My wife and I create DVDs from the photos and videos that we generate from our foreign trips (she does the vast majority of the work). We try to match the images with appropriate music: some of it is pop, but some of it is obscure songs from the internet. The ultimate product is sort of a long form video. We’re not professionals, but there are times when the juxtaposition of an image, or series of images, and the music can be pretty powerful.
The DVD for our 2011 trip to Ireland includes a song from the internet called “Irish Ways and Irish Laws.” The gist of the song is that Ireland was once a bastion of pure Irishness, has been battered by foreign conquerors throughout the centuries, but will rise again to be free of outside influences some day.
When you pair this song with images of St. Kevin’s Church at Glendalough, it is pretty compelling stuff. In the real world, however, the concept behind it is ridiculous; whether you like it or not, English DNA pervades the Irish nation, and will never disappear. You could just as well imagine the English trying to drive Norman French words and Danish place names out of their culture.
The fact is that Ireland, for better or worse, is a multi-cultural nation. Fortunately, it is fairly clear to me that the majority of the Irish people accept that concept, and that majority is only growing with time.