My point is about the relevance of the term ‘patriotic’ in the case of Stanford’s use of the idea of Ireland in his music. You say that patriotism for him meant King and Country. But which country? Not his own. His loyalty lay with the political state that was forcibly occupying and exploiting, (against the will of the great majority of its native population) the country of his birth and upbringing. The idea that his native country and its people had a right to the freedom and sovereignty that they had enjoyed before British colonisation, as you rightly say, and to the best of my knowledge, was wholly abhorrent to him. That being the case. I do not think it is correct to call him a patriot but an imperialist and by extension I do not think it appropriate to call his The Fair Hills Of Ireland a patriotic song but an imperialist song.
As for whether most of us would agree that the world would be a better place if colonialism had never happened; a study carried out in 2016 found that 44% of British citizens look upon the legacy of the British Empire with pride. If that means the remaining 56% feel the opposite, then strictly speaking you are correct when you say ‘most of us’ but it is such a slim majority that the figure does not make for optimistic or uplifting reading. I ask myself how many of that 44% decry and are appalled by Putin and his military’s actions in Ukraine at the moment and yet do not feel even the slightest tinge of hypocrisy that for centuries the British Empire undertook similar actions with similar motives and similar consequences in numerous countries all over the globe.
Finally as to what to do with the artistic legacy of colonialism. I would suggest doing whatever one wishes to do. Enjoy it, relish it or not as one wishes but never forgetting the context of its making. I would not wish for one moment to belittle, besmirch or cast aspersions on anyone’s enjoyment of Stanford’s music. I would just ask that one be aware of the nuances, as in this case the use of the word patriotic in relation to Charles Villier’s Stanford’s music.
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