Why Irish Emigrants Find It Hard to Go Home

Re: "The Lights Can Be Turned Back On For Emigrants" (Irish Times, Opinion, January 3rd, 2012). I'm glad to see Paul Bradfield's request that the government act to ensure that emigrants can return to Ireland, but would like to point out several new difficulties for returning emigrants. Many of us emigrated in early adulthood and found spouses in foreign lands. Now that both the Irish Constitution and immigration law have been changed, our spouses no longer automatically qualify for Irish citizenship, meaning that they cannot seek employment in Ireland until registered there. That in turn means that returning emigrants must support their spouses until they are registered and can seek work, which could well take a year or more. It's already almost impossible to support a family on a single income.

To add to the returning emigrants' woes, should they be returning with children of college age, they will find that their children do not qualify for free or reduced fees, even if they are Irish citizens, and the family has only been out of the country for three years. This will make them responsible for annual fees, per student, of anywhere between €12000 and €31000.

Given obstacles such as these, I rather think emigrants will prefer to stay abroad.

Stuttering in the Classroom / Stadaireacht sa Seomra Ranga

Having had a debilitating stutter right into my twenties, I identify with Philip Garber, the stuttering teenager who was asked to modify his classroom behavior at a community college. A bright student, I was frequently angry at teachers for not calling on me, or for moving on to other students as soon as I began to stutter. I consequently spent half my school days with my hand in the air, daring my teachers to ignore me. Speech therapy helped greatly, however, and I am now a university professor with a full teaching load (linguistics!).

Several years ago I had a student with a stutter equally as bad as mine had been. Despite his stutter, this student nevertheless wished to answer every question I posed the class and often interrupted other students. His answers were long, excruciating, and often unintelligible. More than most, I could sympathize, having been in the same position myself. His constant desire to participate in the class, however, severely affected my ability to teach, and I considered sending him an email similar to the one Elizabeth Snyder, the community college professor, sent Mr. Garber. I was literally seconds away from sending it when I was reminded of the irreversibility of email. I deleted the email and, several days later, took the student aside after class for a discussion.

But for my decision that day, I could now be in Elizabeth Snyder's position. She wanted to make her classes more bearable for everybody (Mr. Garber included) and thought that her suggestions would help. Instead she ended up being vilified on the front page of a national newspaper.

Stuttering is horrible for everybody, both speaker and listener alike. Nobody wants to hurt stutterers further, and Ms. Snyder certainly had only the best intentions when she sent her email.