Top o' the morn

"Saturday noon, Dec. 9, and FairHaven was adapting from getting up and having breakfast, when the window back of my chair opened and We wish you a merry Christmas came complete with Irish holiday greetings from the Irish Wildlife Society and Vern Olsen's accordion.Despite the fact that no snow was on the ground, Santa and his reindeer were there; the story about Bethlehem and the little lord Jesus; Silent Night and all the other beautiful attributes to the greatest story ever told were sung. The doors at FairHaven opened and the chorus came in to continue the music and have coffee and homemade cookies - a fish on a plaque sang along with us. Even Big Mouth Billy Bass was jubilant.It was a morning to remember when a street sign - Ireland Street and Neil Place - were installed just outside our window. Erin Go Bragh! Even on Christmas.Amazing how St. Patrick took pre-eminence over St. Nickolas in the ould country. but when one considers the works done by Patrick over Northern Europe, Good St. Nick could hardly compare, even coming to Holland on a white horse and gifts for children.Ireland has been noted for its survival through wars, famine and oppression. But through it all the little country remains despite division.Coming to Oak Harbor in 1858 on a ship from Australia, a family of Irish lineage brought a Gaelic beginning to the Irish Settlement of those early days. They joined the Maylors and later R.P. Byrne and married into the community.The Irish never were a large enough community to dominate the town, but their perseverence lingers on. The Irish Wildlife Society promotes a St. Patrick's Day parade and the same three-leaved clover Patrick used to teach pagan Irish about the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.Sounds like a eulogy on immigration and immigrants? True. America is made up of people from far away countries fleeing persecution and famine just as they are today. In search of a new perspective, a new future in the land of the free, the home of the brave.May it always be so. Beginning with In God we trust, may those fleeing their homelands find peace and happiness in the USA. And may they become members of a band of a dozen Americans who sing accordion music and who make the Christmas holiday a reality!Merry Christmas to you all!Dorothy Neil "

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