West Cork immigrants made Butte, Montana an Irish outpost. This week, President Mary McAleese paid a visit, reports Denis Staunton
Brendan McDonough was turning pink in the 31-degree heat as he stood in his Irish tweed jacket and green, white and orange tie after meeting President Mary McAleese in Butte, Montana this week. At 31, he is thoroughly up to date with Ireland's history and politics, knows numerous Irish songs and can even manage a simple conversation in Irish.
But, like most of the 2,000 people who greeted the President in Butte, McDonough has never been able to afford to visit the country that figures so powerfully in his imagination.
"It's my number one destination. I want to go there for a month, to go all over. Then I'd go there for a week every year," he says.
Once a booming copper mining city, Butte has had little economic good news since the biggest mines closed almost 30 years ago, putting 5,000 people out of work. The city suffered another blow in the late 1990s when Montana Power, an electricity company that had been based in Butte for 90 years, collapsed amid an Enron-style scandal.
Some 400 people lost their jobs and many more saw their pension funds dwindle almost to nothing as the company's share price plummeted after executives gambled all Montana Power's assets on a doomed telecommunications venture. The company's top executives escaped from Montana Power's wreckage with millions of dollars, leaving Butte depressed, bitter and impoverished.
Social problems have multiplied since then, with teenage pregnancies soaring and the city experiencing one of the most severe epidemics of methamphetamine abuse in America. In 2004, more than one in four arrests in Butte involved the drug - 2,288 cases out of a population of just 35,000. Police officer Tim McMahon (32) says it is hard for outsiders to appreciate how much of a boost the President's visit gave the troubled city.
"It was fantastic. I was impressed that she knows what Butte went through. It gave us an uplift," he says.
McAleese decided to visit Butte after she met a group of people from the city who drove for six hours to see her speak in Seattle last year. She was impressed not only by their determination to maintain the link with Ireland but also with the story of the city that attracted immigrants from the Beara Peninsula in west Cork 150 years ago.
"Here in Butte, Montana, we see what an immigrant nation and an immigrant people had to suffer over many generations, ups and downs that called for incredible strength, great qualities really of transcendence and courage," she said.
Before visiting Butte, the President was in Missoula, launching the University of Montana's new Irish Studies programme, which is partly funded by the Irish government. Prof Traolach O Riordan, who runs the programme, is a colourful, boisterous figure from Cork who is fascinated by the relationship between the earliest Irish immigrants to Montana and the Native Americans. Irish trappers worked with Native Americans, and the music of one local tribe, the Meti, still reflects that relationship.
"The music is traditional Irish music, jigs and reels," says Prof O Riordan.
Researchers at the University of Montana are working with University College Cork to explore other parallels, notably the impact of colonial conquest on Irish literature.
"They're now using it as a comparative model to study Native American literature. What they've noticed is that the stratagems employed by the American government to destroy Native culture were very similar to those employed in Ireland. In other words, they were refined and finessed in Ireland and transferred here and this is articulated very, very eloquently and very lucidly in Native American literature," explains Prof O Riordan.
THE PRESIDENT RECEIVED a friendly welcome in Missoula and she noted that she was following previous presidents Douglas Hyde, who collected money for the Gaelic League in Montana in 1906, and Eamon De Valera, who visited the state in 1919. In Butte, David Emmons, who has written a history of the Irish in the city, suggested that the Missoula event was a little contrived and that Butte's response to McAleese was more authentic.
"This is where the Irish came. They didn't come to Missoula. You know, the comment that Douglas Hyde came to Montana - he didn't come to Montana, he came here. That he found Gaelic speakers in Montana - he didn't find them in Montana, he found them here. That he collected money in Montana - he didn't collect money in Montana, he collected it here," he said.
If the reception in Butte was different, so was the President's response to it. In Missoula, she spoke in lofty terms about the university's "vocation" and the "sacred baton" of Irish heritage passed down through generations. In Butte, she spoke about her grandmother from Roscommon, who lived all her life in a house without electricity, walking to the well every morning for drinking water. "I don't have to like it, I just have to do it," her grandmother used to say, a sentiment that resonated with an audience that knows the value of fortitude in the face of adversity.
The people of Butte showed themselves to the President as they really are, giving her simple gifts that included a woodcarving of a Celtic cross by an adult education class and a portrait of her by a local artist. She responded in kind, acknowledging the city's struggles while avoiding any trace of condescension and telling them that Ireland's success was their achievement too.
"I think she understands the connection and the love we have for her and the Irish people. It's really the first step towards re-establishing the link and reconnecting our younger generation in Butte with the younger generation in Ireland and keep up that link that our grandparents and parents had," McDonough says.
Before she left Butte, the President told The Irish Times how moved she was by the reception she found there and said she hoped that Ireland could reciprocate the loyal support it had received from the city's people through the years.
"These people are so proud of their Irish background and make such a strong effort in maintaining the traditions and the culture. I was so impressed with their spirit. Many came here to escape hardship. Yet it was not easy, far from home, facing dangers in the mines where so many lost their lives.
"In latter years, the local economy has suffered and yet they are so positive and welcoming. I was surprised by the number of people who greeted me in Irish, the only language spoken by the majority when they arrived here in the last century.
"The Irish Government's support for their cultural activities is so important and fully justified," she added. "I just hope that my visit can add value to the two Irish trade delegations that have visited this area and that we can assist the people whose forbears assisted us when we were immersed in poverty and oppression."