Okay, we admit it: We need to get a life. Recently we Googled our own names to see who might share them around the nation and the world. While we found far too many to count with a name as common as Susan Andrews, far fewer people share the name John Creed. It turns out that a well-known Irish writer named Eoin McNamee uses John Creed as a pen name—to write thriller novels! But we also came across a "real" John Creed in the Republic of Ireland. This John Creed owns and operates his own civil engineering firm, aptly named John Creed & Associates.
We live in Kotzebue, located 26 miles above the Arctic Circle in Northwest Alaska. The Alaska Creeds are not related to this John Creed in Ireland. Nevertheless, the two families can point to a few things in common. For example, both families are raising four children who are about the same age. In addition, Alaskan John Creed's maternal grandparents were born and raised in one of Ireland's poorest counties before emigrating to the United States in the early part of the last century.
Alaskan John Creed also studied Irish literature and history at University College Dublin in the mid-1970s, when Ireland was historically still one of Western Europe's poorest countries, forcing generation after generation to leave Ireland for a better life in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and other places around the world. (Today at least 35 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, including many Alaskans.)
In an extraordinary turnaround just in the past 10 to 15 years, today Ireland is ranked among Europe's and the world's wealthiest nations. In 2005 Economist magazine ranked the Republic of Ireland the world's best place to live, based on a string of quality-of-life factors including health, freedom, and stability in community and family life.
The Creed children in Ireland and Alaska probably won't meet anytime soon. But what if two of them got married some day? Two fathers-in-law with the same name? One positive? At least the girls on either side wouldn't have to change their last name!
After a brief e-mail correspondence with our new Irish friend John Creed, we asked if he'd like to participate in an interview for an Alaska-based online magazine. We thought Alaskans might be interested in a European's perspective on Alaska and the United States, including the current presidential election.
Describe your occupation, educational background, family, age, and so forth.
I was born in 1962 and was brought up in Carlow, a small town in southern Ireland with a population of about 15,000. I left home to attend University College Cork, where I graduated with a civil engineering degree in 1984. Following that, I worked in Ireland for a few years before emigrating to Great Britain, where I worked for several years before returning to Wexford in 1993, a city on the southern coast of Ireland, where I set up my own consultancy firm, John Creed & Associates.
County Wexford has at least three interesting American connections. It is the birthplace of one Commandant John Barry, founder of the U.S. Navy; it is the location of the Kennedy Homestead, where the ancestors of John Fitzgerald Kennedy hailed from; also, the first 30 minutes or so of Steven Spielberg's movie, "Saving Private Ryan," was shot on the beaches just outside the town of Wexford.
During my time in the United Kingdom, I met my wife, Caron, who is English. We have four children ranging in age from 16 down to 9.
I have worked on all sorts of construction projects ranging from extensions to domestic houses up to large projects such as the Channel Tunnel that links the UK and France.
European nations have unified as an economic powerhouse in recent decades, even before the creation in 1993 of the European Union with its 27 member states and almost 500 million citizens. Do you and fellow Irish consider yourselves primarily Irish or primarily European?
That's a good question and certainly a hot topic in Ireland at the moment. I suppose most people, including myself, would consider ourselves Irish first and European second. However, with the use of the Euro (standardized European currency) throughout most of Western Europe including Ireland, with increased travel and interest in languages, I think people in Ireland are increasingly identifying themselves as European.
How do you perceive the Europe's regard for the United States post 9/11?
After 9/11 there was great sympathy and identification with Americans. Ireland called for a national day of mourning, and schools and shops closed. I think Ireland was unique in this regard in Europe, but given the strong links between Ireland and the United States, it had wide support.
Americans may not be aware, but Ireland has exported people through emigration for centuries, and many Irish people have relatives in the United States. Indeed, I have a sister in Washington DC and first cousins on both the East and West coasts.
When you were growing up, how in general do you think the average Irish citizen regarded the United States? Describe any perceived change in attitude over the decades.
When I was young everyone was pro-American; we watched the cowboy and World War II films. I think every boy secretly wanted to be American. Our parents would have been very conservative Catholics at the time, and their generation perceived the US as defenders of our fellow oppressed Catholics in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary and thus anything the US did was good.
The Kennedy factor also was very powerful; the Kennedy Clan emigrated from Wexford and John F. Kennedy gave eloquent speeches in Wexford and New Ross towns in 1961.
However, for many of my generation, we first became aware of another side of U.S. foreign policy: the support of the military dictatorships in Central America and the dirty wars in which the death squads massacred thousands of poor peasants. In particular, I remember the early 1980s when two American nuns who had attended my university briefly the previous year were raped and murdered by the death squads in El Salvador. This was alluded to in Oliver Stone's 'Salvador'. This disgusted many Irish people, and pickets by citizens and clergy on the American embassy became commonplace. I think this was during the Reagan presidency.
However, the Clintons were very popular over here, and people liked Bill Clinton's apparent affable manner. Many Irish people felt that the U.S. under the Clinton administration assisted in the creation of a "peace process" in the north of our country.
Personally, I found the American hostility to Clinton due to his reported peccadilloes rather bizarre; this would not have been an issue even in a relatively conservative country such as Ireland. Indeed, I have heard it said that it is normal in France for the top officials to have mistresses!
How do you perceive Ireland's and Europe's view of the current American president, George W. Bush? Has the Bush administration hurt or helped American foreign policy?
I would say that Bush and his administration are unpopular over here. I think that Europeans' traditional respect for the USA's role of "protector of the free world" has been severely tarnished. The invasion of Iraq, the subsequent deaths of very large numbers of Iraqi citizens, the torture in Abu Ghraib the "extraordinary renditions" of people to other countries for the purpose of torture, and so forth. How can anyone have respect for that?
Would you say the average Irishman or European backed the United States and George W. Bush and Great Britain and Tony Blair during the run-up to the Iraq invasion in 2003?
No! I don't think anyone had any issue with the initial invasion of Afghanistan, as it seemed that the Taliban were sheltering those involved or responsible for the 9/11 attacks. However, there was widespread discontent at the proposed war in Iraq; even in countries that contributed troops, such as Spain, the UK and Italy, there has been widespread opposition. Anti-war marches attracted hundreds of thousands of people in London.
What would you say is the general perception of Barack Obama and John McCain in Ireland and the rest of Europe?
As far as I can see, the perception of Barack Obama is positive in Ireland and in the rest of Europe: he has really caught the public's imagination over here. However, he hasn't wheeled out his Irish roots yet!
I can't say I know a lot about John McCain other than he is also from President Bush's Republican Party. As far as I am aware, he's pro-war and I think there was some reference to him wanted to bomb Iran.
Just after the attack on the United States on 9/11, Americans received support from Europe and around the world. Does Ireland view the United States differently today? Why or why not?
I think we were quite shocked at the 9/11 attack and the subsequent bombings in Madrid and in London. People were very supportive of the US. However, as I said, there was little support for the Iraq war. People knew that the then-Iraqi regime, although quite unpleasant people, had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack. I could never see the point in the US attacking a secular nationalist Arab regime, which was in effect a bulwark against the fundamentalists.
How does Ireland view Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate? Which websites (including newspapers, tv, etc.) and blogs, if any, have you visited on the Internet to learn more about Gov. Palin?
We have little knowledge of your governor, but our TV channels have broadcast clips of your debates in the US. I watched one in particular – I've managed to dig out a link to it on the YouTube website.
I felt sorry for the lady; she seemed well out of her depth.
What difference does it make to Europeans who becomes the next president of the United States? For whom do you think are most Irish and Europeans rooting for on Election Day? Why?
I suppose in reality it makes little or no difference to most Europeans in our daily lives but a continuation of US (and UK) destructive policies will ferment ongoing unrest among the Muslim population in other European countries, for example, Britain.
I think the vast majority of Europeans are anti-war and thus supportive of Barack Obama.
In July Barack Obama drew a crowd of 200,000 people for a speech in Berlin. Ironically, his popularity abroad in some ways made him "suspect" among some Americans. How does this hit you as a European, and why do you think Obama is so popular in the international community?
I don't understand why Americans would find a prospective president being popular in Europe "suspect." I would rather have thought having a president that is popular among America's allies would be a positive thing.
Obama's popularity is in my opinion due to the fact that he appears to have a positive message, unlike the continuous negativity and aggression that has emanated from the US government over the last number of years. Also, his persona comes across as calm and moderate, which is I suppose what we are attracted to.
How do Irish citizens stay connected to international events? How would you say they receive information about the American election? Has the Internet changed things?
Most people rely on the local mostly public service TV and radio stations, plus the UK stations (BBC, ITV, etc). However, with most educated people having access to the Internet, many use online newspapers or websites.
Personally, I find the London Independent's website to be good. Our own Irish Times is OK also.
Also, the Internet gives access to alternative voices. Much of the media in Europe and particularly in the UK is under the dominance of large corporations, which will not rock the boat and present "mainstream" views.
What is Ireland's general perception of Alaska would you say?
Sorry! I'm afraid we have little knowledge of Alaska. I have never heard of anyone emigrating there! Maybe it's too cold!
Does Ireland and Europe follow any Alaska events, such as the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and the Yukon Quest, the 1,000-mile international sled-dog race between Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory?
Sounds like exciting stuff but alas, our TV channels don't cover these events. As it rarely snows over here, dog sledding hasn't caught on.
Susan B. Andrews and John Creed are journalism/humanities professors at Chukchi College, a University of Alaska branch campus in Kotzebue.