The Irish flag has been “hijacked” in a world where there is a “very toxic form of nationalism”, former executive director of the World Health Organisation Mike Ryan has said.
Speaking to Irish diaspora groups at the Global Irish Civic Forum, Ryan urged people to celebrate their “culture and diversity” not their “whiteness or Irishness”.
“It’s so bad out there,” he said.
Irish people are accepted abroad as a “nation who suffered” but “we haven’t become embittered by that, we have stayed kind. And what’s missing in the world right now is kindness,” he added.
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Thursday’s forum coincided with the release of Ireland’s diaspora strategy for 2026-2030. It contains 23 commitments and follows a consultation with 10,000 Irish people around the world and many diaspora groups.
The document’s focus on diversity was “directly contrary” to what was happening in the United States, said forum panellist Danny Dromm. The former New York City council member protested over the past exclusion of LGBTQI+ groups in the city’s St Patrick’s Day parade and said one of his proudest moments was when Ireland passed the marriage equality referendum.
For New York-based Samantha Barry it was the passing of the was the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment which led to “by far” her “most controversial” editorial.
The outgoing editor-in-chief of Glamour Magazine said she received a strong reaction to writing about her pride in seeing Ireland give women access to reproductive rights.
“People wrote to me who were third, fourth generation Irish women about how I didn’t represent Irishness to them,” she said. “People have different points of view. How do you make spaces for all of them?”
Addressing the forum, President Catherine Connolly said the high number of young Irish women who “left our shores” seeking “freedom”, “a new way of life”, “less restriction” has not been commented on enough.
With strategies such as this, she said, there was “a growing-up on our part as a Republic in that process of recognising the importance of our diaspora and the causes behind that diaspora”.
The strategy includes provision for continued funding for survivors of institutional abuse abroad.
Patricia Carey, the special advocate for survivors of institutional abuse, urged Irish emigrant organisations to make space for survivors of Magdalene laundries and industrial schools who live abroad.
“We talk in Irish schools about the famine and insurrection but not enough about the quarter of a million [who spent time] in institutions and their families,” she said “A lot of people say I want a place to tell my story because it was never heard, or my father’s story” Carey said.
The issues coming down the track for older Irish emigrants in the UK and Australia was raised at the conference by some of the organisations under the Emigrant Support Programme, the funding for which has reached the highest level this year at €17.5 million
The average age of the Irish population living in Britain is older than the general population, according to Brian Dalton, chief executive of Irish in Britain. “With that comes lots of challenges around health, wellbeing and connectivity.”
When health and social care systems are stretched, he said the role of charities has become “more and more important”.
Almost a quarter of the Irish diaspora in New South Wales are seniors, with many living in isolated areas such as the Blue Mountains, said Paula Cobain of the Irish Support Agency in the Australian province. She said this was a “significant new cost pressure for us”.
Ryan said “there’s a generation of older people living abroad who need our support”, many of whom “sacrificed their lives for us, our education with remittances and they should not be forgotten”.
In terms of extending the vote in presidential election to the Irish abroad, Minister of State for the Diaspora Neale Richmond said the Government is in favour of these rights, but political leaders “aren’t ‘looking to hold referendums any time soon”.
The Government isn’t going to run a referendum that risks being rejected, he said.
“It is in no way off the agenda, it is in no way being pushed down, but equally there isn’t that burning desire,” he said. “You don’t get a chance to vote again for another generation.”
