Thread: NY:Immigrant's Death Spurs Census Call for Irish Seniors

Immigrants' death spurs call for census of Irish seniors

BY BRENDAN BROSH
Tuesday, December 23rd 2008, 7:34 PM

Irish community activists are organizing a senior census spurred by the death of a 72-year-old Sunnyside immigrant whose body was found several days after he died.

Anthony (Tony) Gallagher, a retired carpenter and member of Local Union 608, lived alone after his wife was moved to a nursing home, suffering with Alzheimer's disease, friends said.

Gallagher might have been dead for a week before he was discovered by police, neighbors said.

Prompted by the sad circumstances of Gallagher's death, local Irish groups are now reaching out to the aging Irish community in Queens.

"We need social workers to go into each church and find out who the elderly Irish are," said Ciaran Staunton, 45, vice president of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform. "We have to reach out to them as soon as possible."

Staunton is petitioning the Irish and Northern Irish governments to help fund the program and has already spoken to Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin.

Community leaders gathered at a memorial Mass for Gallagher at the New York Irish Center in Long Island City on Thursday.

"No one should feel isolated," said the Rev. Colm Campbell, 73, who came to the U.S. in 1992 from Belfast to serve as the chaplain for Irish immigrants. "We Irish are all over Queens. We're scattered.

"We really need a system to deal with this," he said.

Gallagher grew up in County Mayo and moved to England to find work as a young man, friends said. He then moved to the U.S., with stints in Massachusetts and Alaska, where he worked on the oil pipelines, before settling in New York.

Gallagher cared for his wife, Josephine, who battled Alzheimer's for six years, until she had to be placed in a nursing home four years ago. She is still alive and the couple was childless, friends said.

Gallagher was buried last week in Holyoke, Mass., where he has an elderly brother.

"He loved to take a drink or two and have a laugh," said Joe Flannery, 70, of Elmhurst, a distant cousin. "We got to be a little more aware of our family and friends. We can't let this happen again."

Successful programs for Irish seniors have already been adopted in the Bronx and in Leeds, England, which has a large number of Irish émigrés.

"This is an opportunity for the Irish community to respond," said Mae O'Driscoll, who helped found the Emerald Isle Immigration Center. "It's not insurmountable. It's already done in England."

The community is hoping to establish a visiting service to reach out to isolated seniors.

"It took Tony Gallagher's death for people to stand up," Staunton said. "Now we need to reinvest in our community."

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/que ... sus_o.html

Most Irish immigrants are just that, LEGAL immigrants. Their are about 60,000 who are not, and they should be deported immediately. I think this is a great plan. Did anybody notice how they planned to fund this endeavor?

Staunton is petitioning the Irish and Northern Irish governments to help fund the program and has already spoken to Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin.

They are asking the IRISH governments, not ours, to fund this program.

ok...good idea ...but why does it have to be the IRISH people....next we will have a German group...then an Italian group....How about a good old fashioned AMERICAN group looking out for ALL the elderly.....I am sick of everything being about RACE/Nationality..... I consider myself an AMERICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd like to share Cayla99's optimism that this is not just another call for more U.S. taxpayer-financed social services for special-interest ethnic population groups. However, the following quote gives me little faith in that:

"We need social workers to go into each church and find out who the elderly Irish are, " said Ciaran Staunton, vice president of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform."

Perhaps he/she means private "social workers" financed by the Republic of Ireland and U.K., but I doubt it. And by "churches" I think I can safely assume he/she refers specifically to Roman Cathlic Churches, seat of the "Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform" (i.e., amnesty).

Originally Posted by grandmasmad

ok...good idea ...but why does it have to be the IRISH people....next we will have a German group...then an Italian group....How about a good old fashioned AMERICAN group looking out for ALL the elderly.....I am sick of everything being about RACE

I agree with you there, I too am sick of everything being about race. Too bad MLK's dream is further from reality today than it ever was.

ok...good idea ...but why does it have to be the IRISH people....next we will have a German group...then an Italian group....How about a good old fashioned AMERICAN group looking out for ALL the elderly.....I am sick of everything being about RACE

EXACTLY!!!!!! Just more division.

Originally Posted by Texas2step

I'd like to share Cayla99's optimism that this is not just another call for more U.S. taxpayer-financed social services for special-interest ethnic population groups. However, the following quote gives me little faith in that:

"We need social workers to go into each church and find out who the elderly Irish are, " said Ciaran Staunton, vice president of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform."

Perhaps he/she means private "social workers" financed by the Republic of Ireland and U.K., but I doubt it. And by "churches" I think I can safely assume he/she refers specifically to Roman Cathlic Churches, seat of the "Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform" (i.e., amnesty).

My guess is she meant churches. If you will notice, she stated they petitioned BOTH NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE REPUBLIC. The north is still predominantly protestant. The immigration centers usually have their own social workers and yes immigration lawyers. I still find the fact that they looked to the Irish Governments for the funding as being a positive sign.

Most immigration centers are pro-amnesty. No doubt in my mind that they will find a way of connecting this to our immigration policies. I merely wanted to point out that the vast majority of Irish in this country are here LEGALLY, particularly those who immigrated here prior to the recent troubles (late 1960's). There is a US estimate of 45000 illegal Irish currently in the US, but the Irish estimate that includes both those from the north and the republic is 60,000. The latter is the number I normally use.

Now for the BIG NEGATIVE here. If the Irish do it, even with home government funding, then the rest will want the same at our expense.

My thanks to Cayla99 for supplying more informtion for us all. She is entirely right in correcting me by pointing out that Northern Ireland remains primarily Protestant. However, from our point of view, the formerly "mainline" Protestant churches have moved left with the rest of society and most now also endorse both "rights for migrants" and amnesty, unfortunately.

I had not realized that there were private immigration centers with their own social workers. That is probably because the last known immigrant in my family was my Irish great-grandfather, who "migrated" legally to what was then part of our western frontier!

Originally Posted by grandmasmad

ok...good idea ...but why does it have to be the IRISH people....next we will have a German group...then an Italian group....How about a good old fashioned AMERICAN group looking out for ALL the elderly.....I am sick of everything being about RACE

I agree with that! Why so divisive?