Conference tallis::celt

114.0. "Peggy O." by TALLIS::DARCY (George @Littleton Mass USA) Wed Dec 31 1986 13:58

Associated Press Wed 31-DEC-1986 12:13                       Ambassador Peggy

   For U.S. Ambassador, Dublin Is a Journey Through the Past
Eds: Also moved in advance as b0318
An AP Extra
With LaserPhoto
                           By MARCUS ELIASON
                        Associated Press Writer
   DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - Before leaving Washington for her new job
as U.S. ambassador to Ireland, Margaret Heckler remembered her late
mother once asking her, ``What have you done for Ireland today,
Peggy?''
   ``I've finally got a reply to my mother,'' she said then, ``and
I'm calling to her across the grave: `Mother, I'm going home to
Ireland and I'm bringing America with me.'''
   Margaret Heckler, the daughter of Irish parents, rose to Cabinet
rank in the Reagan administration, but her 11 months as ambassador
in Dublin have been a journey into the past.
   She is discovering cousins and letting nuances of Irish speech
creep into her American accent.
   She was reluctant at first to take the job, offered in an aura
of controversy. She felt she was being moved out as President
Associated Press Wed 31-DEC-1986 12:13              Ambassador Peggy (cont'd)

Reagan's secretary for health and human services because of her
liberal Republican views.
   But after talking to Reagan, Mrs. Heckler said, she happily
accepted.
   To the Irish, it was the classic story of the poor Irish
emigrants whose child made good in America and came back in style.
Swarms of relatives showed up at Shannon Airport, transforming a
formal diplomatic event into a warm, emotional homecoming.
   Ireland, she said in an interview, does odd things to her
identity.
   In the United States she always felt profoundly Irish. Here she
feels much more American. At home, she pronounced her maiden name
``O'SHAH-nessy.'' Now she gives it the proper Irish treatment -
``O'SHOCK-nessy.''
   ``For the first month, as I drove through the streets of Dublin,
I was continuously aware of my parents, that this is their
country,'' she said. ``I so wished they could have been with me,
especially my father, because he would have been a very good
adviser on this new situation. And he would have enjoyed it so
much, and my mother as well. They're very much in my mind.''
Associated Press Wed 31-DEC-1986 12:13              Ambassador Peggy (cont'd)

   Her parents emigrated from the Limerick area to Flushing in the
New York City borough of Queens. Margaret Marie O'Shaughnessy was
born there in 1931.
   When she was 9 the family returned to Ireland and she spent a
year in the western Irish countryside of County Leitrim. Then the
family went back to the United States.
   She became a lawyer, married John Heckler, had three children,
and in 1966 was elected to the House of Representatives from
Massachusetts, holding her seat for 16 years. The Hecklers divorced
in 1985 and their three children are grown. Mrs. Heckler lives
alone in Dublin.
   Aside from her ambassadorial duties, she has found time to
discover her Irish relatives. They telephone her office or write,
and usually receive a dinner invitation.
   One night she was expecting Michael Noonan, an Irish Cabinet
minister, for dinner. But the Noonan who turned up was not that
Noonan. He was an opposition politician - and a cousin.
   ``We're a long-tailed clan,'' she said. ``The O'Shaughnessys,
the Sheehys, the McKeowns - they're large.''
   One of her contributions to Dublin's social whirl has been the
Associated Press Wed 31-DEC-1986 12:13              Ambassador Peggy (cont'd)

Ballygowan spritzer - wine with sparkling Irish mineral water. ``It
serves my calorie-cutting needs as well as my alcohol-reduction
needs.''
   Although an anti-Reagan streak runs through the Dublin press and
intelligentsia, especially after the Libyan bombing raid, she finds
the average Irishman instinctively sympathetic to things American.
   ``People here want to share Ireland with me, each in their own
special way,'' Mrs. Heckler said. ``There's always that special
dimension of caring.''
   Not so the exclusive Portmarnock Golf Club. She is the first
U.S. ambassador not to be invited to join the all-male preserve.
Local feminists are urging her to protest, but she says they'll
have to fight their own battles.
   The great pleasure she is looking forward to, she said, is
planting a tree in her parents' memory at the ambassador's
residence.
   ``It's in some way an opportunity for me to bring my parents
into my present life and it really means a lot to me.''

    I was wondering that if a Democrat is elected in the Fall of 1988,
    whether our own `Tip' will become the Ambassador!
    
    -mike