Saturday, March 21, 2009

Personal Ramblings - Irish Passport

I just sent away for my daughter's Irish Passport. I got mine 10 years ago. It was an easy process since both my parents were born in Ireland and I am a first generation Irish-American.

My mother never became an American citizen as she always believed she would return home to Ireland. But like the irish song "Because We Were Poor" that tells the story of why Irish families were broken up and forced to emigrate, she remained poor in America and never could afford to return home.

The last time she was in Ireland was 1932. My family made the journey back home for her last year and were reunited with our O'Donnell family and now both myself and my daughter will have Irish citizenship.

I feel lucky and blessed that my parents made the difficult journey to America in 1928 during the Great Depression and gave me all the opportunities I have. Now I am able to give my daughter the gift of dual citizenship so she can go to school or work in either Ireland or Europe if she ever chooses to. Life has went full circle.

Funny how life turns out....

2 comments:

Liverpool Irish Blogger said...

I myself was born in Ireland but am now living in Liverpool, England and recently I obtained Irish passports for my children, as I too think it important! No British passports for them!!!!!!

John Duffy said...

Thanks for the comment and congrats on obtaining Irish passports for your children. My experiences are different than yours and I have no animosity or opposition to British passports. I am of the mind that I want to create a better world with more opportunities for everyone of all nationalities not just my ethnicity.