“Do as I say, not as I do!” …or not!

When Tangible Ireland began in 2009, we were experiencing a lot of that kind of leadership in Ireland.

Founder, Raymond Sexton believed that an emphasis on the positive was required.

• What was going well?
• Who were the people driving the success stories?
• Did anyone else believe we were better than our bottom line?

He began to examine what drove excellence in leadership both at home and abroad.

The perspective was that of an engineer and project manager experienced in helping multinationals invest and build facilities in Ireland, a homecomer returned from a decade in Australia, and a closet historian.

Who the Irish are in Ireland and who we become when we go abroad is a fascinating study.*

And the many Tangible ambassadors, partners and guests have joined him in studying it – up close and personally, across the island of Ireland and worldwide.

There have been over sixty Tangible seminars in global cities – Dublin, London, New York and Sydney; regional capitals – Belfast, Limerick & Galway; and in the urban & rural villages that lie at the heart of Irish life and values – Howth, Kilmallock and Crossmaglen.

There’s a common denominator in all these communities. We honor our original associations, whether counties, communities, schools, or team affiliations, we pay it forward and take care of our own. We are industries, joyous, playful and determined.

Here’s what we do:

Imagine the simplicity of a “3 pinned plug” and the energy it channels. It’s the way each Tangible Seminar is designed. We showcase and model the best business and civic leadership in a region by:

• focusing on the maverick and entrepreneurial “live wires” – the local leaders driving change
• highlighting and sharing connections to the startup, trade & inward investment support offered in the Republic and in Northern Ireland
• recognising our citizens at home, abroad and in transition, uniting them in their efforts to prosper both here and across the Diaspora

Here’s what we’ve learned:

• at home and abroad our values never change
• our Diaspora represents our greatest asset; vast supplies of human capital available for spending and investment
• our citizens never cease to be our citizens

Here’s what we believe:

• Personal, business and trade relationships empower us individually & collectively, in our new lands and across Ireland.
• Our citizens never cease to be entitled to be heard.
• At home, abroad or in transition, we owe each other a duty of care, including responsible stewardship of this island, economically, environmentally and politically.

This drive for excellence in leadership and best practices reflects our duty of care to the next generation by making this island fit to come home to, or to never be forced to leave.

We are survivors.

Who we are and who we become, whether we stay here or go abroad needs to reflect our best hope for the future of our Irish or Northern Irish children and grandchildren in the Americas, the EU, the UK, Oz or elsewhere.

To join us in San Francisco on Thursday, 21. July  or at the annual Ambassador Summer School here in Ireland follow the links to register.

For a great summary of why Tangible travels the globe in search of “live wires” – here it is:

*…who we become when we go abroad as described by one of our own:

Many of you post these images regularly – from the safety of your American homes. Please rethink them.

I used to live there – now Ireland is my home. It has been since November 2008.

It is not always safe here on the border. Our world is different than yours.

I live and work between Dublin and Belfast. I am privileged to carry both US & Irish Passports.

The UK government honors my Irish Citizenship conferring upon me every right of her citizens. I was welcomed when I established my business in County Down. I have been as free to live in Northern Ireland as the Republic.

We are 32 counties of residents on the island of Ireland. 17% of us were born elsewhere.

Our average life span is 80 years; longer than yours. We all have a vote. We could even vote to unite Ireland. Take a long view – it will likely happen. The island has been populated for over 12 thousand years. The British have been here only 850.

Governments in the 21st century amount to “taxing authorities”. We don’t raise armies to protect these borders, we live in the EU. Our borders are collectively protected.

Things are better in the Republic for Protestants and in the North for Catholics* than for African Americans across much of the US – So I’d argue your civil rights movement needs your attention more than ours.

Consider this:

•  In NI we don’t pay our own way – the UK government (and every British taxpayer) subsidises 70 p of every £1 floating through our economy.
• In the Republic we have mortgaged our grandchildren’s futures to bail out the excessive spending of the “boom”.

Try this:

• Ask a patient on a gurney at an A&E (ER) in the Republic if they’d cross the border for better medical care?
• Ask a dole recipient on either side of the border if their Northern/Southern neighbours have a better deal. Then ask either government if they could afford the burden of more mouths to feed and care for?
• Ask a US or other foreign corporations in the Republic employing thousands and contributing millions to the economy if they’d have come to the 6 counties given the higher corporation tax?
• Then ask those corporations located across Northern Ireland if they would have gone to the Republic without the heavy subsidies the UK government offers for R&D, training and facilities.

STOP the madness, please. There is not a strong enough political class anywhere on the island of Ireland to effectively govern a single county, no less the 32.

• Leave us to our learning curves – let us do what it takes to survive. Consign your leftover venom & bile to history.
• Your rhetoric inflames your compatriots here to build bombs, kill innocents and wreck our recovering economies.
• You foment this hate from safe living rooms amid ample resources and opportunities.

This is Ireland in the 21st century, our young people united in sport, the Queen at Croke Park and with the Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland touring the now restored Crumlin Gaol. Having both spent time there during the Troubles, they used the occasion to thank her for her hospitality.(Both served time)

I’m sorry our ancestors emigrated to America under duress. I’m sorry you are emotionally stuck in the pain of their loss. I’m sorry you have not made peace with Ireland’s political reality in 2015.

These images are not icons of nationalism. They are hate speech. That you would encourage violence to be visited upon yet another generation is despicable.

If you passionately believe in a “united Ireland” then come. Move here, work for a political solution, work to bring out the vote and work for an economically sustainable Ireland.

In the meanwhile – do not overtly or inadvertently encourage violence. Do not encourage or support dissident activity. And do not undermine the Police Service or either government.

Here’s why:

The Wikipedia entry for the activities of just one dissident group in the 6 years between my arrival & November 2014 is over 2500 words. 

The heinous acts committed by “other” dissidents encouraged by the rhetoric of  26+6= 1 over the same 6 years, are not even included.

Let me introduce you to Northern Ireland men Ronan Kerr, Omagh, David Black, Cookstown and Stephen Carroll, Banbridge. All are dead. All killed at the hands of madmen (and women) in service of this rhetoric.

Mark Quinsey, Birmingham and Patrick Azimkar, London were young sappers stationed here in 2009 and due to ship out to Afghanistan the next day.

More than likely their families had not yet begun to pray for their safe deliverance from extremist terrorists.

Life here is far from perfect – but since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement things have and continue to be improved. Many like me work tirelessly to see that this continues.

Learn from the best among us!

Take Maeve Aine Kerr, the mother of murdered Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr. Pictured here, she has born this tragedy with dignity and grace collecting his University Degree at the commencement he didn’t live to see – and still urging more Catholics to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

In November 2014, 12 “dissidents” (read terrorists) were arrested in Newry and more weapons were seized in Dublin.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness’ whose life is regularly threatened – was threatened with an RPG in February 2015. How many innocents would likely die in the fallout of a rocket propelled grenade? How many RPGs might the dissidents possess?

Nothing changes here until we, our emigrants and the descendants of generations of our emigrants begin to care more about our collective, living children than we or they, hate the enemies of our ancestors.

The centenary of the Easter Rising next year will be enough of a flashpoint. In the meanwhile, please respect our need to build bridges and not intimidate our neighbors.

I will return to America at least three times between now and that centenary. I will likely visit New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Florida, Chicago and San Francisco. I am happy  to continue this conversation in person. Get in touch. Email eve@eveearley.com or contact me via Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

* See graph p 25 of linked article.

Sharansky Steps, Ralph Bunche Park From Tudor City, NYC.

They shall beat their swords into ploughshares… Isaiah 2:4

This New York City park sits just below my first apartment. I visited it almost daily during the years I lived in Tudor City.

The adolescent, protesting child of the Vietnam War era wondered whether those words would come to pass in my lifetime. Here in Northern Ireland, I believe they have.

Given the full blush of naïve optimism, I assumed that should I live to see such a thing, it would be momentous. It is not.

Moving from war to peace has nothing to do with signatures on treaties or momentous occasions.

It has everything to do with a sustained desire of the majority to maintain the peace, coupled with their sustained and vigilant attention to creating a new reality.

What swords into what ploughshares?

The Irish Language

Hijacked as a weapon during The Troubles there’s an oft repeated quote by then Sinn Fein Cultural Officer and Belfast teacher Padraig O Maolchraoibhe in 1982: “I don’t think we can exist as a separate people without our language. Now every phrase you learn is a bullet in the freedom struggle.”

He added that the restoration of the Irish language was part of the process of the “decolonisation of Ireland”.*

My relationship with the Irish language has evolved over the half dozen years I have been here. In early days I heard it used only in the public space by politicians intent on dividing an audience into “them” and “us”. I viewed it as a weapon, as when it was wielded, I found it hurt not to be able to understand.

I’ve made peace with it now. The journey is described in a blog post called “The Irish Language“.  It includes the stories of the three people I have to thank, both for enlightening me and for their wider impact on the culture.

It is in the work of one of them that I see not only the ploughshares, but this:

Tell them to beat their swords into ploughshares!

And then tell them to beat their ploughshares into musical instruments!

Then, if they want to make war, they’ll have to stop and make ploughshares, first.*

Linda Ervine is a Belfast woman making such music with the Irish Language. Simultaneously , it’s being embraced by the Diaspora. I can’t imagine a better way to “de-politicize” the language.

A young colleague, passionate about Irish and it’s cross-community cultural significance has been sharing his vast knowledge of it’s history. Between his and Linda Ervine’s evangelizing I have learned:

• the Ulster Scotts forefathers of America lived there in Irish speaking households and communities
• there are currently 11,000 Protestant Irish speakers in NI
• every 3rd week of the month  there is an inter-denominational Irish language service at a Protestant church in Belfast
• more newspapers magazines and books have been recently published in Irish then in the last 150 years
• in Australia the number of Irish speaking households more than doubled between 2001 & 2011 – 828 to over 1825
• in Bucks County, Pennsylvania a volunteer runs a FB page and an outreach to Irish Language Learners. It has over 14,000 likes!**

Interest in the Irish Language emerging in the Diaspora, the growing number of Irish speakers in the Protestant community in Northern Ireland and a hunger to understand the cultural significance of the language among many – all mark a move toward reclaiming the language for all the people of Ireland.

Use of the language is no longer about “decolonizing” but rather reflective of a common cultural heritage. It embraces how we are related to the ancient land and not attached to recent politics.

We who have sprung from this island – from Ulster, Leinster, Munster or Connaught – have more in common than that which divides us.

The Irish Language may now be the vehicle that unites the people of the island of Ireland, irrespective of their taxing authorities.

An article by Camille O’Reilly, which is a studied review of the Nationalists and the Irish Language in Northern Ireland may be of interest for more on this.

My exploration and understanding why reconnecting with the Irish language is so significant can be found at: The Irish Language

* a remembered quote from a sermon over 20 years ago – I was delighted to find it on the dedication page of Roger H. Siminoff’s book,  The Luthier’s Handbook . I’m afraid I still don’t know the original source.

**nearly 37,250 as of February ’17; 54K in September ’22

Here’s a  2022 update on Linda Ervine’s work.-

Global City!

Tangible Ireland’s Dublin meeting October 9th is a special one. It marks the first session of my “senior year”* at Tangible.

Four years ago, with the help of Linkedin’s algorithms, I found my way to a meeting at the Dublin Civic Trust.

Welcomed by Dan Feahney, an enthusiastic, ex-pat American, I felt comfortable. Joining over 20 men and women from Northern Ireland & the Republic – it was the best collective company I’d found since arriving two years earlier. Remarkably, a full quarter of the group were women!

2010 was a bleak time in Ireland. We’d already hit bottom. My response was that there was no where to go but up. Everywhere I turned I saw opportunity.

Not so my Irish neighbours.

I was frustrated. The passivity of most and their despair was overwhelming. Where was the outrage? Where were the protests? Why were people saying “We got the run of ourselves, now we’ll pay”?

No one deserved it. It was clearly a failure of leadership, abuses of power and downright incompetence and it was going unpunished. (Sadly, still is…)

Compounding my frustration, I was still confounded by life on the border. The Good Friday Agreement was over a decade past and I lived every day with new messages about “them” & “us”. Somehow we could rail against historic wrongs, be willing to fight imagined enemies over exaggerated slights, but we were passive about the real and present danger.

Not at Tangible. It was different there, among these people.

One by one people rose to present.

I finally heard a language I recognized. Passion was alive in the voices of those calling for new & responsible leadership, self-reliance and a prosperity process!

Presenters came from across the island. I heard the language of respectful citizens of both governments interested in addressing the needs of the island’s economy with no political agenda.

Everything I heard at that meeting affirmed my vision of what life in Ireland could be. This community and their messages have sustained me.

There were 11 speakers that day. They included a young activist and social entrepreneur, Killian Stokes. He’d created a charity. Conceived in Dublin driven by a software platform built in Belfast, he recounted fundraising in America. Nothing passive about a young man equipped with a file of Google images, doorstepping executives and funders at meetings and conferences in New York. Here was passion, confidence and enthusiasm I could relate to!

Next up was Paul Smyth. The quiet dignity of this Belfast based Chief Executive of Public Achievement – belied the passion behind founding WIMPS – Where is My Public Servant? He was answering my near constant musing: Why isn’t anyone holding politicians to account? He was empowering teenagers in Northern Ireland to “speak truth to power” – with microphones in their hands plus the training and wherewithal to disseminate the interviews.

And then Ronan King took the floor. The theme of the day was Excellence in Ireland and one of the most powerful moments was when he put up a slide and said: “Do you know what happens when you Google Fianna Fail & Dynasty?”

Suffice it to say much blood was spilled to form a Republic that is shockingly dynastic.

His focus on demanding the accountability of regulators and bankers was refreshing in light of the self-flagellation I was used to hearing.

Noreen Bowden, an American ex-pat then living and working here presented on diaspora relationships, specifically, the disenfranchisement of emigrants.

Talks on talent management and leadership development by Alan Jordan & Danica Murphy were delivered in language I recognized. Empowering, not self-effacing; proactive and not passive.

Carol Conway then went on to deliver a summary of the first Ambassador Summer School. I knew I’d found a home. She and Dan Feahney closed by moderating a discussion: A Shared Future, the potential to design an Ireland of excellence.

Every seminar since has done precisely that. Tangible Ambassadors share the vision of an excellent, prosperous and sustainable island of Ireland fueled by the wisdom, strength & wealth of Global Ireland.

Join us as we gather annually in other Global cities – London in November, New York in May or Sydney in the summer; Belfast in February, Limerick in March;  Howth in January, Crossmaglen in July & Kilmallock in August.

Why? Noreen Bowden has returned to America, Killian Stokes is living and working there, along with 1000 like him who leave Ireland every week. Let’s develop the leaders who will create a dynamic, sustainable and prosperous Ireland for our children and grandchildren to come home to!

*College & high school years are called freshman, sophmore, junior & senior in America.

“Whoever saves one life saves a world entire.”

What need has a wee Irish boy of the global Irish diaspora?

Hi everyone, I am Charlie’s mum and I just want to thank you all for what you are doing. Charlie is a great wee man with a huge zest for life, he really has a fighting spirit and I totally believe we will get a successful match and that Charlie will be cured of cancer…
Will keep you all updated. Love Cliodhna & Fintan, Charlie & Nancy xx

Thanks to Charlie and his family’s urgent appeal, NI registrations on the bone marrow register have grown 2000%. Now let’s grow the registers in America, Australia, Canada and wherever else we Irish have settled.

America is a nation of immigrants who in the last 50 years have learned to celebrate their ethnic and racial identities. Gone are the days of the “melting pot”,  hyphenated Americans value their roots.

And there is DNA in those Irish-American roots!

The shores of America, Canada, Australia and countries worldwide were once life saving. Generations of Irish have invested their young building other nations.

May we now ask for a return on that investment?

Life saving bone marrow transplants require donors that “match”. Matches are most likely found in people with similar ethnic backgrounds.

Spread the word! We are fewer than 6 million here but an estimated 70 million worldwide. Get tested and register. It’s a cheek swab. Not just for Charlie, but for your family and distant cousins worldwide.

Consider the luck of the Irish! We have a sizable diaspora to ask.

Not so lucky, the Jews. Or African Americans.

A worldwide Jewish population/diaspora is estimated at fewer than 14 million. In 2005 when legendary jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker was diagnosed with a blood disorder requiring a bone marrow transplant his family launched a worldwide search for a donor. Widely publicized across both Jewish communities and the musical world, no match was found.

“Being Jewish made it especially difficult to find a genetic match, since such large part of the Jewish population was lost during World War II.” ¹

The problem also exists for African Americans. Good Morning America host Robin Roberts highlighted this issue just last year. Diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome she was blessed to have a sister who was a perfect match. A gift because only 7% of donors registered in America are African-American.

Please register! Urge your friends as well.

United States; Ireland (ROI); United Kingdom; Canada; Australia

On a sad note – Charlie lost his battle and “gained his angel wings” on 2. August 2019. You can keep his memory alive by registering – and where possible – supporting the children’s cancer charities and caregivers whose support sustained him then – and so many families now.

¹(http://phillyist.com/2008/04/01/bone_marrow_dri.php)

Tangible Ireland’s  first of 2012’s eight Leadership Seminars focused our attention on a shared vision for the island of Ireland: “proud, peaceful & prosperous”.  Ray Sexton said we were “Plotting the Evolution” in Howth; “Revolution” was the slip of an eight year old!  We’ve elevated it to our 2012 mission.

As usual, in venues from Dublin to New York, Belfast to London, Limerick to South Armagh, the agenda begins with what is happening locally.

• Volunteers at the Howth Phoenix Project are leading the way in proposing a property redevelopment scheme

• Friends of Balscadden Bay have a focus on renewing local interest in and use of the beach and bay. Perfectly suited to dovetail with the promotion of regional travel and tourism.

• The privately run Healthpro organization has evolved their corporate vision to include a community effort. They run triathlons and activities which showcase the beauty and amenities of the area.

• The forward thinking folks at Howth Castle’s Cookery highlighted the modern use of an historic venue as a magnet for locals and tourists to gather.

Our professional moderator, Carol Conway, kept our passions reined in to the allotted time and all this was delivered in the first hour!

Grounded in the beauty of the land and sea we moved to cyberspace!

• A review of the entrepreneurial evolution of the Irish island’s economy at Emerald-Valley.com. This initiative pairs an incubation centre on the Newry border between Dublin & Belfast with a private inward investment effort, education and engagement with the global Irish village.

• “Plotting the Digital Future” was an update on a private effort to write a meaningful National Digital Policy for the Republic. Finally, joined up thinking from the ground up!

• Insights, evolutionary and revolutionary of a serial tech entrepreneur closed the Technology Evolution hour. An overview of business start-up successes with an optimistic review of the benefit of living and working abroad and returning the wiser.

Closing the day with an overview of the Global Evolution we heard two of the most powerful presentations:

• Matters of the Diaspora

• Go, Educate all Nations

What do a college president and professional fundraiser have in common?  Passion and commitment to prosperity achieved by harnessing the energy of the Irish at home and abroad.

“It takes community to form people” in the words of the educator. “Moving our minds from getting to giving” in the words of our expert on networking with the Diaspora.

Redefining our community, leading by example and creating alliances with like minded people around the world will involve committed ambassadors trained to network and lead.

The remittances of a century ago, the investment we sought in past decades were a hand up. These relationships allowed us to engage in the global economy and we learned.

Now our technologies, our businesses and our children are able, willing and ready to fully participate in global markets. We are able to provide opportunities here and create them for ourselves abroad.

We have established networks to share in a global economy. Our 21^st century task is to leverage them.

This is the message of Tangible Ireland. I and Empowering Change are always grateful to be recharged by them!

For details of the agenda and future meetings:

http://tangibleireland.com/tangible-blog/blog/plotting-the-evolution.html