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Category: Archive

Echo Editorial: Dark days

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Quite simply, if the hurlers try to play their final in Ireland as scheduled the toughest defensive lines they are going to face will be that ringing the United States.
We’ve come a long way indeed since the days of seemingly casual weekend visitors lining out on Gaelic fields in the Bronx, Boston or Chicago.
Now it’s a case of home game or no game.
It’s unlikely that the plight of the hurlers is going to stir the pot anymore than is already the case in Washington where the immigration debate has taken on the appearance of a heady political stew in a bubbling, overflowing cauldron.
Meanwhile, pouring cold water on rising expectations this week was Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Clinton has been cautious on the immigration issue. She is critical of employers who hire the illegal or undocumented and wants to shore up the border with Mexico.
She is also inclined to support a path to legalization but is of the view that this Congress might not be able to reach a compromise in the still anticipated House/Senate conference phase of the reform debate.
This is sobering indeed. A hurling final can be long-fingered, or even completely scrubbed and the world will continue to turn.
But the undocumented Irish, already living on the edge, will be stretched to their limit and likely beyond by any significant delay on Capitol Hill.
Whatever the answer is from Congress, good, bad or indifferent, the undocumented Irish need it – and soon.
Later, for many of them, will be simply too late.

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