CNN - Boston's Irish want peace

Boston's Irish want peace

March 17, 1996
Web posted at: 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 GMT)

From Correspondent Michael Okwu

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- For Irish-Americans, St. Patrick's Day represents an annual reaffirmation of community, an explosion of Celtic pride and even open season on self-parody. It is a time for the Irish and descendants of the Irish to celebrate their ethnic roots with parades and social gatherings all over the world.

Nowhere is the celebration more vigorous than in Boston, home of the most concentrated and powerful Irish descendants outside of Ireland. (85K AIFF sound or 85K WAV sound)

But this year's celebrations take place in the shadow of the collapse of a 17-month cease-fire between the Irish Republican Army and the British government. Even as they celebrate, that shadow is a dark one for south Boston's Irish community.

Although support for the IRA is still displayed on graffiti-stained walls in the back alleys and along the streets, the predominant sentiment in South Boston these days is for peace. (255K AIFF sound or 255K WAV sound)

"I'd like to see peace in Ireland, I think killing people is ridiculous," said one man.

"You don't bomb," said another. "You don't do those kinds of things to other people. It doesn't solve anything."

"Everybody wants peace," said still another. "They don't sing those fight songs anymore. A lot of innocent people have been killed over the years and it's time to stop the killing."

Privately, many Irish-Americans in Boston say that it was the British government's unwavering stance that prompted the return of violence. But so passionate are they about peace, they will speak of little else publicly.

Still, the path to peace is far from clear.

"(Boston's Irish-Americans) would like to be supportive of whatever the efforts are that will lead to a lasting and just peace but they're most uncertain about how really to do it," said William Bulger, former president of the Massachusetts state Senate. (136K AIFF sound or 136K WAV sound)

So amid the uncertainty, Boston prepared for a St. Patrick's Day parade that took for its theme unity, and rode on an undercurrent of hope.

The St. Patrick's parade held in New York on Saturday also was tinged with the uncertainty of the situation in Northern Ireland. Shamrocks and bagpipes decorated Fifth Avenue as many stood excitedly watching the parade, but the presence of Shin Fein leader Gerry Adams was a reminder for many of the problems across the ocean. It was Adams' first-ever visit to the New York's parade, the United States' largest St. Patrick's day celebration.

The biggest celebration worldwide was in the Irish capital of Dublin on Sunday. More than 300,000 people braved rain, cold and gray skies to see the city's 235th St. Patrick's Day parade.

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Boston's Irish want peace

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