Flatley: Ireland must shed drunken leprechaun image
Speaking at the first US Ireland Forum in New York, the multimillionaire claimed it was time Ireland shed the old image of a drunken leprechaun urinating outside on St Patrick’s Day and replace it with a new image of professionalism and sophistication.
“Just recently I was on Grafton Street in Dublin — you don’t hear too many Irish voices there any more. I was in a café having coffee one afternoon and there were two black fellas, African lads, next to me at the table talking and they were pointing at a newspaper saying ‘Celtic Tiger is dead we better find somewhere else’,” he said.
“I say no. I say this Celtic Tiger is not dead. This is not the end. This is only the beginning. It’s only dead if we believe it’s dead. It’s only dead if our press keep writing that it’s dead over and over.”
In a keynote speech lasting more than 10 minutes at the conference organised by the American Ireland Fund, the Lord of the Dance star added that Irish people had forgotten how the country had come to this point in history having stood on the shoulders of the 1916 heroes Pearse, Connolly, Ceannt, Clarke and MacDonagh.
“We are in close danger of losing the very thing we stand for and the very thing we came here to celebrate today — Irishness,” he said.
“When’s the last time you walked by a pub in Dublin and heard Irish music? When’s the last time you ordered a coffee and heard an Irish person taking the order from you?”
Mr Flatley, who received the Freedom of Cork city earlier this year, was born in Detroit after his Irish parents moved to the US in 1947.
In a bid to increase the funding available to Ireland and the US, the 54 million people who class themselves as Irish-Americans must be convinced of the need to donate and become active within the community abroad.
“If we could harness the power of 54m people, it wouldn’t be long until we have one of our own back in the White House,” said Mr Flatley.
