We must ensure that a mean-spirited, myopic attitude does not take hold in Ireland, writes Niall O'Dowd
According to his recent column, Vincent Browne would have refused to send money or other assistance from the Irish Government to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The reasons he quoted were that America is a rich enough country, and because of its involvement in the Iraq war.
That is an interesting logic, especially given that at least 100,000 of those displaced by the hurricane have incomes of less than $8,000 a year and are in desperate need, so much so that 115 countries responded to their plight.
In addition, the indigent and homeless poor of New Orleans have as much to do with the Iraq war as Rwandan refugees had to do with genocide. A tide of human suffering is similar wherever it occurs.
Unlike Browne, John O'Shea of Goal, and others in Ireland, those 115 countries were able to distinguish between the fact of true human suffering by the poorest of the poor and whatever beef they may have with a government seeking to cope with a natural disaster unparalleled in their history.
The Irish money of $1 million was, of course, a token gesture, but one deeply appreciated by a country which in a very rare moment found itself in a time of need.
Vincent Browne would rather that Ireland, with perhaps the closest cultural, historical and political ties of all to the United States, was not one of those countries that contributed. He is once again exhibiting the reflexive anti-Americanism which has become such a part and parcel of the Irish intelligentsia.
Under the Bush era this anti-Americanism has reached its zenith. Now it seems that even desperate hurricane victims should be made feel the cold lash of Irish disapproval.
In their rush to the moral high ground, Browne and others have angered many Irish-Americans deeply, a fact reflected in the stream of angry comments and letters my publications, Irish Voice newspaper and Irish America magazine, have received.
Frankly, most Irish-Americans are becoming very tired with it, especially the spurious refrain that somehow the attitude is not anti-American, but anti-George Bush. If it continuously quacks like a duck, then it likely is a duck.
When helpless hurricane victims can be lumped in with this administration and its policies, it really is time for a rethink on both sides of the Atlantic.
If this attitude were applied in reverse it would have some interesting consequences.
The Irish media has quite rightly trumpeted the fact that by some criteria, Ireland is the second most affluent country in the world.
Let's assume a virulent strain of anti-Irishism suddenly begins to flourish in America.
Using the Browne logic, all American aid and support for Ireland would immediately stop. The International Fund for Ireland, which has dispensed more than €603 million on 4,850 projects to foster cross-Border peace and reconciliation projects, would be immediately ended.
The American taxpayer has higher priorities than funding peace efforts on the wealthy and tiny island of Ireland.
Likewise, the private initiative known as the American Ireland Fund, which has raised more than $115 million in a spectacular fundraising drive in the past few years, would immediately stop funding their projects the length and breadth of Ireland. Thousands of small voluntary organisations would be deeply affected - but the point would be made.
Like the American-Ireland Fund, the US-Ireland Alliance, the Irish- American Partnership, not to mention the Ireland Chamber of Commerce USA and the US-Ireland Council, could all immediately shut up shop on the grounds that the Irish are rich enough to take care of themselves.
Individual philanthropists such as Charles Feeney, who has single-handedly played a major role in revitalising third-level education in Ireland through personal donations close to $1 billion, could find somewhere else to put their funds.
The message could go out that Irish-American businessmen and women who have contributed record sums to those organisations in the hopes of helping Ireland must immediately redirect their funds to the neediest in their own country.
Likewise, the Taoiseach's economic advisory board, a group of influential Irish-American businessmen and women, could immediately end their advisory role. Last week in New York, Bertie Ahern paid tribute to their considerable assistance in bringing jobs and economic opportunity to Ireland. Under the Browne criteria they would immediately disband - after all, Ireland is so rich now it does not need their help, and they are merely another arm of the Great Satan.
Third World relief organisations such as Goal and Concern, which receive major funding from the American government, as well as many private contributions from the US, could also take their requests for funding elsewhere.
Perhaps they could go to those notoriously stingy new generation of Irish-based millionaires and billionaires who, with a very few honourable exceptions, refuse to share their good fortune with the less fortunate.
On the political front, US assistance on issues such as the peace process might be curtailed on the grounds that Ireland is rich enough to solve its own problems.
The contributions of men like Bill Clinton and Senator George Mitchell, the hard work and decency of the special envoys appointed by President Bush, would be better served by directing their energies elsewhere. Likewise, Senator Edward Kennedy's current efforts to find a way to make thousands of Irish undocumented legal could be set aside.
On a personal level, of course, I would have to stop meeting many of the Irish organisations that come to America every month seeking assistance from the Irish-American community for worthy causes back home. Last month I would have cancelled seven meetings in all, mainly small community-based ventures in Ireland, admirable projects all, which have not succeeded in getting funding from home sources.
There are many more powerful people in the Irish-American community who are similarly inundated. Many take time out of their hectic schedules to sit, listen and help, often donating funds from their own pockets.
It is a pleasure for them to do so. They know the enormous contribution that the Irish made to America and are proud that they are able to give something back.
It seems the reverse is rarely, if ever, acknowledged in Ireland. Even the heartbreaking scenes from Hurricane Katrina are not enough to disturb the orthodoxy as outlined by Vincent Browne that nothing in America should ever be offered assistance, not even the poor and the desperate in their hour of need.
I feel it is time to send a warning that Irish-Americans have almost had enough and that, while fully understanding the anti-Bush sentiment in Ireland, something else altogether has begun to creep in.
It is a mean-spirited and myopic attitude that everything American is bad, that the homeless and helpless can be included in that, and that Ireland has no obligation whatever to help in dire times of need. Americans deserve better than that from their oldest friends.
Niall O'Dowd is founder of Irish America magazine and the Irish Voice newspaper in New York