Wala Lang

I never thought I would be a big fan of football.  Yesterday, however, I was partying hard at a tailgate and then went to the stadium, along with 80,000 people, with a tattoo of the leprechaun on my face and reeking of that Irish beer, guinness.  I cheered for the Fighting Irish, booed the orange-clad players from Tennessee and sang lustily the Notre Dame fight song.  Yup, I’ve become a Fighting Irish…green and true.

Being Irish is not being too far from being a Filipino.  We actually share similar histories and both peoples love to laugh, sing, get drunk, and eat potatoes. Ireland was under harsh English rule for centuries.  The Philippines was also under harsh Spanish rule for centuries.  Both peoples were kept poor by their colonizers and both peoples fought hard for freedom.  When the Irish migrated to America, they were made to take the dirtiest and hardest jobs…working at kitchens, docks, meatpacking plants, etc.

Why are people from Notre Dame called the Fighting Irish?  Before the university was founded, the only good universities in the Midwest were predominantly Protestant universities which discriminated against the poor Catholic kids from Ireland.  So, when Notre Dame was set up in the late 1800s, these Irish kids from the poor working class went to study here.  Football was their way of waging "war" against the universities who did not take them in because they were too poor.  These kids fought hard to excel in academics and sports. Thus, they were called the Fighting Irish.

I told my professor that Filipinos have somehow replaced the Irish here in America.  And yes, we are fighting hard, aren’t we?  One of these days, maybe our children will be proud to say that they are Fighting Pinoys?  Let us hope so.

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