Archive for June, 2007
Next Entries »Journal looks at global role of Irish sport
Monday, June 18th, 2007Irish sport in a global context is the focus of a special issue of the international journal “Sport in Society”. The issue, “Sport and the Irish Diaspora”, is guest edited by Dr Paul Darby and Dr David Hassan from the University of Ulster’s Sport and Exercise Science Research Institute.
The collection is the first attempt to examine the socio-economic, political and cultural significance of sport for Irish immigrant communities around the world. It looks at such topics as the role of hurling in the formation of an Irish identity in Argentina, historic links between the GAA and Irish nationalism in New York, and the role of Gaelic games for recent Irish immigrants in mainland Europe.
The special issue will also be published as a book by Routledge later this year.
US immigration bill to be reintroduced
Friday, June 15th, 2007The US immigration bill will be reintroduced, apparently. Geri Garvey of the Irish Apostolate has forwarded this statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell:
“We met this evening with several of the Senators involved in the immigration bill negotiations. Based on that discussion, the immigration bill will return to the Senate floor after completion of the energy bill.�
Columnist laments returnees’ plight
Friday, June 8th, 2007The Irish Independent’s article on Vincent Lavery, the 71-year-old returned emigrant who has had difficulty finding a job and accessing social welfare benefits, has prompted an article by a columnist lamenting the difficulties of return.
Martina Devlin says that she, too, is a returned emigrant, having left for college in England in the 1980s and returning in 1995. She notes that her return had its own difficulties. She says that she learned not to draw attention to her London experience:
There was a resistance to returned emigrants sharing their expertise, informative though it was. We’re touchy on the subject. People who haven’t worked away can feel threatened by those with a broader perspective.
She also notes that the welcome for returning emigrants does not always live up to Ireland’s reputation.
If our emigrants are only back for a fortnight’s holiday it’s all sweetness and light and whatever you’re having yourself, but should they relocate permanently the welcome grows tarnished.
We pay lip service to the notion of opening our arms to our emigrants, but shrug our shoulders about problems in store for anyone taking us up on our half-hearted offer.
Ms Devlin says she has feels sorry for retired emigrants, “because the Ireland of their hearts no longer exists”.
The mission for them is finding if they have any common ground with the version that replaced it.
If we could shake off our tigerish tendencies, we could help them in this challenge. A country’s assets are meant to be its people – and our returned emigrants are part of that pool of wealth.
Read the full article on the Irish Independent website.
NY journalist to be emigrants’ voice in Seanad?
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007A journalist at New York’s Irish Echo newspaper has been having talks with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael regarding the possibility of becoming the first emigrant rights representative in the Seanad, reports Seán O’Driscoll in today’s Irish Times.
Ray O’Hanlon, who is orginally from Dublin, says that his aim has been to secure the parties’Â support for an agreed emigrant candidate; he will know in July whether he has been successful. The report says that O’Hanlon would like to see a panel for two or three emigrant representatives but does not want to rush the parties into sudden change.
The report also says that US immigration rights lobbyists have been raising the issue of voting rights for emigrants, saying,
Many want to use their vote to rewared Irish politicians who back US immigration reform that would legalise more than 12 million undocumented immigrants.
Much of the resistance to emigrant votes has come from politicians who fear protest votes, especially those going to Sinn Féin.
O’Hanlon says the internet and globalisation have enhanched the relationship between Ireland and its citizens abroad, and allows for emigrants to keep up with Irish politics. He says,
There is no longer this sense of exile and distance. The state may end at the Cliffs of Moher, but the economy doesn’t. People are more aware and more than ever before. Now there has to be a complementary political voice to match it.Â
 See the entire article at the Irish Echo. (subscription required)
See Éan’s factsheet on global external voting rights.
Returning teacher “sad and frustrated”
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007A 71-year-old emigrant who has returned home after five decades in the US is “sad and frustrated” with life back in Ireland, according to the Irish Independent. Journalist Shane Hickey reports that Vincent Lavery returned home after a 35-year career in teaching in Fresno, California; in the US he was highly active in his community, as a soccer coach and actor, and was active in the Democratic party. In addition, he founded the “Children’s Committee 10”, a charity that brought children from Northern Ireland (and later Lebanon) to holiday in the US.
He cited the employment indicators for teaching, as well as the positive words of President Mary McAleese and programmes such as Safe Home, which assists older emigrants in returning home, as factors in his decision to return to Ireland.
“I left Ireland when I was 20 but Ireland never left me”, he said. I came back every year. I came back permanently after giving two years of deliberation, under the impression that I could get work teaching.”
His teaching credentials, however, are not recognised here, and he has only worked 14 days in schools here since he returned nine months ago. Moreover, although he is the author of four books on soccer coaching, his attempts to coach youth football have been met with “a blank wall”, reports the journalist.
“People would look at me and I’d think, ‘What might it be about me?’ and the only thing I can say is my age…The Celtic Tiger Ireland has looked at this person without even giving him a day in court to see what he can offer. I had a lot to offer in America. I am absolutely sad and frustrated”.
Read the whole story on the Irish Independent website.
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