A reminder of the Irish in Barbados
Monday, March 23rd, 2009An Irish Independent article on property investment in Barbados also reminds us of the dark days of the sugar plantations of the seventeenth century.
Many of the Irish arrived there after Oliver Cromwell took them off their land and sold them into slavery or indenture to British planters. Estimates of the numbers of Irish transported in this way range from 12,000 to 60,000, according to a Yale University web page.
The article says:
The historic plantation houses and old churches like St John’s, which holds the graves of some of the many Irish who helped build the sugar trade, offer something very different from the usual sun, sand and sea. . . and a stark reminder of just how far both countries have travelled since the dark days of slavery and colonisation.
Read the whole article: Barbados: Mix history with sun, sea and sand for perfect holiday home
Related web pages and resources:
- “Barbadosed”: Africans and Irish in Barbados
- Irish Echo: Cromwell’s legacy of Irish slavery
- White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh
Of course, there were a smaller number of Irish who benefited from the slave trade in the Caribbean; historian Donald Akenson’s If the Irish Ran the World tells the story of an Irish colony that participated in imperialism.
Irish expats in England and Wales face greater alcohol death risk
Friday, March 20th, 2009Irish people living in England and Wales are twice as likely as natives to die from an alcohol-related cause, according to a paper published this month in the Journal of Public Health. Researchers at Edinburgh University used mortality statistics and the 2001 census to determine the likelihood of members of immigrant groups to die from alcohol-related conditions. Those originally from Ireland and Scotland faced the highest risk of death from such causes.
Dr Neeraj Bhala said,
“These groups have a greater culture of drinking than their counterparts in England and Wales. This translates into health-related problems and consequently, to alcohol-related deaths.
Our findings show significant differneces in death rates by country of birth for both alcohol-related deaths and liver cancer. We now need to focus on developing new policy, research and practical action to help address those differences.”
Related websites:
- Journal of Public Health: Alcohol-related and hepatocellular cancer deaths by country of birth in England and Wales: an analysis of mortality and census data
- Mind.org.uk factsheet: The mental health of Irish people in Britain
Irish-American identity over, says US columnist
Friday, March 20th, 2009Irish-Americans will no longer have a powerful impact on American public life, says an opinion writer for U.S. News and World Report. John Aloysius Farrell makes this assertion in a tribute to New York Times journalist Maureen Dowd, saying she “might be the last Irish-American still shaping American public life”. While acknowledging the influence of writers like Alice McDermott and the great Irish-American politician Ted Kennedy, he says,
But that long marvelous strain of Erin’s sons and daughters, running back two centuries, who once ruled the City Halls and statehouses, put out fires and caught crooks, fought wars, ruled the newsrooms and lit up the stages and silver screens, has come to its end. The melting pot did its work. Surely, there are some who will turn the Pogues up loud today (You’re the measure of my dreams…) wear green ties and lift a glass of Knappogue Castle. But the Irish Catholic identity of our younger days, as the children or grandchildren of immigrants, taught by the nuns, singing “Galway Bay,” cursing the Brits and revering Robert Emmet, is gone.
He notes that the late Pat Moynihan had predicted this decline in influence:
He noted back in 1963 how Irish identity was declining amid prosperity and respectability. (A warning to African-Americans there.) Even as the Irish took the top jobs, the base was eroding. On the day that JFK died, “the President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Chairman of the National Committee were all Irish, all Catholic, all Democrats,” Moynihan noted. “It will not come again.”
And it didn’t. There was a chance, I suppose, before Ireland joined Europe and became the (now clawless) Celtic Tiger, that continuing waves of immigration would refresh Irishness in America. It didn’t happen. The Australians, imagine, have a bigger profile in Hollywood today.
It’s a perspective that highlights the importance of the strategic review of Irish-US relations that the Taoiseach launched in the US last week.
See the report:
The Irish American Reign Fades: Maureen Dowd is the Last of a Dying Breed
Bishop urges diaspora to welcome newcomers
Thursday, March 19th, 2009In his St Patrick’s Day message, Bishop Séamus Hegarty, Bishop of Derry and Chair of the Bishops’ Council for Emigrants, has urged the Irish Diaspora to assist those who may be leaving Ireland to escape the economic downturn.
Here is the entire text of his comments:
GuÃm beannachtaà na Féile Pádraig oraibh uilig. On this, the Feast of our National Apostle, I send warm greetings to Irish people at home and abroad and to all those who join in the celebration of our national feast, including the many immigrants to our own shores. Saint Patrick first encountered Ireland as a migrant. Thus, it is fitting that on the Feast of our National Patron, we again seek to highlight the needs of the many Irish emigrants spread throughout the world.
Article 2 of our Constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann, rightly states that ‘The Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.’
The Irish Episcopal Council for Emigrants (IECE) has, for over fifty years, sought to provide pastoral support to our emigrants and in cooperation with our many apostolates, sister organisations and volunteers will continue to do so.
As a consequence of the current downturn in the economy, increasing numbers of Irish men and women are again leaving our shores in the hope of making a new life for themselves and their families. For many, this can be a difficult journey to make and so at this time of increasing outward migration, I urge the Irish Diaspora to continue to work together in the spirit of charity and compassion to ensure the welfare of all Irish emigrants.
Today we remember in a special way those Irish emigrants whose journey has been a difficult one. We are especially mindful of the elderly Irish in Britain and our undocumented in the United States. IECE continues to highlight the longstanding problems facing generations of Irish emigrants. The outreach services provided to emigrants, pioneered by priests, religious and supportive lay people over many years, continue to expand and are truly in keeping with Gospel values.
On this Saint Patrick’s Day, I am reminded of the words of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI who, in this the year of Saint Paul invites us to:
‘love to the full without making any kind of distinction and without discrimination, in the conviction that any one who needs us and whom we can help is our neighbour (cf. Deus Caritas Est, n. 15). May the teaching and example of St Paul, a great and humble Apostle and a migrant, an evangelizer of peoples and cultures, spur us to understand that the exercise of charity is the culmination and synthesis of the whole of Christian life.’[1]
It is also important on this day that we, as a society, recognise the difficulties faced by those who have come to this country seeking to make Ireland their home. I hope that they will receive the same ceád mÃle fáilte that we would wish for our own emigrants. The newly established Bishops’ Commission for the Care of Migrants, incorporating the Irish Episcopal Council for Emigrants and more recently the Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants, will endeavour to support and give voice to the worries and concerns of those who wish to make Ireland their home.
On this day too it is important to highlight an especially vulnerable group of emigrants – Irish people imprisoned overseas. The Bishops’ Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas (ICPO), under the auspices of the Irish Episcopal Council for Emigrants, continues to work tirelessly on their behalf. ICPO provide support to over 420 Irish people imprisoned throughout the world. While the majority are imprisoned in Britain, others are located in Europe, the Americas, Australia and Africa. Thirty four new cases were received by ICPO in the period November 2008 to January 2009. This equates to one person every three days.
The 2007 Report on Irish Prisoners Abroad prepared by Mr. Chris Flood provides an excellent synopsis of the many difficulties faced by Irish prisoners and their families. While considerable progress has been made, it is imperative that the remaining recommendations contained within the Flood Report are urgently implemented. The ICPO is committed to securing their introduction and will continue to work with the Department of Foreign Affairs and others to secure their implementation.
“May the Virgin Mother, who together with her Blessed Son knew the pain of emigration and exile, help us to understand the experience, and very often the drama, of those who are compelled to live far from their homeland, and teach us to serve them in their necessities, truly accepting them as brothers and sisters, so that today’s migrations may be considered a call, albeit a mysterious one, to the Kingdom of God, which is already present in His Church, its beginning (cf. LG 9), and an instrument of Providence to further the unity of the human family and peace�. (Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi)
[1] MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR THE 95th WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES (2009) Theme: St Paul migrant, ‘Apostle of the peoples’.
Related websites:
New Irish-American website launches
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009The publisher of New York’s Irish Voice newspaper and Irish-America magazine has launched a new website aimed at the diaspora.
The New York Times says of the venture, www.IrishCentral.com: “The new site includes genealogy information, top tourist spots in Ireland, breaking news and breaking fluff. Its target audience is the Irish diaspora, which numbers 36.5 million in the United States, more than eight times the population of Ireland.”
While the site claims to be the first global Irish website, there is little ground for the assertion. Numerous other other sites such as irishabroad.com, emigrant.ie, seventymillion.org and the now-defunct virtualireland.com and local.ie have also been aimed at the global Irish community. (I worked on two of these: virtualireland.com and emigrant.ie.)
Publisher Niall O’Dowd has gathered $2.4 million in investments and advertising commitments. Backers of the site include a number of prominent Irish-American business executives.
O’Dowd has been a prominent spokesperson in Irish-American affairs, and was the organiser of the first US-Ireland Forum held in New York in November 2007. He recently stepped down as chair of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform.
Related pages
US-based tech leaders support Irish business
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009The Irish Technology Leadership group, a San Francisco-based group of technology executives, are eager to lend their support to Ireland’s economy, according to an article in TechCentral.ie.
John Hartnett, the group’s chair, told the publication that the Irish abroad can play a key role in dealing with the current economic crisis:
“It’s not just an Irish problem; it’s a worldwide problem. Ireland needs to reach out to each part of the diaspora that can help it to be successful.”
The ITLGis comprised of 500 members, all at executive and CEO level. The group is hosting an event in Silicon Valley this month that will bring six firms selected at its “Siclicon Valley comes to Ireland” event in November to meet with senior executives from US-based businesses.
The ITLG is working with the IDA and Invest NI to better compete in Silicon Valley. The article says:
Ireland is going to have to compete in a different way. The first thing is to get the brand right,” he argues, by positioning Ireland as a high-value country and an innovator on the leading edge of technology.”Inward investment is hugely imporant, but we must stand on two legs and make Irish companies multi-million firms. Israel ahs 66 companise listed on Nasdaq; Ireland has four. We have got to be able to compete up the food chain and up the value chain. “
Hartnett also says that the group is encouraging Irish politicians to meet with industry leaders in the valley, and assisting government and educational institutions to understand how to innovate and win business more successfully.
The ITLG is hosting its Silicon Valley Awards 2009 ceremony on 14 April at Stanford University in California, with Tanaiste Mary Coughlan as keynote speaker.
Related links:
- Need to accelerate quest for Ireland, Inc. (TechCentral.ie)
- Irish Technology Leadership Group
- Speech by Taoiseach at “Silicon Valley Comes to Ireland” meeting at Trinity College, November 2008