Publius at BigGovernment.com reminded their readers, “Today, in 1922, the Irish Free State was born. (Full independence would come in 1937.)”
Just a month before the founding of the Irish Free State, my grandmother arrived in the United States, an 18 year old girl dispatched by her widowed mother who hoped her daughter would find a life of freedom and prosperity. My grandfather was in Ireland, fighting for Irish independence with those of his brothers who had not yet emigrated to America.
Life was not kind to my grandparents, who met in the United States and married just two weeks before the stock market crash of 1929. But they both became American citizens and loved this country and its freedoms with the same passion that our immigrants have felt throughout the nation’s history. It has been heartening to see that passion reawakening in America among our natural born citizens. This country is a light in the world, despite what the media would have us believe. Otherwise, millions of people each year would not leave everything they know and love to come to America to participate in our democracy and contribute to our nation.
