A Letter from Ireland
a Chara,
This week I am writing from the road. To be more precise, on a train from New York to Boston, before returning to New York for a meeting with Labor leaders and to attend the Irish American Labor Leaders awards, and then the Martin McGuinness Foundation Chieftain’s Walk in New York.
Next week I will be traveling to Las Vegas to attend the Transport Workers Union of America Conference. From there it is on to the West Coast, where I will meet up with John Finucane for the next in our series of Irish Unity Commission Peoples Assembly in San Francisco on September 18th and Vancouver on September 20th.
This trip started with an event hosted by Friends of Sinn Féin US with mostly Irish American construction industry leaders. The event was very successful and while there was politics discussed, it was more a sociable celebration of community and friendship. Stories were told, songs were sung, and those who have passed remembered.
At first glance, this would seem to be a very disparate group: business leaders, labor leaders, Republicans and Democrats, and Irish American community leaders from coast to coast, and the US and Canada.
The common bond is our shared history and hope for the future. A desire for a new and united Ireland. The dream of generations of Irish in Canada and America. Across Ireland and internationally, there is an upsurge in Irish culture, language, sports, and music, which is reflected in interest in Unity.
Our language is reaching a new audience with classes springing up, and a new generation is making a mark on an ancient language. Kneecap has become a global phenomenon rapping in Irish, fusing hip hop and dance beats with a punk swagger and radical politics. This is the sound of a new generation defining their Irishness.
Irish traditional and folk music is surging in the charts, on tours, and in sessions. A new generation is discovering old tunes and songs and making them their own. The GAA remains a cornerstone of Irishness, promoting our national games and providing the glue that keeps communities together.
With this cultural resurgence comes a renewed focus on the future, and that future is a new and united Ireland.
Just as our culture is continually being redefined and relevant for a new generation, so too is our politics. And just as every generation redefines Ireland and Irishness, there is a section of those to change.
A racist and sectarian fringe seeks to define Irishness solely in terms of ethnicity or religion. We also have an Irish Government that defines Ireland in terms of a partitioned 26 counties. A government that pays lip service to our nation abroad. A government that relies on emigration to manage its policy failures in building homes at home. A government that fails to seize the opportunity of Irish Unity.
The present is always the battleground between the past and the future. Change can be managed, but it cannot be denied. The people whom I have met on this trip are ambitious for Ireland; they are looking to the future with confidence. The message of this generation to the Irish Government is either get on board or get out of the way.
