Irish leaders worry about outburst of extremism

During a visit to Boston yesterday, a group of business leaders, academics and civic officials from Limerick, Ireland, spoke about the recent outburst of radical terrorism in the U.K., an issue that has many of their citizens and millions of people across Europe living in fear.

Although the meeting, which took place hours before a pair of horrific terror attacks near London Bridge, was aimed at letting Limerick Mayor Kieran O’Hanlon discuss trade opportunities between their city and Boston — the conversation quickly turned to terror.

One of the visiting Irish officials explained how many European leaders fear the recent surge in isolationism and fear that terror attacks in England, France and Germany have created could have a negative impact on investment in the European economy.

In response, I told those in attendance about a visit I made to Ireland during the height of The Troubles, when Northern Ireland was in the midst of a brutal civil war and many countries around the world, including the United States, were reluctant to speak out or get involved. Although national newspapers were constantly writing about the lives lost in the senseless bombings and assassinations, our elected officials, including many Irish-Americans, were afraid to offer their opinions out of fear of offending their political base and the American media, which was more proBritish than the London Times.

And despite the hands-off approach many national politicians took to the bloodshed, the Irish-American community in Boston and New York never gave up and continued to host packed rallies and forums aimed at making the American voting public aware of the antiCatholic discrimination in Belfast and Derry.

It was politicians like Ben Gilman, Mario Biaggi and Hamilton Fish who led the fight for justice in Congress. But the real heroes were the hundreds of average Bostonians who never gave up the case for justice. People like John Mackin, John Connolly, Jim Cook and Red Murphy.

The bond of loyalty between the people of Boston, New York and Ireland was remarkable.

I also told the group what Nobel Peace Prize recipient and leading public official in Ireland John Hume said, “Mayor Flynn and the people of Boston took the gun out of Irish politics and replaced it with a job.” He was referring to America’s first trade and economic partnership between Boston and Ireland, which created many hundreds of thousands of new jobs for Ireland and the U.S. economy.

And though people like John Hume, Frank Costello and Steve Coyle changed BostonIrish relations, it’s people like O’Hanlon, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, Limerick Councillors Michael Collins, Elenora Hogan and Joe Leddin and Bill Linehan, Billy Higgins and Eddie Flynn who are continuing to strengthen the social and economic bonds between our two countries.