Annie Washart, Barbara MacReady and Ellen McCue get into the festive spirit.
Barbara MacReady has deep roots in Philadelphia, but she now lives in Florida. But when she makes her annual trip to the city for the Christmas holidays, one of the reasons she comes back is this: the Hibernian Hunger Project’s annual turkey giveaway.
MacReady is no stranger to Hibernian activities. When she lived in Philly, she used to take part in the annual rolling of Irish potato candies run by Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernian Divisions 87 and 1.
“I was the potato Nazi,” MacReady says of her role as one of the bosses of the annual LAOH fund-raising enterprise. As for the annual project to distribute turkey dinners to the needy, which she took part in from early on, she says, “even though I live in Florida, this is one of the things I have to do.”
MacReady’s not alone. A crowd of volunteers descended upon Shamrock Food Distributors in the Frankford section of Philadelphia early Saturday morning to load of cars, vans, and trucks—anything with wheels—to deliver 160 complete turkey dinners to needy families throughout Philadelphia. Many, if not most of the volunteers have taken part in this Christmas season ritual eight years.
Overseeing it all was Bob Gessler, founder of the Hibernian Hunger Project, working hand in glove with Jim Tanghe, president of Shamrock Food Distributors. Tanghe helps gather and store all of the foods, turkeys and all, in his warehouse off Fraley Street.
“He (Bob) started out doing 25 baskets,” Tanghe said. “I said, ‘Can we double it next year? He said, ‘You’re crazy.’ We doubled it. The next year, I said, ‘Can we double it again?’ He said, ‘You really are nuts.’”
Tanghe said it would be asking a bit much at this point to double 160—but with this crowd, you never know. They’re not very good with the word “impossible.”
The heavy cardboard boxes containing all the fixing for a Christmas dinner—turkey, stuffing, vegetables, butter cookies and more—also include pasta, tomato sauce, mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, and other fixings for a few more meals beyond the Christmas feast.
Gessler gives Tanghe a lot of credit for helping to pull this otherwise complicated venture together. “He sets up a place in his freezer for any donations of turkeys we get,” Gessler said. He orders all the stuff for the food baskets, and he has his staff filling the baskets. He’ll order everything for us at wholesale.”
Why do they do it? Why do all of these volunteers turn out on an early Saturday morning—often pretty cold at this time of year—to heft boxes into truck beds, and head off to so many sections of the city, to families living in cramped apartments and row homes, to a women’s shelter, church parishes, a couple of Baptist churches, and more?
Certainly, the need is there, and everyone who joins in the effort acknowledges it. “This is the AOH (Ancient Order of Hibernians) helping anyone who need it. We’re just helping.”
But there’s another reason, and it’s a good one, too, Gessler said with a smile. “It’s a totally selfish reason. It makes us feel good.”
Caitriona O’Leary’s Enthralling Arrangement of The Wexford Carols
Christmas music evokes the spirit and sublime essence of the season, and Caitriona O’Leary has captured all that is meaningful about the Yuletide in her new CD, “The Wexford Carols,” by restoring original tunes to the 17th century poems and singing them in her glorious voice.
Caitriona, the Donegal born singer known for her ethereal voice and for her group DULRA, became captivated by The Wexford Carols 25 years ago when she first heard Noirin Ni Riain singing them on her album, “The Darkest Midnight.” The story behind the carols is part of Ireland’s dark history: Written as poems in 1684 by Luke Waddinge, Bishop of Ferns, County Wexford, they were published in “A Smale Garland of Pious & Godly Songs.” They were an expression of the politics of the time, and specifically Oliver Cromwell’s 1649 Sack of Wexford, which left the Irish Catholic gentry disenfranchised. The people found solace in this poetry, and began singing them to popular melodies of the era. In 1728, Father William Devereux composed his own version of the carols, titled “A New Garland Containing Songs for Christmas.” There were originally 22 songs, but only 12 are still sung annually in Wexford as part of the 12 days of Christmas. They were passed down as all traditional Irish songs have been—from “mouth to ear to mouth, through the generations.”
“Indeed, it is fascinating how songs are kept alive like that,” Caitriona said. “And how they develop and change, even if only tiny bit by tiny bit over the centuries. You can sometimes see this in songs that have been passed down orally in other regions—they may have started off the same but through the inevitable personal nuances of different singers end up quite different indeed. Look at how ‘Barbara Allen’ is sung in England versus Appalachia versus how it was written down in 18th century Scotland!”
Caitriona’s captivation with the carols led to her 25 year journey researching the history, and then thoroughly and meticulously recreating the original melodies to the songs.
“I listened to recordings of the traditional carolers in Kilmore (as well as hearing them live) and I read every scrap of history I could find. I was very fortunate to be able to hold in my hands and peruse an original 1728 edition of Waddinge’s ‘Garland’ (the second edition) in The National Library (Ireland) and had access to the treasure trove that is the Irish Traditional Music Archives,” Caitriona explained.
Some tunes were easier than others to restore to the poems.
“In the case of ‘An Angel This Night’ it wasn’t so hard at all; Waddinge intended for all of his poems to be sung and beneath the title of each is the instruction ‘To the tune of…’ In this case the tune in question was ‘Neen Major Neel.’ While the tune with that title is no longer known, two other Waddinge poems (‘On St. Stephen’s Day’ and ‘Song of the Circumcision, New Year’s Day’) are also to be sung to ‘Neen Major Neel’ and are both still sung traditionally. I have made the assumption that this is the original tune. In other cases, the prescribed tunes have been a little harder to hunt down. But by trawling through old ballad books and dance books from the 17th and 18th centuries, I did find some that I think are right. Like, for example, ‘This is Our Christmass Day’ which is supposed to be sung to the tune of ‘Bonny-brooe.’ I reckon that Waddinge probably meant ‘The Bonny Broom,’ a popular 17th century Scottish song.
“I really love these texts, the wonderful contrast between the humble and the lavish expressed in fabulously rich, yet accessible language. The tunes are beautiful, too, and the fact that so much of the tradition has been kept alive by the folk is really wonderful. Apart from ‘The Ennisworthy Carol’ (which is quite well known, generally by the name ‘The Wexford Carol’), these songs are almost unknown outside the parish in which they are still sung. And there is not a huge amount of traditional Irish Christmas music in the general repertoire. That fact also made these songs all the more precious to me. Also, I lived in New York for many years, and while there Irish culture took on a whole new meaning for me. Sometimes it takes exile to strengthen ties (the old ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’)!”
And how did her three co-vocalists come to be involved in the project?
“The producer of this record, the lovely Joe Henry, suggested Tom Jones and Rosanne Cash and also Rhiannon Giddens—whose star is rising very fast; she is a member of the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops and the New Basement Tapes (a ‘supergroup’ that also includes Elvis Costello and Marcus Mumford). He had worked with all three in the past and thought they would be a good fit for the project—I think he was right! These three singers, along with the band of brilliant players, gathered in a circle around Joe and me in a former stable (that is now the Grouse Lodge Recording Studio) and gave their individual and collective artistic responses to the tunes as I sang them, and together we made this beautiful music.”
Beautiful. Stunning. Sublime. It takes more than one adjective to describe “The Wexford Carols.”
Watch the video of “The Angell Said to Joseph Mild:”
They set up the bar, set out the the food, and pushed all the furniture out of the way for dancing, and then rocked on till after midnight (or so I hear–I left at 9:30) at the Irish Immigration Center’s annual Christmas party.
“This is like the old days when we used to have house parties,” said one attendee, referring to
the music-soaked evenings when Irish immigrants in Philadelphia would gather at one another’s homes, set up the bar, set out the food, and push the furniture out of the way for dancing, just the way they did it back home.
Along with the dancing, there was singing–in the crowd and at the microphones, where Vince Gallagher and Karen Boyce McCollum took turns at the vocals, with Patrick Kildea and Johnny “Lefty” Kelly on accompaniment. There were so many people there, you could only get anywhere by moving sideways. The food was provided by Rafael and Erick Portugal, who run the Irish Coffee Shop, who stayed to party with everyone else at this decidedly multi-cultural bash.
Below, you’ll see some of my photos from the party. And next year, you’ll come.
You can help out the work of the Irish Immigration Center–working with the elderly, helping immigrants with documentation issues, and promoting citizenship–by donating to its annual campaign, going on now. Your tax deductible check can be sent to the Irish Immigration Center of Greater Philadelphia, 7 South Cedar Lane, Upper Darby, PA 19082. You can also purchase the Irish Immigration Center’s annual calendar, which features some of the Center’s seniors recreating scenes from popular Irish films. It’s $20 plus postage, $15 for seniors, and is available at the Immigration Center website.
Eileen Lavin playing one of Santa’s elves at the Irish Center Senior Christmas lunch.
This was the week to get your Christmas spirit on, and we did. There were nine
Irish Christmas events on our calendar and we managed to get to four of them. Lori Lander Murphy spent Sunday with Maria Walsh, the Rose of Tralee, and Seamus Claus at the Saturday Club in Wayne. You can read her story here. And you can see my photos from the other three events below.
For the second year in a row, I took the family to “An American Celtic Christmas,” the magical show—with dancers and singers and Santa and snow (yes, I know I’m rhyming)—at Bensalem High School on Saturday. The annual production comes from those wonderful folks who also bring us the Philadelphia Fleadh in the spring, Frank Daly and CJ Mills of Jamison Celtic Rock and Slainte. Singers Raymond Coleman, John Byrne, Kim Killen and Bob Hurst of the Bogside Rogues joined a stellar band on stage with dancers from Ridgewood Irish Dance Academy from Ridgewood, NJ, Celtic Flame, as well as the Bucks County Dance Center. The Bucks dancers are currently without a home—their studio burned down a couple of months ago—so the show’s producers donated proceeds from a 50-50 drawing to help them out, as did the winner. It was beautiful to see the Christmas spirit in action.
[flickr_set id=”72157649632822296″]
It was out in full force on Sunday too at the holiday recital of the Divine Providence Village Rainbow Irish Dancers, a group of developmentally disabled women who have been part of the Irish dance scene for about three years. Since they were founded by Irish dancer Kathleen Madigan, former dietitian at the Catholic institution in Springfield, Delaware County, the “ladies” as she calls them have marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade (where they won an award their first year out) and appeared on the field at Irish Heritage Night at the Phillies. They’ll be dancing at Irish Heritage Night in Camden this spring.
They were joined on stage by the Irish Stars, Parker School of Irish Dance, from Hellertown, where Madigan is a student, and the Villanova University Irish Dance Team, which invited the women to participate at the intercollegiate Irish dance event for the last two years.
[flickr_set id=”72157649632751016″]
On Monday, the ballroom at the Irish Center was filled to capacity—and a sea of red sweaters–for the annual Seniors Christmas luncheon co-sponsored by the Irish Center and the Irish Immigration Center of Greater Philadelphia. The Vincent Gallagher Band performed and the lunch was donated and prepared by The Plough and the Stars Restaurant, 123 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. Co-owners Jerome Donovan and Marian Ryder were on hand to both prep and serve, along with a bevy of volunteers.
We started out thinking … how about choosing the top 25 photos of the year—our absolute favorites?
So much for that plan. We found too many favorites.
Also, we didn’t think you’d mind.
We covered parades until our camera batteries ran out of energy. Us, too.
We spent hours at our fair share of Irish and Celtic festivals, even at the beginning of the summer, when the Penn’s Landing Irish Festival drew hordes of pale-skinned Hibernians, desperately seeking music, dance, beer, shade and sun block.
Benefits like “Dancing With the Stars” and Irish boxing night are always great attractions. No one with a camera can resist.
We witnessed the crowning of several young women chosen to represent the absolute best of Philadelphia’s Irish culture—including Maria Walsh, the city’s first International Rose of Tralee.
One weekend last July pretty much sums up why this beat never gets boring. On Saturday down at the Irish Memorial on Front Street, we covered an Indian dance troupe doing their take on Irish dance. On Sunday, in the same place, we covered a protest by local Irish and Palestinians against the Israeli incursion into Gaza. This beat never gets boring.
Music and dance is always big for us. The Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival in particular is a photographic feast. It was a big year for several of our local under-18 musicians, who went on to kick butt at the Fleadh Cheoil in Ireland last summer, and they had their share of photo ops.
Wherever there’s somebody beatin’ a bodhran, we’ll be there.
The Philadelphia Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) marked a huge milestone, unveiling their new field in Limerick.
We have a lot of friends, and we’re always making new ones, and you’ll see a lot of them here.
Anyway, forget 25. It just doesn’t do you justice.
Janice Pietrowicz and Charlie Lord, owners of CelticClothing.com, in their Chaddsford home, in front of a painting of The Odessa, a ship that carried Irish immigrants from Queenstown, Cork to America in the 1800’s.
Spend an afternoon with Charlie Lord and Janice Pietrowicz, owners of CelticClothing.com, and it doesn’t take long to see why their online business has not only succeeded over the past 20 years, but is now flourishing. And there is no end to the possibilities for their future growth.
For starters there is their company motto, “American First, Irish Always,” which they have trademarked into one of their most popular selling t-shirts.
But more than that is the hard work and dedication that the Belfast born Charlie put into building his own American dream. He wanted to bring quality Irish products to the United States, and from the beginning knew nothing was going to stop him.
After having spent some time in Boston in the late 1980’s, Charlie decided to pursue a degree in Business Studies at Derby University in England. As part of his program, he had to come up with a plan for starting a business. He directly created his own future.
When he returned to the United States through the Donnelly Visa program in the early 90’s, finding a job as an immigrant wasn’t easy. “I came back to America with a business degree and a green card. I had been in Boston initially, and a couple of the guys who were up there said they were going to Wildwood, NJ, and I thought I was going to stay in Boston on my own and try and play on a soccer team. But the guys were leaving, so I really thought about it and decided to go with them for the summer in Wildwood—one of my friends had been there before and said ‘All right, lads, there’s plenty of work in Wildwood, it’s the beach and it’s summertime.’ And we get there and I got a job for $5 an hour chopping potatoes through this big thing for the french fry machine.”
At summer’s end, Charlie headed to Philadelphia, the nearest big city, where he met Janice and decided it was time to put his business plan into action. As an immigrant with a green card, it wasn’t easy to get a loan. “Banks weren’t interested,” Janice explained. “So I co-signed a loan for him, not a big one, just enough to buy an old van, his first round of t-shirts, some tables and entry into an Irish event. Within two weeks he had the loan paid off.”
“If you want to do something, you’ll get it done,” Charlie added.
And it was Charlie’s idea to make it an online venture, even in the early days when the internet was in its infancy. “We started when mail order was definitely still the thing. So it would always be a kick, we’d be eating dinner and get an online order and go fill it,” Janice said. At that time, their warehouse was their garage.
“It just continued to get bigger and bigger, and the more I adapted to the internet, it was like turning a ship. We made a conscious decision some years ago that we were going to turn things into an e-commerce company primarily. In those early days, people kept throwing money at internet companies, but we just kept going along. So when there was a big implosion, we got through the smoke. We were still going and still going, and we’re still there. Visitors to the site are up 32% from November 2013 to November of 2014. That’s 33,000 visitors to CelticClothing.com,” Charlie explained.
In the meantime, Charlie got a Masters Degree in Business Education from Temple University and began teaching Web Design and Internet Marketing at Haverford High School, where he is now also Department Chair of the Business Faculty. Janice has always worked as a school psychologist for the past 25 years. And they had two children. Oh, and they still travel during the summer to all the big festivals, using at least a 10 x 20 truck to haul their inventory to the shows, and bringing a staff of workers with them.
And the business finally outgrew their garage. About three years ago, they rented a warehouse in Toughkenamon in Chester County and hired staff to answer phones and fill orders. Danna and Maggie are the two women who keep things going so Charlie and Janice can focus on expanding the business. “For years, it was clothing and caps,” Janice said. “Since then we’ve gotten into glassware, scarves, perfumes, jewelry, some food products. We have wine corks—they’re great for hostess gifts. We’ve added children’s clothes. And we have Aran sweaters, plus a lot of different designs of men’s flat caps. We started carrying the women’s caps this year, which are great—Downton Abbey style hats. And they look so nice on women. Sometimes a woman will say, ‘I’m not a hat person’ and I tell them to try it on. The purple one in particular looks good on everyone; it brings everybody’s eyes out. We also carry food items, from Barry’s Tea to Guinness Chocolate Truffle cups. Charlie makes sure we order the candies he likes,” Janice laughed. “That way, if they don’t sell, he can bring them home. But every Christmas we’ll do a breakfast basket and that is a really cool thing. It has Irish sausage, bacon, O’Hara’s Soda Bread, the puddings, the whole deal. It comes frozen and stays insulated.”
In order to find new products, Janice explained, they go to different trade shows, and to Ireland once a year “to see if there are any unique products. We have some people we’ve been dealing with for years. All our stuff is either bought from Irish companies or local based American companies. All our hats and sweaters, they’re made in Ireland. There aren’t many manufacturers still doing it, but it’s the old-timers, the families, people who have had them for generations are still doing them. With that the costs are higher, but you can’t beat the quality.
“Everything we buy is licensed from the company. All the t-shirts are good quality. We have a 100% return policy. And we have the girls here if you need to call us. Some people still don’t like to order online. Sometimes people want an opinion—‘which one do you like better?’ They may have seen it online, or they may have seen it at an event. We’re always adding new designs, we have a lot of new t-shirts. There’s really something for everybody. Every shirt has a life expectancy, so we keep them in and then try to come up with some new designs, whether they’re our own or somebody else’s. If you don’t come up with your own designs, you basically have what everyone else has. And we don’t carry anything derogatory—none of the drunken stuff. We really want to portray ourselves as a quality product company. We’ve got something for all ages, and we also do gift certificates online—that’s helpful because sometimes you’ve got last minute shoppers who don’t know quite what to get or what size someone is.
“Our customers are really faithful. They’ll come up to us at the shows and remember what they’ve gotten, and say ‘Oh, that’s a new one.’
“Customer service is very important to us. We send coupons with every order so the customer will get a discount the next time they buy something from the website. If you’re unhappy with something or something doesn’t fit the way you want, you just return it. It’s not a big deal. If there’s an issue, if we’re out of a particular size, the customer can call and we can say, ‘Do you want to wait a week for our next shipment, or do you want to try a similar style?’ It gives them an option what to do. We’ve definitely gotten bigger, but I still like keeping it small. I like keeping the personal touch and the personal sense. I just really want that customer to be a happy person. That’s important to us. Our customers are faithful, good people; they come from all over the country.
“And we like having the business where it is, because we support the local business community. We use the little post office around the corner; today we shipped 350 orders through them. We hire local girls who work for us, and we pay benefits to our full-time employees.”
And all the time, Charlie has his eye focused on the future and where online commerce is heading. “We have an extensive digital footprint. We have over 30,000 fans on Facebook, we’re on Pinterest, we’re on Twitter. We engage in email marketing, we have our website, we sell on other platforms. We explore Amazon, we explore eBay—we have stores on those sites. Amazon is the benchmark of e-commerce; so many people use it, you kind of have to be there. Any of these places, like Facebook, it comes back into what I teach and do everyday. If you’ve got all of those people on Facebook, you’ve got to have a presence there. You’ve got all these internet communities, you have to have some kind of presence.
“On the downside of all that, it’s very time-consuming. You have to think about the time concern and the return on the investment. For any small business, you survive on the sales and revenue that come in. That’s the bottom line. Whatever activities you’re doing, you have to see a return on them. You have to see money coming in. Otherwise, you’re not going to be in business very long. You have to pay staff, you have to pay electric bills, and rent, and hosting and festival fees. The money for that comes from sales. But social media is a form of advertising, and unless you have an advertising budget, it doesn’t really matter if you’ve got 500 fans or 5,000 fans.”
I asked Charlie if he were to come to the U.S. now, as a young man, if he thought he’d be able to accomplish all that he has in the past 20 years. His answer was “Yes” with a but: “The problem for the Irish kids who are leaving the Island now is that they can’t get into the United States. They’re going to Australia. And that’s a missed opportunity for both the young Irish people and for the Americans because you have a highly educated workforce that can’t get into the U.S. They’re willing to work and they want to work, but the immigration laws don’t let them in. So, Australia will benefit.
“It’s not a coincidence that Celtic Clothing is owned by an Irishman. It’s just something that when I came over at first, and I created my own job and I’m working in the Irish community, with the Irish people, it still gave me that connection with home. That was a big part of it because for me it was that cultural kind of need. Back then, you would have lots of Irish immigrants in Upper Darby and the Northeast. They’d come to Wildwood and then meet their cousins in the city. And there was a community. And that’s done now, that’s gone. Those people cannot get in anymore. It’s unfortunate because businesses grew up from that, but there’s no new Irish immigrants coming in anymore to keep these things alive and start these things up.
“At the heart of it, you have to love the business you create. You have to be enthusiastic, it has to be something you enjoy because in any business, that has to be there. You have to be answering the phone from Ireland in the middle of a conversation in the kitchen. Otherwise, it’s going to be too much like work, and you’re not going to want to do it.”
According to Janice, “There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by in 20 years where the words ‘Celtic Clothing’ have not come up in a conversation at our house.”
But at the end of the day, Charlie said, “What’s most important to Janice and me with our own kids is to make them aware of their family back in Ireland, so the kids know that story and that history that came across the ocean. I want them to understand their family background.” And Janice added, “We both work hard, and we want to teach that to our kids. We don’t just give them everything.”
American First, Irish Always.
To receive a special 10% discount for Irish Philadelphia readers, go to CelticClothing.com and enter the coupon code “PHILLY” at the checkout.
Check out the photos from my behind-the-scenes tour of CelticClothing.com’s warehouse:
The new Mary from Dungloe, Shannon Alexander, serenaded by Vince Gallagher.
A 20-year-old chemical biology student at St. Joseph’s University and a capella singer was crowned the 2015 Mary from Dungloe at the Donegal Association of Philadelphia Ball on Saturday, November 30, at the Irish Center in Philadelphia.
Shannon Alexander of Sellersville will compete in Dungloe (Dun-low), County Donegal, in July 2015 at the 48th annual pageant, part of a week=long festival, which draws women of Irish descent from all over the world. (The current Mary from Dungloe, Kate Lindsay, is from Sydney, Australia.)
It will be the first trip to Ireland for Shannon, who plans to work in disease and drug research after graduation. Her grandmother was born in Donegal, and her grandfather in Galway. She’s a member of City Belles, St. Joseph University’s only a capella group (think “Pitch Perfect”).
Shannon was crowned by outgoing Mary, Kelly Devine, a public relations and social media account coordinator for a PR firm in Philadelphia. She is a graduate of St. Joseph’s University with a degree in food marketing and is competitive Irish dancer and teacher with the Coyle School of Irish Dance.
It was a packed house for the annual Donegal Ball and dancing went on into the wee hours to the sounds of the John “Lefty Kelly Band. Mary Crossan, a past president of the Donegal Association, planned the ball and grand marshal was John Durning.
We were there and took lots of photos so you can feel like you were there too.
It doesn’t take too many people to fill the meeting room of the Immigration Center of Philadelphia. It’s probably a sign of the intense interest in President Obama’s executive action on immigration that that’s exactly what happened Monday night when three immigration lawyers took part in a meeting to answer as many questions as they could about the new policy. About 40 local Irish immigrants sat in rapt interest, posing questions, and occasionally raising fears.
The No. 1 question on most people’s minds, said attorney Shelley Grant is, “do I qualify?”
President Obama’s overall guidelines are clear, but the details are murky. “What they did was give a broad overview until they come out with specifics,” Grant said. “That’s when I’ll be able to sit down with people and see if they qualify.”
Depending on how that question is answered, deportation will—or will not—be deferred for Irish immigrants who remain undocumented. Precisely how many of those there in the United States are isn’t precisely known. The number 50,000 has been batted around, with New York City and Boston likely accounting for the lion’s share, but it isn’t a recent estimate—and many Irish returned home when the nation’s economy took off during the heady Celtic Tiger days, so it could be less.
Some things are clear.
For example, Grant explained, to be eligible, “you can’t be a law enforcement priority.” That category generally includes obvious threats to the nation’s peace and security, such as terrorists, and immigrants who are in street gangs or who take part in organized crime. (According to a White House fact sheet, “recent border crossers” are also considered candidates for immediate deportation.)
If you have a criminal problem, the lawyers suggested, consult an attorney soon.
And while the details remain to be worked out, the president’s overall guidelines also are clear. To be eligible to be allowed to remain in the United States, free from hassle by the Immigration enforcement authorities, adults must have been in the United States at least five years, and have children who are U.S. Citizens or legal residents.
“Start going through everything you are going to need to prove you have been here since before 2010,” said attorney Audrey Allen. That could include such documents as bank statements, phone bills, rent receipts, and pay stubs.
Additionally, start rounding up documentation to prove citizenship of your children, such as birth certificates and school records.
Children who might be eligible for the expansion of the DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) must prove they arrived in the United States before they turned 16. They too must have been in the U.S. for at least five years, Most important, they need to be in school, have graduated high school, or have completed a GED. Alternately, they need to have completed a tour of military service. Records of high school graduation of a GED are going to be important. If a child who entered the U.S. illegally before the age of 16 hasn’t got a high school diploma, better look into a GED.
One big question on many minds was this: Will I be able to travel back home?
The answer so far seems to be yes, but only under strictly defined circumstances.
“If anybody thinks you can travel, you can’t just travel,” said Grant. Travel will only be permitted for specific approved reasons, such as education, work, or humanitarian circumstances, such as a family funeral, added attorney Tom Griffin. Those who qualify will be provided documentation which they must present upon their return to be readmitted into the United States. “It’s not a vacation,” Griffin said. “”It’s like permission to come back.”
One other worrying concern: Will I place myself in jeopardy in the long term if I identify myself to the authorities in order to qualify for this program? After all, under the terms of this executive action, deportation is only deferred for three years at a time. And if the next president nullifies the action, it’ll wind up being less. And in the meantime … the authorities know who you are, and where to find you.
Attorney and Irish immigrant Tom Ivory admitted it’s a risk to apply, but what he called “a reasonable risk.”
Why? Because, in likelihood, if you are a hard-working, law-abiding immigrant—albeit undocumented—the government has bigger fish to fry.
“They have your name and address,” Grant explained. “But based on past experience, you’re not a priority. They’re after criminals.” However, she added, that does not mean there is no risk.
It’s also important to remember that this program is not a path to citizenship, but there’s always hope. “The next step is usually to have something more expansive,” said Allen. “The hope is that this will spur some real political action.”
The Irish Immigration Center will continue to host informational gatherings as the president’s wishes are translated into action.
