The Emerald Rose

In my 72 year old mind, living on the Gulf of Mexico, in Florida,….I just realized it. We are “screwing up” their dream for us,…, their sacrifices, their beliefs, their vision, and finally their entire lives after making that permanent decision to come here FOR US, and we don’t even realize it!!!

What am I talking about? Why am I apologizing to all my family, and long passed Grand Parents? It’s easy, and very simple,….most of us,…we are LETTING THEM DOWN!! We could have, should have and had more opportunity as Americans that our GRANDPARENTS earned for us,….the degree to which we mastered it is still a question.

First to my Grand Parents, (of whom I only met my Grandmothers), …who risked life and limb, made the decision, and came to America at the turn of the century, and early 1900’s, with NO GUARANTEES!!” No “Social Network” to support them, “No BLACKS OR IRISH NEED APPLY” on signs for job opportunities.

Why did they do it , ….to give their children, their grandchildren (me and my siblings) and OUR CHILDREN,….the CHANCE , which they believed we had in America,to be better than they could possibly foresee in the future of Ireland for us. The Bloody Insurrectionat the Grand Post Office in Dublin in 1916, the Balfour Agreement the Irish signed with Great Britain to bail them out of WWI , promising Ireland an independent homeland, which the Irish had to fight for over the next 50+ years and that became world news with “Bloody Sunday”, the entire era of “The Troubles”, the election of a deceased IRA “Patriot” or “terrorist” , your choice! But it was a damn long time and a damn memorable history that most current people of  “Irish Americans” heritage never learned about or paid attention to at all!

I had the privilege of meeting Gerry Adams, the President of Sein Fein, and reputed leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), personally, I shook his hand, and we chatted, and he saw the jacket I wore with the name of my Irish Pub in New Hampshire embroidered on it. He smiled and asked me if I was a bartender, and I told him yes, and no, I owned it and yes I took a number of shifts behind the bar each week as well. He asked me to wait on the front porch of the big home we were at and he said he’d be back to share a pint and chat with me after he did his “grip ‘n grin” of the suit and tie supporters to chat. True to his word about twenty minutes later he came back and sat down , loosened his tie ad we chatted for about a half hour. He asked if I’d ever been to Ireland and I said no, but I will before I die. He laughed and said I should and see alll the beauty and culture of OUR people, and know why my grandparents made the life decision to give us the best the world could offer, for the future by coming to America.

As we were wrapping up he asked me if I got to San Francisco often, and I told him I was going there in the Spring for a trade show and he gave me the name of a pub to be sure and stop by and say hello to a few of his friends. I thanked him and he excused himself to go and mingle inside and said a word to a “body guard” on his way in and that was my moment of fame with a “celebrity”, who was just “a bartender” turned Patriot. A few minutes later the body guard came back and told me when I get to Ireland just call and “let Gerry know I was there”, I would be protected.

Still trying to get to my grand parents homeland, out of the Pub business, and that was in the early mid-90’s before the Good Friday Accords and the quasi-peace between Ireland, Northern Ireland, ergo Great Britain ever came to be by two to three years!! And I got a picture with the man to prove it. ( I was also told the bakery van across the street was British Intelligence taking pictures of everyone “stopping by” the fund raiser to see if they knew anyone, or anyone of interest!

I did go to San Francisco about a year later,…. but that adventure is for another blog. (And trust me it was an adventure, with some escaped Patriots from Long Kesh a maximum security prison who were friends of Gerry and actually really nice guys,…plus more. But next time, got too reread, edit and publish this one and head home to chilll and relax for the evening.

The next one will also be memorable and enjoyable as well, at least for me, and I hope you enjoy it. Life is short, and some memories are virtually and actually unforgettable,….thank God for opportunity for an old Irish American grandson of a Seamstress, a mechanic and chauffeur , a REALteamster who delivered beer for Hafffenreffer Brewers in Boston and died ten years before I was born and never met,….to live a part of our history, their history, and to learn the real appreciation for what AMERICA is really all about to immigrants who want to become American Citizens!!

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