| Plastic jibe is way off
I HAD the great pleasure of performing recently at some Irish clubs around
the country.
What struck me most was the hospitality and the dedication of the people
involved in these clubs.
The Irish-born among them have made their homes here and integrated fully
but still proudly retain their strong identity and along with the second-generation
Irish have made an enormous contribution to their communities.
The Irish who raised families here but took them home every year to give
them a sense of national identity deserve highest credit.
Speaking to some of these people and listening to their horror stories
of travel on the cattle boats makes you realise just how hard these people
had to struggle.
They hold no bitterness but they don’t forget.
The current Irish generation have no concept of what these people went
through and hopefully they will never experience anything like it.
The second-generation Irish are in many ways more Irish than the ones
at home.
They are immensely proud of their heritage and culture and it is uplifting
to talk with them. They are not caught up in the negative side of the
Celtic Tiger.
When I hear them called Plastic Paddies I feel like screaming.
It is a horrible, disgusting and dismissive term. There is nothing plastic
about them.
These people are the real deal. We should be proud of them.
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