Being susceptible to the charms of an Irish accent, I gave myself a St. Patrick’s Day treat.
I spent much of the past week hearing that graceful lilt in the stories of people who came here from Ireland.
They are proof of the saying that Ireland’s greatest export is its people.
Rita Matheny was a war bride. Marysville’s mayor from 1988 to 1992, Matheny grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, one of 13 children.
"I was the only one who came here," said Matheny, 79, who met her husband, Frank, when he was in Belfast during World War II. "I was his souvenir."
Parents of five children, the couple lived in California before settling in the Northwest. Ireland lured her home for their 25th and 50th wedding anniversaries. She wasn’t tempted to return for good, but Matheny missed her family "and all the doings — we were always doing something."
"Once you’re Irish, you’re always Irish," she added.
John Keane, 59, believes Irish emigrants have an undying affection for home "because so many people left against their will."
"Back in the 1800s, they were forced to leave, and again in the 1950s and ’60s," Keane said.
The Mukilteo man was a longtime president of the Puget Sound region’s Irish Heritage Club and is still active in the group.
"It’s one thing to leave by choosing one place over the other," Keane said. "When it’s a necessity, it’s awfully hard to give up that yearning."
Keane is the seventh son in a family of eight boys from County Westmeath in central Ireland. He left in 1967 for the same reason thousands have come here. "The biggest problem in Ireland was unemployment," Keane said. "For the first five or six years here, I was very homesick. Given the right opportunity, I would have gone home in a flash."
He met his wife in Detroit, where he worked for Bell Telephone, and came to Seattle in 1977. The next year, he made the tough decision to become a U.S. citizen, although, he said, "I still refer to Ireland as home."
Ray Crerand, who retired last year as chief executive of Providence Everett Medical Center, agreed that "people left because of opportunity."
"There were so few opportunities post-World War II and hundreds of years before that," the 61-year-old Crerand said.
While a student at University College in Dublin, Crerand came to New York in 1965 to see the World’s Fair. He fell in love with the city and took an apartment in Queens.
"I had to phone my parents and tell them what decision was being made," Crerand recalled. "I opened the window of the apartment, took my return ticket and threw it out. Then I phoned my mother to tell her I really wanted to stay."
He went to City College of New York, then earned a master’s degree in health care administration at Washington University in St. Louis. Work in Oregon brought him west before he came to Everett’s Providence Hospital in 1988.
"You can never get away from your Irish roots," Crerand said. "You have an accent and a way of thinking. It’s just pride. This tiny island has been repressed and oppressed, and people have a fondness for it. Everybody there has had some kind of struggle."
Today, Crerand sees an Ireland booming with opportunity. One of his Irish nieces works for Microsoft in Dublin. She was in the United States for four years, but recently returned home, where her American husband is a pilot for an Irish airline.
Crerand, who goes to Ireland yearly, is encouraged by the peace process in Northern Ireland.
"Economics are going to drive people to work together, but the cultures are quite different, between those of a native Irish background and those coming from a Scots Presbyterian settler background," he said.
"It’s naive to think all these people are going to throw their arms around each other and drink a pint. Some of these feelings die very slowly, but the key is to stop the violence," Crerand said.
Another Everett man, Michael Crehan, came to the United States in 1961. Then a Roman Catholic priest, he worked in parishes in Western Washington before leaving the priesthood in 1973.
He was later a college counselor. Now retired, the 66-year-old Crehan travels with his wife to Ireland at least once a year.
Crehan wouldn’t say he’s homesick — "my home is here" — but feels drawn to his roots. He has a house in Galway, where he grew up.
"I like to visit my family," Crehan said. "I like to drive and visit places of historic interest. I like to play golf there. The courses are along by the ocean, and the weather conditions change the game. I enjoy that, and just wandering."
Ray Crerand said many Americans’ love of Ireland comes from the welcome they get there.
"The Irish have time for you; they engage you. They love to see American tourists," he said. "They love pondering whether the Paddy Murphy who left in 1840 could be related to the Paddy Murphy in Ireland on vacation — and the likelihood is almost zero. Americans have a great time in Ireland."
John Keane is always ready for an Irish vacation. "I’m heading there again in three weeks," the Mukilteo man said.
Today, Keane will take to Seattle streets in the St. Patrick’s Day Dash, a jaunt between T.S. McHugh’s and F.X. McRory’s.
About threats of snow, Keane could only say "St. Patrick would never allow it."
Contact Julie Muhlstein via e-mail at muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com, write to her at The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206, or call 425-339-3460.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
