Ray O'Hanlon will know in July if he is to become the first emigrant rights representative in the Seanad, writes Seán O'Driscollfrom New York
A Dublin journalist will know in the next month if he is to become the first emigrant rights representative in the Seanad.
New York-based Irish Echo journalist Ray O'Hanlon said he had been having talks with both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and had had a very good response from Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.
The aim is to secure the support of the two main parties for an agreed emigrant candidate.
O'Hanlon says he would eventually like to see a panel for two or three emigrant representatives but does not want to rush the political parties into sudden change.
Many emigrant campaigners in the United States, including O'Hanlon, would like to see emigrants directly voting in Irish elections.
Samantha Morton, a barwoman in Yonkers, New York, says it is a shame that another Irish general election has gone by without foreign voting rights.
"I've been on a few of the Irish radio talk shows about emigration. I get the feeling we're an embarrassment in Ireland.
"The country's trying to look confident and assertive and they think we're over in America showing the poor mouth," she says.
Nearly 20 years after a Bill allowing emigrants to vote was narrowly defeated in the Dáil, the desire for voter rights has been raised again by US immigration rights lobbyists. Many want to use their votes to reward Irish politicians who back US immigration reform that would legalise more than 12 million undocumented immigrants.
Much of the resistance to emigrant votes has come from politicians who fear protest votes, especially those going to Sinn Féin.
Morton, originally from Palmerstown in Dublin, is a socialist and occasional Sinn Féin supporter, but she admits that republican sentimentality gives emigrant voter rights a bad reputation.
"You meet old fellas who are ardent republicans. Some of them are real cheesy idiots who play the Wolfe Tones and they haven't a clue. The voters from 10 bars in New York could be enough to swing an election. There's a lot of different dynamics at play."
It might be feasible to put a limit on the number of years a voter can be outside the country and still retain the right to vote, she says.
Fellow New York resident Tom Woodlock, originally from Tipperary, is a Sinn Féin supporter but he also recognises the complex politics among US emigrants.
Like Morton, he is annoyed by sentimentalists and is particularly dismayed by small groups of Northern republicans who chant partisan slogans at meetings on immigration reform and who are not calling for votes for Irish citizens.
"They're the type who think they have an in with the IRA or something and they probably ran for their lives to get over here," he says.
Although he has great respect for Enda Kenny, who met US emigrants in March, Woodlock does not believe that emigrant votes are coming soon.
"There are so many politicians out there who will promise you everything and do absolutely nothing," Woodlock adds.
"If we got the vote at home it would really help, but we don't see any political will for it."
For O'Hanlon, the internet has allowed emigrants to keep up with Irish politics and globalisation has greatly increased the relationship between Ireland and its citizens living abroad.
"There is no longer this sense of exile and distance. The state may end at the Cliffs of Moher, but the economy doesn't," O'Hanlon says.
"People are more aware and more than ever before. Now there has to be a complementary political voice to match it."