An Independence Flight

America and liberty was the reason many people made the decision to leave their homeland .

It’s hard to leave the country you call home and even harder still to find another that can become your new home but for many America was the way to go .

The promise of a new life in the land of the free .
Some came alone and others took their families .

Some even perished on the journey .

For those brave emigrants who arrived the first sight of the Statue of liberty was a powerful symbol . An image that represents hope and freedom .
Which are the foundations America stands on .

The hope of first finding a home meant hard work .

First thing on the agenda was , finding a job.

Then building a future and settling down .

Most people who emigrated had expectations .
Its true to say they were unsure of what they would find .

Then there were others who came to start a new life on what was termed,
a ticket of leave . This one way ticket , served one purpose .
It had to work out . There was no going back where they came from.

As a stranger in a country far from home , the new settlers had many challenges to overcome . There were many obstacles in their way .

For many people who went to America ,it was an exit from hardship .
With those scars it wasn’t easy to make a new home .

As hard as it was, America cried along with those who wept for justice .
Americas embraced those who were outsiders .
America provided justice to the victims of unjust laws .
Burt most of all America loved the innocent .

As the first generation of American emigrants arrived ,they found work and began to save . In a matter of time they landed on their feet and discovered that bread could be buttered , some would say on both sides .

The first children of that generation were now living as locals , in the land of the free .

Part of their growing up involved talking to their parents about the land they left behind .

With a sense of discovering more about their parents some of them had a yearning to see for themselves , the country their parents left behind .

So in search of a lifestyle they had never knew , off they went to find answers to that mysterious part of themselves .

The history that was hidden away could be unlocked giving a new meaning to the word , liberty .

So many times , far off fields look greener than your own .’
This new generation of Americans found themselves on a difficult path .
Caught between liberty and intrigue the destination can be an uneasy road.

For those who had questions , each needed to account for why their parents left and what it might have been like to do so .

A new American network of absent families and friends began to find similar roots on various websites on the internet . There was an interest with some to retrace the footsteps , and journey back to the place where their parents and even grandparents had come from .

A road through the sky and into history had begun for some .

The group I would like to focus on is a party of five from different places in The United States .

Jack from New Jersy was the son of a couple who had six boys .
All but Jack had left the family home .
Some of the other people in the group I’d like to introduce are two girls and two boys . All lived in comfortable homes with their parents .

Along with Jack were Kathleen from New York , Brian from Oregon , Ruth from Toronto and Andy from Philadelphia .

The five all were under twenty years of age and had never before left their home .

They spoke about the journey together and then asked their parents advice about what they were doing .

The five travellers discussed the possibility of returning to the Ireland to see first hand , the country where there parents had come from .
After all the parents had met and spoke about this trip it was decided in favour of journey going ahead .
Each set of parents gave a list of contacts and things for their kids to do in Ireland .
Then came the planning stage of the trip .

Most people in America had only seen news footage about the unrest in places like Belfast but they had never actually understood what the troubles
were all about . That was going to change for the five because in a short while they would be landing in Belfast .

For two of the five it was not going to be easy as Andy was a Catholic and Ruth was a Protestant .Their parents had left Northern Ireland because they were sick of the fighting between both communities .

After travelling to both sides of the religious divide Andy and Ruth got a better picture of the injustice and conflict that existed in the North and a first look into understanding why their parents had left the province .
Andy and Ruth became good friends during this time .
They both found the answer to many questions without having to dig too deep into the past .

Soon many other reasons why thousands left in ships for America had begun to emerge . Like ghosts of time , they wandered through the back streets ,
Imagining what it would have been like for their parents back then .

The parents of the other three in the group came from various housing estates in the Irish Republic . All five met up and visited the unknown sites and alleys in places that had a connection to their lives .

After wandering through pubs and castles they split up again and went to find that personal contact with their past .

Kathleen visited the housing estate in Dublin that her parents had left and soon found herself in a dirty part of the city overrun with drug addicts and underworld activity . It wasn’t that much different than parts of her city ,
New York . Kathleen took some photos and spoke to as many locals as she could . She related well to why her parents left in the hope of finding a better life in America .

Brian met up with some of his parents relatives in Cork and visited the schools and other places on the his parents list that was given to him before he left Oregon . Brian who was a gifted artist , began to sketch some street scenes for his parents . Some of his favourites were of an old church in the shadows of a dark winter morning and another of seagulls resting on the River Lee , near the bridge that crossed over into Mac Curtain Street in Cork city centre .
Brian had a small collection of line drawings to bring home to his parents .
Jack ‘s background was a little difficult to retrace as his parents had left Ireland for England and then France before eventually going to America .
He discovered many things in the archives that shed light on his parents
Background .

Time was running out and the five had to cut short their visit to Ireland .
Before returning to America Jack wanted to conclude the trip with a visit to Birmingham in England. This is where Jacks parents had brought their six sons , to start a new life once .

Jack began to get the picture about the years his parents spent in England .
The realisation of just how difficult it must have been began to sink in .

Now all the five could understand something of what their parents had gone through to find America . The want to provide better opportunities for their children and hopefully find more to life , than just an existence.

Back To The Land Of Liberty

After the five years decided to return to America they realised it was still a big step for them to take after what they had all experienced .
They had all been affected by what they experienced and were a little unsure of how it would affect them back home .

After their return to America Brian ventured out into law and took on the challenge of bringing liberty to those who faced barriers of poverty and prejudice in Oregon .

Jack spent some time trying to rebuilt some of the bridges his parents had burnt down behind and encouraged then to revisit where they came from .

Kathleen returned to New York and began to work in redesigning some of the look around the ghettos .
She wanted to place a positive message to surround the architecture around the streets that had become almost a demolished zone since the mid 1970’s .

Kathleen began to work with people in a drug rehabilitation clinic .
With some of the patients she was able to construct a loft on the roof of the building where they bred birds . In particular racing pigeons. A few talented people painted an American Flag on top of the pigeon house , in case the birds ever got lost .

The project was called The Wild Flock and it gave a sense of contributing something to life rather than sucking the juice out of it . Many drug dependant
people where able recover with the pigeon house project .

Luckily all the birds adjusted well in their new home on the rooftop of a drug rehab centre in New York City .
The pigeons had the freedom of the sky and the loft and the liberty to go anytime they wanted to .

Sweet Birds Of The Night -

poem by Paul Mc Cann

Have you heard the doves in the night ?
Their flight is a flock of fun ,
sometime after one
when the glow of the moon has begun .

I’ve seen them glowing bright .
I’ve heard the flapping of wings pass me by in furious flight ,
in their search for the rising sun .

They seem to scream through the air , a ghostly sight here and there ,
above the rooftops they’re a strange sounding distant delight .

Where do they go when they fly through the night ,
they’re gone out of sight ,
to the morning light they’re flown ,
come back soon birds of the night

by P F Mc Cann

The project worked well and other things had been adapted to the program .

Now and then a few pigeons arrived with messages attached to their legs .After a rest and visit to New York they returned to flight with a new message yabout a wild flock who could provide a loft for others to come and rest .

Andy and Ruth were determined to make a change in opening a centre that provided shelter for victims of abuse and implementing a system in the American Law on compensating the victims of all those who had left their home due to violence of one form or another .

This specialised area involved skills in Criminal and family law matters and it was only a matter of time when Andy and Ruth became more than friends .

They were married and at the church their parents had spoken about how impossible their kids marriage would have been in the place that they had left behind .

Although Belfast was a long way away and they had been gone for nearly 40 years nothing much had changed . But there were no regrets about that as now they had a new life in America . The liberty that they had found had brought together their children in marriage .

America had opened its doors and welcomed so many people that generations of people had now a new life and a home.

The End

By Paul McCann