Irish President Mary McAleese launched New York's first helpline for Irish seniors last Thursday at the Irish Consulate in New York.

Speaking to an audience of Irish immigrants via a live video link from Galway, where she was attending the 10th anniversary of the Galway Senior Helpline, McAleese told the U.S. audience that the groundbreaking success of the first Irish helpline meant that New York's new version was certain to become a hit, too.

The first senior helpline was launched in Ireland in February 1998, providing opportunities for older people to talk to someone of their own age group for the price of a local call from anywhere in Ireland. Callers can talk to peer volunteers, and all their calls are taken in the strictest confidence.

"A good idea will always catch on," McAleese told the dual gatherings in Galway and New York. "This is a system entirely run by volunteers, it's senior citizens talking to senior citizens. The point is to help them, to draw them in from the isolation that can happen to them, drawing them back to the community. This idea is one of our best exports to the United States."

Like the Irish original the New York helpline, which is staffed by volunteers from the Aisling Irish Community Center and the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, will also be charged at the price of a local call and will feature a sympathetic listener willing to lend an ear to the common fears and worries of everyday life, or just to have a chat about life in general.

Added McAleese, "When life changes, when our children grow up and move on, there are new issues and new challenges to face. That's why this service is so important. We want to live in a community that cares about our well being at every age. This helpline is a powerful way to ensure that the lines of communication are always open."

Irish seniors who call the new service will know there is always someone at the other end of the line who cares and who has the time to listen. The helpline's volunteer staff, as seniors themselves, will provide a voice on the other end that's been enriched by their own life experience, and that will respond with sensitivity and caring to the issues that are raised.

Irish Consul General Niall Burgess told the dual New York and Galway audiences, "We want to empower the older generation of immigrants to work as a resource to address issues such as loneliness and isolation in the community, and reach beyond the existing catchment areas of the main centers to identify and begin addressing needs in the wider Irish community."

The U.S. branch of the Irish service came about after senior helpline founder Mary Nally visited the Aisling Center in Yonkers. In December a group of senior helpline volunteers will travel from Ireland to New York to assist with training new volunteers to take calls from Irish emigrants who are lonely or want to talk to someone.

One of the new volunteers, Cork-born Eileen Moran, addressed the Galway gathering from New York.

"There are eight million people in New York. We think that nobody would be lonely but they are," she said.

She said she attends the Aisling Center twice a week for tea and a chat and found it to be an important community lifeline.

"It's great, but we are aware there are so many people who are homebound and can't make it. So the idea of a helpline for them would be tremendous."