratitude alive for all these years, today’s citizens of Ireland were able to return the old gesture in spades.

They say that those who do not recall history are doomed to repeat it. But, sometimes, just sometimes, the best of things happen when the opposite is true.