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Wednesday, August 27th, 2008Ean is conducting a strategic planning process, and as part of that, we’re asking our members and web users for a bit of feedback on how we can serve you better.
If you’re a member, you should have received our members’ questionnaire in your inbox already. In case you haven’t for some reason, feel free to email your comments on the following questions. You may also ring me with your comments at +353 1 8779011.
- What do you understand as the role of Éan?
- One of Éan’s objectives is to seek to fill gaps in the emigrant sector – Considering all the groups in this sector, what do you see as the gaps?
- Do you have a need that’s not being addressed? Do you see a way that Éan could assist in this?
Drama tells story of San Patricios: Tallaght, November
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008The story of the 500 Irish soldiers of the San Patricio Batillion, who left the US army to fight for Mexico in the Mexican-American war, will be told in a one-man show to be premiered in Dublin in November.
The San Patricios are still revered in Mexico, while largely forgotten in the US. They were honoured with an An Post stamp in 1997, the 150 anniversary of their founding, and in 2004 a statue was erected in Clifden, the home of their commander, John Riley. 100 More Like These tells the story of a fictitious Tallaght-born teenager who becomes caught up in the war while trying to escape arrest.
The play is written by Larry O’Loughlin and will be be performed by Stephen Jones at the Loose End Studio of the Civic Theatre in Tallaght. (01) 4627477.
See more about the San Patricios in Wikipedia.
See more about the play on Dublinks.com.
Emigrant writer inhabits “Ireland of the mind”, says poet
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008Irish-born, British-based poet David Wheatley has been featured in The Age, an Australian publication, speaking about his poetic life. The occasion was his winning of The Vincent Buckley Prize, which commemorates the late professor of English at the University of Melbourne; the prize allows alternate Irish and Australian winners to spend time in the other country.
David Wheatley, who currently lives and teaches in Hull, says that he has recently in his poetry been drawn to themes of movement and migration.
“Irish poetry may seem a lot more globalised today than in the 1970s, but emigration and diaspora have always been at the centre of Irish identity anyway. Vincent Buckley is a good example. To someone of my generation, his book Memory Ireland is, at first glance, a strange and even shocking kind of document.
He visits Ireland during the IRA hunger strikes of the 1980s, and can’t understand why Irish poets aren’t writing poems in praise of the hunger strikers. I remember this striking me as incredibly out of touch with political reality.”
But having lived out of Ireland myself for almost a decade I can now appreciate better how the emigrant writer inhabits an Ireland of the mind, for better or worse, and it can be too easy and smug not to take that into account.”
But although the emigrant writer inhabits an Ireland of the mind, he refuses to be limited in his consideration of the world around him:
A lot of Irish writers, particularly the ones who live in the US, leave home only to have a kind of born-again discovery of their Irishness,” he says. “I’d like to think I’m more interested in discovering the places I go to in their own right, and hereby authorise anyone in Australia who finds me in a state of born-again Irishness to put me on the first banana boat home.”
Read the entire article on The Age website.
Read more about the Vincent Buckley Prize.
Rose of Tralee celebrates global Irishness
Monday, August 25th, 2008The annual Rose of Tralee festival, that glorious celebration of global Irishness is taking place tonight and tomorrow.
This year’s 31 contestants are, as always, an intriguing mix of locals, emigrants and descendants. London Rose Belinda Brown has garnered much media attention; the Jamaican-born accountant moved to Antrim when she was three and has been living in London for a few years. Tipperary rose Aoife Kelly is the bookie’s pick; 40% of all the bets – including some from Spain and London – have been on the occupational therapist, and her odds are now 2/1.
Roses hail from many counties in Ireland, as well as traditional emigrant locals such as Boston, Darwin, Perth, Liverpool, Coventry, Toronto and more in Britain, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Dubai, France and Luxembourg are also represented.
The women are competing to take the crown currently held by New Yorker Lisa Murtagh, who has travelled the world since winning the contest last year; she has represented the charity Concern Worldwide and has visited a Concern project in Kenya.
Visit the Rose of Tralee website.
UK figures show no first-quarter increase
Monday, August 25th, 2008Figures from the UK show that there has been no increase in the number of Irish people registering to work or access benefits in the UK, according to the Irish Times. The newspaper reports that 2,530 Irish nationals registered for national insurance numbers in the first quarter of 2008. This is similar to the figures from last year; a total of 10,500 people registered last year. The numbers ranged from 9,000 to 1,200 in the four preceding years.
The newspaper quotes Joe O’Brien, the policy officer at Crosscare Migrant Project, who notes that the CMP has not seen any significant rise in the numbers going to Britain.
“There’s no noticeable increase in the number of people coming in there. There is maybe a slight increase in people asking about what their options are, but it wouldn’t be motivated by unemployment – it would largely be people who are in work and are wondering, because they have heard a lot of talk about recession, what their options are.�
Mr O’Brien noted that there has been a steady stream of emigrants to the UK even during the boom years, adding, “That’s a reflection of the fact that immigration is not just about economics.â€?
Anecdotal accounts of emigration have risen in recent months, but these have proven difficult to quantify. Recent CSO figures show that emigration rose to 45,300 in the year to the end of April. Centres in the US have been reporting an increase in the number new arrivals since the autumn.
Link with Argentine diaspora, says Fine Gael TD
Thursday, August 21st, 2008Fine Gael Foreign Affairs spokesperson Billy Timmins is suggesting that the Irish government should take a more pro-active approach in developing links with the diaspora – and says that setting up a pilot project with Argentina’s half-million strong Irish community is the way to start.
The TD says in a press release:
« Previous Entries Next Entries »“At present the Department of Foreign Affairs operates a dedicated unit that aims to maintain and strengthen links with Irish communities living abroad. However, I believe this brief should be expanded to include the establishment of links with people of Irish extraction.
“Rather than attempt to contact the entire Irish Diaspora, the Department should target one country — say, Argentina, which has an Irish diaspora of more than half a million — as a pilot project. There is already superb contact with citizens of Irish extraction in countries such as the United States and UK but links with other nations are often less than ideal. Argentina would act as a superb country due to large number of Irish diaspora and existing links with Ireland.
“A dedicated part of the Department of Foreign Affairs website could invite people of Irish descent living in Argentina to submit details of their ancestors including the part of Ireland where their family came from.
“Compilation of such a database could encourage the Irish Diaspora to establish internet links with a range of Irish websites that deal with areas such as tourism, genealogy and trade.
“The benefits would cut both ways. Other countries such as Italy and Japan take a much more proactive approach to their diaspora, and we should do likewise.”