Heritage and culture, ingenuity and aspiration, goodwill, and a chance to show how, when things get wobbly, we shake off the dust and find new ways to do things, wherever we are.
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A tonic for Ireland… Following on from the Global Irish Economic Forum in Farmleigh last September, Micheál Martin, Minister for Foreign Affairs, chaired a meeting today with business, cultural and sporting figures from the Irish community in Britain. The event took place in London, and the focus was on helping the Irish economy. Todays activities effectively mark the launch of the Global Irish Network, and the initial aims are to identify opportunities for an export-led recovery, and to engage additional resources that will help promote Ireland’s economic, cultural and tourism interests.
Mr Martin also announced his intention to hold similar meetings in other parts of the world, and the network will draw from a diverse group of achievers who have a strong connection to Ireland. It will be managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs, with ambassadors directing and organising the members in their respective countries. It’s also good to see enthusiasm coming from regions such as Argentina – for example here’s the English translation of an article in The Southern Cross that explores some possibilities. In summary this is starting to look like it has a solid structure and the early indications are positive. 300 influential people around the world have accepted the Minister’s invitation to participate, and it will be interesting to see how things develop over the coming year. It would also be good if the Global Irish Network website had an open access area where progress and achievements could be made publicly available. In the meantime we’ll try and keep up with it as much as we can here. (Maybe a GIN and tonic category!) Associated posts on diaspora.ie: Farmleigh Global Economic Forum The Chicago South Side Irish Parade has a great history, and as of last year was one of the largest neighbourhood parades outside of Ireland. Started in 1979 by George Hendry and Pat Coakley, it grew from 17 children marching around the block to an event hosting over 15,000 marchers and 250,000 spectators each year. In fact it got so big it moved away from having that local feel, and in 2009 the numbers made it difficult to control. This year it’s re-inventing itself and the organising committee have decided to steer it back towards it’s original community roots. The celebrations are being renamed as the South Side Irish Parade Family Fest, and will take place on Saturday, March 13. The parade itself won’t be on the schedule, but there are a whole range of family activities planned, topped off with a live performance by the Hothouse Flowers in the evening.  South Side Irish The festival is also part of a 10 day event that includes the return of the Chicago Irish Film Festival (March 5-10), and the Chicago Rose of Tralee contest. Can one become two? Many Chicago Irish will miss the parade and the large occasion that grew around it, but it’s also understandable why the committee had to have a rethink. Whether this will lead to a new parallel event waits to be seen. George Kelleher from Evergreen Park has started a Facebook page inviting everyone to come along on Sunday 14th. The suggestion is to have a pub crawl which will either be a farewell party for the parade or, if problem free, could be the start of something new? Whichever way you look at it, Irish spirit is definitely alive and kicking in Chicago! If you’re from the South Side what do you think, and what would you like to see in future years? I’ve written about Language Travel Ireland before, but their farm stay programme deserves a special mention.
“It was first journey without my parents to another country and I’ve enjoyed it very much. The house of my family had a very nice garden. In the evening, we had a barbeque in their garden and a few friends came. They were really nice and they told me a lot of their lives. The English lessons with my teacher were good and we had a lot of fun. One day, we went to Fota Wildlife Park and I saw giraffes, monkeys and a lot more animals. Another day, we drove to Galway and went to visit their relatives. While we were driving through the beautiful scenery, my teacher and her two daughters sang Irish songs. I enjoyed my trip to Ireland and definitely I will come back.” LTI offer a unique and authentic experience, and if you’re looking for a farm stay holiday you should really check them out. Here’s their farm stay programme. Enjoy! Time for a fresh debate, and in a modern context? For decades now fear has prevented progress whenever the subject of emigrant voting is raised. Knee-jerk reactions have stopped policy makers in their tracks, concerned they’d be heading down a dead end road. The reasons for change are more apparent these days: 21st century migration is seeing new generations leave and it’s important they don’t feel excluded. The old times when emigrants boarded the ship and said goodbye no longer exist – technology and cheap travel keeps Ireland close at hand. Exclusion doesn’t fit a modern world. A vote means attachment, and attachment encourages a sense of belonging, responsibility, and an interest in staying informed. A vote ensures the relationship is fostered and protected. Ireland is trying to engage with its ‘business elite’ abroad. An emigrant vote removes future hurdles – tomorrows ‘elite’ will already feel that connection with Ireland Inc quite naturally. Moving our thinking away from being a peripheral European country to a globally connected community (or nation) is a powerful proposition with new opportunities. Approach it as a two-way street with shared responsibilities and we’ll see shared benefits in return.
The Irish Post So the question is not really whether Ireland should bring in emigrant voting (in my opinion anyway), but how it can be implemented in a way that allows representation and participation without biasing or slanting the results… Global Irish constituencies: the UK, Europe, Nth America, Sth America, Australia, Africa, Asia maybe? Time limits on eligibility..? I’ve kept this simple but what’s your thoughts, what am i missing? RTE TV can now be watched internationally, with some restrictions, using the online RTE PLAYER catch-up service. It’s free, and you can get a variety of programmes up to 21 days after they’ve been broadcast on RTÉ 1 and 2.
The RTE Player went live in April 2009 but was initially limited to viewers in Ireland. Enabling the service to other countries is a great move. There are some restrictions which prevent streaming of certain programmes, and blocks some territories, however RTE have stated they will continue to add more content as they acquire new rights. The service is easy to use and well laid out, and you can also catch up with the latest on their rolling news channel. You can use a search box, look for programmes using an A-Z index, or flick through the online calendar, and overall the presentation is quite attractive.
One other thought… RTE are also obliged to provide an international terrestial service and this has been delayed since 2008. Initially planned for the UK, and latterly Central Europe and North America, hopefully this won’t be put back further as a result of the online presence. There is a large audience out there who are not regular Internet users, and it would be a blow to expectations if there was additional delay, or a switch in direction that excluded many of those who would welcome it. So, will this be the year that the Irish abroad can also hit RTE TV on the remote? Amhrán na bhFiann, ‘The Soldier’s Song’ is Ireland’s national anthem. The music was originally composed in 1907 with 3 verses and a chorus by Peadar Kearney (who also wrote the English lyrics) and Patrick Heeney. It was used as a marching song by the Irish Volunteers and was sung by rebels in the General Post Office (GPO) during the Easter Rising of 1916. Translated into Irish in 1923 by Liam Ó Rinn it remained popular with the national army and became the country’s official anthem in 1926. In 1928 the Army band started playing just the chorus to encourage people to join in, and in 1929 an official musical arrangement, titled ‘The Soldier’s Song’, was produced by Colonel Fritz Brasé, director of the Army band.
Enjoy… Just before Christmas we had the pleasure of being shown around the Julia by Pat O’Neill. We weren’t sure what to expect and I guess our thoughts were of trips on the previous ship.
Doing the guy thing I asked if we could get into the engine room but sounds like you need to be a bit of a ladder monkey so we passed on that one. Pat quickly made up for it though and we were soon heading upwards, through some heavy steel doors, and into the Bridge area. It’s quite a thing to stand at the helm of such a vessel, and before you could say ‘ahoy there’ Bernadette was organising a quick conflab about how she handled at sea…
Well one thing lead to another and it wasn’t long before she’d got her head round the port and starboard thing. All it took now was to find the ignition key and the steering wheel! Ok Pat – how about taking her for a spin? 10 minutes later we’re gingerly doing a 3-point turn as Bernadette whizzes the wheel in one direction and then the other. Pat’s holding his breath and I know what he’s thinking…!
Well it was a lovely little cruise, we kept her below 4 knots, Bernadette got her stripes, and it was sunset before we moored up again…
Great afternoon, and I don’t think anyone even noticed! (Ok, we didn’t really but it’s nice to day dream! She’s a great credit to everyone who’s had the drive to make her a reality. Something to be very proud of.) and from RTE…. To the people at the top, a short message to say that the reporting by one of your assets (TV3 Ireland) on the health of Irish Minister Brian Lenihan was perceived by the majority of Irish viewers as cheap, disrespectful, and tasteless. Irish people on the whole tend to put a high value on life, and using information about someone’s personal state of health to report a so-called ’scoop’ isn’t well received.
(In case you are unaware of what you are associated with). If Doughty Hanson want to make profit from the Irish market we’d appreciate it if you could ensure your media assets offer consistent value and decent standards to Irish society in return. If you want to be gentlemen you might ask your Director of News at TV3 to issue a sincere apology to Mr Lenihan and his family. NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is probably the most technically advanced tracking facility in the world. If someone wants to know what’s happening in the air, or in space, NORAD provides the answers. The full might of the organisation has been on ‘red’ alert over the last few hours as they monitored unusual airborne activity – the worldwide delivery of Christmas presents by Santa himself!
Here at diaspora headquarters we managed to break through their defence systems and download data about Santa in Ireland! Here is what we found… Timecheck : GMT – 00:20 – Santa arrives in Ireland from Iceland having delivered 1,362,948,863 presents so far….
Timecheck : GMT – 00:21 – Santa leaves and heads off towards the Azores having now delivered 1,363,054,183 presents…
We fed these figures into our super-dooper data analysis machines and can confirm that Santa brought 105,320 presents to our little Island. He’s a lovely man, but we’re a bit confused as to why he dropped them all off in Shannon! Only NORAD and Santa himself can answer that one! Update: NORAD have confirmed that some of Santa’s Elves worked tirelessly through the night visiting all the houses in Ireland – so hopefully lots of happy little people this morning (and some big ones too!) Merry Christmas all – and a happy new year. A strange article for diaspora.ie? maybe not… Last week we had the pleasure of listening to Michael Kelly talk to a room full of people whilst waving a vegetable in the air. That was the day I realised a Cork grown Irish garlic wouldn’t be a strange thing at all! Michael worked for ten years in the IT industry in Dublin, but these days lives life as a freelance writer, bestselling author and broadcaster. One of his books, ‘Tales from the Home Farm’, is a guide to producing food in your back garden, and it was the passion he expressed about self-sufficiency that caught me.
It’s a great venture that benefits everyone who gets involved, and i’d recommend you visit the GIY website and have a read yourself. Here? well i’m already been doing a bit of learning and 2010 will see the advent of prize winning Ballydehob garlics! And the diaspora..? Michael is racing round Ireland helping groups get set up so jumping on planes could be tricky (but hey, you could always ask him!). What you might do though is see what he’s up to and think about whether it’s a model that could work where you are. Well done Michael, and I suspect if you thought 2009 was busy….! |
 
By Ultan Cowley.   |
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Here’s some recent articles by others on the subject:
