“A Hundred Thousand Welcomes?”
Google Image I’ve often written about my personal connection to Ireland, undoubtedly because all of my great grandparents were Irish immigrants and I’ve always been interested in them and their homeland. In fact, I find immigration itself fascinating. It requires people to tear themselves from their families, culture, food and often faith, to plant themselves in foreign soil. My beloved wife, Amparo, is an immigrant from Colombia, and that adds to my interest. So, I was understandably attentive to an article in a recent issue of America magazine (I hope none of you are asking, “What’s a magazine?”) entitled, “We All Belong to Each Other: Rethinking Immigration and Irish Identity.” Devastating Famines, Chronic Poverty As you may know, Ireland was for several hundred years an exporter of its people. Because of devastating famines and chronic poverty, its citizens scattered to all parts of the globe, but principally to England, the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S., at least, the Irish w...