I feel blessed in US – not Ireland

MY WIFE and I left Ireland in 2007 to emigrate to the US after many happy years at home. We were sad to leave, but the opportunities in my profession and more affordable housing were great attractions for our growing family.

We are happily settled in the US, enjoying the great opportunities and the extremely pleasant weather.

Opportunities aside, I would still be reticent about returning to Ireland. It is not entirely because of the recession and the scarcity of jobs, though this would be crucial.

I am proud to be Irish and always feel most at home there with the sense of humour and the craic, so if opportunities such as those that existed in the boom years were to return, why might I be slow to think of returning?

To some Irish ears my answer might seem strange. Ireland has become an increasingly irreligious country.

I am not thinking of morality or family values, where Ireland probably still would rank well. It is, however, the lack of faith and interest in religion that marks much of Ireland.

Here in the US, practically every other radio station on the car radio is a Christian one.

Christian music and teaching fills the airwaves. To our complete amazement, nearly all supermarkets – such as WalMart – sell bibles, Christian books and religious articles.

Not alone would it be unheard of for Tesco or Dunnes to stock bibles, it would be hard to find many Christiantitles and bibles in the many new age and self-help books in the ordinary bookshops.

Restaurants also sell articles with scripture quotes. Churches abound with brightly coloured signs inviting you to seek the message within. The vast majority of people you meet express a personal Christian faith and have a living church affiliation.

Religious services of all denominations express an enthusiasm for singing, and pastors are genuinely enthusiastic about their church mission and reaching out to the community and further afield.

As a newly-arrived immigrant working for one church I have been able to motivate churches to come together for praise concerts. This Easter, for example, we are planning a lakeside service where we hope to have an interdenominational choir of 100 singers from at least six mainline churches, together with brass and bells, to celebrate the resurrection.

The local city council is arranging publicity, amplification equipment, keyboards, chairs and the use of their professional stage for this early morning event which they hope several thousand will attend.

What is stranger for us is that the council asked the local churches to organise this event. Could I imagine something like this back home?

My main reason for preferring the US is not jobs or the economy (where we live has 10% unemployment). No, it is the celebration of Christian faith and hope even in the midst of economic ills and international problems that draws me to the US to stay. Maybe we have to fall so low in Ireland to remember the rock from which we were hewn?

Dr Cormac O’Duffy

Florida

USA