Stephen Termini, a battered American tourist, claims that he will only leave Ireland if he is placed in handcuffs and tossed into an aeroplane, reports The Mirror.
Buffalo, New York native Termini, 58, finally received justice last week when the third of three teenagers who brutally attacked him just off Dublin’s Talbot Street and put him in a coma was given a 20-month term.
The seriously injured attack victim, who now goes by Stephen Wilson Donnelly and lives in Newport, County Mayo, says he no longer considers himself an American and is making “hoops” to convince the Irish government to let him reside here for the rest of his life, reports The Mirror.
“I don’t have the feeling in the US that I have here. This is my people, this is my country, you know this is a small little place in the world, but this is where I feel good about being. It’s safe, the people are nice. The United States- not so good,” he told us. “In the States now all they talk about is Trump and this and that. They’re so negative over there, reports The Mirror.
“I don’t know that man (Trump), he doesn’t know me, but with that being said he wouldn’t have my interests in heart. I know too much about what he is, who he is and how things work in the United States – and being a superpower you know, and the only country in the world that dropped nuclear weapons on people, I wouldn’t want to have my name associated with a land like that,” reports The Mirror.
Termini claims that, except from perhaps the 1960s and 1970s, he never felt American and that he now aspires to live and work anywhere in Ireland, including in someone’s shed if necessary.
“I never considered myself American. I never connected with the people there. I mean back in the 60s and the 70s with the music and that scene and when the love thing was happening – then yeah but not now. I just want to be where I feel the best and where the best place is,” he said, reports The Mirror.
Termini claims that he is running low on funds and that he wants to start living wherever he can here, even if it means being homeless, and to get a job here, preferably in fishing.
“I have very little money of my own. I’m in Newport and I’m trying to go through the hoops with the government to stay here now. I have family ties with Newport in Ireland. I don’t want to go back to the United States. I want to stay here and be just like everybody else,” he said. “I know you have to stay here long enough and show that you have connections. The only reason I’m alive is because my grandmother survived the famine and came over to the United States and that’s how I actually exist,” reports The Mirror.
Termini says he still has long-term health effects that will limit his ability to perform many jobs here, citing the horrific attack he endured on Store Street in July 2023, for which he forgives his young attackers.
“I know that I also have to do some kind of work but now that my spine has got metal in it after what them kids did to me, there’s a lot that I can’t do,” he said. “I’ve been assaulted so bad on the streets of Dublin that it’s changed my life physically but not mentally. I’m not afraid of Dublin, I’m not afraid of Ireland. It was a thing that happened you know? reports The Mirror.
“But now if the government in Ireland is helping all these immigrants who are running from their own land, they can help me. The very least amount they could do something to help me,” reports The Mirror.
Termini is legally permitted to remain in Ireland for ninety days before he may be deported against his will.
“If I know the rules, I’m willing to play the way they want me to,” Termini said. Asked if he had any intention then of returning to the United States if he had to he said: “Not unless they come after me and handcuff me and throw me in the plane no, reports The Mirror.
“If I have to live in a tent in the cold woods I’m willing to do that. I don’t want to go anywhere so if anybody could help me in some way that would be great. Anyone that has an old shed, all I need is a toilet, a shower and a bed and something to cook on. That’s it,” reports The Mirror.
Stating his hopes to work in fishing, Termini said: “I’d still like to do something. I’d like to work in the fishing industry somehow. Close by this area there’s a fishing farm where they have marine biologists that check the fish’s health and all those things. That would be interesting,” reports The Mirror.
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