The Gathering 2013

[Declan]

Listening to Gabriel Byrne said last night where he said A lot of Irish Americans he said are pretty annoyed with this gathering thing. People he has met in his role as cultural Ambassader said "we were forced out. We have no work for ya. Get a job elsewhere and come back on holiday and give us your wages"
"a culture of gangsterism in Ireland" and most Irish Americans are sick of Ireland and its generational thing of ignoring the diaspora and only caring when the come back to "get the money outta them". People in Ireland "couldnt give a ****" about the diaspora .One irish american Byrne spoke to said it was "a scam" and that "he didn't need an invitation to visit his own country"

I'm more inclined to think it's a load of ould shite meself

[orangeman]

Listening to Gabriel Byrne said last night where he said A lot of Irish Americans he said are pretty annoyed with this gathering thing. People he has met in his role as cultural Ambassader said "we were forced out. We have no work for ya. Get a job elsewhere and come back on holiday and give us your wages"
"a culture of gangsterism in Ireland" and most Irish Americans are sick of Ireland and its generational thing of ignoring the diaspora and only caring when the come back to "get the money outta them". People in Ireland "couldnt give a ****" about the diaspora .One irish american Byrne spoke to said it was "a scam" and that "he didn't need an invitation to visit his own country"

I'm more inclined to think it's a load of ould shite meself

He won't be popular for saying so but he's not far off the mark with his comments.

[WeeDonns]

Hope its successful, but it sounds like a load of balls

Come Gather 'Round People Wherever You Roam And admit that the waters around you have grown.

Gabriel Byrne (top) was on Today FM's The Last Word with Matt Cooper broadcast from New York earlier this evening.

The actor, who is based in New York, spoke about The Gathering 2013.

"What I tried to do, as cultural ambassador, was to try to build a bridge between Ireland and America. And you ask, you know, you talk about The Gathering, well I, I've spoken to people about The Gathering and I'm afraid I don't share the same optimism that people have about it. This is just my opinion. I have to say that I wish everybody connected with The Gathering the very, I really, really hope it works. But here it is from an Irish-American perspective.

'I was talking the other day to a group of people. One of them was an illegal immigrant. His father died, he couldn't get home. He feels abandoned by the Irish Government. He feels an alien. He can't go back. Then I talked to two kids – a girl and a boy, who were forced to emigrate because there's no jobs and they blame the incompetence and the, one of them said, the gangsterism of government for the fact that they were forced to emigrate.

And he said 'now we're being asked to come back? We're being asked to come back to help the economy. We were forced out because we had no job'.

'And then you talk to older people, Irish-American people here and they say 'We are sick to death of this because the only time the diaspora, or the Irish-Americans are ever mentioned is as tourists and how can we get these people here to boost our tourism and how can we get people back here so that we can shake them down for a few quid.

"Well, one guy I know who's a plumber in Philadelphia said to me 'Do they not understand that there's a huge recession here. I'm a plumber and I can't afford to get on a plane and bring my family back to see a game of hurling in Belmullet or wherever it is'. He said 'It is a huge ask to say to people 'put your money aside, buy five plane tickets, come back, get involved in our local egg and spoon race and help our economy'.

"One guy said to me 'I'm sick to death of being seen as a tourist'. And one of the problems that I found when I was Cultural Ambassador here was the diaspora have a very powerful, spiritual connection to the island of Ireland. I remember when I was growing up in Dublin, those buses would pull up, and those people in Burberry coats would be laughed at because we'd be saying 'ah here come the yanks, looking for their roots'.

"Well as far as I'm concerned one of the most sacred things you can do is look for your roots. If your grandfather left, great-grandfather left during the famine, that is a very sacred journey that you make back there. But we laughed at them."
'Now, the diaspora have that powerful connection to Ireland. Sometimes it's a bit, you know, hokery-pokery, but there's not the equivalent from there to here. Most people don't give a shit about the diaspora over there except to shake them down for a few quid.

And when (Enda) Kenny was talking about in that, I found, slightly offensive speech, where he said (puts on fake Irish accent) 'Yeah, we'll all get together now and we'll all have a great time and sure we'll get them back here and yiz are all great and keep the flag flying and, you know, the economy and we're all great now and that's fantastic and I'm off now, off to something else'.

"Well that was not received well here because people are sick to death of being asked to help out in what they regard as a scam. One guy said to me 'this is a scam'. And, he said 'I don't need an invitation to go back to visit my own country. How dare they say to me 'oh, come back and visit'.

'So, anyway, I wish The Gathering the very, very best of luck but they have to understand that the bridge between the diaspora and the people of Ireland is broken. And I tried to fix that for two years and it's still broken. And unless you understand what it is that the diaspora feel about Ireland and the fact that, once your people have emigrated, you don't really care where they're gone to, unless they're your kids, then emigration takes on a very, very different emotional sense for you.'

Listen here (part 3)

Listen Here: http://media.todayfm.com/podcast/68857

[Shamrock Shore]

Of course it's a load of auld nonsense. But it's a marketing campaign to try and attract Johnny Sixpack from Nebraska over to see where his drunken ancestor came from in Ballyarsehole.

Jazes - Gabriel Byrne's accent gets on my nerves. Makes GMac's sound normal.

[brokencrossbar1]

Of course it's a load of auld nonsense. But it's a marketing campaign to try and attract Johnny Sixpack from Nebraska over to see where his drunken ancestor came from in Ballyarsehole.

Jazes - Gabriel Byrne's accent gets on my nerves. Makes GMac's sound normal.

I heard it yesterday and thought he was taking the piss with the accent, it was unreal!  As you say it is a load of auld balls but shure tis a great excuse for us maybe to get an auld Gadderin going ourselves, maybe see if there is a grant for it or something

[Declan]

shure tis a great excuse for us maybe to get an auld Gadderin going ourselves, maybe see if there is a grant for it or something

Now that's a plan

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Sounds like he has a grudge against the government for not licking the arty-farty ballsacks, he is just throwing his rattle out of his pram. Seems he didn't realise that there is a recession on in Ireland, must be nice being a millionare living in Nue Yaock. Sounds like another Bonoesque gobshite.

But to be fair the gathering is a bit of old fluff.

[Dinny Breen]

It's just a framework for attracting more tourists home and considering everyone is talking about it I'm sure it will be a success. A lot communities are organising events around it which no matter how cynical you are, and byjesus you lot are a cynical crowd, that can only be good.

As Gabriel Byrne if I didn't know better you'd swear he was some millionaire not paying a cent of tax in this country been quite bitter over been dumped as cultural ambassador. Has anyone any idea what Mr Byrne did in that role to promote Ireland?

[thewobbler]

Anybody objecting the Gathering campaign needs to take a good, hard look at what themselves.

The country is in financial turmoil, and this is an umbrella schema to deliver more money into the country. It might look cynical, it might seem ridiculous, but it will encourage more money to be spent in Ireland. It's only a good thing.

Ireland could do with a civic pride campaign to run alongside the Gathering so that locals actually put on a good face too.

[Capt Pat]

Run them out of the country with bad economic management and then ask them back only when we want something off them. I can see why they are not happy, but that is backward Ireland a really failed place that really doesn't care.

[Bingo]

Run them out of the country with bad economic management and then ask them back only when we want something off them. I can see why they are not happy, but that is backward Ireland a really failed place that really doesn't care.

I don't know the figures but i'd imagine that the % of the total Irish exiles who have emigrated in the recent past is tiny. Say we have 20million ex-pats (very conservatice) round the world ranging from recent emigrants born and bred here to 4th generation Irish who still hold the connection strong. I doubt that the recent people who have fled due to the current recession is not even 1% of this 20m which The Gathering is targetting.

Should this marketing campaign not be undertaken out of pity for the people who have left in the last 4/5 years? Emigration isn't a new craze. Millions have left in the past and many have found lifes far better than they could ever have dreamt of if they stayed, for many others they have found it very hard, no doubts about that.

Its a tourism drive and we should support it as such and aslo hope its a success, it could prevent more having to leave.

[Premier Emperor]

We've been tapping up yank tourists for years.
Why start objecting now.

[Hardy]

We have some awful buffoons out there presenting themselves as our representatives.

[Denn Forever]

Maybe the GAABoard golf day/weekend could ask for funding?

[Capt Pat]

We have been mismanaging this country since we got our hands on it. We have squandered it and its people for a very long time not just the celtic tiger era, but the 80s and the 60s and the 50s and all the eras in between. only 4 million people in the country and no money. This is a brutal place and a mess and it is no wonder people are fed up with it.

Run them out of the country with bad economic management and then ask them back only when we want something off them. I can see why they are not happy, but that is backward Ireland a really failed place that really doesn't care.

I don't know the figures but i'd imagin :)e that the % of the total Irish exiles who have emigrated in the recent past is tiny. Say we have 20million ex-pats (very conservatice) round the world ranging from recent emigrants born and bred here to 4th generation Irish who still hold the connection strong. I doubt that the recent people who have fled due to the current recession is not even 1% of this 20m which The Gathering is targetting.
Should this marketing campaign not be undertaken out of pity for the people who have left in the last 4/5 years? Emigration isn't a new craze. Millions have left in the past and many have found lifes far better than they could ever have dreamt of if they stayed, for many others they have found it very hard, no doubts about that.
Its a tourism drive and we should support it as such and aslo hope its a success, it could prevent more having to leave.