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Here are some of an American in Dublin's first impressions of this maternal Irish phenomenon. It can either give you insight that'll help you navigate a relationship with a future Irish Mammy in your life, or perhaps remind you of someone you already know and love.
For the love of god, don't ever deny an Irish Mammy the pleasure of fixing you a cup of tea. You can say no as much as you like, but you'll likely end up with a piping hot, milky cup of Barry's in front of you in minutes anyway, so maybe try and save your breath. She loves her tea time. Sitting together for tea isn't just about the caffeine, of course - It's about spending relaxing quality time together, gabbing about this, that, and the other.
Read More: Ten things you'll hear an Irish mammy say
Fair warning to any ladies out there looking for her Irish Romeo: you will never come between an Irish Mammy and her son, and as mad as he may tell you his Mam is, he will always care what she thinks of you. Irish mothers are on par with America's "Jewish mothers" - perhaps even a level beyond. The doting Irish Mammy has nothing but love for her precious son, and will in many cases look after him in his adulthood as she did when he was a kid. She might pack him dinners, take his laundry, or ring to make sure his house is warm enough. But here's the tricky part: she will give out (complain) about her son all day long to you, but if you dare agree with her, she'll be quick to take his defense. Worse yet, if you wrong your Romeo or the relationship goes sour, she'll forget you were ever born.
Irish Mammies always know the right thing to say. You may enter her house feeling like your life is in shambles, but after a few cups of tea and a good, frank talking to, you'll leave feeling light as a feather, knowing that everything will be okay. They have a way of telling you that you'll be grand that makes you actually believe it, and their honesty is a gift. While they may love to give out or gossip, Irish Mammies are optimists. They believe there's nothing a bit of faith can't fix, and that whatever is meant to be shall be. Chin up!
Read More: Ten things my Irish Mammy taught me
Give an Irish Mammy her 9 o'clock news or her favorite chat show with a few biscuits (and tea), and she's happy out. Expect her to talk through most of it as well: you'll be highly entertained by her hilarious running commentary about what's on the telly, and realize that she deserves a chat show of her own.
Eat up! Under an Irish Mammy's roof, you will never come close to being hungry or cold. She will always insist that you take seconds and thirds of dinner, and you will. You'll eat until you can't anymore. The same goes for getting the shivers: if you so much as have one visible goosebump, the Irish Mammy will dress you in the thickest socks and sweaters she can find in the house. Sure, she'd take the sweater off of her own back if she could. Irish Mammies love to dote, and they dote the best. Beware: the Irish Mammy's strict side might actually come out if you try to be too polite, or if you try not to be a bother. Just let her dote on you!
Read More: The Irish public's favorite Irish Mammy sayings
Irish Mammies love their gossip, so make sure to come armed with a few funny or unbelievable stories about whomever. While she loves to learn and share tidbits about the people in her neighborhood or estate and their shocking little stories, she doesn't even have to know who you're talking about. While the Irish Mammy loves to talk, she also loves to listen, and she finds a thrill in saying, "Oh! She didn't!" So gab and gossip away.
Are there any other classic Irish mammy traits we missed? Let us know in the comment section.
"Famine, Friends, & Fenians," opening October 21, will explore New Bedford's role in Irish history from the 18th century through the 1916 Easter Rising.
According to a museum press release, the exhibition will look at New Bedford's charitable role during the Irish famine, and how the Quaker community supported efforts to relieve the plight of starving peasants in Ireland, and will go on to examine the role of Irishmen in the US Civil War.
The exhibit will also describe in detail the daring Catalpa rescue voyage, in which a group of 19th century Irish patriots were rescued from an Australian prison by the whaling ship Catalpa and Captain George Anthony, a New Bedford Quaker.
This relatively little known but profoundly important Irish rescue story would actually changed world history.
It began with a letter. In 1873 John Devoy, the famed Irish rebel leader and exile, received a smuggled communication in his New York office from the former Fenian James Wilson, who was imprisoned with other Irish political prisoners half a word away, in the dreaded Fremantle penal colony in Western Australia.
"What a death is staring us in the face," wrote Wilson, "the death of a felon in a British dungeon, and a grave amongst Britain's ruffians. I am not ashamed to speak the truth, that it is a disgrace to have us in prison today.
"A little money judiciously expended would release every man that is now in West Australia. Think that we have been nearly nine years in this living tomb since our first arrest, and that it is impossible for mind or body to withstand the continual strain that is upon us. One or the other must give way."
To underline this message Wilson added, "Remember this is a voice from the tomb. For is this not a living tomb? In the tomb it is only a man's body that is good for worms, but in this living tomb the canker worm of care enters the very soul."
Wilson's powerful words moved Devoy, and he immediately resolved to help him. As a journalist for The New York Herald and an active member in Clan na Gael, Devoy was singularly well placed to take action on Wilson's behalf.
At the very time Devoy received the secret letter the fight for Irish independence had reached a low point. But in reading Wilson's entreaty, Devoy realized that here was an unfettered cry from the heart, a cry that had the power to move all who heard it.
It was also, Devoy realized, a bracingly political speech which had the power to boost morale and to bring the fight for Irish independence back into focus.
In Ireland in the early 1860s James Wilson had joined the 5th Dragoon (British Army) Guards. But in secret he also became a Fenian, taking an oath to be obedient to his leaders, and to do his utmost to secure a democratic independent Irish Republic.
To that end he deserted with conspirator Martin Hogan in November 1865 after they had secretly enrolled many other Irish soldiers in the organization. But then, as so often in Irish history, local informers gave away the details of renewed Fenian activities to the British forces and Wilson was quickly arrested.
He was court-martialed in Dublin on February 10, 1866, where he was found guilty of mutinous conduct and received a sentence of death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment in Fremantle prison.
Joe Lee, professor of Irish Studies at New York University, puts it succinctly: "At that time to be sent to an Australian penal colony was the equivalent of being sent to the Moon. You were being banished to the other side of the planet, a world away from the life you had led and the people you had known."
It was, in a real sense, a kind of death in life. Wilson was placed on board the Hougomont bound for Fremantle with the other Fenian prisoners. When they arrived in Australia, on the advice of the Catholic chaplain, civilian Fenians were allowed to work together away from the other convicts, but a special contempt for British military deserters like Wilson was expressed by dispersing them among convicts, much to their disgust.
Years passed and by 1869 more than half the Fenian convicts were granted royal pardons, but not a single ex-British soldier was among them. The Duke of Cambridge, it was rumored, had prevented Prime Minister Gladstone from showing them a shred of clemency.
It soon became obvious to Wilson and the others who remained that they would never receive a pardon. The only choice was to serve out their terms, or escape.
For Wilson the choice was clear. He wrote his secret letter requesting help immediately.
Although it would take a year coming, help arrived in the shape of the Catalpa, an American whaling ship hired by Devoy from secret donations made by Irish independence organizations across the United States. Amazingly, informers did not foil the daring rescue plan and the ship reached Australia without mishap.
Fremantle was - and still is - an imposing prison. Situated in a hostile terrain, there was very little opportunity for escape because on one side there was hundreds of miles of inhospitable (and deadly) desert, and a shark-infested ocean on the other. The British guards weren't worried about people running away, assuming escape would be an impossibility.
The rescuers rowed to shore to collect the six waiting Irish convicts who had left their posts while working outside the secured area. Their Irish rescuers were waiting with wagons and weapons. But like all good rescue dramas, complications cloud their flight. When the freed prisoners began to row back to the Catalpa a sudden unexpected storm meant they could not reach the ship for another day, by which time the alarm had been raised and British police ships launched.
The British commandeered a gunboat called the Georgette, which they pulled alongside the Catalpa requesting that the prisoners be handed over. Captain Anthony, the ship's celebrated American captain, defiantly refused this request and raised the American flag, warning his pursuers that the Catalpa was in international waters and could not be boarded.
If they fired on the Catalpa they would be firing on the U.S. This parry enraged the Georgette's British captain, who conceded reluctantly.
Eventually the Georgette was forced to give up the chase, although all on board were convinced they had seen the missing men. Shortly after, as John Devoy predicted, the Catalpa rescue bolstered Irish morale across the globe and spurred the fight for Irish independence, which was finally won in 1922.
Devoy lived long enough to see that lifelong ambition realized and, half a century after being exiled himself, he returned to the country he had fought so hard to free.
"Famine, Friends and Fenians" opens on Oct. 21 and runs through September 2017.. The museum will host an opening reception on Oct. 21 at 6 pm. A symposium on Irish and Irish-American history will be held at the museum on Oct. 22, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit the New Bedford Whaling Musuem website.]]>
The memory of conflict -- all the sorrow, the fear and the fury -- is usually as indelible as a tattoo, a permanent pigmentation.
Ask the people of Aleppo or Baghdad, or just ask anyone from the North. We've all seen innocent men and women shot dead on their doorsteps. We've seen children who never harmed anyone blow up by dissident bombs.
You can't live through days like that and not be altered by them somehow. To go on you need what the psychologists call a guiding principle, a destination and a set of ethics to guide your footsteps when the darkness really falls. For many of us that guiding principle was always the United States.
In the darkest years of The Troubles we thought of America as a beacon, a place of sanctuary and sanity, a nation completely at odds with the carefully gerrymandered gulag that was Northern Ireland, a forward looking nation so different from our own faltering Republic.
I personally wanted to escape all the watchtowers and the hovering helicopters and the ominous checkpoints that all screamed war. In particular I wanted to escape the ubiquitous militarism, the macho gun waving culture of soldiers and policemen and the sectarian hoods that guarded one side as they menaced the other.
All of those men walked through the streets with a swagger that said we own them, we own the future and we own you. If you didn't like it, well, you knew what you could do.
The crown forces would pull you over on dark, deserted roads at night. They would appear whenever and wherever they liked without warning. One wrong word and it was back to the barracks or worse.
They liked to keep us on a tight leash. They liked to remind us who was boss.
For decades their avowed leader was a world-class blustering bigot, a bible quoting demagogue to end them all, one who disparaged not just our politics but also our religious faith, and he did so for four decades without ceasing. He never lit the match himself, but he inflamed all who heard him into fury.
When I finally arrived to study in America in the mid-1990s, I was grateful for the chance to create a new life for myself away from the shadows of that past, in a country that offered me the opportunities (and the dignity) that my homeland did not.
I felt genuinely free for the first time ever. Free of the guns and watchtowers, free of hardheaded bigots and their stranglehold on my future. I felt free to make myself up, free to pursue a future of my own making, free to be who I was on my own terms.
I lived in New York City through 9/11. In that time I have seen the militarism I escaped slowly creeping onto America's streets.
It started off simply enough with the helmets and shields appearing at Iraq war protests, but since then armored cars have appeared, hovering helicopters have taken reconnaissance, and a new aggressive style of policing has arrived with it (backed up by the enhanced surveillance techniques made possible by new technologies).
These changes from beat cop to robocop sometimes make officers feel more like an occupying force than paid public servants. In particular the so called stop and frisks, which are clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, give police greater power than a magistrate and take a step towards totalitarianism.
If the police can stop you because they don't like how you look then there is no such thing as a sovereign citizen. You can be searched at their discretion. They're the law and you're under them.
It's a technique of a police state in a supposed democracy. War conditions keep coming to America and we barely even notice. But frisking people on demand is un-American, and it's ineffective.
Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton has warned of a "war on cops" and Donald Trump has done likewise, but 2015 saw the second lowest number of murdered cops in decades. So we actually just need to build on that progress.
A militarized police force and a Donald Trump presidency would only make things worse, not better. Think very carefully about which America you want to live in.]]>
That's how belief in folk cures, spells and rituals has persisted from the old times through all the times that followed. Here's a list of ten cures that have never been known to fail.
The moment you start to feel the first gatherings of a powerful cold or flu, make an Irish hot whiskey and – if it doesn't cure you, you'll start to feel a great deal better immediately – so maybe that's it's secret, if you don't mind it won't matter. Many an Irish home swears on this recipe, which works especially well on devastating man flu's.
1 measure of Jameson's whiskey
1 scant tablespoon of sugar (honey can be substituted)
1 lemon
6 whole cloves
Method: Cut a slice of lemon and place six whole cloves into the circle. Place in a glass with a scant tablespoon of sugar. Add a good measure of Jameson's whiskey, then add the hot water and gently stir. Serve this to a poor unfortunate and watch them claw their way back toward life.
The Irish swear that the best cure for hiccups is to the afflicted person a terrific shock. Jumping out from behind a doorway or stealing up behind them and shouting loudly in their ear is sworn by, particularly in the north of the country, where it's said if the remedy doesn't always work it will still greatly improve the mood of the person who administers it.
If you work in an Irish hospital you'll notice that Lucozade bottles come second only to gaudy flower arrangements in terms of gifts to present to the convalescing. Though not exactly folk cures the Irish turn to these sugary drinks cures with the confidence usually reserved for holy relics.
A glucose based soft drink, Lucozade is a bit like drinking crack cocaine in it's liquid form. Your brain's neurotransmitters will light up like the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller center with the first sip, suggesting the Irish strongly believe in the power of placebos. Ginger milk (hot milk with a little powdered ginger) is also taken as a cure all drink to settle an upset stomach. But flat 7UP is authoritively sworn by from Malin to Mizen as a particularly powerful tummy settler.
I can hear you laughing. Yes, the Irish are fair skinned people but yes they have a remedy for freckles that is also said to work on age spots. Pick a handful of honeysuckle leaves in high summer (they are plentiful in Ireland) and soak the flowers and stems in water overnight. The next morning gently splash on the resulting mixture and just watch what happens.
The Irish know that not all ailments are physical. Sometimes they're emotional or spiritual or a bit of all three. When that happens you have to break out the big guns. Some swear by tubs of chocolate ice cream or other indulgences, but why get fat when you can get over him or her?
First of all, acknowledge the power of it. A broken heart is a kind of spell in itself, with the power to literally kill you, if it's experienced unchecked. It's in your own interest to fight back, even if you think you've no fight left.
To cure a broken heart write down a short prayer of intention, in it describe where you are and where you'd like to be (no looking for rebounds, mind you). After the sun goes down, sit in a quiet place and wait for silence. Ask your guardian angel (we all have them) to come and protect you. Light two simple votive candles. One represents your heartbreak and one represents your heart healing. Let them both burn side by side until they burn out. As they burn quietly say your prayer of intention. Just once is fine; it's your own prayer. When the candles eventually burn out, thank your guardian angel for protecting you then get up and get on with your life. You don't need to worry if the spell will work or not, since you have sent it out into the universe where it will be answered. Let the universe do its own work. Trust that it will.
Bluebells, that most common and magical of Irish flowers, are believed to call the fairies when they're rung. That meant they were sometimes regarded as an unlucky thing to bring into the house. But others turn to them as a first line defense against nightmares – place them in a vase in your bedroom.
The Irish swear that honey that's produced close to the place where you live – say within a 25-mile radius - has the power to cure your hay fever. Eat a spoonful a day to guard against the sniffles.
Though not strictly a cure, the desire for revenge on someone who has unjustly wronged you is a healthy emotion if it does not go on for too long. If you cannot receive justice then you may seek to settle accounts in a more traditional way, by putting an irreversible curse on the one who wronged you. But be warned, when we say irreversible we mean it, so reflect carefully on whether this is the path you really want to take, these spells have no known cure.
Say these spells to the person you want to curse and say these words. Each sentence will deliver a different curse.
- May the snails devour your corpse and the rains rot it. Worse, may the Devil sweep you away, you hairy creature.
- May the seven terriers of hell sit on your breast and bark at your soul.
- May the Devil swallow you sideways.
- May six horse-loads of graveyard clay fall on top of you.
- May the cats eat you.
If your kitchen is a magnet for small insects in the summer months the Irish cure is to go outside and find a small wooden block, which you should saw exactly in half. Call one block, Block A and other block, Block B. When a fly lands on Block A come smartly off it with Block B.
The Irish believe that nettle juice – yes, from the stinging plant – that's harvested on May Day will keep arthritis away. Nettles also make a terrific soup for people who are judged to be too pale or suffering from iron deficiencies.
If you can't find fresh nettles, have no fear: you can simply wear a ring that's made of iron on your ring finger and achieve the same result. Remember to wear rubber kitchen gloves when harvesting nettles; otherwise you'll have another folk cure to go in search of.
Musicians, including Phil Coulter and The Dubliners' John Sheahan, gathered together on Wednesday, September 28, alongside Labour TD Willie Penrose to demand the government introduce a 40 percent quota for Irish music on the airwaves, a bid to promote homegrown talent in lieu of foreign music makers.
Deputy Penrose plans to introduce legislation that will implement a compulsory 40 percent quota on the number of Irish artists a station must play, similar to quotas previously introduced in Canada, France and in South Africa, where they were used to encourage and promote their respective country's indigenous music scene. Penrose claims that there are 8,000 to 10,000 jobs depending on the implementation of such a quota.
Legendary Irish songwriter Phil Coulter was among the group that gathered to play in the session outside Leinster House, along with young singers Sibéal Ní Chasaide, the O'Neill sisters and popular Midlands group Ruaile Buaile.
Read more: Adolf Hitler loved Irish folk music
Coulter believes that the future of Irish music all depends on the support performers receive from the country's radio stations, claiming that many of the country's greatest talent wouldn't have found their way into the limelight if the were forced to deal with today's conditions.
"Put it this way - if I had written 'The Town I Loved So Well' last year, it would not have been played on radio," he told the Irish Independent.
"If Johnny Duhan had written 'The Voyage' last year, it would not have been played on radio. If Paul Brady had written 'The Island', it would not have been played on Irish radio.
"Irish radio today is not playing Irish music, full stop."
"For a whole new generation of talented kids in this country I despair of what's in store for them. Without support on radio the Irish music industry is already in decline and it's going to get worse unless there's some radio support", he said, adding that the amount Irish music played on some Dublin commercial stations can be currently as low as three percent because the 30 percent quota they set as a target for Irish music is going completely unpoliced.
Once the protest outside the gates had finished, the session continued inside Dáil chambers where Ruaile Buaile were joined by John Sheahan to play The Dubliners favorite "Dirty Old Town", while Penrose attempted to sell his project to fellow politicians.
"I don't know what the basis of it is," Sheahan said.
"I think some people at the top are ashamed of their own Irish culture. Why that is, I don't know."
Deputy Penrose has advocated for an Irish music quota for many years and claims that if steps aren't taken "there will be nothing left very soon".
Read more: The history and origins of traditional Irish music
The TD for Longford-Westmeath also believes that the current radio airplay doesn't accurately reflect the popularity of a number of artists across the country, especially the likes of country singer Nathan Carter. Although country music is often outcast to regional stations or to specific off-peak shows, the country music special broadcast by popular Irish TV program "The Late Late Show" last year attracted some of its highest ratings, with 1.3 million people tuning in at some point of the show.
According to figures taken from 2013, just two or three of the top 50 songs played on Irish radio that year were from Irish performers.
Do you think radio stations should give more air time to musicians from Ireland or should the decision on what music to play be based solely on more widespread popularity? What Irish bands would you like to hear on the airwaves?]]>
You can follow all our horrid horror stories of Halloween here
Halloween or Samhain falls between Oíche Shamhna (October 31) and Lá na Marbh (November 2). Oíche Shamhna is Halloween and Lá na Marbh, is the Day of the Dead, or All Souls Day, when those who have passed away are remembered. It marks the beginning of the "darker half" of the year as the winter approaches. It was the Irish who brought the jack-o-lantern and dressing up in costumes to the world and this month will be exploring the history and mythology behind the ancient Celtic holiday.
This October we'll also be taking a look at dark figures of the spooky season from Bram Stoker's Dracula, to banshees and a famous Irish ghost stories to the dark criminals and ne'er do wells such as Billy the Kid, Chicago May, and a mass serial killer Jane Toppan. By the end of the month we'll have you inspired to dress up as a figure from Irish history or at least quaking in your boots.
Of course Halloween as well as being a time for ghost and scares is also a time for parties, fun and games. Throughout the month we'll be filling you in on strange traditions from Halloweens of yesteryear as well as some traditional recipes for the season and some fun finger food for your celebrations.
This October if you're looks for scares, history, recipes and of course dark and haunting tales we've got you covered!
From all of us at IrishCentral…..BOO!]]>
Another linked happening is the presence over a growing number of chimneys of the dribbles and squiggles of smoke which reveal that families are lighting up their hearths again after the summer break.
Stand and sniff, though, and you will quickly and probably sadly enough realize that fewer and fewer of the hearth fires are burning turf like the old days, as I discussed in last week's column.
I have often been surprised at the number of returned Irish and Irish American visitors to these shores who quite literally rave about the aromatic impact on their spirits of genuine turf fires.
The glowing herbal cores of them touch some memory chordage for sure. My warning tidings, before I go any further, are that turf-fired hearths, either in homes or in public places like pubs and restaurants, are becoming harder and harder to find in today's Ireland and may disappear altogether inside the next decade.
Before that, however, I have to divert to tell ye all that the four MacConnell boys from Belnaleck on the shores of Lough Erne were the world's very first rock 'n' rollers because of the huge turf fires which always burned throughout our childhood, day and night. I can smell and even taste them yet.
It was not just then turf fires, however, which turned us into rock 'n' rollers back in the forties, but the presence close to the hearth of the great wooden rocking cradle where we all slept in our turn as babies.
And the fact that Sandy and Mary's home, our home, was what was called locally a ceili house with an unending stream of visitors. Most came initially to buy their daily needs in Sandy's little country shop attached to the gable. Others, though, came for the craic and the singing and, especially in later years, the music making.
Everyone who sat beside the cradle in our early years automatically rocked it as they chatted and drank their cups of tea. And when that visitor departed, the next person to occupy the fireside chair beside the hearth continued the rocking. It went on for hours every night of the week.
A consequence was that when Mary put us to bed we continued to rock and roll our small heads on the pillows. And that continued for all of us long after our cradle days, probably, thinking back, until we were eight or nine years old.
And we would usually sing ourselves to sleep too, believe it or not. It was that kind of special home.
Back to the turf in the hearth. We cut our own turf like about every other family in the parish. Because Sandy had arthritis he could not cut the bog in the Crocken area himself, so he would hire his friend Pee Flanagan to cut the turf for us from a rented bog bank and, later, after it had been clamped in small piles and saved and dried, ferried home to our shed by donkey and cart for the winter.
And that turf, I will have ye know, was called fum turf.
You see, there are many kinds of traditional turf. Our fum turf from the Crocken bog was very light and very brown and had dried white tendrils of grass and herbs clinging to every sod like whiskers.
It was great turf for reviving last night's fire, blazing up quickly, acting like kindling, but it was not much good for a sustained good warm fire on a cod night.
Accordingly, Sandy had to supplement it with a horse cartload of what was called stone turf from the next bog. This was heavy and black as coal and delivered almost as much heat.
It was called stone turf because it was cut from relatively shallow layers of turf atop limestone underlay. It was prized and rightly so. You will not find much of that special turf in the New Ireland.
A lovely spinster aunt called Lizzie raised my mother, who came from the home of a widow with a large family of girls. When Lizzie became old she came to live in our house, a gentle presence that we called Grannie Lizzie.
She told us stories very often early in the evenings when there were no visitors yet, or very few, and one of her best stories was about the fum turf that would be just beginning to flame up in the fire as we sat around listening.
When the flames flickered up around the sods of turf, the strands of dried grass and herbs would sometimes flare up quickly and whitely and very brightly indeed and send sparklers up the big chimney. Lizzie would then bless herself, tell us to do the same, and say that was an Irish fairy escaping towards paradise.
She related how the Irish fairies had retreated into the bogs when the English armies came to Ireland, and when the Irish lost the war they stayed hidden in a kind of coma in the Crocken bog. It took the heat of a good fire to enable them to escape.
"And where do they go Lizzie?" we would ask. And she would reply they went all the way up to paradise where there were no English soldiers at all.
There was a fireplace in her bedroom. A fire was burning there when she died at a big age, serenely slipping away.
I remember Sandy putting a few sods of turf on the fire to keep it alive when the neighbour's came to the wake, to kneel briefly in prayer at the bedside and say goodbye. The normal ritual.
Brother Sean and sister Maura were with me in the room when one of the sods flared brightly the way they did, and Sean said that was surely Lizzie flying away up to Heaven to join her fairies. I recall that clearly.
Both he and Maura and Sandy and Mary are up there with her now in another dimension so near yet so far away. I hope there is a hearth where they are. There is certainly a bit of craic going on as always.]]>
How happy are the Irish Repertory Theatre's well-known founders and co-directors Charlotte Moore and Ciaran O'Reilly this week? They're practically levitating.
"We just realized yesterday that we opened our first production here 21 years ago this past week," a beaming O'Reilly told the Irish Voice during last Saturday's official opening of the Rep's stunning renovated space at 132 West 22nd Street. "The opening night was September 21, 1995 and the play was Geraldine Aron's Same Old Moon. Let's just say that two decades later this is not the same Chelsea that we started in."
O'Reilly points across the street at a glass and steel condominium. "This building used to sell unmentionable items to very naughty people. Our own building used to sell industrial chemicals, but now it's the home of the Irish Repertory Theatre. There's been some changes."
It's a story that's over two decades in the making. The main renovations to the theater took two years to complete but the results speak for themselves. The Rep has nearly doubled the height of its performance space, widening the stage, adding 250 feet to the back stage area, increasing the audience capacity and creating a new 40 seat balcony that gives an unobstructed view of the stage. There's also office space, a new gallery and new rehearsal space.
The soft opening of the Rep's new season started in June with an acclaimed and sold out run of Conor McPherson's Shining City starring two time Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick, who is himself an ardent fan of the Rep. He was on hand during Saturday's party to cut the green ribbon, officially signaling the Rep's new start.
"I loved doing Shining City here," Broderick told the Irish Voice. "It was one of the highlights of my theater work as a matter of fact. I didn't know the play but when Ciaran sent it to me I loved it. Then he kept after me until I said okay. So all credit to Ciaran."
After a rave review in The New York Times that argued Broderick had gotten his mojo back from starring on the Rep's stage the production was an instant sell-out, a brilliant return to form for both the actor and the venue.
"I do come here. I come here a lot as a audience member," Broderick says. "I've had friends in plays here, I'm always coming to see somebody, and I've noticed over the years that it's consistently good. You almost never see a lemon which is in itself amazing."
There were many helping and generous hands that got the Rep to this new moment, co-founder Charlotte Moore told the crowd on Saturday.
"It would not have happened without the partnership of the city of New York. Mayor Bill de Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, and New York City Council and New York State officials were all instrumental in making it happen," she said.
Moore added that the theater also has tremendous advocates in the Irish government including the Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan, Irish Ambassador to the U.S. Anne Anderson and Consul General Barbara Jones.
"We knew 2016 was going to be a year for celebration –it's the centenary year of the 1916 Easter Rising – but for us at the Rep it's the year we returned home after a two year relocation," says O'Reilly.
Brewer was effusive in her praise of the new space. "Without the Irish community we have no culture, we have no humor, we have no poetry, we have no prose, we have no playwrights and we have no actors, we have nothing!" she said to wild applause.
Anderson was delighted to participate in the Rep's homecoming. "The Irish Rep adds richness to the cultural offerings of this great city, but the message I have today is that the Rep represents the very best of Irishness," she told the Irish Voice.
"It isn't just the plays they work with -- that's just the beginning of it. It's really about the heart and the spirit and the soul they bring to everything they do. It's about the passion and the creativity that lights up every production on that stage, and I've been to many of them."
It's also the grit and determination that O'Reilly and Moore have brought to theater for almost 30 years that is the real story, Anderson says. The courage of getting this up and running in the first place and then rising to the challenge of making it their home.
"Great art can expand our horizons and deepen our humanity. It's what great theater does and its what Ciaran and Charlotte do. It's the gift they bring to every one of us when we take our seats in that theater," she added.
Jones recalled that while the theatre was being renovated and redesigned as a flagship for the Irish in New York, the Rep's operations moved to 345 Park Avenue to become her neighbors. "We really miss them up there. We miss their genius and their friendship," she confessed.
Ellen McCourt, wife of the late writer Frank and chair of the Rep's board, struck a personal note. "Ten years ago Charlotte and Ciaran came to our then smallish board and announced they were embarking on a renovation project," McCourt said.
"In fact they were weaving a spell. It's due to their incredible dynamism and vision that they really got this project rolling."
At the opening night of Shining City there was a party afterwards. Once the caterers had packed up and the cast had left and the patrons had taken their leave, McCourt noticed that the lights were still on in the building. She went back in.
"I had been having dinner down the street. So I went looking for Ciaran when I saw the lights, and where was he but on the stage, and he was drunk with love, standing there on the stage marveling at what he had achieved," McCourt remembered.
For a long time it was almost a lost cause. A few years ago the building was sold out from under the Rep, and the new owner planned to turn it into high-rise condos.
It was a development that was strongly resisted by writers as formidable as Brian Friel. "The Irish Rep has offered brilliant theater to thousands of New Yorkers, some with Irish connections, some without," he wrote in a letter of support.
"The best theater involves an experience of the spirit, so the ground they occupy has now been made sacred by them. They have made their space hallowed. I am proud today to stand on that hallowed ground. I have been privileged to be a part of their story."
Broderick shares the sense of how special the Irish Rep is in the life of the city.
"I had the privilege of appearing in the Rep's first production in its beautifully renovated new theater. The atmosphere backstage is remarkable. It's as nice a place to work as I've ever worked in," he told the Irish Voice.
"My show was the soft opening, the precursor, the half open door toward the brilliant things to come. Now the opening day has arrived. My kids and your kids will be able to come here 30 years from now and be able to discover the best of Irish culture."]]>
Your job, Mr. Sweeney, now that Ahmad Khan Rahami has been apprehended, is to figure out if he had any help.
It was only two months ago that Sweeney, an Irish American originally from Philadelphia, who attended Villanova University, was named as the FBI's assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York Field Office. In other words, it's his job to get to the bottom of any and all terrorist activities in the area.
Rahami allegedly planted a series of bombs in his native state of New Jersey as well as in Manhattan. Following a shootout, he was captured thanks to tips from a couple of regular Jersey guys as well as heroic law enforcement officers.
Sweeney told CNN and other news outlets following Rahami's capture that there is "no indication" of an active operating cell in the New York area.
However, sources also told CNN that "evidence suggests Rahami was not acting alone."
Sweeney himself told reporters, "As far as whether he's a lone actor, that's still the path we are following, but we are keeping all the options open."
And so, Sweeney has a big job to get him started in New York. Lingering amidst the more pressing question of whether or not there is a terrorist on the run are questions about how the FBI handled Rahami's father, who told authorities about his son's suspicious activities two years ago.
Then again, a look at Sweeney's resume suggests he's more than up to the challenge. Prior to his new posting in New York, he was in charge of the FBI's field office in his hometown of Philadelphia. But Sweeney is no stranger to the Big Apple.
In 2014, Sweeney served as special agent in charge of the Counterterrorism Division of the New York Field Office, overseeing the Joint Terrorism Task Force as well as all FBI counterterrorism investigations and operations in New York.
Sweeney began his law enforcement career in 1998, working on public corruption cases out of the FBI's Newark Field Office. By 2004 he, like many others in the FBI, had shifted full time to the terrorism beat. He worked on the al Qaeda squad of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and later earned a promotion to squad supervisor. Before joining the FBI, Sweeney served in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Vella Gulf.
Sweeney wasn't the only Irish American on the hot seat this week.
Thankfully, back over in Jersey, the stakes are merely political life and death, in the Bridgegate trial. The case centers on whether or not New Jersey Governor Chris Christie knew about closing George Washington Bridge lanes as political payback for Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, who refused to endorse Christie.
Some of the most damning evidence last week came from Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye, whose parents were Irish immigrants.
After he learned the lanes were mysteriously closed, Foye dramatically ordered them reopened. He noted at the time that not only were the closures a big pain for commuters, but also that ambulances were caught in the snarled mess and that "someone could have died."
Astonishingly, Foye testified, Christie aide Bill Baroni, who is on trial along with Irish American Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly, still wanted the lanes closed.
"He said the issue was important to Trenton," testified Foye, who was appointed to the bi-state agency by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
"I took that to be the governor's office," Foye added, "and (Baroni) said Trenton would or might call. I took it to mean that the governor of New Jersey would call the governor of New York."
But Foye was having none of this.
"I said they should call."
When all is said and done, Chris Christie's political future may be about as bright as Ahmad Khan Rahami's.]]>
The Gaeltacht summer camp, now famous for their Irish-language take on popular songs, have once again turned in a stellar performance with their version of the iconic '80s hit, Toto's "Africa".
Not only are we treated to the perfect-as-always harmonies from Lurgan students but they incredibly recreate the sound of a flash rain storm using the best instrument available to them: Their bodies.
In the past few years, the Gaeltacht students have amassed an incredible portfolio of summer hits such as Avicii's "Wake Me Up," Sia's "Chandelier," and Hozier's "Someone New," as well as their last beautiful video featuring Adele's "Hello".
The lovely folks at Coláiste Lurgan even provided the lyrics as Gaelige in case you want to try and sing along:
Ceol na dtonn a' bulaladh trom anocht
Ní chloiseann sí ach cogarnáil 's sioscadh cainte scaoilte
Eitilt isteach ar leath uair théis a hocht
Geallach gheal a' lonrú síos, á treoradh chuig ceann scríbe
D'iarr comhairle ar sheanfhear siúil na slí
Mé 'g iarra' briathra cabhrach cneasta aniar ón am a bhí
'Sé dúirt sé liom le súile glé –
Breathnaigh a Mhac- sé ansin os comhair d'aghaidh
Is fada liom an lá go mbeidh tú a'am go deo
Níl tada a bhféadfá rá a choinneos uaim mo ghá níos mó
Bogha ceatha sa spéir fud na hAifrice
Goile uait anois a' déana' rudaí nach raibh a'ainn
Cú allta a' glaoch go mall san oí'
Iad uaigneach brónach fada leo roinnt sóláis 's ardú meanamna
Tá 's a'am go gcaithfear cloí lem' chroí,
Mar ' bheadh Kilimanjaro 'g éirí nós Olympus tharis an Serengeti
Ag iarra' lochtanna a leigheas,
Faitíos orm romham fhéin a' ghoil ar aghaidh
Is fada liom an lá go mbeidh tú a'am go deo
Níl tada a bhféadfá rá a choinneos uaim mo ghá níos mó
Bogha ceatha sa spéir fud na hAifrice
Goile uait anois a' déana' rudaí nach raibh a'ainn
Bogha ceatha sa spéir fud na hAifrice
Goile uait anois a' déana' rudaí nach raibh a'ainn.
We can't wait for next summer's courses already!
Check out some of Lurgan's summer highlights here:
Adele's Hello
Cake by the Ocean]]>
Speaking to the Belfast weekly newspaper, the Andersonstown News, Mr. Adams said: "I have been consulting with my lawyers and we will now be taking action against the BBC in relation to the totally false allegation contained within the BBC Spotlight broadcast."
The Andersonstown News is part of the Belfast Media Group stable of newspapers, as is the Irish Echo.
When asked what formed the basis of his suit, the Louth TD would not be drawn further, saying: "This matter is now in the hands of my lawyers and I will not be making any further comment."
But it's believed that Adams has been spurred into action by the claim in the September 20 program that he sanctioned the 2006 killing of West Belfast informer Denis Donaldson.
The claim was made on the Spotlight program by an anonymous man said to be former member of the IRA and Sinn Féin and now working for the British.
Three years after the former Sinn Féin official's murder, the Real IRA claimed responsibility.
Last Friday, the Donaldson family met with Garda Deputy Assistant Commissioner Derek Byrne and two other senior police officers who provided an update on their investigation into the murder.
After the meeting, Ciarán Shiels, the family's solicitor, said: "The one theme that has come out of today's meeting is that the theory that was being advanced by BBC Spotlight earlier this week, that this was in some way carried out by the Provisional IRA or authorized by Gerry Adams. I think it's absolute nonsense."
Shiels said the theory that the Provisional IRA carried out the killing, and that it was sanctioned by Adams, "just does not stand up."
"It does not marry in any way with the lines of inquiry that have been progressed by the guards or by the [police] ombudsman."
Last week's Sunday Times reported that gardaí have no evidence to support the claims that were made by a source during the Spotlight program, claims that caused a political storm in the following days.
"We have no evidence to put to Gerry Adams," said the garda source.
"The investigation team would have no reason to invite him in for questioning, or even attempt to arrest him.
"The investigation is following a definite line of inquiry and we have built up a detailed picture of those involved in Donaldson's murder. Adams does not feature."
The Spotlight program has since come in for sharp criticism from the Guardian's media analyst Roy Greenslade, and leading Irish investigative journalist and broadcaster, Vincent Browne.
This article appears courtesy of the Irish Echo. To read more of their stories, visit their website here.]]>
The 1916 Rising leader's last official letter, written from Arbour Hill Prison three days before his execution, urged rebels who were held up in the Four Courts to surrender to the British. After reading the letter, the commander of the rebels laid down his arms and surrendered.
The letter reads: "'In order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have decided on an unconditional surrender, and commandants or officers commanding districts will order their commands to lay down arms. P.H.Pearse, Dublin, 30th April 1916."
Read more 1916 centenary news here
At GPO Witness History, located in the heart of the historic GPO on Dublin's O'Connell Street, visitors will be able to view the original letter and learn more about the circumstances surrounding it.
Aline FitzGerald, the General Manager of GPO Witness History, is pleased with the acquisition. "It is our privilege and an honor to have the opportunity to display this document, never previously accessible to the public, and of such historic significance," FitzGerald.
Stuart Cole, Director of Adams Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers said, "This is a unique part of Irish history and we are delighted that it will be on display at the GPO Witness History Visitor Centre prior to it being auctioned. It is expected to achieve in the region of €1 million to €1.5 million [ $1.1m to $1.68m] at the end of November."
Read more: "Supported by her exiled children in America": John Devoy and Irish America in 1916
The letter forms just one part of the visitor experience. GPO Witness History is an immersive, interactive visitor attraction bringing history to life though technology, video, sound and authentic artefacts. For more information on the museum visit www.gpowitnesshistory.ie.]]>
Speaking at the One Young World Summit in Ottawa, Canada, before an audience of 1,300, Geldof proclaimed, "Who believes any more that trade amongst the nations will lift us all out of the great evil that everyone has spoken of, poverty? And especially now that a liar, a fool and a racist vomits his bile on to the disinherited of the United States!"
The Live Aid founder classified Trump as one of the "commanders in the armies of stupid," which he also believes to include Boris Johnson and Vladimir Putin, among others.
"We're tired. We're so tired, aren't we? Everything seems so complex. Nothing seems to work. And the politicians, leaders and experts are not to be trusted or believed. And so, let us give up on belief. Let us surrender to the post-truth politicians, those reality television actors, the Trumps, the Putins, the Erdogans, the Brexiters. We must not succumb to the fools. We must not be galled by the awful thuggishness of Putin, Erdogan, Xi or Trump, or the many other commanders in the armies of stupidity," he riffed.
He also attributed some of the blame for the current state of political affairs to the mainstream media, saying, "But the future is not binary. It's not that false choice of utopia or dystopia so beloved of journalists, commentators and writers. There is a constant adjustment of circumstance and morality that an impatient electorate or distracted populous is loath to accept or acknowledge, and thus they leave us to fools like Trump, or Johnson in the U.K. or bullies like Putin."
He closed with, "What is so funny about peace, love and understanding?"
Geldof followed in the footsteps of U2 frontman Bono, who last week accused Trump of "hijacking the Republican party" in the United States.
In a "CBS This Morning" interview, Bono called the US "the best idea the world ever came up with," but Trump "potentially the worst idea that ever happened to America."
H/T Newsweek]]>
"These things happen again," he says. "They happen in Africa, they happen in some far off place. This examines the contemporary perspective of famine. There are questions of charity, inequality."
"The Hunger" came into being when Alarm Will Sound approached Dennehy to write a new piece, and for it to be "something substantial."
"I had wanted to write a piece on the famine for a long time," Dennehy says. "They weren't expecting an opera, so it was quite adventurous."
Read more: Thousands of flowers to be planted at site of Irish famine graves on Staten Island
Being a composer, Dennehy created an opera which features Irish folk singer Iarla O'Lionaird and soprano Kate Manley. O'Lionaird plays the role of those silenced by the famine, singing sean-nos songs, including "The Black Potato," which dates back to the famine. Manley is meant to be Asenath Nicholson, an American woman whose first-hand account, Annals of the Famine in Ireland, influenced "The Hunger".
"I feel Donnacha has set these [songs] in places where the character Asenath Nicholson tries to communicate with the Irish and expresses herself differently," says Manley.
"She transforms from an observer into a participant," Dennehy says of Manley's role, while O'Lionaird's songs are meant to be done "as a starving man would sing it."
Manley is amazed by how O'Lionaird brought his character to life: "I listen in awe of how he remains true to the score, notation, and yet with the musicianship of an improvisational artist. It is such an individual color, so soul felt and honest. It's really wonderful to have two completely contrasting voices working and blending together."
But Dennehy felt there needed to be something else to express the political and economic side of the famine. That was where video interviews of noted famine experts and commentators, such as Noam Chomsky and Paul Krugman, come in. These interviews discuss both the Irish famine and similar famines today and how such famines have a lot to do with politics and economics rather than a simple shortage of food. The music is continuous while the videos cut through the singing.
"They are all around us," Manley explains. "But they are blended in so smoothly with the score that it's probably the orchestra that carries the musical relationship with the docu part. Of course hearing the docu- text, whilst in character fuels Asenath to continue her story with the audience. The docu voices help set the 'scene' or 'moment' up dramatically for Iarla and myself."
The avant-garde nature of this production caught the attention of Joe Melillo, the executive producer of the BAM's Next Wave Festival, which showcases contemporary work from around the world. Having previously had Alarm Will Sound perform at the BAM, Melillo was familiar with their work and reputation.
To have "The Hunger" at the BAM is a delight for the Irish Arts Center, a cultural institution which helps develop and promote Irish-based arts. Executive Director Aidan Connolly believes a production about the Irish famine is vital to many New Yorkers, not to mention those of Irish descent.
"It's our history, for starters," Connolly says. "This rendering takes us into it with great emotion and intellectual rigor. And it's a story that has repeated itself throughout history, with universal themes that can serve as a caution to us as we look around the world where the political dynamics of the Great Hunger are not obsolete."
Although Dennehy agrees that people of all backgrounds should see and learn from "The Hunger," he understands the draw and impact it would have on Irish New Yorkers.
"It's a subject that caused a wide wave of immigration," he says. "But there's an idea that it was caused by potato blight. If it was just a blight, it wouldn't have happened. I hope people will find this fascinating."
"The Hunger" will be shown at the BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House on the evenings of Friday September 30 and Saturday October 1. Tickets start at $20, and the show runs 75 minutes.]]>
What if you could take it all in at a slower pace?
Over 150 lucky competitors in this year's Hot Air Balloon Championships have done just that, spending a week flying over Galway and taking in its best scenery from the air.
Kicking off last Sunday and running through this evening, the 46th annual National Hot Air Balloon Championships welcomed over 40 international teams to Loughrea, Co Galway this week, the first time the annual event has been held in the county.
The competitors were faced with some delays in waiting for the typical Irish weather to clear up during the week-long event, but once they took to the sky the views from the ground were just as spectacular as they must have been for the two to three-man crews in the air.
"We are delighted to see this event coming to Galway. Already we are getting a great reception from the locals, landowners and businesses," event director Joe Daly told the Connacht Tribune.
"Galway County is a beautiful sight from above and the teams are very excited to visit Galway for this first time. This event brings color, wonder to both participants and spectators.
"Landing in a field and seeing the communities follow the flight is wonderful experience for the balloon teams and spectators alike!" he added.
The teams have come from the USA, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Italy, France and Spain. Each day they set off from a location around Loughrea determined by wind direction and strength.
Read more: Ireland from the air - photos taken by the Irish Air Corps
The 46th National Hot Air Balloon Championships in Loughrea, Galway. Photo: Trevor Dubber pic.twitter.com/JvWgcGSiKC— Galway 2020 (@galway2020) September 27, 2016
As flights can only take place early in the morning due to weather conditions. This left the crews with plenty of time to visit local schools and to instruct the public on the science behind a hot air balloon. They also had time to take in the sights and other pleasures Galway has to offer.
The festivities reached a climax on Thursday night when thousands gathered in Loughrea to witness the amazing spectacle that is the Night Glow.
The Irish Hot Air Ballooning Association is the representative body for ballooning in Ireland and promotes ballooning in the country with the longest running National Ballooning Championships in the world. The Championships are held on an annual basis in various locations around the country.]]>
Read more: Irish Redhead Convention changes young lives and celebrates togetherness
Our reporter was at the festival to ask the gorgeous gathered gingers what they loved about being redheads. Their responses we great! Here are a few ideas that we've had in the past about what makes being a redhead enviable.
- The late, great Maureen O'Hara...do we need to say more?
Being a redhead means you're joining a long line of amazing fiery-haired beauties and heroes including Celtic Queen Boudicca, Winston Churchill and even Mary Magdalene for Pete's sake.
- A rare and beauteous thing
Red hair the rarest of hair colors and accounts for only 0.6% of the global population. Ireland has the second highest proportion of redheads at 10%, but up to 40% are believed to be carriers of the ginger gene. Fewer than 2% of Americans have red hair.
- You absorb vitamin D like a sponge
Bear with us...Research has shown that Ireland and Scotland have more redheads per capita due to their cloudy, grey weather. Basically our fair hair and freckles allow us to absorb more sunshine.
So, no SAD (Seasonal affective disorder) and strong bones for you! How efficient.
- No grey hair
Redheads rarely turn grey, or at least take longer to get around to it. In fact most redheads skip grey completely going from red, to blonde to white.
- Flaming good luck
Redheads bring honor and luck. In Poland, if you pass three red-heads you'll win the lottery. Ancient Greeks dyed their hair red to show courage, and in Denmark, it's an honor to have a red-haired child.
Of course, there's also a belief in some countries that to rub a redhead's head is good luck, but we'll ignore that.
- Bruce Springsteen sings about to you
Irish American New Jersey hero "The Boss" wrote "Red Headed Woman."
He said, "It takes a redheaded woman to get a dirty job done."
- More loving
It's official! Red-heads have more sex. If you don't believe us here's what German researcher Professor Dr Werner Habermehl has to say: "The sex lives of women with red hair were clearly more active than those with other hair color, with more partners and having sex more often than the average."
So there!
- Feel less pain than most
We swear we're not making this up. Studies found that redheads were less susceptible to skin pain and can better handle hot and spicy foods.
So all in all, and as if we didn't know, don't mess with redheads. Being a redhead is cool!
Thousands of redheads traveled to Cork for a sunny weekend this August to celebrate their rare genes. Gingers young and old traveled from as far afield as Australia and Canada to celebrate their red-headedness with other redheads.
This unique annual festival started as a friendly joke between redhead siblings Joleen and Denis Cronin and has been steadily growing in popularity year-on-year. This year Andy O'Neill from Kilkenny and Emma Ni Chearuil from Galway were crowned the new King and Queen of Gingerdom at the 7th Annual Redhead Convention. Debbie Murphy from Atlanta won Best Redhead Granny. Jean Remley of California won the Longest Red Hair Award and Thomas Gronemeir from Frankfurt, Germany won the Best Ex-Redhead Award.
A number of other 'Best Ginger Awards" were presented at the festival including accolades such as "The most freckles per square inch" and "The world's greatest ginger beard." The full list of winners is below.
Among the highlights of the festival were the redhead-only parade through the town, the group photograph featuring hundreds of redheads, and the ginger jig, where redheads joined together in traditional Irish 'céilí dance, setting a world red-cord of jig-happy gingers in the village square.
Next year's Irish Redhead Convention will take place in Crosshaven, Co. Cork from 18 - 20 August 2017. For more information visit redheadconvention.ie.]]>
Fresh from an LA run, Irish Screen America is bringing the best of new Irish film to NYC.
Presented with the support of Glucksman Ireland House, the bi-coastal festival will feature premieres of new Irish films, television series and short films. Among the festival's special guests will be 'accidental activist' and renowned drag queen Panti Bliss, figurehead of last year's equal marriage referendum in Ireland. Ms. Panti Bliss will open the festival as the star of the documentary, "The Queen of Ireland," a film that is equal parts an intimate portrait of the performer's life and a stirring record of an historic vote. On hand for the audience Q+A will also be the film's director Conor Horgan ("One Hundred Mornings").
Other features playing the festival include the kidnapping thriller "Tiger Raid" about two Irish mercenaries in Iraq; and the Dutch/Irish co-production "Mammal", a tense relationship drama starring Academy Award-nominated actress Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under, Muriel's Wedding).
Covering the full scope of the Irish audio-visual industry, the festival will debut the first two episodes in a new Irish television series called "Can't Cope, Won't Cope" – a show written, directed and produced by women, about the lifestyle and relationships of two out-of-control, twenty-something Irish girls. Written by Stefanie Preissner, the show stars Seána Kerslake (A Date for Mad Mary) and Nika McGuigan (Philomena). Director Cathy Brady and producer Ailish McElmeel, will be present to discuss the making of the show and the female diversification of Irish entertainment.
Co-hosted by Women in Film and Television Ireland, the festival will host a panel discussion called Stories from the Field featuring Irish professionals working in the fields of film development, distribution and marketing in the U.S.
Rounding things out are two programs of short films – one featuring shorts made in Ireland and another showcasing work by Irish filmmakers in New York, including the short "We Have Each Other" by the Oscar-nominated writer/director Naomi Sheridan.
With the Emerald Isle ever punching above its weight in the arts – the Irish industry accrued an impressive nine Oscar nominations in various categories last year – Irish Screen America has cherry picked an impressive program of features for New York audiences, that have so far only bowed at tent pole fests such as Sundance and Toronto, or domestically in Ireland.
The Irish Screen America festival runs from today, Friday Sept. 30, to Sunday October Sunday 2 at NYU's Cantor Film Center.
To see the full schedule and to purchase tickets, visit www.irishscreenamerica.com.]]>
McGregor will get his wish of both headlining New York's first UFC show after the state government lifted the ban earlier this year, and fighting his chosen opponent, Eddie Alvarez, the current UFC lightweight title holder.
UFC boss Dana White announced on Monday that McGregor, the UFC featherweight champion, will not relinquish that title against Alvarez, whose title will be up for grabs. If McGregor wins, it will be the first time a UFC fighter would hold two belts at the same time.
McGregor was adamant that he wanted to face Alvarez instead of defending his featherweight belt against Jose Aldo, and White granted his wish.
Prices for UFC 205, which is poised to set records, go on sale on September 30, and are priced from $100 to $1,250.
"Factor in Madison Square Garden's 20,000-plus seat capacity, and it's very likely that the promotion's longstanding gate record — approximately $12 million for UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields at the Rogers Centre in Toronto — will be overtaken," Forbes reported on Tuesday.
McGregor's last fight against Nate Diaz in Las Vegas broke pay per view records, and firmly established McGregor as the UFC's biggest star.
A press conference took place at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday evening to promote the fight.
McGregor has a huge Irish following that regularly attends his fights in Las Vegas, and Madison Square Garden is expected to be packed to the rafters with Tricolors.]]>
The survivors are also taking legal action against the state, gardai and the Health Service Executive.
Sports coach and accountant Bill Kenneally, 66, was sentenced last February to 14 years in prison for horrific abuse of young teenage boys in the 1980s in Waterford after pleading guilty to 10 sample charges. He is appealing the severity of the sentence.
The scandal has recalled other sports sex assaults on young people involving swim coaches George Gibney, Derry O'Rourke and Ger Doyle.
Kenneally's offenses have ignited demands for deeper investigation of his crimes and alleged cover-ups of them. This follows another of his survivors coming forward last week and claiming gardai knew about his abuse in 1985, two years before the force in Waterford admitted knowing anything about allegations of pedophilia against Kenneally.
The former coach was not arrested until 2012 when another survivor found out he was still involved in basketball and went to gardai.
RTE reported that former Superintendent Sean Cashman and Inspector PJ Hayes knew about allegations from the parents of two boys who suffered sex abuse by Kenneally in 1987 which he admitted when questioned.
But he was not prosecuted because the boys who were the alleged victims didn't make any statement, and the gardai said there was not sufficient evidence to bring a charge.
Human Rights lawyer Darragh Mackin, representing Kenneally's victims – a number of whom waived anonymity for an RTE program about the abuse – is leading the call for a commission of investigation.
"There are grounds for investigation. A multitude of facts point to a deliberate sabotage and cover-up by a variety of state parties including gardai, a political party, health board and church," Mackin said.
"There is a real issue of preventability here. There is a question of what victims would have been protected if more action was taken earlier."
Former Fianna Fail junior minister Brendan Kenneally said in recent days he learned in 2002 that his cousin was a sex abuser but he didn't report it to the gardai. He was told by someone close to a victim, but the victim didn't want to pursue the matter further.
Brendan Kenneally said, "I was shocked and blown away by it and nearly fell off the chair. I made sure certain things were done and I got him assessed medically, which found he wasn't still offending."]]>
As fans, friends and followers of the Craic Festival know, their halfway to St. Patrick's Day night-out will cure what ails you.
This year's Wee Craic will be held on Thursday, September 29 at the Mercury Lounge on Houston Street, kicking off with a pre-reception at Lucky Jacks on the Lower East Side from 7-9 p.m. (Stella Artois and Jefferson Bourbon sponsor the drinks specials).
Then it's over to the Mercury Lounge for the best of Irish Short films beginning at 9 p.m. Expect to see specially selected shorts from the award-winners at last month's Galway Film Fleadh.
Stutterer, a recent Oscar-winning short film by director Benjamin Cleary, will be screened. The Irish produced film portrays a handsome but reclusive typographer with a debilitating speech problem, until the day comes when he must face his worst fear if he's ever to win the girl he dreams of.
STUTTERER - TRAILER from benjamincleary on Vimeo
Made for just £5,000, or less than $10,000, it's a testament to the power of a dream. Cleary reportedly raised the money by renting out his Dublin apartment and sleeping on other people's sofas for months until he could pay for three and a half days of filming in August 2014. How about that?
Also screening is Wifey Redux, in which a middle-aged husband's relationships with his wife and teenage daughter are put to the test when he becomes obsessed with fending off his teenage daughter's new boyfriend. Based on the short story by Kevin Barry, it stars Aidan McArdle, Angeline Ball, Lauryn Canny, Craig Grainger, Shane O'Meara and Wallis Day.
Joining the Dots follows Luna, a little girl who traces constellations, which then come alive in the night sky. She tries to show her dad, who struggles to understand her imaginary world, in a tender and moving new short feature.
Gridlock was an audience favorite at the 2016 Galway Film Festival starring gifted Irish actor Moe Dunford. A thriller set during a traffic jam on a country road, when a little girl goes missing from one of the cars, her father puts together a desperate search party to find her, and soon everyone is a suspect in this tense drama.
Also screening is The Caller, director Steve Gunn's story about what happens when an unemployed man receives a visit from a Dublin rent allowance inspector and things get a little out of hand.
Festival director Terence Mulligan has some straightforward criteria for making his picks.
"The films included each year must be Irish in theme, or have been shot in Ireland, or feature Irish talent either behind or in front of the camera, or have been made here in New York City by local Irish filmmakers," he tells the Irish Voice.
The special musical guest on the night (the Craic always has a rock component) is Mark Geary and Count Vaseline (formerly known as The Mighty Stef).
This year marks the 17th annual Wee Craic, which is still presented by Stella Artois and Boru Vodka, so keep them in mind when you order. "It's a one-night event which celebrates Ireland's freshest, coolest short films and music, with plenty of fun thrown into the mix," says Mulligan.
"We have some brilliant shorts from the Galway Fleadh and Mark Geary always delivers with his stage presence. So bring along some friends, make some new ones, open your eyes to some of Ireland's best short films, and enjoy music and drinks. It's all part of the Craic!"
Other shorts scheduled to be screened include Groundless, director Anthony McDonagh's tale of a mother's love triumphing over the lure of the Dublin streets. The Lost Letter by director Kealan O'Rourke is the tale of a young boy as he prepares his neighborhood for Christmas.
For more info contact 917-373-6735.
Full line-up at www.thecraicfest.com.]]>
In a string of emails released to the press late on Wednesday evening, the Trump campaign began a series entitled "Follow the Money" in which they came down hard on Clinton's links to Wall Street and to wealthy business people worldwide, criticizing her neutrality while in office.
One such lengthy email, named "Follow the Money: Dennis O'Brien - Another Corrupt Clinton Friend", highlighted the controversy surrounding O'Brien, the owner of the mobile phone empire Digicel, who has often been referred to as the "most reviled figure" in Ireland.
Containing no direct quote from Trump, the email listed article clippings in which O'Brien's honesty was called into question and his close relationship with Bill Clinton was highlighted. O'Brien and his company Digicel have donated between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation since it was founded in 2001.
The series of media extracts, including lines from Forbes, The Irish Times and the Clinton Foundation website, look to highlight O'Brien's connection with the Clinton's and the work he has undertaken with the Foundation, while also drawing attention to the business deals and defamation cases that have made him infamous in Ireland.
In particular, the clippings pinpoint instances in which O'Brien held dinners for Clinton while she was on a visit to Dublin in 2012, and a trip to Ireland for Bill Clinton he almost completely funded in 2013. O'Brien was named as a Clinton Global Citizen in 2012.
On highlighting the connection, the email then pinpointed the findings of the Moriarty tribunal in which it was found that Irish politician and former government minister Michael Lowry assisted O'Brien in securing Ireland's second cell phone licence.
The email also references the $2.5 million received by Digicel to develop mobile services in Haiti following the earthquake as part of an aid program overseen by a Clinton aide. The awards were provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Elsewhere in the "Follow the Money" series, the Irish government was named among the foreign governments who have donated to the Clinton Foundation, with the Trump campaign once again calling Clinton's neutrality into question when politicians overseas are donating to the charity her family established.
Coming in as the third point in Trump's "Ten Inconvenient Truths about the Clinton Foundation", Ireland was listed among the 19 countries to give to the Foundation, with donations falling in between $5 million and $10 million up until June 2016. It does not detail when any of the donations were made.
Read more: Bono sought favorable access to Hillary through Clinton Foundation claims GOP
The "Follow the Money" emails were released as Trump took up the line often pushed by former Democratic nominee Bernie Sanders. In a fiery speech on the campaign trail in Wisconsin last night, the real-estate mogul and businessman claimed Clinton was too closely linked to big business to be President, referencing the large sums of money she and her husband have received from large companies for speeches.
"Everything you need to know about Hillary Clinton can be understood with the simple phrase: follow the money," the GOP candidate claimed, despite his own reluctance to release his recent tax returns so that the public can also follow his own links to big business and his financial dealings his own charitable foundation.
While the Clinton Foundation receives an A rating from CharityWatch, the charity watchdog established by the American Institute of Philanthropy, the Trump Foundation cannot be ranked as it is structured as a private foundation, equating to either a positive or negative assessment of its practices. President of CharityWatch Daniel Borochoff has previously referred to the Clinton Foundation as an "excellent charity" and it currently ranks higher than the Red Cross which has an A- rating.
The Trump Foundation, however, has come under fire in recent weeks as Washington Post journalist David Fahrenthold claims it may have engaged in "self-dealing".]]>
I have lost count of the number of occasions when the reported numbers at some event or gathering are way off the mark.
Most times it is a case of exaggeration in an upwards direction.
On this day in 1979 I was standing in Dublin's Phoenix Park staring intently in an upwards direction.
So were the other 999,999 people around me.
Which is, of course, a ballpark estimate.
But hey, we were all in a park, though I don't think anybody brought a ball to kick around.
There wouldn't have been any room.
Yes, we were all gazing skyward, waiting for the Aer Lingus Boeing 747 to come into view.
And when it did a million – give or take – pairs of eyes stared up - and lit up.
The jumbo jet was carrying a jumbo persona in the person of Pope John Paul II.
Flying with it were a formation of Irish Air Corps trainer jets.
They looked very small indeed beside the Boeing.
But they were well making the point that this was a special day by virtue of a special visitor.
Very special.
It should be remembered that in 1979 John Paul was still his full vigorous self.
He would not be shot in St. Peter's Square until May, 1981.
The man was truly blazing a trail that September, across the firmament and the heavens.
But right now he was on a flight path.
The passing over the Phoenix Park was deliberate.
It was a tip of the hat to all who had come to this place.
It was also a piece of inspired showbiz.
Where better for a future saint to first appear but up in the sky?
We didn't see him of course, just the plane.
But we knew we would be seeing and hearing him soon enough.
I was there with my entire family.
We had fallen out of bed about five minutes after getting into bed and had, like so many others, walked in the dark to designated bus stops.
Getting a million people to the Phoenix Park ark was akin to a military operation and, despite the still lingering Irish penchant for self-doubt and criticism, the mission was accomplished and accomplished well.
We were all in separate roped off corrals.
There was a clear route laid out so that when John Paul arrived he would be driven in his Popemobile through the throng, and on up to the massive altar to say Mass.
So he drove past our corral, waving and smiling.
Not everybody present was Catholic.
This was an historical Irish moment in the general sense of the term as well as a religious one.
And it was a moment experienced by a million people.
Now, I work in Manhattan and at any given time there's between two and three million people on the roughly thirteen-by-three-mile-island.
But this million was standing in a space measurable in square yardage.
So it was a distinct crowd, a specific attendance.
I was just starting out at the time in my chosen field of work.
And standing in a field I began to count.
Not the entire crowd of course because my, well, field of vision was extremely limited.
But I worked on estimating the number in our corral.
I needn't have bothered.
Aerial photos told the tale; also the number of special papal bus tickets given out were a means of calculating how many turned up.
Yeah, this was a million people, give or take.
And all here for one man.
He's a saint now, but he was more akin to a religious rock star then.
Either way a crowd puller, a big crowd puller, 37 years and a moment ago today.
This article first appeared in the Irish Echo. For more great stories, visit their website here.]]>
A month after The Washington Post declared the GOP candidate to be trailing by a huge margin among American Catholics, the Trump Campaign unveiled the Catholic Advisory Group, whose members range from conservative Catholic politicians, leaders of pro-life/anti-abortion groups, leaders of national Catholic groups, and former ambassadors to the Holy See, including many well known Irish American Catholics.
The GOP cites the advisory group as a key element of the Faith and Cultural Advisory Committee, which they hope will convince Catholics and other Christians that Trump sides with them on issues important to them.
They issues are: religious liberty, pro-life, judicial nominations, education, heathcare, jobs and taxation, and safety and security. Joseph Cella, Founder of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, will serve as the Catholic Liaison for the members and the campaign.
According to a poll released by the Public Religion Research Institute in late August, Clinton is leading among Catholics by 23 points (55 – 32) four years after Mitt Romney lost the group's vote by just two per cent, 50 percent to 48 percent.
An earlier Washington Post-ABC News poll had indicated things were even worse for Trump, who was supported by only 34 percent of Catholic voters at the time compared with Clinton's 61 percent. Republicans won the Catholic vote in five of the last 11 presidential elections.
Read more: Catholics reject Donald Trump in huge numbers – the Pope Francis effect?
Perhaps due to his run-in with Pope Francis in 2015 (the Holy See condemned the plan to build a wall along the Mexican border as un-Christian), or his less than clear views on abortion, Catholic Americans have not seemed inclined to support Trump.
The Catholic Advisory Group, however, includes several high-profile Catholic supporters including former US Senator and presidential candidate Sen. Rick Santorum, former Chief Secretary and Attache at the US Embassy in Dublin, Patrick Walsh, and President of the Susan B. Anthony List (a pro-life organization), Marjorie Dannenfelser.
"On the issues and policies of greatest concern to Catholics, Donald Trump will fight for Catholics whereas Hillary Clinton is openly hostile to those issue of greatest concern to Catholics and will attack the core teachings of the Catholic Church, and has worked against them as First Lady, as US Senator and as Secretary of State, and would continue to do so if she is elected President," said Congressman Sean Duffy, also a member of the group.
Donald Trump has consistently attacked Clinton's faith through the presidential campaign, despite a 2016 Pew Poll finding that 60 percent of people find Trump himself to be "not religious" compared with 43 percent who feel Clinton is not a person of faith. Clinton's own numbers also jumped this year from 31 percent in 2008 when a further 53 percent believed her to be only somewhat religious.
Clinton, a Methodist, has previously spoken about her religious upbringing, attending Bible School in her youth, teaching Sunday School in Arkansas and raising her daughter Chelsea as a Methodist.
In July, the Clinton campaign named John McCarthy, current Vice President of the Irish American Democrats PAC, as her latest hire to focus on outreach to the Catholic and Irish communities.
Proud to be part of the @realDonaldTrump team #MAGA ---> Santorum Appointed to Catholic Advisory Group - Bloomberg https://t.co/kk2sQuekFb— Rick Santorum (@RickSantorum) September 23, 2016
Trump's statement on his Catholic advisory group includes no mention of the Pope, whom he called disgraceful https://t.co/KR52jVTsg4— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) September 22, 2016
Trump claims Clinton will limit religious freedom if she becomes president despite her having voiced her support of right of each individual to practice their faith as they want. In her book "It Takes A Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us" she stated: "We are only children of God, not God. Therefore, we must not attempt to fit God into little boxes, claiming that He supports this or that political position."
On his web site, in a statement aimed at Catholics, Trump says he will "protect the deeply held religious beliefs of Catholics and the beliefs of Americans of all faiths." On abortion Trump says that "public funding of abortion providers is an insult to people of faith at the least, and is an affront to good government and governance, at best. I will work to support the dignity of human life from conception to natural, dignified death."
"America is on the wrong track," states Catholic Advisory Group member Matt Schlapp, Chairman of the American Conservative Union, "as economic opportunities wane and families face a coarsened society where people of faith feel bullied, disrespected and marginalized. We have slipped so far, so fast, at a pace quickened by our failure to uphold the dignity of unborn life."
This current stance would appear to be at odds with what Trump in a 1999 interview in which he asserted that he was "very pro-choice."
The GOP candidate has since claimed he evolved into his staunchly pro-life stance in recent years, coming under heat again in March 2016 when he claimed that women should be punished for acquiring a termination in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews. He continued to state that a man should not be punished in the same situation. Trump has since taken back the comments.
According to the U.S. Religious Landscape Study carried out in 2014 by the Pew Research Center, 20.8 percent of US citizens identify as Catholic.
The members of the Catholic Advisory Group are:
The emigrant tax plan comes from the Minister for Jobs Mary Mitchell O'Connor, who indicated that a tax rate of 30% could be on offer to a range of graduates and entrepreneurs.
These new plans are a response to complaints from Irish workers living abroad who say the marginal tax rate, which is just under 50 percent, is a disincentive to returning home. Also, Irish employers have said that the tax laws around shares and options also act as a block to highly-skilled emigrants returning.
However, the immediate reaction to the proposals has been negative. On Wednesday Irish leader Enda Kenny was asked if he agreed that the proposal was "unfair and discriminatory." He replied "Yes, I do."
A similar tax proposal was submitted by the former Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton in 2015. His tax proposals were watered down by the Department of Finance amid fears that they would infuriate those workers who had remained in Ireland during the recession and recovery years.
Mitchell O'Connor said the lower tax rate of 30 percent would be aimed at those earning in excess of $84,000 (€75,000) in specialist areas such as medicine, science, information technology and finance. It would also apply to entrepreneurs in specialist sectors. This plan would be expected to remain in place for five years.
A Government source said "This is all about making it as attractive as possible for skilled workers who left Ireland during difficult times.
"The budget has to do something to bring our emigrants home."
Under the new measures, returning skilled immigrants would pay no tax on company shares and options until they sell them. This would bring Ireland in line with the UK's arrangement, a source from the British government told the Irish Independent.
If adopted by the government, the new tax plan will be included in the upcoming Budget. It is understood that Mitchell O'Connor submitted a revamped version of the proposals, to the Minister of Finance Michael Noonan.
Already some opposition has been voiced.
Newstalk reports that the proposals were not brought to the ministers' meeting or discussed before being published in the newspapers.
Catherine Murphy, TD for the Social Democrats, objects to the proposal as it would not aid those lower skilled workers who also want to return to Ireland.
She said, "You can skirt around the edges for what the real problem is, but the real problem is that the cost of living is one of the biggest disincentives - and one major element of that is housing.
"If you're going to be giving an incentive surely we need carpenters and sparks and laborers and we need to start building houses.
"That would address the issue."
Fianna Fáil TD Dara Calleary told the Irish Examiner he had "concerns," although he had not discussed the proposals with his party.
"Yes we do need to bring people back. We need to bring very high skilled people back, but we need other ways of bringing them back other than splitting up our tax system for people who might be doing the same job," said Calleary.
"I would have grave concerns about it, but we do need to see the detail. We do need to bring highly skilled people back, but the best way to do that is a fair system for everybody."]]>
According to the drink's creator, Professor David Nutt, an Imperial College Professor and former British government drugs advisor, the synthetic beverage, known as 'alcosynth,' is designed to mimic the positive effects of alcohol but doesn't cause a dry mouth, nausea or throbbing head.
Professor Nutt has patented around 90 different alcosynth compounds, two of which are now being tested for widespread use.
He told The Independent that he hopes the new drink will completely replace alcohol by 2050.
"It will be there alongside the scotch and the gin, they'll dispense the alcosynth into your cocktail and then you'll have the pleasure without damaging your liver and your heart," he said.
"They go very nicely into mojitos. They even go into something as clear as a Tom Collins. One is pretty tasteless, the other has a bitter taste."
Professor Nutt and his team have been able to design the non-toxic drug by researching substances that work on the brain in a similar manner to alcohol.
Read more: Homemade alcoholic McDonald's Shamrock Shake recipe
"We know a lot about the brain science of alcohol; it's become very well understood in the last 30 years," he said.
"So we know where the good effects of alcohol are mediated in the brain, and can mimic them. And by not touching the bad areas, we don't have the bad effects."
Early experiments into alcosynth used a derivative of benzodiazepine, the same class of drugs as Valium, but the professor said his drinks do not contain the drug. He said his formulas would remain a closely guarded, patented secret.
Advocates of alcosynth believe the drink could revolutionize public health.
"People want healthier drinks," said Professor Nutt. "The drinks industry knows that by 2050 alcohol will be gone."
"They know that and have been planning for this for at least 10 years. But they don't want to rush into it, because they're making so much money from conventional alcohol."
However, due to regulatory concerns and the huge cost of funding research, it may be quite a long time before anyone can order an alcosynth cocktail from their local bar.
"It's an interesting idea, but too much in its infancy at the moment for us to comment on," a Department of Health spokesperson told The Independent.
"I don't think we'd give money to it until it was a little further along," said the spokesperson. "If [Professor Nutt] were to apply for funding, it would go through the process of everything else and would be judged on its merits."
"It would be great for producing better workforce efficiency if no one was hungover."
Read more: Myths about the Irish and alcohol are infuriating
Professor Nutt says that the effects of the synthetic drink last a couple of hours but that his researchers have managed to limit the effects of drinking too much alcosynth.
"We think the effects round out at about four or five 'drinks,' then the effect would max out," he said.
"We haven't tested it to destruction yet, but it's safer than drinking too much alcohol. With clever pharmacology, you can limit and put a ceiling on the effects, so you can't ever get as ill or kill yourself, unlike with drinking a lot of vodka."
Researcher Guy Bentley worked with the professor on a new report by the Adam Smith Institute, a nonprofit think tank, into alcosynth regulation.
Bentley said he hoped to persuade the government to accept alcosynth as a way of reducing the harm caused by alcohol.
"[The report] is trying to spark what happened with e-cigarettes and tobacco, but with alcohol," he said. "Professor Nutt has been experimenting on this for a long time, but I thought to myself - 'where is it?' I wanted my hangover-free booze."
However, Neil Williams, from the British Beer and Pub Association, says alcosynth is not necessary, as "there are other ways of avoiding a hangover."
"There are plenty of low-strength drinks, particularly beers," he told The Independent. "We should all drink in moderation so we shouldn't need to have a hangover anyway."
"I'd want to know more about it before I tried it myself," he said.
Read more: Ten best Irish hangover cures]]>
Nearly three million people turned out to welcome the pontiff at five venues: Dublin, Drogheda, Galway, Limerick and Knock.
The numbers were phenomenal when you consider that the population of the Republic was 3,368,217 in 1979.
In Dublin's Phoenix Park, more than 1 million people from all over Ireland and some cities in England attended the first papal mass in Ireland.
There was a mammoth roar from the giant crowd when the pope's plane flew over the Phoenix Park en route to Dublin Airport.
On that day alone, the pope's itinerary included the Vatican, Rome Airport, Dublin Airport, the Phoenix Park, Killineer in Drogheda, Dublin and then several meetings.
His papal itinerary was so thronged that the pope jokingly claimed the Irish were trying to kill him on his first day.
It was in Drogheda, County Louth, where the Pope appealed to the paramilitaries to lay down their arms.
"I wish to speak to all men and women engaged in violence," he said.
"I appeal to you, in language of passionate pleading. On my knees I beg you, to turn away from the path of violence and to return to the ways of peace."
That visit to Drogheda in the border county was as near to the North as the pope would get.
A planned mass in St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh had been canceled as his advisers feared he would be a target for loyalist paramilitaries.
Just weeks earlier, the British Queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, had been killed in an IRA bomb attack on his boat in County Sligo while 18 soldiers were killed in two explosions near Warrenpoint, County Down.
However, hundreds of thousands of Irish people North and South trekked to one of the five venues while many more watched the visit unfold on TV.
PHOTOS - Pope John Paul II visit to Ireland Sept. 29, 1979
Here are some TV highlights of his visit:
*Originally published in April 2014.]]>
Commentators voices soared over the excited crowds and whirring engines as three-a-side teams from Laois and Offaly battled it out over a seven-foot ball in the incredible new sport of tractor football.
The event, developed as part of an initiative to raise awareness about heart failure, saw two teams climb into their vehicles once an hour over the three-day festival to remind farmers to look after their hearts just as well as they look after their machinery.
"You'll service your car every year, but you won't go to a doctor once a year to get a check-up for your heart," referee Arthur O'Connor told TheJournal.ie.
"The main idea of this today was to sponsor 'Know Your Heart.'"
With set rules including no reversing, no offside rule, allowing the 'attacking' tractor right of way, and not moving in front of any other tractor, the drivers displayed some fantastic skills as they weaved around the muddy field, while O'Connor kept an eye out for fouls from his watchtower on the sidelines.
This may be one of the only places you'll see a Co. Offaly men's team score as many goals in 2016!
For those of you who weren't fortunate enough to grow up in the Irish Midlands and didn't enjoy your annual day off school to go to "the Ploughing," the Championships are one of Europe's largest agricultural events, this year drawing in a record attendance of 283,000 people.
Now in its 85th year, the event took place in Tullamore. Co. Offaly over three days this September, even welcoming Olympic rowing silver medalists (& celebrities) Gary and Paul Donovan to what organizers claimed was the most successful event ever.
And tractor football was not the only highlight. Not only could you work on your milking technique at the Milking Academy and explore new farming inventions such as the Sheep Spa, but there were fashion shows, sheep-shearing displays, dancing and plenty more to keep everybody entertained.]]>
The dust has settled and now we can tell the story of Movidius. Sometimes when you read a VC's valedictory blog post about a deal like this you might be forgiven for thinking that it's all about the VCs. It isn't, and it shouldn't be. It's about the entrepreneurs. That's the story that I want to tell.
And what a group of entrepreneurs we were lucky enough to invest in at Movidius. They had many characteristics that make great entrepreneurs, but I want to concentrate on just two – vision and resilience.
Movidius was founded almost 11 years ago, with the initial "design" being sketched on the menu in a Dublin craft beer pub. In the semiconductor business designing a chip, successfully tapping out, testing and qualifying your device, achieving a "design win," getting it designed into a new end-user device and ultimately launched in the market can take many, many years. So your vision has to be many years ahead of the market. I won't pretend that when Sean Mitchell, David Moloney, and Val Muresan were starting the company they said to themselves "One day, our chip will give visual collision avoidance capabilities to low-cost consumer drones." Remember, the iPhone did not exist when they started Movidius.
However, they did realise that there were many imaging and vision related tasks where the amount of data that needed to be processed was so large that it would not be possible to transfer that data over wireless networks to the cloud and that, even if you could, for many applications the time delay involved in doing so would be unacceptable. They understood that doing this processing in the data centre was enormously more costly in energy terms than doing it at the edge of the network (it's up to 100-fold more expensive). They also realised that the data itself and the operations that needed to be performed on it were not well suited to existing processing platforms.
So, there was an emerging need for a specialised processor that was physically tiny, delivered enormous amounts of computing capability and used almost no power. Easy, right?
When I think about the resilience of the team, I remember vividly Gerry Maguire of Atlantic Bridge Ventures, Hongquan Jiang of Robert Bosch Venture Capital and I meeting Sean Mitchell at Mobile World Congress in February 2013. We were leading a new funding round for the company. Movidius was virtually bankrupt. Sean, David and John Bourke (the CFO), together with some early angel investors, were keeping the company afloat with money from their own pockets. Some of the company's existing investors, who couldn't or wouldn't continue to support the company, were making it very difficult to close out the round. The strain was etched on Sean's face, and his voice cracked as he spoke. And we were adding to that stress by telling him that we thought the company needed to hire a new CEO. I've known Sean for quite a while, but I remember thinking "this guy is close to cracking." But they didn't crack. They kept going. Eventually, we got the round closed and, soon afterwards, Remi El-Ouazzane joined as CEO. Then Farshid Sabet joined to run sales and business development.
It didn't get a whole lot easier after that either. There were huge challenges to deliver a working product under such strict power and size constraints, and the company was probably still a couple of years ahead of the market. It seemed like every few months Movidius needed more money. But then, eventually, the deals and opportunities started to flow…collision avoidance and GPS denied hovering for drones, intelligent security cameras, untethering AR/VR devices, with so much more to come.
The reward for that vision, resilience and persistence is that Sean, David, Val, John, Remi, and Farshid have created what is, in my view, probably one of the most important technology companies ever to come out of Ireland. Movidius technology will drive the development of the next major compute platform (AR/VR) and will be a key enabler of vision and intelligence in machines at the edge of the network. It's also the largest ever venture-backed technology trade sale in Ireland.
You can all be very proud.
Finally, I wanted to mention that Movidius is one of the companies that drove our thinking about the patient capital model at Draper Esprit. It took 11 years to get to a tremendous outcome. The company had a couple of near-death experiences along the way. It's difficult for a 5+5 year venture capital fund to support a company through that journey. It will either run out of money or time…or both. We look forward to finding the next Movidius.
Movidius CEO, Remi El-Ouazzane has also written the deal here as has Josh Walden, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's New Technology Group here.
This article appears courtesy of the Dublin Globe. For more great stories about Dublin's startup ecosystem, visit their website here.]]>
Those of you who have been unfortunate enough to visit Dublin in the last few weeks will know all about this. A series of one and two day strikes each week by Dublin Bus drivers have been inflicting misery not only on the nearly half a million locals who use the service everyday. Also badly hit by these rolling strikes have been the thousands of tourists in the city.
The TV news here one day last week, for example, interviewed a pair of perplexed backpackers standing at a bus stop waiting for the bus to take them to the airport and wondering why it was so late! The reporter had to tell them it wasn't coming at all.
This has been going on now for a few weeks as the bus workers pursue their claim for a substantial pay hike. It was supposed to happen again on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week but was called off at the last moment for another round of talks to search for a solution. The unions have said that failure will mean that a one day strike they have planned for this Saturday -- which happens to be the day of the GAA football final replay -- will go ahead. And 13 more days of strikes are planned over the coming weeks.
At the time of writing the prospects for success at the talks this week do not look good, given the huge gap between the two sides. Dublin Bus, which is a commercial semi-state company, says it doesn't have the money. The workers say the state will have to increase its annual subvention to the company so they can get their huge pay raise.
And despite the spin being put on it by the unions, the pay raise they want is huge, more than 20 percent. The union line is that the bus workers have not had a raise for eight years, have endured austerity, have to work longer hours, and so on. They say that now that the economy is back on track they want to recover the money they have lost, which means they must get at least a 20 percent raise over the immediate future.
This is made up of compensation for a six percent raise they were supposed to get back in 2009, which was deferred because of the financial collapse, plus at least another 15 percent to be paid over the next three years or so.
Part of the justification put forward for this is the 18 percent pay hike over three years which the Luas (Dublin city tram) drivers won last June after a series of strikes, some of which shamefully affected the 1916 celebrations in the city.
We were told at the time that the Luas pay hike would not be used as an excuse for piggy-back claims by other transport workers here, but it is being used in exactly that way now, with not just Dublin Bus drivers but Bus Eireann (the national bus service) and rail workers all lining up to take advantage.
Initial calculations of how much Dublin Bus workers must get, both to recoup what they were owed and to match what the Luas drivers got, reached an incredible 30 percent. That seems to have been recalculated back to somewhere over 20 percent, but it is still a massive pay raise.
Some time ago, the Labor Court here (the independent body which makes judgments on pay claims) found that an eight percent pay rise over three years could be justified in Dublin Bus and the company accepted this. But this was flatly rejected by the workers and the series of one and two day strikes began.
The effect for people in Dublin has been appalling, with many walking for miles to get to and from work in the city. Particularly unfair has been the effect on all the kids who use city buses to get to school.
The financial effect on business in the city has been severe, with city center stores claiming they have lost tens of millions and warning that they may have to lay off workers if it goes on.
Read more: $13bn Irish Apple question with no answer
Dublin Bus, which is always short of money and only survives because it gets large amounts of state aid every year, says it is losing over half a million every day the strike takes place.
Given all the mayhem this is causing, you might think there would be intense media examination of how much bus drivers in Dublin are actually earning. But this is not the case.
The newspapers and RTE endlessly repeat the union line about bus workers not getting an increase for the last eight years. But if you Google the media websites and look at all the reporting, you will find it hard to get an answer to the obvious question: How much does a Dublin Bus driver earn?
Since no one else seems to want to provide the answer, we have done some digging and come up with the following.
It's a seven day service, of course, so rostering and shifts are complicated. For a five day week, including working on a Sunday, a Dublin Bus driver gets basic pay of just over €830. If the week does not include a Sunday, the basic is just under €730.
Overtime pay, of course, is extra and is around €48 an hour on a Sunday or €27 an hour on a weekday. Bank holiday pay is €385.
On the face of it, this seems like a pretty good pay level, although being a bus driver typically means working a 12 or 13 hour shift, with a four hour break in the middle of the day (to maximize services in the morning and evening rush hours).
A comparison with what bus drivers in cities like Manchester or Madrid (or other cities in Europe) are earning show that hours are similar but that Dublin Bus drivers are already significantly ahead of pay rates elsewhere, including cities in the U.S. And that is before they get the massive increase they are demanding. So why should they get more?
If this was just a matter of Dublin Bus, it would be bad enough. But the real problem here is much wider and encompasses much of the public service, particularly in service areas where pressure can be applied by workers.
Other transport workers here, teachers, gardai (police), health workers and several other sectors are now all looking for substantial pay increases -- and threatening disruption if they don't get what they want. It's hard not to see it as blackmail.
This pressure for more is justified by the unions (the state sector is the last area where unions are still powerful) on the basis that the economy is recovering and they want full restitution of the ground they lost during the years of austerity when the state had run out of money.
There are several problems with this reasoning. First of all, the economy and tax revenues have only partially recovered, and we also have been left with a massive national debt after the bailout.
Even meeting the billions of interest payments the state has to make on this debt every year is a strain. So it can be argued that any extra money that is available should be applied to that rather than hiking up already high pay rates in sections of the state or semi-state sectors.
Another factor is that pay in the private sector -- the real economy -- is only going up by around two percent a year at the moment, and that is only in companies where any increases are possible.
The public sector unions also argue that their members took a huge hit when the crisis happened because they were hit with both pay cuts and levies to help pay for their pensions. The fact is it was much worse for many workers in the private sector, where pay was hit, pensions were shut down altogether and companies collapsed and people lost their jobs. At least state sector workers have their generous guaranteed pensions and there are no compulsory job losses.
Viewed in that way, what is going on in Dublin Bus now is much more than an inconvenience. It is symptomatic of a much wider problem, a sort of Back to the Future mentality that seems to be intent on denying economic reality and recreating the unjustifiable and unaffordable spiral that got us into trouble in the first place.
It's barely 10 years since the crash happened and we had to be rescued by the IMF. But some people seem to have forgotten already.
The other argument put forward by the Dublin Bus unions is that the state subvention the company gets every year was cut back significantly by the government following the financial crisis here and is now significantly lower than in cities in the U.K., for example. That is true -- but there were big cutbacks in all state spending here because we had no other choice.
The unions argue that the state subvention of Dublin Bus must now be restored to at least the level it was at before the crash. If we could afford it we should certainly do so, because a good public transport system is essential in any civilized society.
But the unions want the money to be used to provide their members with pay hikes that are premature, to say the least. Surely any increase in the subvention should go to improving the service for the public?
As we said, it's back to the future time here. How quickly we forget.
Read more: Cold reception to plan for tax breaks to lure highly skilled emigrants home]]>
They had their first ard fheis, or annual convention, in Newry, Co. Down, on Saturday attended by 150 delegates.
The new party, named Saoradh -- Irish for liberation -- is opposed to the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland and will stage demonstrations in support of republican prisoners.
According to Saoradh's constitution, it might, at some point, contest elections but on an abstentionist basis, meaning it will not accept seats if successful in Westminster or the Dail.
First chairman David Jordan, at the Newry convention, was highly critical of Sinn Fein.
In a clear reference to the party, he referred to "false prophets... defeated and consumed by the very system they claim to oppose."
Saoradh has the support of prisoners from the dissident group referred to as the New IRA in Maghaberry and Portlaoise prisons.
There is no suggestion that the formation of the party is a signal that dissident republican organizations are considering an end to violence. Jordan made it clear in his speech that dissidents do not intend following Sinn Fein's journey into constitutional politics.
"Our history is littered with the failures of successive ventures into constitutional nationalism, as they were subsumed into the very systems they set out to overthrow," he said.
Delegates at the convention said they had formed a revolutionary party to represent the working class and further the cause for an Irish socialist republic.
It was The New York Observer's online edition. Given the racial conflict that has emerged on the streets of New York, and the day-to-day tension that exists between many white police officers and the diverse citizens they are charged with protecting, many believe it would have made a lot of sense to appoint a black or Hispanic top cop.
Still, let's not deny that James P. "Jimmy" O'Neill is a great New York character. Let's not make it seem like this is some rich kid from the suburbs who found a calling in law enforcement and bullied his way to the top.
O'Neill grew up one of seven siblings in an Irish American family in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Once heavily Irish, that area has undergone intense change in recent years.
Many families like the O'Neills left for other traditionally Irish Brooklyn neighborhoods like Bay Ridge, Marine Park or Gerritsen Beach. Others still moved further out to Staten Island or Long Island or New Jersey.
Read more: New York Irish American Police Commissioner sworn in as bombing suspect arrested
Given that, it seems as if some people want to write the Irish out of the New York story entirely. Not everyone. Some people make a fine living off of the old-timey nostalgia that fuels desires to rebuild Ebbets Field right there at Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place.
And yet there are others -- to begin with, the folks who read and write headlines for publications like The New York Observer -- who would make it seem like the appointment of "yet another" Irish American as top cop is some kind of event out of the 1890s.
Make no mistake about it: Brooklyn -- and New York -- continue to change radically. Just last week, new statistics release by the U.S. Census bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) showed that Brooklyn experienced that greatest population increase among the five boroughs.
And it wasn't all just aspiring hipsters from Iowa. Brooklyn also had the largest number of immigrants move there, according to the ACS, with the Bronx coming in second.
And yet, for all of these changes, what never ceases to amaze me is the degree to which the Irish remain central to the fabric of New York. Hence, a new commish from East Flatbush.
In fact, the Brooklyn Irish are having something of a moment. This month, Kathleen Donohoe's compelling novel Ashes of Fiery Weather was released. The book looks a several generations of firefighters and their families who settled in a Brooklyn very much like the one Jimmy O'Neill grew up in.
And yes, the book does spiral back in time to the 1800s, when some of the book's characters came to Brooklyn from Ireland. But one of Donohoe's many accomplishments in this excellent book is that she brings these Brooklyn Irish firefighters -- male and female, by the way -- into the 21st century.
Also this month, we get Exile on Bridge Street from Brooklyn novelist Eamon Loingsigh. The book, a follow-up to his previous gripping novel The Light of the Diddicoy, is set on the rough-and-tumble streets in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge, where Irish and Italian immigrants fight fiercely for control of the docks and all the jobs and money that comes with that control.
At the center of the struggle is Irish immigrant Liam McGarrity, who has trouble on both of the Atlantic. Back in Ireland, his family is caught up in the whirlwind of the Easter Rising.
On the surface, Loingsigh's book mines Brooklyn's gory and glorious Irish past. But it is also the quintessential read for 21st century Brooklyn.
Not only is it all too plausible that Liam McGarrity's grandchildren are cops of firefighters living in Marine Park. But consider all of those immigrants coming into Brooklyn these days.
Love? Death? Money? Struggles in the homeland?
Surely they can relate to a thing or two Liam had to endure as he was becoming an American in Brooklyn.]]>
The 17-year veteran was among the first to arrive at a house in the Kingsbridge area of the Bronx after a report of a possible gas leak. The area was being evacuated when the house exploded, killing Fahy and injuring up to 20 others. As of Tuesday afternoon, police had taken a "person of interest" into custody in New Jersey for questioning in the case.
The second-generation firefighter, battalion chief of the 19th division, was rushed to the nearby New York Presbyterian Hospital/The Allen Hospital but doctors were unable to save him.
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro described the married father of three as "on the rise. He was a star."
"It's a sad day. Thankfully, this doesn't happen every day, but when it does, it doesn't make it any easier. That's all I can say. We lost a hero today and our members are saddened," said a visibly shaken Nigro, who also knew the victim's father Tom Fahy. Fahy Sr. had served with the FDNY for 33 years until his retirement in 2001 and was present at the hospital, along with his wife and daughter-in-law, when his son's death was confirmed.
"(We) saw the unspeakable pain when they were told formally they had lost Michael. It is a reminder of the dangers that our first responders face every day, the dangers that the men and women of the FDNY face and the bravery with which they do their job," Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday morning during a press conference at the scene.
Fahy leaves behind his wife Fiona and three children—two sons and a daughter—aged between six and eleven years old. De Blasio described the battalion chief as " a very devoted father."
Fahy and his crew arrived at a private two-storey house at 304 W. 234th St, near Tibbett Ave, around 6.22am on Tuesday to investigate a possible gas leak.
During the course of their investigation, local media report that a drug lab was discovered. The police were called while emergency services disabled the gas and the area was evacuated. It is believed firefighters came across a hydroponic marijuana growing lab within the building, including propane tanks.
Fahy had left the house and was co-ordinating the evacuation from the street when the building exploded at around 7.30am, despite the fact that the gas had been disabled a half-hour earlier. He was killed when struck by falling debris, while nine other firefighters, six police officers, three Con Edison workers, and two civilians were also injured in the explosion. The severity of their injuries is still unclear, but none are believed to be life threatening.
Twenty-five fire units responded to the explosion, bringing an estimated 106 firefighters to the scene.
"It was very loud. It just lasted for a real-quick second. I didn't know what it was. I thought a truck slammed into something. Everybody started running. Windows shook. I got really scared," neighbor Maureen Murphy, 45, told DNA Info.
NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill confirmed that investigators with the NYPD's Arson and Explosion Squad are working alongside Bronx detectives to discover what sparked the explosion.
It is not yet known who was currently residing in the single-family home.
"There are renters in the house. We're just looking to determine who they are right now," O'Neill said. He confirmed the police had received a tip in the past few weeks about marijuana being grown in the house.
Michael J. Fahy joined the fire department in 1999 and made lieutenant in 2004. He continued to rise through the ranks becoming a captain in 2007 before being named Battalion 19 Chief in 2012. He is the highest ranking city fire official to die in the line of service since 9/11. According to the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York, the last death of a firefighter on duty occurred in 2014.
NYPD and FDNY vehicles stood sentry outside Fahy's home in Tuckahoe, NY, from Tuesday morning. His crew plan to honor the battalion chief on Wednesday.
The Rockland County native was a graduate of North Rockland High School and was living in the Crestwood section of Yonkers with his family.
#NYPD blue showing support of #FDNY red. Rest in Peace Chief Michael #Fahy pic.twitter.com/0vlyhCU5Sq— NYCFireWire (@NYCFireWire) September 27, 2016
Flowers were laid at the #911Memorial today as tribute to fallen hero, @FDNY Chief Battalion Michael Fahy. https://t.co/qdk5oepQij pic.twitter.com/UeFBy1Dkhq— 9/11 Memorial (@Sept11Memorial) September 27, 2016
The Hollywood star is Irish on both sides. His mother, Kathleen McCabe, was born in New Jersey, but her family hails from the Cavan/Monaghan area. His father James Donald McConaughey also had Irish roots. He was from Louisiana and was a former professional football player.
McConaughey married Camila Alves, a Brazilian model and designer, in 2012. The couple have three children.
Speaking to the Irish Sun McConaughey said, "My kids are really privileged to call themselves Brazilian Irish. Irish Brazilian, how great is that? Connected to two of the most vibrant, colorful, exciting cultures on the planet. Both very different yet with so many similarities. It's beautiful. It's a gift."
He continued by saying that he wants his children to be immersed in the culture and craic of Ireland and that he hopes that he too can learn a cupla focail (a little Irish) along the way.
"I gotta keep up the Gaelic. I want them reading the literature. I want Riverdancing. I want them saying 'grand' and 'lunatic" to the marvelous," said McConaughey. "When they're older, I want to send them to that Irish language summer camp you guys do. It's like a rite of passage for you guys, isn't it? When you're teenagers. I want them fluent – which means I gotta do a crash course too."
He told the newspaper that he immediately fell in love with the Irish and felt a connection to the people.
"I walked those streets, walked into tiny pubs with giant welcomes and warm hearts. That 'f*** it, pull up a stool, tell me your story, I'll tell you mine', attitude, I loved it. That was paradise to me. I was coming home. I made friends fast. I sang. I danced – heard stories and tales and jokes and anecdotes I'll remember for a lifetime.
"I was back with my people. Take me home to my people," the Oscar winner said.
This isn't the first time the star let loose his inner Irish. Recently, while being interviewed by RTE before the release of "Interstellar," he tried out his Gaelige and his Irish brogue. What d'ya reckon?]]>
According to Dr Michel Dugon, from the university's school of Natural Science, there are more than 400 species of venomous spiders in Ireland. While none of the spiders pose a threat to humans, their poison could have medical value.
"At least two species that we have screened so far have medicinal properties," he told the BBC's "Good Morning Ulster" program.
The BBC reports that Dr. Dugon is researching the venom, isolating compounds to see what their potential is for targeting cancer tumors and pathogens.
"The common false black widow spider actually deals with cancer cells in a way that is different than healthy cells," he said.
The findings could potentially lead to new cancer treatments, but it would take a long time to develop such therapies, said the doctor.
Dr Dugan said he was surprised to find a cave spider in Connacht that effectively kills bacteria harmful to humans without harming human cells.
He said this is the first time Irish arachnids have been studied in depth because specialists tend to concentrate on larger, more charismatic species that are known to to be dangerous to humans.
"The 400 Irish species have been left behind," he said.
The Galway researchers are also examining the fluids from jellyfish, barnacles, sea sponges and octopus ink for potential medicinal properties.]]>
August 30 marked the 149th anniversary of an unfortunate day for justice in New Jersey.
Bridget Deignan (sometimes misspelled Durgan) was hanged in New Brunswick in 1867.
Bridget was a twenty-two-year-old illiterate, indigent immigrant from Sligo who was essentially exported from Ireland by wealthy, British landowners who saw the poor and uneducated as an economic burden.
She was shipped to Liverpool in 1866, then to New York harbor only a few months before she was hanged for a crime she did not commit and by citizens who despised the Irish, the impoverished, and feared and distrusted Catholics.
I fell upon the story of Bridget's short, tragic life while reading about women who were executed in the United States.
My research indicated that she had been railroaded by a judicial system driven by a sense of superiority, a loathing of the indigent, a hatred of "Romanism" (Catholicism), and negligence of constitutional law.
Further, after researching Bridget's case, I believe I've uncovered the identity of the real murderer of the viictom in the case, Mrs. Coriell.
In 1867, most people in New Jersey and the surrounding states believed that Bridget was a brute, little more than an animal, who had willfully and violently murdered her employer for financial and personal gain.
People believed this because that's what the newspapers printed - newspapers that sold more copies when the printed stories were more salacious, more agitating, more extraordinary.
And Bridget's particular saga had all the makings of good crime drama: a lovely, sympathetic victim, Mrs. Mary Ellen Coriell, a genteel doctor's wife and the mother of a beautiful daughter named Mamey; a wicked, ignorant, immigrant housemaid and former prostitute, who from jealousy and evil intent committed premeditated murder for bloodlust and self-gratification; and an arson fire that scorched the baby-fine hair of the murdered woman's daughter, set by the villainous, Irish immigrant to destroy murderous evidence.
A good story to be sure.
But there is another version of this tragedy in the subtext of the many newspaper articles and the multiple confessions that were marketed within hours of Bridget's death on the gallows.
Was Bridget Deignan a murderer, or a victim of economic and cultural prejudice?
Any close reading of the documents and newspaper articles related to Bridget's case demonstrates that conclusive evidence was lacking, testimony was confused at best, perjury is certain in more than one case, and the motives of so many individuals involved were dubious, or worse.
Further, the men who crafted the confessions published after Bridget's death, those who sold these confessions as books or pamphlets for what was a considerable amount of money in 1867, presented manuscripts in which Bridget admitted killing Mrs. Coriell in hopes of marrying Dr. Coriell, a fact that all the legitimate sources involved in the case dispute.
The false confessions contain factual errors that prove their speciousness, the first of which is Bridget's own name: Durgan.
Her name was in fact Bridget Deignan. She insisted on this to the New York Times reporter who spoke with her after her conviction.
It was, she stressed, her north Irish brogue that confused her last name to the residents of New Jersey and the reporters from New York and Philadelphia.
The "confessions" also describe Bridget as a young woman who grew up in a relatively well-to-do family in Ireland, and as a former prostitute and grifter whose purpose was to obtain money and status by any means possible, even murder.
Research has proven that this is not the case.
Although Bridget was born in Sligo in 1844, as was written in newspaper articles, and in the sham confessions marketed throughout the United States, she was not born to a well-to-do family.
In fact, she had spent the earliest years of her life in dire poverty, living near starvation on farmland infected by the potato fungus.
By the age of ten, she was helping her father unload barges along Killala Bay, living as a gypsy, eating cabbage, and sleeping in barns or warehouses.
Finally, after her father's lungs began to fail, the family sought refuge at Union Poor Law workhouses in Sligo and Boyle, County Roscommon.
Ultimately, they were admitted to the workhouse at Carrick-on-Shannon in County Leitrim where she watched her family waste away from lung, bone, and joint tuberculosis.
Bridget's mother, sister, and two brothers died of tuberculosis in 1865 in Carrick-on-Shannon.
They were buried in unmarked graves in the long furrows of loose earth behind the workhouse infirmary.
Bridget had been well enough to watch as her brother, James, was buried with two other children.
After her brother Luke, sixteen and living in the men's section of the workhouse with his father, died and was buried, Patrick Deignan told his only surviving child, Bridget, that it was time for them to leave.
He wanted to go back to Sligo before he died.
There was a Union Poor Law workhouse in Sligo that had been too crowded to admit Patrick and his family a few years earlier, but he was convinced that he should die in Sligo, perhaps in that workhouse.
Bridget and her father left Carrick-on-Shannon in late March of 1866 on foot.
Although assisted emigration - that is, an organized program wherein the poor and illiterate of Ireland had their transportation/emigration fees paid by the government, absentee landlords, philanthropists and/or Union Poor Law workhouses - had lost approval, the Poor Law Unions continued to provide funds for destitute individuals who wanted to emigrate through 1890, especially to females.
Because workhouses were refuges for widows and children, there was no place for Bridget in the Sligo workhouse, as their women's accommodations were over maximum capacity.
Sligo had some "poor rate" emigration funds available, and her father convinced the guardians to pay Bridget's fare to Liverpool, and from there to America.
Bridget didn't want to leave her father, but he convinced her that America would be like the Isle of the Blest from childhood stories of Irish mythology, a perfect place where it was always summer and life was forever easy; where enchanted animals lived idyllic lives, handfed by the noble girls and boys who found their way to such a piece of heaven.
For someone like Bridget Deignan, who was leaving a country that not only failed her economically and medically, but also spiritually, the "Isle of the Blest" magical thinking that prompted her to board a ship to New York City also promised her that she would not be hanged in August of 1867.
Within hours of her employer's murder, multiple newspapers published Bridget's "confession" and described her as an immigrant "fiend" and a "wild beast," portrayals that increased newspaper sales and interest in the case.
According to the New York Times, the recorder of the city of New Brunswick, Mr. David T. Jeffries, "proposed to sell some time ago the confession of Bridget Durgan, and his modest price was $1,000 in gold.
Another man named Randolph, who, we believe, is a gaoler under Sheriff Clarkson, had a confession, and we understand his price was $250 gold or currency, we don't know which. One of the evening papers is reported to have paid $50 for another confession not worth the paper it's written on" (31 August 1867).
The New York Times correspondent was quick to point out that all of the confessions offered for sale were wildly different.
And all of this occurred while the real murderer escaped justice and left the state.
I was moved to write Bridget's story for several reasons: first, my own ancestors came from Ireland and faced the same kind of prejudice that Bridget and others like her faced.
Poverty and the illnesses associated with coffin ships are still ghosts in my own family's story.
Issues of literacy, even today, separate the successful from the poorest of the poor.
Religious prejudice remains an issue that separates Americans; in fact, even as late as 1960, John F. Kennedy was feeling the pushback from the anti-Catholic factions in the United States.
Assimilation into American culture was difficult for my ancestors who came here with family. I can only imagine the fear and loneliness of a young woman who came to this country alone and with nothing: no funds, no skills, no family, and without the ability to read or write.
As I researched her story, I had to ask myself, what could she possibly have done to save herself?
Bridget was guilty of being a poor, illiterate, Catholic, and an Irish immigrant.
She was, however, not guilty of murder.
Her death on the gallows in New Jersey in 1867 was a gruesome miscarriage of justice.
I hope that telling her story will accord her a little justice, and enable her to rest in peace.
Sheila Duane has been teaching research writing at the college level for more than twenty years. She has also worked as a researcher, a journalist and an advertising copywriter.
She has been publishing her poetry for many years, most recently with the Journal of New Jersey Poets. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of New Mexico, a master's in teaching from Monmouth University, and a master's in English literature from Rutgers University.
Duane resides in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, with her husband, Dean, and her son, Jude. "Bridget's Hanging" is available from amazon and Barnes & noble.com.
This article first appeared in the Irish Echo. For more great stories, visit their website here.]]>
He continued to maintain, contrary to the spoken record of an interview he did with Howard Stern, that he had opposed the war from its inception.
Suddenly it became obvious that Trump had convinced himself of the truth of the lie, never mind the general public.
Hillary Clinton is the only candidate on stage who voted for the Iraq War. #Debates2016 #MAGA https://t.co/Um5WJXEEKr— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2016
It also showed how utterly dangerous it would be to have such a fabulist anywhere near the nuclear button in the White House.
Rather like Doctor Strangelove, Trump could convince himself there was an imminent threat when there was none and act accordingly.
Like Slim Pickens riding the nuclear bomb into eternity in that movie, Trump would be more concerned about his braggadocio and macho posturing.
A man who can convince himself a lie he tells every day is the truth is a dangerous man indeed, but it is not just on Iraq that Trump is lying.
Indeed, were he Pinocchio, his nose would stretch from coast to coast by now and he would have collapsed under the weight of his own absurdities.
Donald Trump in 2012: Global warming was created by the Chinese. Donald Trump lies tonight: "I did not say that." pic.twitter.com/04bwa29jqG— RiotWomenn (@riotwomennn) September 27, 2016
Amazingly, the media has failed to stop his gallop even though the contradictions in his world view make him potentially one of the most dangerous presidents ever, totally unprepared to assume the most important office in the world.
Finally, in a one on one debate over a lengthy period, the potemkin facade that is Donald Trump became clear to all.
He is a real estate mogul who, as Clinton pointed out, got his start thanks to his father's money, and subsequently used some very dubious practices including multiple bankruptcies his way to the top, no more no less.
His political skills are akin to having a plumber carry out your heart surgery. He is utterly unable to carry the nuances of foreign or domestic policy around in his brain.
Instead we have a feral creature, a rough beast slouching towards Bethlehem to be born.
Clinton set him up, but in truth much of the damage was self-inflicted. As a rampant narcissist he could not allow any statement she made that denigrated his self-proclaimed genius to stand.
Trump is not ready for prime time. Indeed he is ready for playing a fearful villain who lies and cheats his way to the top in an afternoon soap opera..
Donald Trump can't win the debate if he repeats these lies. pic.twitter.com/LdBSPPFd2M— The Briefing (@TheBriefing2016) September 26, 2016
That such a man is coming so close to leading the greatest nation on earth will no doubt have future historians scratching their heads. "What were the voters thinking?" they will ask.
What indeed, but if America does not come to its senses after this first debate then God help us all.
Clinton showed a mastery of the issues on Monday night. Trump came armed with a 20 minute brief for a 90 minute debate.
The idea of this self-absorbed buffoon in the Oval Office is too scary to contemplate. Citizens who are considering a vote for the third party candidates should seriously mull the disastrous implications of a Trump presidency before casting such a vote, which will only help him achieve his goal.
The wizard has been unveiled the curtain has been drawn back thanks to Monday night's debate, and reality must surely have hit home. Right?
Donald Trump lies all the time — and stunningly few people seem to care. https://t.co/1hsssuxroG #DebateNight— Vox (@voxdotcom) September 26, 2016
Monsignor John O'Keefe (71), formerly of Pearl River, NY and once president of a Westchester County Catholic high school, has been permanently removed from his ministry according to the lawyer for this alleged victim, Mitchell Garabedian. On Sunday afternoon a joint press release was issued by New-Jersey-based nonprofit Road to Recovery Inc, which helps victims of sexual abuse, and Garabedian. The Boston lawyer said he had been informed of this decision in August.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York said they would not make any public statements until the process is completed. This would include bringing the matter to the Holy See, in the Vatican. The process of defrocking a Catholic priest can take years, but a church official confirmed with The Journal News "that O'Keefe will never be permitted to function again as a priest."
Due to the statute of limitations O'Keefe has not been charged with any crimes. Garabedian said his client was abused between 1981 and 1983 while studying at Cardinal Hayes High School in The Bronx. O'Keefe was a teacher and guidance counselor at the school.
It is alleged that the abuse happened in a Virginia hotel room during a school trip to Washington, DC and at the Irish Christian Brothers' retreat house in Esopus, NY during a weekend leadership training program.
O'Keefe was named the first president of Archbishop Stepinac High School, in White Plains, NY in 1992 and served as the school's leader for 11 years. He was reassigned to St. Margaret of Antioch, in Pearl River, in 2003.
On Dec 16, 2015 O'Keefe was suspended. It was announced via a letter from New York's Archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who called the allegations against O'Keefe "credible." At the time O'Keefe, who was on medical leave, denied the allegations.
Garabedian, who is based out of Boston, has represented hundreds of victims of sexual assaults. His groundbreaking legal work coupled with great journalism at the Boston Globe was the focus of the Oscar-winning movie "Spotlight." He told The Journal News, "I've requested the archdiocese compensate my client financially so his claim can be validated and he can try to move on and he can try to heal.
"This claim is another example of why the statute of limitations has to be amended so that victims of sexual abuse can try to heal."
According to Patch.com Garabedian has acted as an attorney for other local victims alleging sexual abuse at the hands of a priest. He represented seven of the 21 victims who settled sex abuse cases in August 2016 with Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, NJ for $1.9 million. Those victims were abused between 1963 and 1978 by 10 Irish Christian Brothers.
Although O'Keefe has not been charged, Garabedian told the New York Daily News that the public are still at risk because of him. He told the New York Daily News that as the Archdiocese of New York continues to provide O'Keefe with a place to live and has not shared their findings on his case with the public kids are being put at risk.
As part of its transatlantic route expansion, Aer Lingus is now offering a year-round service from Dublin direct to Hartford's Bradley Airport.
The route will be Bradley Airport's first European link. Until now, the only international routes operating out of Bradley are to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
This local report from 22 News speaks to the benefits the new flight will bring to the Hartford area.
The new Aer Lingus service not only creates a direct connection between Connecticut and Ireland, it further establishes Dublin as the natural transatlantic gateway to Europe for those travelling from North America. Via Dublin, North American travellers can avail of onward connections to 28 UK and European airports including London, Madrid, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Paris, Bristol and Berlin, plus many more.
The Hartford launch is the third of three new Aer Lingus transatlantic routes to commence this year, marking the single largest expansion of Aer Lingus' transatlantic network since the airline commenced transatlantic flying in 1958. A direct new service between Los Angeles and Dublin began in May and on September 1, a new daily service commenced between Newark, New Jersey and Dublin.
Fares from Dublin to Hartford start from $245 (€219) one way for travel between November 2016 and March 2017.
Aer Lingus is in the process of expanding its Dublin Airport base into a major European transatlantic gateway, citing U.S Customs and Border Protection services at Dublin as enhancing the continued growth of the airline's Dublin operation as a connecting gateway. Three new transatlantic aircrafts have joined the Aer Lingus fleet this year and announced two new Airbus A330s will be delivered in 2017.
"We are delighted to commence a direct service between our Dublin gateway and Bradley International Airport, Hartford and to offer a convenient connecting service from major cities across Britain and Europe. Whether travelling for business or pleasure we aim to deliver the quality service and competitive prices that have earned us our Skytrax 4-Star airline status. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank all the state representatives, business and community leaders who have supported Aer Lingus to date and we look forward to making this route a success for all involved," said Stephen Kavanagh, Aer Lingus' Chief Executive Officer.
Vincent Harrison, Dublin Airport's Managing Director, noted that the service "adds another North American destination to the airline's extensive Dublin Airport route network. Hartford is the sixth new transatlantic route that Aer Lingus has launched at Dublin over the past five years and we look forward to continuing to work closely with them to promote this new service."
Services available to customers on transatlantic flights include Pre-clearance U.S. immigration and customs at Dublin and Shannon airports, connections to onward destinations in the U.S. with airline partners, hi-speed internet access, an extensive in-flight entertainment selection, gourmet meals including premium economy options and award winning cabin service.
For more information and to book flights to Hartford, visit www.aerlingus.com
Established by Michael McNamara from Galway and Eoghan Cahill from Meath, the Boston-based company is proving a great hit with its patrons who can hire the pub out for special occasions for up to 80 people.
With expertly poured pints of Irish stout and craft beer, visitors to the pop-up pub can also enjoy the best in Irish cuisine, from Irish stew, to soda bread, to the Irish post-night out staple, curry fries.
Depending on what you're looking for, the pub can be set up at the location of your choice (where you have permission to do so, of course) and provide Irish dancers, traditional music, a DJ, a "perfect pint" pouring workshop, or even some adorable Irish wolfhounds to play with.
Of course, the pub may be slightly more airy than your normal, more permanent Irish pub, but once inside the roaring fire, beautiful fireplace, and homey lighting features all printed right onto the walls will soon make you forget you're surrounded by vinyl.
"Irish pubs are known all over the globe as being the most fun, entertaining and welcoming bars in the world," co-founder Cahill told BostInno.
"So, we wanted to take this one step further and bring this authentic Irish bar experience to people's backyard."
With two pubs available—one for intimate occasions and the second for larger groups—The Paddywagon Pub is certainly building on the success of "The Sheebeen", the pub on wheels previously available in Boston.
"What makes the PaddyWagon different is that it's the one stop deal. As mentioned earlier, we bring the authentic Irish bar experience into your backyard," continued Cahill.
"You can just rent the structure and throw your own party or you can avail of our services including drink advisory, bartenders, food and entertainment. We can cater for a small party right through to a large corporate event. And once the party is over, we clean everything up and leave, we really take the effort out of having a party at your house."
H/T: BostInno]]>
The Irish Independent reports that in 2011 the GPA set up an advisory board in New York composed of lawyers, business people, journalists and other contacts to help the organization develop a network of supporters in North America. The board was established to bring awareness to the organization's activities and to help raise funds for the GPA Player Development Programme.
Although the GAA's annual grant to the GPA serves as the main source of funding for the program, the GPA claims that fund-raising in the U.S. was established to help supplement costs and to address a shortfall in funding.
In a statement, the GPA said: "Since 2012 the GPA's US network and events have generated gross revenues of €2.07m.
"However, the relationship with US supporters of the organisation has yielded further benefits to the GPA – for example in 2014, one of the US network agreed to help fund the GPA Leadership Programme, a bespoke one year course for inter-county hurlers and footballers, male and female, past and present.
"Another donation was made recently to help fund a return to education/further education program for retired players. Developing a supportive network in the US has additional benefits for players, particularly for those who may are interested in developing relations and doing business with US companies, looking for investors in business start-ups, internships early in career or possibly broader career opportunities post-playing days."
In 2013, a delegation from the Kerry County Board that included legends Eoin 'Bomber' Liston, Mikey Sheehy, Ogie Moran and Darragh Ó Sé, traveled to New York. During the trip, two separate fund-raising events raised around $25,000 each, and a further $160,000 was raised in donations.
Kerry delegations returned the following year, when 350 businessmen and fans paid $1,000 a seat to attend the Kingdom's Manhattan event. Close to $500,000 was raised.
In May 2015, a coordinated series of events in Boston, New York, and Chicago proved remarkably profitable, reports the Irish Independent.
The Boston events raised $107,000, Chicago fund-raisers garnered $85,000, and a golf outing and gala event at the Plaza Hotel, which included an auction, in New York raised $850,000.
The delegation also secured $100,000 in funding from the American Ireland Fund before returning home.
Other counties have also crossed the Atlantic to raise funds, and many others are exploring the possibility to do so.
Roscommon played New York in the preliminary round of the Connacht championship earlier this year and organized fund-raising events around the weekend of the game, with over €300,000 raised towards the construction of the Dermot Earley Centre in Runnabracken.
In June, Monaghan GAA organized a golf classic in New York with the Monaghan GAA Club in the city. The proceeds from the event were split 60-40.]]>
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Chocolate Sauce
In the 19th century the Great Hunger had about the same devastating effect as in Ireland as a low level nuclear bomb. It turned the nation upside down, it contributed to unprecedented emigrant numbers, and it was a force behind the near extinction of the national language.
Meanwhile, far away Japan had a thousand year long history of unbroken continuity before World War II and the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki rewrote the national script.
After the war that millenary history was broken as the nation embraced a new industrialism and tried to heal from the horrors that had befallen it (they are still the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons).
Japan had been powerful, Ireland has traditionally been powerless, but it's how Japan responded to their unprecedented crisis that fascinates me.
They did what we did not. They studied the collapse and failure in their art forms, they looked directly into the ruination, they took from it what they could -- heartbreak, sorrow, anger, desolation, steely resolve -- and they created a new art form to express it called butoh dance.
Like many things in Ireland, in Japan what "butoh" means largely depends on whom you ask. But some things have become observable.
The dancers are often near naked and often painted a ghost-like white, and their contorted bodies and grimacing faces give expression to the confusion caused by the industrialization process and the devastation of the atom bombs.
These are just the cliff note descriptors of an astonishing form of dance that plumbs the depths of despair and climbs the peaks of transcendence. Watching it, you understand that the dancers and the their nation are trapped and compromised, unable to resist all the powerful forces that shape and misshape their bodies, turning their human forms into historical artifacts.
The dancers move through absurd and sometimes frightening environments, cold landscapes filled with shocks and surprises, their eyes often rolled upward and their faces contorted. It's only later that you connect the people onstage to the Word War II portraits of ordinary Japanese people crawling out of the devastated port cities, often naked, covered in ashes.
Butoh can be desperately slow and repetitive, lulling you into a near trance state or just boring the pants of you. Your discomfort can actually be a part of the performance. They want to bring you into an encounter with what is often hidden or unexpressed.
Nothing in Ireland does this. Nothing comes even close to doing this. We have lived in a perpetual terror of silence, in an endless flight from history, running to the pub or the pier and away from all the great severances of our history.
We have done this as long as I remember. If you want to clear a room of Irish people just ask them how they feel.
No one expects us to wallow in our own defeats, or theatrically claim we can no longer endure them, but a bit of honesty about what befell us, and why it did, and what we could do to climb out of it now would have been healthier than the blanket culture of denial and shame that took their place.
There was a deep cultural silence after the Great Hunger, a turning away, that reminds me of the post war Japanese. But instead of contemplating the hard lessons of our history we walled them off, like a Mother and Baby home, placed them outside the realm of daily life and walked away from them.
The Japanese have convinced me there is value in looking yourself in the face, even if it breaks your heart or sears your spirit. Because – as I was reminded watching Takao Kawaguchi perform signature dance pieces by butoh founder Kazuo Ohno at the Japan Society last weekend – great beauty can be found even in the most unlikely places.
There are cracks in out national glacier now. In recent years the Quinnipiac University opened Ireland's Great Hunger Museum, the first museum in the world dedicated to the commoration and study of the Year One that Irish history travels to and from.
In years to come perhaps new art Irish forms will be also inspired by the study that occurs there. In the words of James Baldwin, you cannot fix what you will not face.]]>
Who won tonight's debate: Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton or Republican nominee Donald Trump? Was there even a clear winner at all?
Take a few seconds to vote in our poll, below. If you have any larger takeaways – Did you see a specific turning point in the debate? Is there a certain question, answer, or exchange that stood out to you? Is there something the candidates didn't discuss tonight that you're eager to hear more about? – let us know in the comment section.
The poll ends Tuesday at 12 noon EDT and we will share the results (views from the US and then perspectives from around the world) at 2pm EDT.]]>
The Irish flag appeared alongside 60 other nations' flags, images of fighter jets and battle scenes of Operation Inherent Resolve, the United States intervention against Islamic State. The Irish flag was removed within five days.
Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs told the Irish Times that Ireland "has not and will not" participate in international military action against ISIS.
They continued, "Our flag should not be used in this context and we are following up."
When asked about Ireland's part in Operation Inherent Resolve a spokesman for the US Central Command (Centcom) told the Irish Times that Ireland made "important contributions" and was considered "an important part" of the group.
According to a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Ireland belongs to a coalition of 67 states formed in Sept 2014. The role of the group is to coordinate on a number of fronts, including military operations, halting the flow of foreign fighters, cutting off Islamic State's access to funding and providing humanitarian relief. Members are not expected to contribute to all aspects of the campaign. Ireland's Department of Defence said no Irish Defence Forces personnel are involved.
The Operation Inherent Resolve website states that "In the summer of 2014, a new terrorist group which had risen during the chaos of the Syrian Civil War attacked across the Syrian-Iraqi borders and seized large swaths of Iraqi territory in the Euphrates River Valley and northern Iraq. Several Iraqi towns fell to the invaders, who called themselves "The Islamic State." By the end of summer, it seemed that Baghdad itself was threatened by IS."
Their mission is defined as a "Combined Joint Task Force – Operation INHERENT RESOLVE (CJTF-OIR), by, with and through regional partners, is to militarily defeat DA'ESH in the Combined Joint Operations Area in order to enable whole-of-coalition governmental actions to increase regional stability."
Forty eight percent of the 8,336 voters declared Trump to the debate victor, while 45% said Hillary won and 7% didn't think there was a clear winner.
But wait. There is a strong caveat. As report by the internet news site The Daily Dot revealed, the majority of the post-debate reader opinion polls were hijacked by zealous Trump supporters on Reddit and 4Chan, who, shortly after the debate, began gathering and sharing links to the polls and encouraging fellow Trump supporters to vote in them as many times as they could. IrishCentral's poll was included in a number of these lists.
Indeed, 58% of those who visited the IrishCentral page for the election poll were first-time readers, meaning that, unfortunately, these election poll results are likely not an accurate portrait of our core readers' opinions.
Our poll participants in Ireland were decidedly pro-Hillary, with 66% of the 944 votes declaring Clinton the winner. Twenty three percent were in favor of Donald, while 11% didn't think either candidate won.
But in the United States, where the votes matter most, voters were significantly in favor of Trump, with the Republican nominee securing 50% of the 5,159 votes. Forty four percent of US poll participants said Hillary Clinton won, while 6% didn't see a definite victor.
These poll results present an interesting contrast with the views of the major political pundits – both liberal and conservative – who broadly determined Clinton to have performed best in the debate. They are also a change from our most recent election poll, in which 57% said they would vote for Clinton, 35% said they would vote for Trump and 8% said they were undecided.
The IrishCentral poll results line up with the reaction polls given by many major news sites, including Time, Fortune, NBC, and Fox.
One notable exception was CNN's post-debate poll, which concluded with a Clinton victory – 65% to 27%. Unlike the snap reaction polls, which lacked controls and operated on the good faith assumption that participants would vote once, the CNN poll was conducted via phone with 521 registered voters around the country.
As you might expect, Trump much preferred the other polls.
Such a great honor. Final debate polls are in - and the MOVEMENT wins!#AmericaFirst #MAGA #ImWithYouhttps://t.co/3KWOl2ibaW pic.twitter.com/sfCEE3I5pF— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2016
Wow, did great in the debate polls (except for @CNN - which I don't watch). Thank you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2016
How much weight should we give to these results?
As Fox News pointed out, they could mean that "Trump's performance was enough to energize those who already backed him."
And they could also mean that a relatively small group of Trump supporters stayed up way past their bedtimes to vote in as many polls as they could, as many times as they could.
The claim was made on a BBC Spotlight program last week.
Three years after the former Sinn Féin official's murder, the Real IRA claimed responsibility.
Speaking to the BBC, Ciarán Shiels, a lawyer for the Donaldson family, said they had met on Friday with Garda Deputy Assistant Commissioner Derek Byrne and two other senior police officers who provided an update on their investigation into the murder.
"The one theme that has come out of today's meeting is that the theory that was being advanced by BBC Spotlight earlier this week, that this was in some way carried out by the Provisional IRA or authorized by Gerry Adams, I think it's absolute nonsense," Mr. Shiels said.
He said the theory that the Provisional IRA carried out he killing and it was sanctioned by Mr. Adams, "just does not stand up."
"It does not marry in any way with the lines of inquiry that have been progressed by the guards or by the [Police] Ombudsman."
BBC Spotlight said it "stands by its journalism."
Read more: Another "get Gerry Adams" bid by BBC Spotlight, Irish media
Dismissing the Spotlight allegations, Mr. Adams said: "I specifically and categorically refute these unsubstantiated allegations.
"I will continue to support the family of Mr. Donaldson to achieve truth and justice.
"Last night's allegations are part of the British security agencies ongoing attempts to smear republicans and cover-up their own actions.
"There is a need for all these agencies to fully co-operate with the Ombudsman's investigation into the role of the police in the events that led to the killing of Denis Donaldson and for the Gardaí to expedite their investigation to bring those responsible to justice."
An inquest into Mr. Donaldson's killing has been adjourned 18 times after applications from the Gardaí.
In April of this year, the family of Mr. Donaldson called on the Garda Siochana to fully cooperate with the ongoing Police Ombudsman's investigation into the West Belfast man's exposure as an informer by giving the investigators unfettered access to his private journal, which was being written by Mr. Donaldson in Donegal at the time of his murder.]]>
Kenny revealed he has twice spoken to Obama about the proposed new serivce, which look set to slash the current costs of air travel between Ireland and the US. The Taoiseach indicated he would also broach the issue with Obama's successor after the November elections if it became necessary.
Despite making a tentative decision in April 2016 to grant a foreign carrier permit to the Irish-based airline Norwegian Air International (NAI)—a subsidiary of low-fares giant Norwegian Air—the US Department of Transport has failed to confirm the licence amid protests over the new routes from labor unions and politicians. Among the high-profile politicians who stand with trade unions against the permit is Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
"We have had discussions at a European level and at an American level. You cannot get any higher than the American president," Kenny said.
"It is not politics that is holding this back. This is not a political obstruction and obviously now there is a claim for this to go to arbitration."
The European Union (EU) has already sought arbitration on the basis that the current delays are in breach of the Open Skies Agreement, an EU/US deal which allows EU-registered airlines to fly to the US from anywhere in Europe. By basing a subsidiary of their company in the Republic of Ireland, Norwegian Air can use this agreement to establish their new routes. {Norway is not a member of the EU.}
"If the matter becomes approved in the meantime, there will be no need for arbitration," said the Taoiseach.
"But it is a matter for common sense to prevail here—for a situation that is in compliance with the 'Open Skies' agreement and that will have enormous beneficial results on both sides of the Atlantic."
NAI originally planned to begin a Cork to Boston route this year and add a Cork-New York route in 2017. The direct service between Boston and Cork is expected to be offered by the budget carrier four to five days a week and cost between $300 and $350 for a round trip.
The Irish leader believes that the such a massive reduction in fares would have an enormous effect on tourism between Ireland and the US, comparing Norwegian Air to Irish budget carrier Ryanair in terms of the effect it could play on international travel.
"The opportunity for Norwegian to fly from Ireland to the States will have the capacity to do for long haul what Ryanair did for (European) short haul with enormous opportunities for both sides," he concluded.
Read more: Ryanair boss says impasse on cheap US-Cork flights is "shameful"
The delays also come as a massive blow for Cork City, which has been battling for 25 years to establish its own route to the US.
"We have simply got to keep the pressure on to secure this service," said Cork Senator Jerry Buttimer.
"Cork has been working for 25 years to get a transatlantic service and it is critical that Norwegian is allowed to deliver it."
NAI first filed their application for the routes two years before the tentative decision in April and had hoped to launch the service this summer. As it stands, services would not be able to commence until after May 2017, with the decision expected to be pushed back even further until after the Presidential elections.
"In the year since Norwegian announced plans for transatlantic routes from Cork, we have seen tremendous support from the public, Cork Airport, the Irish Government, the EU and many others," said a spokesperson for the company.
"It is frustrating, therefore, that ongoing delay by the US authorities is preventing Ireland from much needed new routes and the huge economic benefits they would bring."
Despite polls showing that the opening of the routes is welcomed in Ireland, unions have accused the European airline of planning to source their employees in Asia, an accusation NAI has vehemently denied. The budget carrier is confident they are entitled to the route permit and that the matter will be resolved in their favor.
Read more: Large majority of Irish support Norwegian Air Cork to US flight plans
H/T: Irish Independent]]>
The documents, which were acquired from the UK's National Archives, are to be published on several websites, including that of the National Archives of Ireland, IrishNews.com reports.
Irish President Michael D. Higgins officially launched the records at Richmond Barracks in Inchicore, Dublin, on Thursday.
#1916 courtmartial files online launched by President Higgins #richmondbarracks @DubCityCouncil @dubcilib pic.twitter.com/JCfKmx6rop— peter finnegan (@peterjfinnegan) September 22, 2016
The barracks was the site where many of those involved in the 1916 Rising spent their final days and also where the proceedings of the courts martial were recorded.
Read more 1916 centenary news here
President Higgins explained that for many years the documents were "kept secret and were inaccessible to the general public."
He added the documents "provide moving and valuable insights into the proceedings; imparting a human dimension that can so often be missed from conventional factual historical accounts."
All set for the launch of #1916 court martial files by @PresidentIRL in Richmond Barracks in co-op with @UniIreland pic.twitter.com/q9TQ5wXv7C— @NARIreland (@NARIreland) September 22, 2016
"Thomas MacDonagh's statement that he fully co-operated with British soldiers after the surrender, or the image of Seán McDiarmada unable to walk after surrender because of polio contracted five years before, indicate a dignified sadness that echoes across the years," he said.
"They, and the many other images captured in these records, remind us that the leaders of 1916 were human and wounded agents of our freedom, not abstract or mythical characters; and they enable us to have a profound appreciation of the real and human sacrifices that they and their families made in order that future generations might inhabit a free and independent state."
Read more: Easter Rising leader executed in 1916: Thomas MacDonagh
The documents can be viewed online at www.nationalarchives.ie]]>
Make that the Irish and the UK media, who both published articles lamenting their respective countries' inability to produce behemoths like Uber, Stripe, and Google.
I heard a similar lament when I was in Israel last year and in New York for a solid, oh I'd say, ten years before that. Why don't we have what it takes to build the biggest companies in the world? the media asks, manufacturing its very own version of existential angst, an angst rarely shared by entrepreneurs at the coalface themselves.
In Ireland, we have a bad habit of laying the blame for our lack of unicorns at the feet of ambition. "Irish companies just don't think big enough, " we say, "They sell too early" we sigh, and ambition does read like the culprit until you check TechIreland and see the large funding rounds being secured by Irish companies to fulfill – you've guessed it – their outsized levels of ambition.
Confound all that data the commentators say! Nothing will silence us until we achieve a ginormous Irish exit. For some reason, Fleetmatics' recent $2.4billion acquisition by Verizon hasn't done the trick.
But there are also many people who are attuned to a different story about Ireland. Here's what I for one see:
A hungry but still early stage tech ecosystem, investment pool and talent pool. You can count on a couple of hands the number of people who've built tech companies to over $100M in annual revenue from Ireland, and with a few more hands you've probably included everyone who's built large sales and marketing teams for Irish companies out of Ireland. Given the pipeline of companies coming through now, it's only a question of time before these numbers start scaling nicely but it's hard sometimes to be patient.
Ireland's major challenge, my friends, is not related to ambition, it's related to scale. We need more capita, and we need a deeper and larger pool of talent. We also need a policy environment that prompts more of both to flow to innovative companies in Ireland. Government policy cannot change our small island status, but it can fundamentally change our attractiveness as a destination for talent and capital. We've done this successfully for large multinational corporations; it's time to help fulfill the potential of Irish born and scaling companies.
So, if we're going to continue this conversation about ambition, let's make it less about individual Irish companies and more about the Irish tech ecosystem and how big our ambition is to make Ireland as great as it can be for young companies. I'm so done with once-offs and empty comparisons.
The budget's coming out soon and in the office, we've been working to develop policy documents which we'll be publishing here next week. There's an impressive chorus of entrepreneurs and investors already driving key policy changes. Hopefully, the media and other influential figures will use their voices and unparalleled access and join us.
This article appears courtesy of the Dublin Globe. For more great stories on Dublin's startuo ecosysem, visit their website here.]]>