There are many who do not understand us Irish-Americans for we are, in a sense, unfullfilled because the land of our ancestors is still suffering and struggling for it's freedom and unity. To those who ask me who I am, I say:

I AM OF IRISH AMERICA

I am of Irish America I am a child of immigrants I am of a people who for over eight hundred years Have bent a knee to no king but the King of Heaven And bowed a head to no queen but the Queen of Heaven.

I am of a dispersed people sent In slavery to Barbados In chains to Australia and In famine to America

I am of a people who tore themselves from Their father's trembling arms, Kissed their tearstained mother's face good-bye and Traveled all over the world To keep a roof over beloved heads And food on the hungry table.

I am of an empire upon which no sun can set, for Wherever you go in this whole wide world, Wherever a House of God has risen, Wherever a house of learning founded Or a tree of liberty planted by loving hands And watered by the tears of an Irish exile, There you will find the Irish empire.

I thank God for the blood of my Fathers.

I thank God for the land of my Birth.

I pray that God will save Ireland.

I pray that God will continue to Bless America

Mary Holt Moore