In the 600's A.D. my ancestors, the Condons, owned and controlled some 20,000 acres of land in County Cork, Ireland.  To protect themselves and their holdings from marauding bands and armies they built a castle.  The Condon castle still stands today, and is unlike anything you'd imagine when the word "castle" is used.  It most resembles a very tall, rounded, slightly-tapered silo.  It is made of rocks laid and fitted together without mortar.  The wall is several feet thick and perhaps 100-feet high.  A single, heavy oaken door is the only entrance.  A stairway is attached to the inner wall giving access to the multiple floors inside.  The stairway circles counter-clockwise up the wall so that defenders above would have the advantage of wielding their swords with their right hands, holding on to the wall with their left hands, while fighting invaders who might be trying to come up from below.  Long, narrow slits as tall as a man were left in the walls to give light to the interior, and to serve as places from whence archers could shoot their arrows at attackers without much worry of being hit by arrows from outside.

When under attack, the Condon Clan took refuge in their castle.  Their planning and preparations made them so secure that they successfully maintained control of their property for 1000 years, defending it against raids by neighboring clans, Vikings (who began raiding the southern coast of Ireland about 795), and later the English.  Their defenses were successful until all of Ireland was conquered by Oliver Cromwell in 1649.  After a bloody battle, Cromwell occupied the castle, confiscated the Condon lands, and gave them to his supporters, the Moores.

The Condons briefly regained control of the castle when an ostensible shoe peddler gained admission, got the inhabitants drunk, and opened the great door to the Condons who retook the castle in a bloodless coup.  The victory was short-lived, however, as Cromwell and the Moore family soon regained control.

The Moore family owned the lands and the castle continuously from that time until it was turned over to the Irish government in recent times.  Until the government gained control, the Condon castle had, therefore, been owned by only two families over a period of nearly 1300 years.

My Condon ancestors remained in the area after their lands were taken from them.  They lived in poverty.  As Catholics they "were forbidden to purchase, inherit, or even rent land."  (World Book Encyclopedia).  They lived on very little in their one-room, earthen-floored, straw-thatched cottages.  "They ate potatoes—for many the only food—five or six pounds a day for each person.  Although it was a nourishing food, the supply was often insufficient in the hunger months of the late summer, before the new crop came in."  (The Odyssey of Thomas Condon, Robert D. Clark, pg. 3-5.)

 

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Times got even harder.  From 1845 to 1847 a plant virus caused the potato crop to fail bringing about the deaths by starvation of 750,000 people.  Hundreds of thousands of others emigrated, many to America.  (World Book Encyclopedia).  My 3rd great grandfather, John Condon, fortunately avoided the famine by emigrating with his wife and three boys in 1833.

The independent nature of the Irish, as demonstrated by the Condons, is a striking thing.  They were successful against all encroachments upon their independence and freedom for many hundreds of years.  Last Friday, however, I learned something that turned my day and my outlook upon the world upside down.  I think that what I learned has probably set my independent, freedom-loving Irish ancestors spinning in their graves.  An alarming thing has happened.  The Irish have relinquished their freedom and independence without so much as a struggle, a shot, or even a whimper.  So have the Norwegians, Icelanders, Israelis, Mexicans and Americans if what I've heard is true.

My nephew, Brent Kerns, took his second trip to Ireland last fall, having not been there for 15 years.  He told his parents, who made this trip with him, about the potato fields, cellars, processing plants, dairies and creameries that they'd be seeing.  My 1988 World Book Encyclopedia lists Ireland's chief products as "barley, beef and dairy cattle, hay, hogs, milk, (and) potatoes…"  (pg 424-425).  That book was published just 20 years ago.

The travelers stayed at bed and breakfast places which abound across the Irish countryside.  The bed and breakfast houses came into existence when the farms could no longer raise the products that they'd raised for centuries.  One bed and breakfast had been a dairy.  The cows are all gone now because Ireland is part of the European Union (EU).  The EU has decreed that dairy products and potatoes will be produced in other European countries.  Ireland is to raise timber, export it to the other countries, and import all of its potatoes and dairy products.  The processing plants and cellars are all gone.  There's no way to market the milk and potatoes that Ireland used to raise in such abundance.  Ireland, of all places!  The farmers now operate bed and breakfast houses.

The World Trade organization (WTO) has similarly decreed that Norway and Iceland should give up their salmon fisheries in favor of Peru, which will now supply the world.  The Norwegian and Icelandic fishermen were forced out of business.

Israel—independent-minded Israel—has or is making it illegal to grow wheat, because wheat requires so much water.  It's easier to import wheat than to grow it.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) says that timber will henceforth come from Honduras and Costa Rica.  For several years lumber mills in Medford, Oregon—surrounded by Oregon's abundant forests—have run nothing but timber imported from Honduras.

Mexico has lately experienced riots because of a shortage of corn.  They can't make tortillas.  Why?  Because under NAFTA, the United States is to grow corn and export it to Mexico.  Mexico is to produce oil, and export it to the United States.  But fuel prices being what they are, America decided to divert 25% of its corn to the production of fuel.  Hence Mexico didn't get the corn it expected.

Wheat producing nations used to have huge stockpiles of wheat.  The world is down to a 20-day supply.

Rice is the staple for countries in the Orient.  Rice is in such short supply that the Chinese are sending out patrols to look for anyone hoarding it.

These are frightening facts, if true.  If they're true, the world's leaders have successfully led a conspiracy that has quietly destroyed the freedom and independence of many countries and peoples, and which will surely result in a catastrophe of global proportions.  Wars, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, or the whims of a few leaders will disrupt the supply system and bring about famines to rival the Irish potato famine of the 1840's.

7 April 2008