Extension magazine - Spring 2023

Extension | Spring 2023 17
INSPIRE Features of faith
CONGOLESE REFUGEES IN KENTUCKY 24 | NEWLY ORDAINED BURMESE PRIEST 28 UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS RECEIVE CHILDREN ESCAPING WAR 32
THE LOST LAND
At night,
on the edge of sleep,
I can see the shore of Dublin Bay.
Its rocky sweep and its granite pier.
Is this, I say
how they must have seen it,
backing out on the mailboat at twilight,
shadows falling
on everything they had to leave?
And would love forever?
And then
I imagine myself
at the landward rail of that boat
searching for the last sight of a hand.
I see myself
on the underworld side of that water,
the darkness coming in fast, saying
all the names I know for a lost land:
Ireland. Absence. Daughter.
Excerpt of “The Lost Land” by Eavan Boland
“Emigrants Leave Ireland”
by Henry Doyle,
illustrated in 1868, depicts
the pain of separation as
millions of Irish families left
their homeland.
St.
Patrick’s
spirit
in America
I
A patron to many peoples
N “THE LOST LAND,” IRISH POET Eavan Boland
writes about the pain of leaving one’s homeland.
The Irish people are intimately familiar
with this pain. 4.5 million people left Ireland
between 1820 and 1930. 1.5 million left during
the 10 years following the Great Potato Famine.
But they are not the only ones who grieve
over their lost land. In fact, it is an experience
that more than 60 million emigrants across
the globe share today. Our stories on pages 24
to 34 reveal the modern-day fears and hopes
of Ukrainian, Congolese and Burmese families
who have fled their homes to find safety and
opportunity in the United States. In their parishes,
which are supported by Catholic Extension,
they have found relief and community.