Liberty History

IN the July 9-15 edition of the Irish Voice, Niall O’Dowd wrote in his “Periscope” column about his visit to the re-creation of the Jeanie Johnston. He writes about Delores Bennet also touring the ship. He says that her grandmother had come over on such a ship in the 1870s. 

Later, in the same article, he talks about what must (her) grandmother have thought when she saw it (the Statue of Liberty) from her own sailing ship all those years ago? In the interest of historical accuracy, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated October 28, 1886. The pedestal was completed only the year before, and the Statue arrived from France in 350 pieces in 1885. 

As an additional reference point, Ellis Island Immigration Center opened in 1892 in Castle Gardens, New York. It was used to process immigrants from 1855-1892 – prior to that it was up to each state to process arriving immigrants. 

Furthermore, by the time the statue was built, steam-driven steel ships were already in initial use for trans-Atlantic travel, and had reduced the trip to 10 days. 

My family began to arrive from Ireland in 1855. Unfortunately, they too would not have had the romantic moment of viewing the Statue of Liberty as they sailed into this country, but we can’t re-write history. 

John R. O’Keefe
Ogdensburg, New York 

Irish Justice

IN reviewing my favorite section of the Irish Voice, the “Ireland’s Eye” page, in a recent edition, I found seven-excerpts from various publications around Ireland. Six of the seven had to do with drunks or alcohol. 

The exception had to do with two Galway farmers who almost went to fist city over thistles growing on the property line between them. They were charged with language unbefitting gentlemen. Fortunately the judge was a true Irishman who saw the futility of interceding and tossed them out of court with the admonishment that, “We will all be gone in a short time and it will not matter then.” 

I have to tell you I was truly impressed. That was wisdom befitting Solomon. If it had been in the U.S. there would have been a jury trial. 

Johnnie Cochran would have represented one of the accused and Clarence Darrow would have been resurrected to argue for the other. A jury, after being sequestered for two weeks at a cost of $156,000, would announce that it couldn’t reach a decision. 

The district attorney would demand a retrial, and three years later one of the parties would be run over by a drunk driver and the other would claim victory just before filing bankruptcy. The district attorney would lose his re-election bid, and the judge would go on to star in a porno movie. 

Thank God for the Irish! 

Jerry Hoosier 
Cypress, California

Where’s the Photo?

THE nomination of James C. Kenny as the United States ambassador to Ireland is a Page 6 story with no photograph in your July 9-15 edition? 

What’s the matter? Is your “if he’s not from New York, he can’t possibly be Irish” smear campaign against him not going to well? 

One would almost think that he had won some type of civil court judgment against your newspaper for slander or something.

Dennis Mangless
Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin

The Economy’s Hangover

I READ with interest your piece on J-1 students seeking jobs in vain. 

Browsing through the help wanted pages, it is clear that the job market here is suffering terribly. The pages of situations wanted far outnumber the jobs advertised. Whatever the economic “experts” spout out about “growth,” “productivity” and all that nonsense, we here in New York City are in a mini-recession, end of story. 

I came here in 1989 on a similar J-1 visa and had the pick of all kinds of jobs. Within one month I’d left one job, grabbed two others and worked throughout the entire summer and saved a few thousand. Those days unfortunately are long gone. 

Indeed The New York Times wrote last week that New York high school students are enduring the worst summer job market in 55 years. Adding to this demand for jobs are J-1 students pounding the pavement in search of a few bucks. 

Traditionally the J-1 job searcher found work as a waiter or bartender, but with less people in bars, owners have no need for extra staff. And Bloomberg’s ban on smoking is yet another negative ingredient affecting the job market. 

Post-September 11th the market is even tighter with Homeland Security snooping into students’ affairs, as if a young man or woman coming here for the summer from Ireland would pose a terrorist threat. 

The trouble is, demand for goods and services is not great, so no matter how low the interest rate, the economy won’t respond the way it did in the past. People had less in the past so when the interest rates were lowered they purchased more and more things, partly because they needed them, partly because there was more money circulating in the economy (in the form of debt) and partly because they wanted them.

An economic boom (1995 to 2000) is like going out on a night of drinking. Pints and pints are consumed, as if there’s no tomorrow. The pints keep coming and the drinker keeps guzzling them down, steadily getting inebriated, happy as Larry as they say. 

Then the night or early morning ends. He or she crawls into the bed and sleeps soundly. The next day, a few hours later usually is hell. The head is pounding, the stomach wrenching and a sick day requested, is granted. Memories of the night before are scant as the mind concentrates on the hangover and getting rid of it. 

During the mid to late-1990s the drinkers had a ball, beer flowed, tips were huge and everything was hunky-dory. Now a 21st century hangover is in our midst and the J1’s job searches are simply micro symptoms of an economy in a hangover. 

AP O’Malley 
New York, New York

Power of the Press

OVER the past couple of years, those of us who have followed the peace process in the British and Irish media will have noticed a familiar pattern emerging in the U.S.

Given that the peace process is extremely delicate at the present time, surely the integrity of the press, and the accuracy of its stories, is very important. The press can enhance the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process by staying true to its journalistic professional license, and not allow itself to be manipulated by propaganda.

The following are just some of the sensational headlines from the past couple of years which were very damaging. Many of them have sunk without a trace since. The reason for the stories was to create a vacuum, or ultimately bring down the Agreement.

Just look at the Roisin McAliskey saga, the Stormont mole saga, the supposed IRA man who broke into Castlereagh and stole documents of national importance, and more recently, the arrest of John Morgan in Israel, and the Stakeknife story.

These stories are proof that British securocrats are playing political dirty tricks through use of the press. The worry is that those who are wielding the power in spinning these stories are temporarily succeeding in setting the peace process back.

Nothing noticeable is being done to protect the public from this damaging coverage. And the stories are having their desired effect on public opinion, too.

I disappointingly expect to see such damaging stories in the British and Irish press, where nothing in journalism is sacred. But surely not in America, where public opinion is so essential to a resolution of the Irish Troubles, and journalism is still an unspoiled profession, by and large.

Liam Padraig Eustace
Woodside, New York