Reality check; Irish students have misbehaved in Berkeley for close on a decade

( Pre-preface; finally, action from the US embassy in Dublin to prevent a recurrence;
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34798079)

 I preface these comments ;  I write as a parent whose two daughters came to Berkeley for the summer, aged 20 and 19, in 2011 and 2013 (respectively). Getting each of them home safely was a non-trivial task. As such, my heart goes out to the parents who seem falsely to have been told their kids were safe here without any supervision. This is the most immature and undisciplined Irish generation in living memory.

What bothers me about the line taken by the Irish state is

1. It had been warned, in writing, since 2103 that there was likely to be a problem

2. Its conveying - however indirectly - the notion that it it ok to wake people up every night as Irish kids have been doing in Berkeley every summer  for a decade is not just disrespectful. It is also possible it will lead to a more serious incident, like taking an SUV out on US 101 and causing a pile-up

The Irish Times has decided that whereof it should not speak, it will again lay down the law as "paper of record";

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/new-york-times-article-a-fantastic-distortion-of-j-1s-1.2253154

On 15 June, 2015 Mel and I picked up our new friend, F. a young piper from Ireland, in our car. We brought him to the Starry Plough in Berkeley , where he played with me for young Americans doing Irish dance. Many of them drive from silicon Valley every Monday; the dance floor is mobbed. This receives NO state subsidy and the Starry Plough recently celebrated its 40^th anniversary; it is now the SF East Bay's oldest night club.

F. went home; his music may have saved his life. Otherwise, he might have been “partying” and lost his life with the others. How did we meet him? We have taken to giving young Irish people our business cards when we see them, lost, on the streets of Berkeley.

Every year the fraternity houses and many apartments are “let” to Irish J-1 holders; notoriously, they wrecked a house in SF in 2014. However, we had already warned the consul general in 2013 - in writing – that this was an accident waiting to happen. After the 2014 house carnage, we wrote again, ccing to the Taoiseach, whose daughter was herself on a J-1 at the time.

It turns out that there was serious trashing of houses in Santa Barbara in 2010. In Berkeley, the Irish  J-1 holders through raucous parties have actually caused local legislation to be changed so that two noise  infractions now nets you a large fine. That happened around the same time as the Santa Barbara incident

What needs to be done? Frankly, ALL the Irish state services here in the Western USA are a joke; in SF, only the pastoral center is trusted. There will be a time to investigate the waste of state money in farcical projects like the San Jose “innovation” center, and the state;s obstruction of the development of Irish studies here. What we need to do right now is express our sympathy, however, to those involved and bereaved, but also tell them that – yes, Irish people did care enough for their sons and daughters to ask the consul to stop the annual influx.

Looking through the tragically shortened life histories of the dead, they do NOT come across as drinkers. In fact, they come across if anything as nerds on their first unsupervised trip away from home, and profoundly decent kids. The most innocent explanation - and a likely one - is that, although they WERE keeping their neighbours awake, they were posing for a photo. The fact both lessees, and the cousins were on the balcony with the birthday girls supports this

 It would be very interesting to find out who was INSIDE the room, egging them on in whatever idiot game they were playing - a game guaranteed to win them the Darwin awards this year, if the "photo" idea is wrong. I note they all inside  have  been offered flights home

Those who want to come here should be given a course on American culture, and respect for others.  No matter what humbug the IT comes up with, the fact remains that there were (at least) 13 people on a balcony in downtown Berkeley at 12-40 in a city where people got to bed before 11am, that there is a history of Irish kids creating a ruckus there, and that kids come over here with neither accommodation nor a job ready. secondly, the lease for that building sates no noise after 9pm.

Finally, many of us work hard on projecting a positive image on Ireland. Waking people up in the middle of the night is not how to do that. wandering around the streets with hurleys, and interacting neither with Americans their own age nor the larger Irish community does not help either

How does one recognize an Irish kid sans hurley? In general, because they wear a sports jersey with a logo like "AIG" or some other sterling exponent of ethical behaviour. The Irish state is perhaps deliberately  producing a generation of thugs and imbeciles; that needs to be rectified in the educational system there. Until it is so rectified, please keep these unformed kids away and give them a chance to be exposed to the real depth and beauty of their own culture

Then they will turn out to be fine young men and women like their Californian counterparts

 PS I went to the address and noted the wreaths. Unless I'm mistaken, several of them are fraudulent. for example, the one from a "flatmate" remembering their wonderful company is at odds with the recollection of the African-American woman  interviewed with me on NBC. who remembers non-stop noise. The handwriting is remarkably similar on many....what we have IMO is classic Irish stage-management of an undoubtedly tragic event, stage-management which is aimed at getting the state off the hook

As for us, we played a memorial at the Starry Plough 22 June. It is noticeable that Clodagh, a survivor who is currently paralyzed, has been heroic. Why was she not told to have her social life in the wee hours in nightclubs there for the purpose?

Stop press (!) F had his drink spiked in the wee hours of 24 Aug, and was abducted and thrown out of a car in downtown Oakland. He phoned us at 1 am. We took photos of the grazes etc

PPS Source for the change in the Berkeley noise ordinance due to the Irish kids; Jim Hynes, an Irish -American who works for the city of Berkeley.  If the Irish state put a fraction of the effort it is putting in to imposing a maudlin narrative on this event into asserting the rights of its creative class, or indeed preventing musicians from being ripped off and getting cancer as several did following events I have documented in my "Ireland in crisis" book, we would have a great country and both Mel and I would be living there, not in the US;


http://www.amazon.com/Ireland-Crisis-Analyses-Proposed-Solutions/dp/1443849650