Dear Bev,

As Big Mick has said, your experiences are horrific and they do serve a purpose; however, I see a fatal flaw in your argument. Although you said that you love Ireland, her people and her music, how can you hate the children of her Diaspora? Isn't stereotyping all Irish Americans as uninformed, beer swilling idiots just slurring the people of Ireland, only one step removed?

I agree with Mick when he says that understanding will only come through discussion and education. That surely applies to all people in all countries, does it not?

Bev, you cannot know us if you will not understand us. Do you really think that our elders left prejudice, bigotry, hatred, and violence behind them in Ireland? If you do, you know nothing, nothing at all, about the Irish in America.

Do you think that the problems in Ireland do not still reach across the sea to us here in America, with the same threat of fear, hatred and violence? If you do, you know nothing.

Bev, you have seen the result of violence in the remains of the dead. So have we here. We have also seen the result in the eyes of the living. In the eyes of old people and the eyes of children. And we weren't sitting on bar stools when we saw it.

We know where we are and who we are. We also know what we are. I beg you to learn about us and understand us; not to pass judgement on us. We are of as many minds as there are leaves on all the trees of God's earth. And we are luckier than most; we have a country, but we also have a homeland.

Le meas (respectfully), Áine