Ean publishes 2007 report
Monday, December 3rd, 2007Ean has published its annual report, detailing its activities over the last year, including work on the curriculum project, assisted holidays, our revamped website. It also includes information on issues affecting emigrants including political participation, radio aimed at the Irish overseas, the undocumented in the US, the Habitual Residence Condition, and more.
UCD institute to focus on Diaspora
Saturday, December 1st, 2007University College Dublin has announced that the new John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies will focus on changing the way Ireland and the Disapora are understood.
UCD officials say the institute will build on Irish diaspora scholarship to achieve a new level of public dialogue within the global Irish community on the meaning Irishness and major global issues of mutual interest and concern. It will also provide a public outreach programme that will focus on the Irish community and Irish diaspora groups abroad.
A press release from the University says:
The creation of the John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies will yield very significant and highly visible benefits for Ireland, which will grow in understanding of itself and its distinct role in the wider world through deeper understanding of its diaspora. It will equally benefit the global Irish community through the greater recognition of its unique historic contribution which the Institute will bring more fully into the light.
Tradition informs work of Chicago emigrant
Thursday, November 22nd, 2007A heartwarming tale about an Irish immigrant in Chicago: Paddy Homan, a 32-year-old Cork-born tenor, uses his musical talents to cheer the elderly and disabled clients he visits in his day job as a social worker.
“We all love him”, says 91-year-old Lilly Allen in the report, by Judith Graham in a recent issue of the Chicago Tribune.
On Mr Homan’s visits to his clients, he not only checks to make sure that they are being adequately cared for by his colleagues at Wellspring Personal Care; this director of client care services uses his talents as a tenor and bodhran player to reach out to them in a different way. His colleagues praise his work:
“I saw right away that he had what we look for in social work — the essence of everything we do — the ability to connect,” said Sheila McMackin, president of the home care agency where Homan now works as director of client services.
Particularly for people with dementia or mental illness, “there’s very little sharing that goes on,” said Dr. Steven Fox, Wellspring’s medical director. “All that people will hear from professionals is ‘I have a plan for you.’ Not, ‘I’d like to spend time with you and learn more about you,’ the message Paddy gives.”
The report also carries a video, in which Mr Homan describes how his work is informed by home tradition:
Particularly in the wintertime, not many people call to people’s houses. Where I come from back home, there was a tradition of people calling to each other’s house . Now in some small way – even though I’m in a professional capacity – I somehow see it that I’m sort of carrying on that tradition as well.
I’ve ways been singing, and where I come from back home there’s a great tradition of singing. But there’s something – music can reach beyond any barriers that one might have. You might think you’re going into a home to say hello, you might sing a song and you’re totally going down a different route. And that’s nice.
Read the news article on the Chicago Tribune website.
Watch the video on the Chicago Tribune website.
Irish farmers heading for New Zealand?
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007A New Zealand real estate business is targeting potential Irish buyers for rural properties, particularly farmers who are interested in moving.
Bayleys Canterbury director Shane O’Brien says that Irish farmers are looking toward New Zealand because they see farming in Ireland as unsustainable long term. Instead they are looking to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
“New Zealand is their preferred choice because Canada has quite a different style of farming and Australia can be quite extreme in terms of drought. New Zealand has a very similar style of farming and when you convert pounds or Euros to New Zealand dollars the land is still relatively affordable,’’ Shane O’Brien says.
The company says interest among farmers in Northern Ireland is particularly high.
Awards system would include Diaspora
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007The Taoiseach is considering an honours system that would formally recognise outstanding achievements by Irish citizens. The proposed system was discussed in Question Time in the Dail yesterday.
The Taoiseach said that the Irish abroad would be eligible under his proposed system:
The system should be capable of applying to citizens, the diaspora and others who have made a significant contribution at international level or in Ireland. It should operate, and be seen to operate, transparently and independently. If we ever go ahead with this scheme, it should be open and not discriminate against anybody from any walk of life or class, creed or location. It should be an honour capable of being achieved by any citizen so that there is no elitism, as in some countries, attached to it. While a broad range of service achievements could be covered, I am particularly anxious that exceptional service for the betterment of the community would be included.
He also noted that some Irish people were being honoured by the British government, and said that some had expressed to him that they would rather be honoured in their own country.
An awards system that would recognise the contributions of the Irish abroad was one of the recommendations of the Task Force on Policy Regarding Emigrants, which made its report in 2002:
4.15 The Task Force considers that there should be a formal system for acknowledging the contributions made by Irish people and groups in other countries. The Task Force recommends the establishment of an Awards Scheme to recognise exceptional or distinguished service by Irish people overseas. Such awards could be made annually by the President on the advice of the Government and include those who have achieved distinction in a range of fields including community service, culture, sport, business and education.
See the full Task Force Report on Policy Regarding Emigrants.
See the proceedings of Question Time on the Oireachtas website.
ILIR leader takes aim at critic
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform has taken a strong stance against views expressed last week in an Irish Times article by US-Ireland Alliance director Trina Vargo that campaigners should not seek a bilateral agreement to regularise the status of the Irish in the US.
In today’s Irish Times, Irish-American publisher Niall O’Dowd, who heads up the group, called last week’s article “deeply offensive”. He noted the strength of the ILIR membership, which numbers 17,000.
He also noted that several countries, including Nicaragua, Chile and Singapore, along with Australia, have made special agreements involving visas, saying, “Far from preventing others immigrate, a bilateral deal may well show how, in this current toxic atmosphere, the issue of undocumented can be dealt with in a creative way by different countries”.
See the full text of the article on the Irish Times website (subscription required).
Additionally, ILIR director Kelly Fincham wrote an article in yesterday’s Irish Independent reporting on the way the recent US-Ireland forum covered the issue of the undocumented.
See the full text of that article on the Irish Independent website.
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