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« Previous Entries Next Entries »Potato patch inspires thoughts of home
Monday, July 23rd, 2007Kevin Connolly, a US-based Irish emigrant, wrote in Saturday’s Irishman’s Diary in the Irish Times of his experiences growing potatoes in his home in Indiana. While the topic may seem prosaic, the writer creates a particularly moving snapshot of a simple link with home.
He notes that he grows Kerr’s Pinks, and adds, “Inspired by a nostalgia for seed types that I grew up with and which were developed in Scotland or Ireland, I sought out a variety that might even remind me of home. Watching them grow through their various stages is like looking at the garden in Sligo where I grew them for years.”
Mr Connolly elevates the humble spud to iconic status, admitting that he sends digital photos of them over to his father in Ireland, while the tubers themselves allow him to feel a sense of continuity. He also gives bemused house guests tours of his tiny patch.
He concludes the article:
“Here in the Indiana night air with the sound of the locusts and katydids cranking up the volume of their nocturnal cacophony, and amid the flickering lights of the fireflies, I think of a poem by Rupert Brooke, with slightly altered words and greatly altered sense: “That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever Ireland”.
Read the entire article at the Irish Times website (subscription required).
Journalist who chronicled emigration’s losses honoured
Friday, July 20th, 2007The author of a seminal work on Irish emigration will be honoured by having a road named after him in his hometown. Journalist John Healy was a crusading journalist who wrote “Nobody Shouted Stop” (also called “Death of an Irish Town”) in 1968; the work details the losses suffered by Charlestown, Co Mayo in the middle of the last century, as unemployment and emigration took its toll. Healy wrote for local Mayo newspapers before moving to the Irish Times, where his work helped keep the problems of his native region in national focus.
The town of Charlestown has fared well in the ensuing years, with a population of around 1,700, up from less than half that in the 1960s. While the economic boom that lifted Ireland’s fortune brought prosperity to the town, it was also aided greatly by Knock Airport – a development championed by the journalist.
The N5 Charlestown Bypass will be named “The John Healy bypass”, pending final approval by a full meeting of Mayo County Council in September. The move was proposed by Cllr Joe Mellett, who said, “He’s a guy that we can associate with especially in bad times. He made the rest of the country aware of what was happening then, but he would be delighted if he saw what was happening today. All Charlestown is proud of him, as are the people of Mayo”.
The 18-kilometre stretch of road is due to open in October.
Diaspora.fi looks at religion in globalising world
Friday, July 20th, 2007A new website has been launched that focuses on topics related to migration and religion. Diaspora.fi, subtitled “Religions in a Globalised World”, is an information channel for new publications, funding, conferences and other events. Site administrator Tuomas Martikainen of Finland says the areas of interest include religion in diaspora, religion and international migration, globalisation and the study of religion in local settings.
Visit the site at diaspora.fi.
Minister for Integration once faced ethnic abuse
Monday, July 16th, 2007Justice Minister Conor Lenihan, who has recently been appointed Minister for Integration, has told the Irish Independent that he was subjected to a serious incident of racial abuse while working in London in the 1980s. The incident occurred in a pub, when four men began shouting at him about the North.
“You have that awful dilemma: do I finish the pint or leave it? I made out as if I was going to the lavatory but I sprinted for the door.”
Mr Lenihan said the four men chased him down the street while shouting, “you Irish bastard”.
“I wasn’t particularly fit, but I can tell you I was in the Ben Johnson league of sprinting with those four lads after me…
“That kind of verbal abuse is a disgrace, and it’s not in any way acceptable”
Mr Lenihan, said the incident had rasied his awareness of the pain of racial abuse. He discussed the incident as part of an interview regarding his new position as Minister for Integration.
He also told the newspaper that he wanted to introduce citizenship ceremonies that would encourage integration; this would include citizenship tests as well as giving local communities the opportunity to welcome migrants. He will be focusing much of his efforts at integration in the education system, saying that the battle of integration would be won or lost in the schools.
The politician said, however, that his new post does not indicate a shift toward greater leniancy in migration policy.
“There will be no integration without deportation. I don’t want people to think that just because a new Minister for Integration has been appointed that somehow the doors are going to be flung open and Ireland is going to have open, unrestricted migration”.
Mr Lenihan had been criticised in 2005 for using a term that was interpreted as an ethnic slur against Turkish workers; he noted during the interview that he had apologised for the incident and did not feel it was an issue in his current job. He also said that he had been defended at the time by members of immigrant ethnic groups.
Read the articles in the Irish Independent:
DREAM Act goes to US Senate
Monday, July 16th, 2007The DREAM Act will be introduced into the Senate this week, as an amendment to the Department of Defence Authorisation bill currently being debated.
The move follows the defeat of the efforts for comprehensive immigration reform, and demonstrates how immigrant advocates are shifting their efforts to the passage of legislation that will assist immigrants on a more limited basis.
The DREAM Act would provide a path to legal residency and eventual citizenship for individuals who came to the US as undocumented children; they would need to graduate from high school and continue on to college or military service.
The Justice for Immigrants group is urging supporters to ring and email their senators. Geri Garvey adds,
“We expect anti-immigrant groups to spread falsehoods about the DREAM Act and to try to inflame their base to intimidate Senators like they did in the recent Senate debate about immigration reform. But DREAM Act supporters are passionate too. We can and must fight back and match their intensity.”
Visit these sites for Senate contact information:
Returning emigrant speaks of HRC hardship
Friday, July 13th, 2007Vincent Lavery, the 71-year-old teacher who returned from California to Ireland only to be told he was ineligible for pension or social welfare benefits, has appeared in an RTE news report on the habitual residency condition.
The report highlighted Mr Lavery’s political activism and his thirty-five year career as a teacher. “I never entertained the idea that I would live off the state”, he said.
“When I got back, reality hit me”, he said. “My credentials have not been approved, even though I’ve been involved in public education for 35 years”. He has been given €14,000 euro by a relative to enable him to maintain a basic lifestyle. “It’s not easy”, he said, his voice breaking.
Emigrant Advice worker Joe O’Brien said, “It’s something that needs to be tackled immediately because it’s simply unacceptable that returning Irish emigrants should be refused the safety and the protection of the welfare system here on their return”.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Martin Cullen says that he will consider reviewing the current situation regarding the HRC, but as the reportre notes, time is running out for Vincent Lavery.
“There is the possibility that I go back to America”, he said. “There is that possibility, which would be the final chapter in this Odyssey”.
See the report on the Six-One News website.
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