Rite and Reason: A recently launched campaign to support our far-flung diaspora deserves our support, writes Fr Alan Hilliard
'Like oil lamps we put them out the back of our houses, of our minds." Our last President, Mary Robinson, quoted these lines of Eavan Boland's in addressing the joint houses of the Oireachtas about our diaspora, which she considered an "issue of national importance".
The Irish Episcopal Commission for Emigrants (IECE) was set up in 1957 to co-ordinate a response by the Irish Church to the needs of Irish people who were travelling in droves to England and other places across the world.
The IECE has a number of centres in areas of major Irish population abroad, with full-time centres in Munich, Britain, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago and Sydney, and affiliations with many other centres. And we are in continuous contact with many Irish-born priests and religious who are always willing to offer support to Irish people when the need arises.
Bishop Seamus Hegarty, chairman of the IECE, launched an awareness and fund-raising campaign at the annual dinner of the London Irish Chaplaincy on February 21st. The campaign is called SIA - Supporting Irish Abroad. SIA is also a Gaelic word, meaning "longer" or "farther".
The campaign is a national one. Every parish in the land is being asked to pray for our Irish abroad, to remember them and, in many instances, to offer visible support by contributing to a collection that will take place in many dioceses. St Patrick's Day is the ideal time to call attention to the plight of our diaspora.
A Prime Time programme last December highlighted the plight of a number of our emigrants in the UK. To quote Emmet Stagg in a recent Dáil debate: "We forced and starved our young people out of the Republic with nothing except cardboard suitcases . . ." Those who at present offer support to these people are overstretched and under funded.
In the US, the centres are trying to keep up with the changing legislation relating to immigrants. Any Irish in the US who are undocumented face greater pressures. If they come before the law, even on a trivial misdemeanour, they face detention and then deportation. The work of supporting prisoners overseas continues. In the UK alone, Irish people constitute the second highest ethnic prison population. The hidden side of prison life is the family of the prisoner.
One parent recently wrote: "Imagine the scene - it's the middle of the night, the phone rings. I go out into the hall to answer it and my whole world falls apart. The split second I hear the voice on the other end of the phone I am wide awake. The caller is my son. He has been living abroad for some time now but this time his voice is completely different. He has broken the law, is in a foreign country, and has been arrested. He is scared and so am I...
"My son is now home again. He is working and settling back into normal life. We maintain contact with the ICPO [Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas] and can't believe that we had never heard of them before. Neither, when I asked them, had any of my family or my friends. I can't understand this, given the vital and the wonderful work they do. How can they not have a high profile when they do everything in their power to support, not only prisoners overseas, but also the families of prisoners." The support given to the SIA campaign will ensure that this valuable and under-resourced work of the Church will continue.
Let us be in no doubt that the contribution made by our emigrants to this country was immense. In real terms today they are estimated to have sent home €3.5 billion. Between 2000 and 2006 we are to receive €3.4 billion from the European Structural Fund.
Catherine Dunne, author of An Unconsidered People, points out that in 1961 the entire education budget for primary and post-primary education was the equivalent of £14 million. That year alone, £13.5 million was returned as emigrant remittances.
The Task Force on Emigrants, Ireland and the Irish Abroad was presented to the Minister in August 2002. He is to be commended as the first Minister for Foreign Affairs ever to engage this issue.
However, the delivery has been disappointing.
Maybe the experience of emigration is too painful. The thought of four children out of every five born in certain parts of the island being exported is not one that we can sit with easily. We can only trust that after the dust settles on our responsibilities as President of the EU that the effort, money and resources will be put speedily into ensuring that the Irish abroad are a "cherished" part of the nation.
There is much interest in this issue and there are many proposals in place. Earlier this year, the TD Eoin Ryan suggested that the Customs House should be used to house a tribute to the achievements of our emigrant community.
The hope for the SIA campaign is that the Irish abroad will feel "closer" and "nearer" to their homeland.
Fr Alan Hilliard is director to the Irish Episcopal Commission for Emigrants