NEW YORK—They call it the “luck of the Irish,” but Maurice Landers says it takes more than luck to get a job as a new Irish immigrant in New York City.
“They say you get lucky, but you make your own luck too,” said Landers.
He is a co-founder of Failte 32, an initiative that helps Irish immigrants with visas connect to Irish businesses and associations in the city. It started in May 2010 at O'Casey’s restaurant and pub on 41st Street between Fifth and Madison avenues, which is owned by another co-founder of Failte 32, Paul Hurley.
“We were trying to formalize the up to then informal type of networking through the bars,” said Landers. “For the Irishmen that came over in the old days, the first port of call was the bar, because that’s where you met your people and you socialized, and you got referrals for jobs,” he said.
Hurley read the story of a young woman whose grace period on her visa expired before she could find a job and who had returned to Ireland dejected. Hurley, Landers, and Paddy McCarthy of the Irish Examiner newspaper, who is the third co-founder, all felt sure the young lady would have easily found a job had she connected with the right Irish organizations.
“We’re quite tribal sometimes when it comes to the organizations we set up,” said Landers. Some of them are 150 years old or more. “Had she linked in with the organizations, we’re confident that she would have found work because we would have helped our own,” he said.
The organization came full circle a few weeks ago when it was able to help a young woman named Louise find a job just days before her grace period was to expire.
Louise was motivated and certainly made her own luck, said Landers.
