Irish county associations struggle to survive

“There are different levels of education. The people who come in the 1980s have finished second level. They came on airplanes; they didn’t have an American wake. Why would you invest in these organizations of you don’t know if you’re here for the long haul?”

The Irish immigrants who came to the U.S. before the 1960s had historically low levels of return to Ireland. That’s changed now, and yet the county societies are still running strong -- some, such as the Cork and Kerry county societies for example, are thriving. What’s the secret of their success?

Mary Power, president of the Cork Association, one of the most successful in the greater New York area, has been presiding over a society that’s going from strength to strength. In the last two years it has hosted four major events, all of which were successful. Last year it hosted its own 125th anniversary banquet at Terrace on the Park in Queens, and the guests included Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin.

Pride in their Irish heritage is the driving force, Power says.

“In recent years the social aspects of society membership have been more to the fore, but the society still does charitable work,” Power tells the Irish Voice.

“Fundraisers have been held in recent years on behalf of Rachel Gorman, who was battling cancer. This year they society raised funds for young Saoirse Heffernan and her brother Liam, both of whom suffer from Batten Disease.”

By respecting the past and also staying current, the society maintains its relevance, Power says.

“The older members were born in Ireland and the majority of the younger members are Irish American,” says Power.

Incoming Cork Association president Tim Murphy is Irish American and was very aware of the importance of the society in his own family growing up. Those links are important and run deep.

“If you think about it, the first question one Irish person asks another is what county are you from. It helps them place the other person. That question may have meant more 50 years ago due to the impact of email and long distance phone calls now, but it still stands,” say Nyhan.

But your perceptions of home are shaped by the condition of the country the time you left. There’s a big generational divide between the post-World War II immigrants and the new Irish, Nyhan says.
This isn’t peculiar to the Irish. Perceptions can be frozen in the time that they left. That’s where you really see a generational divide.

“There was pretty much no Irish immigration between 1965 and 1985. That two decade period and in some people’s view disastrous to the county societies because it meant there was a big generation gap between the two waves,” Nyhan feels.

​
Nster.com