Health of the Irish

THERE has been a lot of discussion in the Irish Voice lately about three issues that are related the dwindling number of Irish immigrants in New York City (and America in general), the economic and demographic transformation in Ireland, and the future health of Irish American organizations and institutions which has been most notably discussed by Niall O’Dowd.

Looking at the first issue, we see that many Irish immigrants are leaving New York for Ireland and are not coming back, and there are not enough people coming in to replace them. Historic Irish neighborhoods such as Woodlawn, Woodside, and Bay Ridge needed the successive wave of immigrants to maintain the Irish flavor of the area and the infrastructure to support newcomers.

We have already lost most of the traditional Irish areas of New York either to gentrification or replacement by other immigrant groups which is a natural process if new blood is not coming in.

However, the Irish are not alone in this. Look at the traditionally Italian neighborhood of Bensonhurst which is now becoming a Chinese neighborhood, or at Little Italy which has become a yuppie enclave. The German neighborhoods of New York have long since disappeared, as have the old Protestant neighborhoods.

Despite the growth of Irish American organizations in New York and the large number of cultural events that we see taking place (some say it is at an all-time high), it is my opinion that without new immigration these will disappear within the next 20 years.

This will happen not only because there will not be new immigration due to the strong economy in Ireland (if it lasts), but because the new generation of Irish Americans will have grown up for the most part in non-Irish suburbs and will have lost touch with their roots.

If there are no great issues to bind Irish America, such as we saw with the activism directed related to the troubles in the Six Counties in the 1980s and early 90s, the community will evaporate.

We are living in an age of mindless global consumerism where roots and culture mean little. The youth of the world are not following any religion or tradition, but are flocking to the nightclubs and memorizing the acts of Paris Hilton and the like.

As the Republic of Ireland has joined the European Union the youth of Ireland are following suit with the trends of Europe, which have left the rest of the continent in economic stagnation and needing massive immigrant labor just to stay afloat. The Irish youth have lost a sense of who they are and what their history is.

So the question may not just be the future health of the Irish in America, but also of the Irish in Ireland, if they follow suit.

Umar LeeMaspeth,
New York

Weather Watch

IF the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee had listened to the weather forecast in the days before St. Patrick’s Day instead of bickering with the Fire Department they would have known that it was going to snow into March 17.

With a cold, windy day forecast for the rest of Saturday, why not move the parade to Sunday, March 18, as it was forecast 10 degrees milder and sunny?

Moving from Saturday to Sunday is not like moving to a weekday. I guess the committee members were too busy issuing statements and counter statements and holding press conferences about the drunken Fire Department.

Frank Geraghty
Bergenfield, New Jersey

Green Cards Needed

I AM disappointed in the Irish American community’s overall willingness to support amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Sure there may be 50,000 illegal Irish in the U.S. with every one of them having a tale of woe, but we need to enforce our immigration laws for everyone regardless of nationality.

And to be honest, I feel that the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform is little more then a scheme to pull at Irish American heartstrings to gain support for illegal immigrant amnesty for the 80% Mexican illegal alien population.

The real immigration issue that the Irish American community should be focusing on is that Mexico, the country with complete utter disregard for our laws and where 80% of all illegal immigrants are from, was given 161,445 green cards in 2005 when citizens of the Republic of Ireland were only issued 2,088, and citizens of the U.K. (including Northern Ireland) were issued 19,800.

If you would like to see more people from Ireland immigrating to the U.S. then why not just lobby to have more green cards issued to citizens of the Republic of Ireland and the U.K.? Seeing as anyone coming here from the island of Ireland would speak English, and most likely have some education, I don’t think there would be any real opposition from anyone in our government.

I don’t think my legal immigrant great-great-grandfather from Co. Cork who became a New York City Police Officer would be too proud to see what’s going on now.

Eric Hafner
Bradley Beach, New Jersey

Plastic Paddy March

ANOTHER St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone, and as an Irish Protestant I am still offended by the Catholic nationalism and triumphalism of it all.

Why is Irishness being celebrated instead of St. Patrick? Patrick was British, born in Wales.

Why fly the Irish Tricolor? The Cross of St. Patrick flag is the one to fly, not the flag of the Irish slave masters.

The real St. Patrick has been falsely claimed by the church of Rome, but his life reflected a Baptist faith. His teaching and preaching was untainted with the fables of Rome. In his time the Roman church was only an embryo.

The first Irish churches knew nothing of priestly confessions, extreme unction, of worship of images, worship and intersession of Mary or any departed saint, of purgatory, the worship of relics or supposed papal infallibility. Such practices were not known until hundreds of years after his time.

Patrick only baptized professed believers and only by immersion, a main practice of the Baptists. His first church was generally believed to be near Saul where the Church of Ireland built a memorial church in 1932.

Why claim to be celebrating Irishness when Patrick was a Brit? What does plastic paddyism have to do with anything?

The parades today are more a show of Irish Nationalist triumphalism and sectarianism then anything to do with the real St. Patrick. It seems Irish Catholic ethnic purity is the rule of the day. There is nothing to do with the Bible truth Patrick preached.

Not everyone is considered Irish on March 17. Irish Protestants like myself are excluded from these ‘’Irish’’ parades.

So much for ‘’cherishing all the children of the nation equally.” We are very proud to be Irish, but not ‘’Irish’’ as defined by Sinn Fein/IRA.

Intolerance, bigotry and prejudice are implicit and explicit in sectarian marches like these. Don’t claim to celebrate ‘Irishness’ and at the same time exclude your fellow Irishmen just because we are Protestants.

We always knew the supposed meaning behind the Tricolor was never meant to be taken seriously. These parades prove us right.

Were Patrick not turned to dust, he would turn over in his coffin at the disgrace on his memory these ‘’Irish’’ sectarian, coat trailing marches have become. The St. Patrick’s day parades are plastic paddyism at its best.

You can keep your stereotype nonsense. Real Irish people want nothing to do with it.

Keep your sectarian “Irish” Catholic AOH bigotry too. You don’t know the real St. Patrick anyway.

John Gregg
Pleasantville, New York