-By John Armor
On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish. Maybe just for the moment, or for the next few beers. O’Hara, O’Leary, O’Bama. But some of us have real, biological connections to the Emerald Isle.
One of the reasons I was delighted to make a trip to Ireland last year was the chance to close the circle. By a happenstance the year before, I found the oldest proof of my European ancestors. On the Internet I stumbled across the website of the Compass Inn in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.
What became the Compass Inn was built as a log building in 1799 on the crude road to the frontier town of Pittsburgh. In 1814 the Inn was bought by Robert and Rachel Armor. On the completion of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Robert built a stone addition to accommodate the many stage passengers.
By 1862, the canals took over, and the Inn was closed and became a private home. For a total of seven generations the Armors lived there. Then in 1966 they sold the Inn to the Ligonier Valley Historical Society. The Society restored the Inn to its 1920 condition as a working Museum. It is still that way.
As you might have gathered, when I contacted the Museum Director, he quickly sent me a genealogy. Robert was brought to the United States by his grandfather, when he was 8. The genealogy that the Director sent, stopped with George Frederick Armor. That was my great-grandfather, who fought in the Civil War. The Society was glad to hear from me.
It was a singular pleasure last summer to walk the land that young Robert had last walked two centuries before. But I learned not just about my family, but about the modern world.
I met a Protestant man whose family was saved by their neighbor, a Catholic policeman. I met the Catholic daughter, now a grown woman. Her boyfriend decades ago was arrested by British troops, convicted and served two years in jail. He denied being involved in the IRA.
The young man went to America. Decades later, he returned to Ireland. He admitted that he had been in the IRA, and that his parents were also members. He admitted he was going out that night to kill British soldiers. He said that his arrest had saved his life.
All these events happened in Londonderry, which has now thrown off the symbol of its British yoke, becoming simply Derry. We saw the history of “the troubles” in that city at its fine museum. It documents the seeming end of the troubles. Now, with three murders in Ireland last week by the Real IRA, the continuing murderers
That reminded me of the last thing I learned in Ireland. The murders of men, women and children for political purposes will not end until there are no more parents left (or schoolteachers) who tell their children that they have a right, or even a duty, to kill other children and their parents in cold blood..
The best way to see where the greatest threats of murder come from, is to read translations of the books used in elementary schools. That is a sad task which is almost entirely in the past for the survivors in Ireland. Elsewhere in the world, these are current events.
I shouldn’t end this piece this way. The Irish have learned. Their rich and ancient history is almost entirely at peace. So, there is hope for us all.
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John Armor is a graduate of Yale, and Maryland Law School, and has 33 years practice at law in the US Supreme Court. Mr. Armor has authored seven books and over 750 articles. Armor happily lives on a mountaintop in the Blue Ridge. He can be reached at: John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
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