It’s Saturday morning, the only morning I have fully to myself. My schedule at work requires a portion of every weekday, now.

Scanning the emails on Google, I read about the new museum in Dublin. Jane Walsh authorized the item in the IrishCentral newsletter.  Hmm, wonder if she is connected to the John Walsh who gave the information on the death certificate for our Great-grandmother Bridget Shea O’Neil in the early 20th century.  They resided in County Waterford, near a company village named Villierstown. I know we have Dempsey, Rooney, O’Neill (or single “l”) blood ties. So, this article really jazzed me. Mine and my brother, Don’s fondest wish is to go to Ireland someday. We plot and plan and work toward that.

When I studied Irish Hitory at Lewis University in Romeville, Illinois in 2005 I learned about how our emigrants networked to get established in Chicago. It seems that the brewers set up bars/pubs in just about every then neighborhood. Then the emigrant would go to one in Chicago and find shelter and food, and a place to sleep on the floor until one of ward-healers hooked them up with a job. All immigrants are survivors and dreamers. The Irish became pretty darned good in ‘pulling up by their bootstraps’. We are a political lot, after all; witness the Kennedy clan in the 20th century. It was John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s Job Corps program that enabled to get business and healthcare skills. The Job Corps Center in Astoria, Oregon paid for my college courses in 1969 – 1971.  Thirty-two years later, finding myself divorced for the second time, I enrolled at Lewis University. Those credits from the North Central Association that I earned were still valid and transferrable!!! My GPA qualified for the St. John Baptiste DeLaSalle scholarship. Thanks to the perseverance ingrained into our Irish ancestry, I graduated with a B.A. in History and Psychology.

So, you see, you and I are part of living history, even if the world doesn’t acknowledge our individual struggles.  All for now. Thanks for stopping by! Best regards, Susan O’Neill