Reflections of an Immigrant

WHERE has all the crying gone? I asked myself this when I left Ireland and said goodbye to all the family just a few weeks ago.

Over the past, nearly 50 years, I have returned to the land of my birth and wept very salty tears on leaving, especially when my mom and dad were alive. Today, a hug, squeeze and “I love you” have eliminated the Noreen Bawn lament, which assures the immigrant that the pond is getting ever smaller!

I have seriously thought about this question and then it hit me. The computer and Internet have done away not only with the letters in the mailbox, but also with the tears.

Why should there be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ones family are just a send away? It is safe to say that my sisters and I could know what the other one is doing at all times of the day. Heaven forbid this should come to pass!

The computer and high technology not only have changed our way of life, but also changed us emotionally. Are we becoming more like the computer ourselves in demanding instant gratification without the inner struggle we used to go through in making decisions, or even saying goodbye!

Why should we cry any more when someone is leaving knowing that we can have a phone call, text message, or e-mail even before we are back at the house?

Now all we need is the person’s picture to pop up every time an e-mail is opened. Hey! Let’s go a step further and have that picture taken in the kitchen or living room or wherever the computer is stationed. The bedroom is yet another step away!

Another intriguing question hit me –- maybe this only applies to the Irish immigrant. Their families have the cash to hop the Atlantic since the Celtic Tiger began to roar. May it never grow hoarse!

How about the many other immigrants in the U.S. who come from Third World countries? Perhaps it is their turn to do the crying thus not letting tears go the way of the appendix or tonsils?

Now, do not get me wrong. I am glad that the era of tears is over when one is departing the Emerald Isle for home. Maybe for me, it was not so much the tears I shed for my family, but for the Ireland I once knew and is no more.

The euro has replaced not just the pound but the very foundation of what made Ireland the Island of Saints and Scholars. For the people of Ireland this is a positive change, but for a whining immigrant, like me it is a loss not easily explained!

Mary Tully
Bronx, New York

Bloomberg in Ireland

I AM delighted to see that New York City Bloomberg rescheduled his visit to Ireland and that he will commemorate the Irish heroes of the American Civil War while he is there.

I am annoyed, however, at reports that protestors planned to turn up and protest him. The mayor of New York has been a true friend of the Irish, especially on issues such as the undocumented and has no hand in American foreign policy.

Why do these protestors think that they have to once again make the point that so many Irish are anti American at every opportunity?

I can understand if it was Vice President Dick Cheney or President George W. Bush who were in Ireland, but to picket the mayor of New York who has been so good for the Irish would be a disgrace. I hope someone tells them the harm they are doing.

John T. Fletcher
Riverdale, New York

Irish Peace an Example

I THOUGHT the “Periscope” column in the August 9-15 issue comparing the peace process in Ireland with the lack of one in the Middle East was excellent.

Whatever we think about the IRA and Sinn Fein, they had the grace to see that more killing was not going to be the answer and the two governments responded in proper fashion to make the peace process what it is.

Today I read about problems with the peace in Northern Ireland, but they are political ones, which are handled either by the governments or the parties themselves. I think that is a long way from the brutal sectarian killings we now see in the Middle East and elsewhere, because people cannot seem to sit down and talk.

So well done on the editorial and also on the fine work your paper does on Irish American issues. It is a must read in my house.

James Costello
Chicago, Illinois

Leave Bono Alone

I AM very disappointed by the coverage the ignorant John Spain gave Bono in last week’s issue about his business decision to move some of his companies out of Ireland.

Bono has given more than any one man to world peace and to charitable causes. While he could be back relaxing and enjoying his billions, he is instead traveling Africa and world trouble spots, desperately trying to bring relief to the poorest of the poor.

So what if his company decides to make the best deal possible and move outside Ireland? Bono has already paid his dues a million times to that country - indeed, U2 may well be Ireland’s greatest tourist attraction.

However, you could never measure in dollars the amount of good he has done for the world.

Joan Shanahan
Pearl River, New York

Don’t Blame the British

I WAS pleasantly surprised to read J.P. Duffy’s letter in the July 5-11 issue where he condemned the violence in Northern Ireland.

My joy was short-lived, however, as he predictability reverted to all too familiar anti-English hysteria, such as equating the indiscriminate bombing of Belfast with the failure of the potato crops in the late 1840s.

I was born and raised in a poor area of Ireland where there was a general consensus that England did not do all it should have to help the Irish during the Famine. There was also an acceptance that alcoholism, backwardness, and lack of self-help were contributing factors to the suffering endured by the people at that time.

During my time in Ireland, I cannot recall a single person of my parents’ and grandparents’ generations blaming England for the Famine or its aftermath. In my opinion it was not in the character of those humble people to place blame on others for what was essentially their difficulty, their responsibility and what many thought was the hand of God.

Mr. Duffy noted that Irish people were sent to the colonies. This is certainly true. At one time most convicted criminals from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales were sent to the colonies.

Indeed, those same people laid the foundations for many of the 53 countries that today comprise the British Commonwealth.

So I will end as I started by repeating that I think Mr. Duffy’s attitude (disposition) reminds me very much of those Irish Americans who helped out the IRA with money and guns.

Peadar O’Fiach
Bronx, New York

Bono the Hypocrite

I RARELY agree with John Spain, but I thought he was right on the money last week with his criticism of Bono for shifting U2’s tax burden out of Ireland, and into the tax free haven of Holland.

Where does Bono think the elimination of Third World debt can come from, if not the taxpayer? He’s always going on about how we can all do our part, but when it came time for him to part with his cash for the taxman, he schemed his way out of it. How hypocritical!

It’s true what many people say – we pay entertainers to entertain, not to preach to us. I thought Bono was a man with an important message. But apparently it only applies for the rest of us taxpayers, and not super-rich rock ‘n’ roll bands like U2.

This man clearly does not practice what he preaches.

Patrick Hayden
Dorchester, Massachusetts