Ireland - The Small Country With A Big Influence
What common link binds President Ronald Reagan, English Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, founder of The Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet Company Dame Ninette de Valois,movie star John Wayne and tennis champion John McEnroe? The answer is, they all have their roots in Ireland.
Irish writer, George Bernard Shaw, put it cruelly -- but accurately: "As long as Ireland produces men with sense enough to leave her, she does not exist in vain.
".
Migrants, generally, tend to be those with that extra bit of dynamism.
And it's certainly true Irish-born people or -- more accurately -- people of Irish descent, have had a disproportional influence in many fields, particularly writing and the arts.
Nor are politics a forbidden field to Irish descendants and the list of American Presidents contain a high proportion of members who can trace their ancestry back to the Emerald Isle.
Most famous of these, of course is President John F.
Kennedy, whose ancestors hail from Waterford.
President Ronald Reagan took the opportunity on one visit to Europe to visit his ancestral home in County Tipperary.
Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is another highly placed politician who is proud of his Irish roots.
Even the White House was designed by an Irishman, architect James Hoban.
The Irish love of words, so ably demonstrated by both President Kennedy and the Great Communicator, President Reagan, has spawned many writers.
Chief among these is, of course, George Bernard Shaw and James Joyce.
Both of these famous writers spent the larger part of their lives away from Ireland.
In fact, so great was the hemorrhage of artists and writers from Ireland that, in an attempt to stem the flood, the Irish government introduced a special tax free status for writers and artists.
But the main barrier to writing in Ireland remained the moral and religious constraints rather than the tax regime.
So, current writers, like novelist Edna O'Brien, still live in self-imposed exile, away from Ireland, although they never cease to think of Ireland.
Copyright 2006 Joseph Donegal and The-Best-Of-Ireland.
com
Irish writer, George Bernard Shaw, put it cruelly -- but accurately: "As long as Ireland produces men with sense enough to leave her, she does not exist in vain.
".
Migrants, generally, tend to be those with that extra bit of dynamism.
And it's certainly true Irish-born people or -- more accurately -- people of Irish descent, have had a disproportional influence in many fields, particularly writing and the arts.
Nor are politics a forbidden field to Irish descendants and the list of American Presidents contain a high proportion of members who can trace their ancestry back to the Emerald Isle.
Most famous of these, of course is President John F.
Kennedy, whose ancestors hail from Waterford.
President Ronald Reagan took the opportunity on one visit to Europe to visit his ancestral home in County Tipperary.
Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is another highly placed politician who is proud of his Irish roots.
Even the White House was designed by an Irishman, architect James Hoban.
The Irish love of words, so ably demonstrated by both President Kennedy and the Great Communicator, President Reagan, has spawned many writers.
Chief among these is, of course, George Bernard Shaw and James Joyce.
Both of these famous writers spent the larger part of their lives away from Ireland.
In fact, so great was the hemorrhage of artists and writers from Ireland that, in an attempt to stem the flood, the Irish government introduced a special tax free status for writers and artists.
But the main barrier to writing in Ireland remained the moral and religious constraints rather than the tax regime.
So, current writers, like novelist Edna O'Brien, still live in self-imposed exile, away from Ireland, although they never cease to think of Ireland.
Copyright 2006 Joseph Donegal and The-Best-Of-Ireland.
com
Source...