Mission in Ireland, March 12-20, 2012

The Custom House on the River Liffey is just across the river from my sister, Carmel's, place on Usher's Quay where I stayed after my sojourn at the O'Callaghan Mont Clare on fashionable Merrion Sq.

One of the highlights to my trip to Ireland was going to a [Sir] James Galway concert at the Dublin Concert Hall on March 18th, at 8pm with my sister, Carmel,  and enjoy Irish Vapours and Capers by Lorin Mazel besides the well known airs.

First things first and the day of my arrival I visited my sister, Mary, who was in Cappagh Hospital recovering from major hip surgery. With my other 3 sister, Patty Coscoran, Carmel Lambert and Christine Creevey we had our family reunion around Mary's bed. It was a happy occasion as Mary was recovering very well.

The outward motive of the trip was a presentation at Trinity College's Theological Society of a talk on the theme of How Cult Like Features can be present in Catholic and other mainstream religious groups and it went down pretty well. For me the most important part was meeting with the some of the audience afterwards, former Irish Legionaries, students, and friends. I much appreciated the support of my sisters Carmel and Christine, brother in law Christy Creevey and my good friend and colleague, Aaron Loughrey. Mike Garde from Dialogue Eire was also in support and he forfeited his chance to talk when I ran over time. A reception was held afterwards.

Since then I have been able to mix tourism with family: besides seeing my niece, Ruth Lambert, again I was able to meet Mary's daughters, Liz and Kate, the latter with her two children, Rachel and Robert. It did not rain on the St Pat's parade in Dublin and Carmel and I had a good view of the wonderful groups. That evening we had a great visit with cousin Harry Lennon and Joan at their home in Rathfarnam where we were joined by Edmund and his wife, Angela.

Yesterday, Sunday the 18th, we had the visit to Mary and the James Galway concert. Today I hope to visit my 90 year old cousin, Evelyn and her husband Peter Corrigan, together with their daughter, Collette. And may even more relatives.

Latin American Immigrants and others Parallel Irish Famine

With Aura in Geneva 2009 for the enactment of Jean Calvin's Anniversary...folks dressed as Calvinists

Couldn't help but be struct by the parallels between this description of Irish professor O Muchadha   of Famine immigrants to the  what I know of Salvadoran and other Central and South American immigrants to the Washington DC area:


However, surviving the voyage was not the end of the hardship for Famine emigrants. In fact, for most, it was just the beginning of a new chapter of desolation.

“A great number of these emigrants had never previously ventured outside their own local areas,” says Dr Ó Murchadha. “Suddenly, they found themselves transported thousands of miles away: from a rural to an urban landscape, to a very alien social environment where the inhabitants didn’t speak the same language and, frequently, showed a deep loathing for their Irishness and their Catholicism. This was bewildering and devastating to them.”

Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/New-facts-about-Great-Famine-emigration-out-of-Ireland--revealed-139540423.html#ixzz1mw3NmfZi

St Brigid's Day, Feb 1, Beginning of Celtic Spring

My heritage

Biderman's Stages of Coercion with High Demand Groups & Gurus [from ReFOCUS, recovery page by Carol Giambalvo

Paul, Aura, Carmen y Jose in Geneva -free from coercion- 

at the International Cultic Studies Association 

Annual Conference

Biderman’s Stages of Coercion

Biderman's stages of coercion	Abuser's actions	Victim's response
Isolation	Befriends the newcomer. Introduces to others with high praise. Monopolizes until other staff begin to reject. Warns of the perils of associating with other members of staff.	Deprived of developing social support with colleagues. Initiates total dependence on abuser. Acquires a false feeling of security. Confuses reality.
Monopolization of perception	Informs victim through stories about power alliances. Outlines superior knowledge and skills. Intimates that victim does not possess necessary knowledge and skill but may be able to acquire it through association with abuser.	Loses self-esteem. Doubts ability to perform. Self-blames for accepting a position because unworthy. Consumed completely by introspective thoughts.
Induced physical and mental exhaustion	Overburdens victim with time consuming and/or physically demanding tasks. Places unrealistic standards of acceptance on these tasks.	Becomes physically and emotionally too weak to resist or challenge. Loses ability to reason rationally.
Threats	Reminds of power over victim's workload, promotional opportunities, and acceptance in the hierarchy of the company. Warns with stories of the demise of predecessors who did not reach the acceptable standard.	Complies with demands to escape retribution. Displays anxiety about every action performed. Despairs of any change in the situation. Shows symptoms of depression.
Occasional indulgences	Praises victim's work in a public forum.	Believes they have finally reached the accepted standard and pattern of abuse will stop. Doubts that the abuse really happened because everything seems all right for the moment. Becomes reliant on the abuser for further praise.
Demonstrating 'omnipotence'	Demonstrates: Complete control over the victim who is taken for granted. 'Read my mind' expectations. Martyrdom for the company. Affects of being indispensable to the company. Claims victimization by those who challenge any behavior.	Accepts powerlessness. Accepts the pattern of behavior as normal.
Degradation	Perpetrates derogatory stories about the victim on work and personal topics.	Feels disgraced and humiliated. Loses all will to resist.
Enforcing trivial demands	Continues to remind victim through innuendo, suggestion, and stories that demands will be complied with.	Accepts habit of compliance.

Developed from Biderman's Chart of Coercion in Amnesty International (1975) Report on Torture, London, Gerald Duckworth & Co.

A Poem for Christmas [Patrick Kavanagh]

'Twas lovely to find this poem today from one of our poets, a poem simple, profound and heart felt like our people

Patrick Kavanagh poem - 'A Christmas Childhood' in Ireland

Patrick Kavanagh's poem for the ages

 

My father played the melodion

Outside at our gate;

There were stars in the morning east;

And they danced to his music.

Across the wild bogs his melodion called

To Lennons and Callans.

As I pulled on my trousers in a hurry

I knew some strange thing had happened.

Outside in the cow-house my mother

Made the music of milking;

The light of her stable-lamp was a star

And the frost of Bethlehem made it twinkle.

A water-hen screeched in the bog,

Mass-going feet

Crunched the wafer-ice on the pot-holes,

Somebody wistfully twisted the bellows wheel.

My child poet picked out the letters

On the grey stone,

In silver the wonder of a Christmas townland,

The winking glitter of a frosty dawn.

Cassiopeia was over

Cassidy's hanging hill,

I looked and three whin bushes rode across

The horizon - the Three Wise Kings.

An old man passing said:

"Can't he make it talk" -

The melodion, I hid in the doorway

And tightened the belt of my box-pleated coat.

I nicked six nicks on the door-post

With my penknife's big blade -

There was a little one for cutting tobacco.

And I was six Christmases of age.

My father played the melodion,

My mother milked the cows,

And I had a prayer like a white rose pinned

On the Virgin Mary's blouse.

"We wanna wish you a Merry Christmas"

It took us some time to prepare for our Christmas Greeting, hours of dancing and singing lessons, voice and language trainers in English and Spanish. "Ireland and Guatemala have talent"

Aura' Birthday 2011 - JohnPaul Lennon - Picasa Web Albums

Aura' Birthday 2011 - JohnPaul Lennon - Picasa Web Albums:

'via Blog this'

Aura Lamboglia-Lennon, with her son, Eduardo and his wife, Cristy, their two children, Bianca and Lauren, and her other son, Leo with wife, Winie at the Italian restaurant in Shirlington, Arlington, VA