The idea was simple — just knock on doors and rattle the cages of the lawmakers on Capitol Hill. GEORGINA BRENNAN took one group around the halls of Congress.

IN Gaelic Park at a New York GAA fundraiser for ILIR on Sunday, March 5, hero NYPD Detective Steven McDonald urged the Irish to go to Washington to rattle some cages.

The anticipation of that feverish kind of fight was at an all-time high as buses packed to capacity with Irish people pulled into the lot of the Holiday Inn in Washington last Wednesday.

By 9:30 a.m. New York Bus 8 was raring to go. After a mini-rally on the bus, the 54 Irish people who climbed down onto the street could hardly be contained.

“What do we do now?” asked Dwayne Lacey. “We go to have our pictures taken,” was the answer.

And Bus 8 joined all the other weary ILIR travelers from all over the U.S. as they marched up to a park in front of Capitol Hill. The picture spoke a thousand words, and most of them were heard in shouts and laughs as the 3,000 ILIR lobby group members waited for more instructions.

“Keep it simple, let’s do it like a school tour,” shouted the organizers through a loudspeaker, about how to lobby the politicians on Capitol Hill.

Each group was instructed to assemble in a line under their team leader. “You’re missing people,” said Colm Corr. “Give me their names and I will ring them,” he added.

Others popped their cell phones to help too. Soon it was discovered that Susan Gardiner and Margaret Fox had been co-opted onto the committee to fill folders for the lobbying effort.

Wexford natives Myles O’Connor and Micheal Briel were also compiling folders, but Adam Walsh was quick to tell them to come back to their bus. “This is your bus calling,” said Dennis O’Leary to one missing person.

“That was his girlfriend, she is at home, he gave you his girlfriend’s number,” he reported.

By the time the orders were given for Bus 8 to blanket the halls of the fourth floor of the Longworth House building, there were eight missing team members and threats of mutiny. All was not lost, though, when a last minute bright idea struck. Divide to conquer.

Sean Mackin and Sean Downes, prominent Irish American activists for years, were dispatched to Congressman Peter King to change his mind on the immigration issue.

Dennis O’Leary and Padraig Fagan volunteered to race back to the hotel to pick up the printout sheets of a map of Irish Americans to be given to the politicians. A late printing meant many groups went without leaflets to Congress and when asked for some literature, removed their t-shirts.

“The Irish are nothing if not fast on their feet,” said David Broderick.

Fast was not the only thing they were. “You guys are everywhere,” said Pennsylvania’s Armstrong County Commissioner James Scahill who asked for a t-shirt and rattled off his Irish connection.

“I support you guys and you are doing a fantastic job here today, you are certainly rattling the cages,” he said to a contingent on their way to start lobbying.

There were long lines to get into some buildings and in some cases the map was misleading. But Washington was not steering the Irish wrong. “Are you guys lost?” asked one man out for a stroll in the blue-sky day.

Once inside the building a strategy had to be applied. Time had escaped the group and there was a lot of work to be done in a short time. So the group of 40 or so was split into five small groups and fanned out along the floor.

“I’m here to legalize the Irish,” said Brenda Casey to Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva’s assistant, Laurie Felder.

“Why did you do something illegal? Are you illegal?” Felder asked. So Casey explained what ILIR is looking for.

Further down the hall, Una Fee and her three children were busy wishing Congressman Henry Cueller of Texas a Happy St. Patrick’s Day. He wasn’t supportive of immigration reform but his staff thought the Fee children were gorgeous.

“I’m surprised more people didn’t bring their children with them,” said Una. “It’s great to see families out here fighting for this.”

Ronan and Eileen Blee reported that many of their Congress members had been busy when they dropped by. So the teams doubled back. Instead of hitting a member’s office once, team New York 8 hit them three times.

“First they were busy, then they were in a meeting, then they got nervous and talked to us,” reported Chris Stynes.

In Minnesota Congressman John Klien’s office, Kelly Dolan Lange was only too happy to see Irish t-shirts coming through the door. “The congressman is for a guest worker program, but we must protect our borders,” Lange told the lobby group.

In a room down the hall, that of Alabama Congressman Robert Aderholt, one undocumented man asked a group of other lobbyists where the congressman stood on immigration. So an assistant whirled them out of the room explaining that the congressman was in a meeting, but could they call back another time?

Congressman Ron Kind of Wisconsin, who at first was too busy to meet any Irish lobbyist, later reported to the last ILIR group to meet him that he was supportive of a guest worker program and was off to play golf.

All around the Capitol buildings the lobby message could be heard. “The undocumented aren’t looking for special treatment, just the same treatment as other Americans, the same protections under the law,” said Lynn Von Hagen.

“The young Irish people only want to come here to work,” said Sister Christine Hennessy from the Catholic Charities and the Aisling Irish Center.

“It’s a terrible shame that this has happened to the young people, and I as a member of the Gaelic Athletic Association see that hardship first hand,” said New York GAA Chairman Seamus Dooley, who managed to meet a relative in one of the Senate offices. A third cousin twice removed.

Overall the mood was one of achievement. “If they didn’t know we were here before, they sure know we are now,” said Lisa Mulligan.

Other groups reported similar experiences. “We heard a lot of congressmen and senators were busy and in one case we got to sit down with an immigration aide to one senator who said they were anti-immigrant but pro-Irish,” reported one lobbyist. “They wanted to know where we had been all these years.”

ILIR President Grant Lally reported that he had been getting call after call after call from politicians remarking how impressed they were with the Irish in Washington. “They conducted themselves so well, so professionally and so courteously that everyone has used the same word, impressive, to describe the Irish,” said Lally.

Outside South Carolina Republican Senator DeMint’s office, one group asked for his support. “You are a good example of the folks we’d like to have work here but America’s security has got to come first,” he said.

“I want to raise my children in a secure country, but I want to be able to stay here to do it,” piped one member of the group.

Tony Doyle, from Dublin traveled from Pearl River to Washington on board the Rockland bus. Doyle said his group blanketed Congress.

“We asked them what the situation on the new reform bill was, and they were very, very favorable toward it. What we got out of it was, we brought the plight of the illegal immigrants up and it’s being addressed at the highest level,” he said.

For Sharon, an undocumented bartender from Queens, the day was the best in her life.

“I feel like I made a difference, like I was part of something that could change so many lives,” she said.

“Before this everyone said we should go home. But sending us home now after 11 years would be like sending us to Iraq. Ireland has completely changed since I left. My children live here and only know America.

“When I left Ireland I had nothing but I have everything here. People think Ireland is great, and it is, but America is home. I’m glad I got to tell some important people that.”