Some had escaped harrowing wars or genital mutilation. But officials grew skeptical of their claims as their numbers surged to about 12,000 in 2002 from a trickle a decade before.

The latest census showed more than 63,000 Poles living permanently in Ireland, up from slightly more than 2,000 four years earlier...Ireland permits all residents, not just Irish citizens, to cast ballots in local elections.

BY ERIN GOLDEN, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Abdul-Malik is not a typical Irish Gaelic speaker. He isn't elderly, rosy-cheeked, or particularly fond of wool sweaters, and his Muslim faith prohibits him from stopping at the pub for a pint of Guinness.

But for the past several weeks, the 32-year-old man has spent Saturday afternoons inside a classroom on Chicago's Northwest Side, repeating seemingly nonsensical words and navigating the sometimes confusing grammatical structure of the Irish language.

And he isn't alone. The language that many think is dead -- or alive, but an ocean away in the sheep-dotted hills of rural Ireland -- is thriving, especially in Chicago.

BY MEG SHREVE, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
Tom was a young man when he left Dublin in 1952.

After growing up in a small tenement in Dublin, London offered a chance for work. Decades later after living and working as a lorry driver in London Tom returned to the country of his birth with the help of an Irish organization devoted to bring elderly Irish back home.

"It's the best thing that's ever happened to me," he said of his return home.