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| "Waiting On Shore," Sligo, Ireland |
Or in the Evening
Tide
We Loved You, We
Miss You
May God With You
Abide.”
These words are engraved on a plaque adorning a bronze statue
on the headlands of Rosses Point, Sligo, Republic of Ireland. The “Waiting On
Shore” sculpture depicts a young woman, arms outstretched, perhaps in prayer,
skirts blown back by a stiff sea breeze. The statue commemorates those who
watch and wait for the return of loved ones from an often furious sea, and
mourn those who do not.
Perhaps, unwittingly, a perfect counterpoint to another statue,
2,858 miles to the west. The “Man at the Wheel” statue in Gloucester,
Massachusetts, memorializes the hundreds of fishermen who have lost their lives
in the stormy Atlantic while plying Gloucester’s thriving fishing trade. A
rough, oilskin-clad fisherman is poised grasping a ship’s wheel with tensed
muscles, fighting swells and breakers, struggling to avoid dangerous rocks.
It is uncanny that these two statues, one on the northwest
coast of Ireland, the other on the northeast coast of America, seem to be
facing one another across a steely grey ocean. One fighting for survival, the
other hoping against hope.
But America and Ireland have many connections. According to
the website UShistory.org, “In the middle half of the nineteenth century, more
than one-half of the population of Ireland emigrated to the United States.” To
put that in perspective, “From 1820 to 1870, over seven and a half million
immigrants came to the United States — more than the entire population of the
country in 1810. Nearly all of them came from northern and western Europe —
about a third from Ireland and almost a third from Germany.”
Immigrants in the nineteenth century from northern and
western Europe built the American infrastructure. Canals, bridges, railroads –
the hard labor was largely supplied by these immigrants. It is almost a given
that the cops in Boston and New York were mostly Irish.
But this was not accomplished without struggle. The mythos
of “Irish Need Not Apply” is not myth at all, but true. Posters advertising professional
jobs in the nineteenth and early twentieth century did indeed disclaim that
Irish were not welcome to apply.
This prejudice, fear-based, was slowly overcome, and Irish
immigrants began to contribute to all aspects of American commerce, academia,
and politics. Culminating, perhaps, with the 35th president of the
United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
It is not a stretch to venture that any sizable group of immigrants
will initially be viewed with fear, but will eventually acclimate, assimilate,
and contribute mightily. Italians, Germans, and Asians are just a few examples,
with many other immigrant populations in the milieu.
The opposite may well be true, that is, that failure to
assimilate will result in failure to flourish. America has a tangible culture
based on individual liberty, personal responsibility, and a strong work ethic. These cultural values are
a recipe for nearly guaranteed success. Those who do not embrace these values
as their own are not likely to share in the American dream.
But the Irish did, and they succeeded. Handsomely.
According to the Washington Post, over 34.5 million
Americans claim Irish heritage. “That number is, incidentally, seven times
larger than the population of Ireland itself (4.68 million).”
Which explains why Ireland is a wildly popular destination
for Americans investigating their ancestry.
Which reveals why we, in the interest of my half-Irish wife,
are in Sligo, contemplating the mournful beauty of “Waiting On Shore.” And contemplating the connections to America,
as the bronze beauty gazes across the sea to her counterpart in Gloucester.
It is a small world indeed.
