Comment by Irish Homeland Photography on April 18, 2013 at 9:53am

Good stuff, Alannah.  Thanks for this.

Comment by Alannah Ryane on April 18, 2013 at 10:49am

PBS removed the original clip from youtube but all of episode 2 that includes the very emotional moment in which Stephen reads the 'oath of allegiance' that his Irish ancestor (who fled Limerick during the famine) signed is here. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/video/episode-2-becoming-ame... Stephen's 'moment' starts at around 48 minutes in.  

Comment by Alannah Ryane on April 18, 2013 at 11:05am

I have shared my mother's disappointment in finding our her Hayes Grandfather was a poor Liverpool orphan going back generations and not an Irishman from Dublin, an invented identity he clung to his entire life.  Having spent 4 years working on the Canadian farms of Irish settlers in the 1890s from the age of 14 as a British Home Child I believe becoming Irish gave him something of great value.  I have since tried to remind my mother of all the Connors, McGuires, O'Neils, Martins, Hacketts, Sullivans and  McDonalds who all came to Canada from Ireland 250 years ago...but it was a grandfather she never met that had ignited her Irishness and in which she too clung too for 80 years. 

Comment by Gerry Regan on April 18, 2013 at 12:51pm

Very poignant, Alannah. Thank you for sharing this and reminding so many of us how we often derive our sense of self from what we learn of our ancestors, and also how important Irish identity was and remains to so many.

Comment by Patrick J. O'Leary on January 25, 2015 at 11:37am

The first few line at the start, wherein the question was posed:" where in Ireland?" and the response of; " I don't  know. "  strikes home. Probably is the same for many of  descendants located in various parts of the world. It is the same in my family. Sooo many  ' I don't knows'  that it is disheartening.   >>

Comment