Galway Advertiser 2004/2004_04_29/GA_2904_E1_014.pdf 

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14 N E W S

Galway Advertiser

April 29 2004

VIEW FROM THE HILLS
(This week, Mairtin O Cathain writes his column from Cohasset in the United States where lie the remains of many Connemara people drowned in the Brig St John sinking 155 years ago.)

The ever changing face of a colourful country
Anwar Sadat changed his world. He was a child in Egypt when Sadat's government came to power in Cairo. He gave us a summary of the path that brought him and his family to the United States as the taxi threaded its way from Logan Airport through the streets of Boston. There were just two classes in Egypt in his childhood -- the poor and the rich. He belonged to the rich and Sadat was bent on redistributing the wealth of the country. The well-off could lose much of their assets and money, so his family went hotfoot to America. Our taxi driver was well spoken; no wonder, he had been a product of the best colleges in America and was a bio-chemist by profession. He had lost his job and it was proving very difficult to find a new job in his field. Despite the various reports which showed that the US economy was growing, he had his doubts. He was not sure of where he was going, or of where America was going. But close on 200 people and their families had no such doubts at the Kennedy Library on the Boston seafront, the following day. They were being sworn in as citizens of the United States. While 198 people were being made citizens, the attendance at the ceremony must have numbered three times that many -- family, relatives, and friends from many lands. It was a festive atmosphere. Being a citizen of the United States was a dream come true for most of these people. When the judge had finished reading the Oath of Allegiance, he asked the new citizens to identify their continents of origin by standing-up. All parts of the world were represented, but it appeared that Asians were the biggest group. If the judge had asked people to identify themselves by various nationalities, maybe more than 100 countries would have been represented. One such country was Venezeula. Louisa had spent 10 years in the United States before she had finally reached her day of dreams. She works for a project called The Home for Little Wanderers in East Boston. This project was established in 1799 and its function includes assistance for young people from overseas communities who come to live in Massachussetts. The director of the service told us about how Louisa is involved in a programme for people from South and Central America who have come to Boston. They organize English classes for the Spanish and Portuguese speaking children between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, that is after their normal school day. How do the young people take to the idea of going back into school, when they have literally just finished their normal school day. "It works very well," Louisa told us. "For a start, the extra hours in a school situation suits many parents as it provides both a language class and a child-minding service free of charge; the parents are likely to be out working at that hour of the day." The idea has some resonance in the Gaeltacht in Ireland where many people claim that the naolann, or creche, might offer the best means of keeping some energy in the Irish language in its native habitat. The children would be immersed in an Irish language atmosphere from an early age at the naolann, and a child minding service would be provided, at the same time. All the same, most of us are not linguistic idealists; we look at the world around us in mostly practical terms. But, of course, there are big differences in what is being aimed for in the Gaeltachts in Ireland and in the Hispanic communities of East Boston. The Home for Little Wanderers is engaged in providing instruction in a world mainstream language to immigrants who want to succeed in America. I asked the director of the programme how they dealt with the issue of people's affinity to their own culture, while trying to equip them with the means of moving along in a new country. She explained that it has become more difficult to handle a lack of English language proficiency in the education system in Massachussetts and indeed, in many other States. Up until this year, pupils from Spanish speaking countries could be given up to three years of instruction through their own language before they would be required to study wholly through English. In effect, a separate education system in Spanish and Portuguese was in operation alongside English. However, the Massachussetts electorate voted last year to end this support system: nowadays you go straight into English language education, which is proving difficult for both pupil and teacher. The work of the Home for Little Wanderers -- partly funded by the State and by private donations now takes on added significance in East Boston. As well as helping the children, this organization also provides English language classes for the parents. They also have representatives who visit the parents and discuss the education of their children with them -- in Spanish or Portuguese. The new citizen, Louisa from Venezuela, will be a key figure in that work in East Boston, in the future; America is their land of hope. As it happen, thousands upon thousands of Irish people found landfall in East Boston in the torrents of emigration from our own country in the 19th and 20th Century. But many never reached the land of hope. The wide Atlantic ended their dream. One of the most tragic such events occurred on October 7, 1849 when the Brig St John, which sailed from Galway, was dashed on the rocks near Cohasset as its 99 passengers were literally within a few miles of America. I am writing this piece in that same picturesque town of Cohasset and I can see the outline from here of the Celtic Cross on a hillock in Central Cemetery in this town where 45 of the victims of that fearsome tragedy are buried in a mass grave. There were people from east Galway, County Clare and Connemara on board. Many of the scores of people who were drowned when the Brig St John was swept onto the rocky ledges of the Massachussetts coast spoke little, if any English -- they would have been native Irish speakers from communities where there was little English. It was then a different world for the Irish in America; we can be sure that the language of welcome was very scarce for the those fleeing the deprivations of Ireland at that time. Cohasset is now a town of 7,000 people, much sought after because of its picturesque location; you pay up big when you buy here. The Celtic Cross stands sentinel in the spring sunshine in Cohasset this week, and the harbour where the bodies were brought ashore is a home to vastly expensive craft. Many Irish people have found their way back here, the wheel has come full circle for the Irish in Cohasset, and in America. In East Boston the Hispanic community are the new occupants. This America is a land of energy and colour which speaks in different languages, in different generations.

Anna Downes of Moycullen attending a reception on Monday to announce details of the fiftieth Galway International Oyster festival. Photo:-Mike Shaughnessy

Elaine Barrett and Carol King from Be A Diva at the Hair 2 There charity fashion show at the Radisson SAS last week. Photo:- Mike Shaughnessy