By Georgina Brennan

THE Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) has announced that top Republican strategist and New York attorney Grant Lally has been named president of the organization. He was formally welcomed to the lobby group during a packed town hall meeting in Philadelphia last Friday night.

“Grant Lally is exactly the kind of leader the Irish community deserves in this role,” said Niall O’Dowd, chairman of ILIR. “His close ties with leading Republicans all the way to the White House will help us enormously in our fight to legalize the Irish. I am delighted he has agreed to come on board.”

“I have been active in the Irish community for a very long time and I am delighted to be a part of this,” Lally told the Irish Voice.

“I want to help to improve the lot of the Irish here and find a solution to the undocumented problem. The impact of the immigration laws has begun to bite. It is a terrible crisis. It has made it difficult for undocumented people living here to return to Ireland to see sick relatives without splitting their families up permanently.

“President Bush has addressed the issue and is looking for proposed reform. Senators McCain and Kennedy have proposed a good piece of legislation. We need to go to work with both sides.”

Lally was an important figure as chairman of Irish for Bush/Cheney in two elections and has a long history of contacts at the very highest level.

Lally, with fellow New York Irish Republican Jeff Cleary, was invited to join then-Governor George W. Bush at his election night victory rally in Austin, Texas in 2000. But as the election against Al Gore ended in a virtual tie Lally was one of the key party members selected to go to Florida to oversee the Republican response.

In 2004 Lally was assigned to several battleground states in the successful Bush effort to win re-election.

Lally grew up on Long Island’s North Shore and was the defeated 1994 Republican candidate for Congress in New York’s Fifth District (North Shore Long Island and Northeast Queens). A fighter for the principles of economic growth and opportunity, Lally serves on the board of Take Back New York.

An active member of the community, Lally has volunteered with the Red Cross, Kiwanis International and the Bayside Historical Society.

He is an active member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the Irish Lawyers Association, the Steuben Society, the Holocaust Memorial Commission, and serves as chairman of the Long Island Federalist Society and on the national board of the Republican National Lawyers Association.

He earned his bachelor’s degree at Johns Hopkins University, a law degree at Boston University, and a masters of international law at Georgetown. He has been a practicing attorney on Long Island for eight years.

Lally says he is setting aside his schedule so that he can firmly be part of the lobbying effort for immigration reform.

“I will be there on March 8 in Washington as part of the effort and am now trying to work a tight schedule for the day to use our time best,” he said.

In the meantime, Lally says Irish people who are living undocumented in the U.S., or Irish Americans concerned about the issue, should not just stop at their representatives in Congress. He says they should look to mobilizing Irish politicians as well because so many will have the ear of important politicians and President Bush on St. Patrick’s Day.

“People should reach out in both ways, to their local representatives and through family and friends to other members of Congress and community leaders, and also through family and friends to leaders back home in Ireland,” he advises.

Lally says the movement will benefit from grassroots lobbying, urging all politicians with influence in Washington to bring about comprehensive immigration reform that benefits the undocumented Irish.