Ian Paisley an inspiration in Irish Catholic Church sex scandals

The most compassionate words I have heard in Ireland on the Catholic Church child sex abuse scandal came from the Rev. Ian Paisley.

That may sound utterly absurd, given Paisley's history of anti-Catholic fulminating, but while in Ireland I listened to an interview he gave on Newstalk radio last night, and it left me with an entirely new opinion of the man.

In Ireland, the Church abuse scandal has been reduced to legalistic maneuvers and predictable moral outrage comments. The children who were most affected seem strangely absent from the debate.

It is as if the argument has moved beyond the debate about the thousands of individual destroyed lives and identities shattered by the pedophiles who preyed on them.

All the speculation is about whether one bishop or another will resign, what legal maneuvering going on, were the bishops treated properly.

With all due respect to the bishops, they are not the issue here at all. The best that can be said about the whole bunch of them, with a few honorable exceptions, is that they overlooked evil when it was very evident in their ranks.

They can dance on as many pinheads as they want, but it will not excuse that fact.

Paisley instead went to the heart of the matter.

When he was asked about the Irish incidents he did not embark on a rant about the Catholic Church, which I had fully expected.

Rather, he said, and I paraphrase, that he put aside a quiet moment to pray for all those children whose lives were destroyed, who were unable to understand what had happened to them and to pray for their eventual recovery from their horrific mistreatment.

It was in no way an anti-Catholic statement, or a rant from a man once considered the greatest demagogue in Northern Irish history.

Instead, they were words of sheer wisdom from a man who went straight to the heart of the issue, the young children who faced years of official silence about the abuse that will have ruined many of their lives.

Later on in the same interview, when asked about the importance of the border in Irish life, Paisley was very frank, admitting his stance had changed on the Irish Republic but equally, the Irish Republic stance on Northern Ireland had also changed.

It was the kind of simple but direct analysis that has endeared me to the man.

At the last stage of his life, Ian Paisley saw the light and worked to bring peace to his troubled land.

The fact that he broke with the past and the old hatreds is a measure of the man.

He is an example to all in the Catholic Church who would prefer to sweep the current scandals under the carpet and pretend they never happened.

Ian Paisley spoke up and spoke truth to power when it came to Northern Ireland.

The Catholic Church needs to do likewise.

He should be an inspiration to them, strange and all as that might seem.

Dublin Archbishop announces two more Irish bishops will resign

In a dramatic move at midnight mass in Dublin on Christmas Eve, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has announced that two more bishops, Ray Field and Eamon Walsh, will resign their positions because of the spreading pedophile scandal in the Irish church.

Both Field and Walsh were named in the recent Murphy Commission report on pedophile priests and the cover up of their activities in the Dublin archdiocese.

Their resignations mean that four Bishops have now been removed who had worked in the Dublin archdiocese in the 1980s and 1990s when the abuse occurred. Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick and James Moriarty of Kildare have already stepped aside. A fifth, Bishop Martin Drennan of Galway, is still insistent that he will not resign.

Archbishop Martin's statements came at Midnight mass on Christmas eve at the Pro -Cathedral in Dublin. During the ceremony a heckler shouted at the archbishop that he should 'pray to God for his sins'. The archbishop asked the congregation to pray for Field and Walsh and added ,"pray for me too."

Outside a demonstrator burned copies of the Murphy report saying it was a cover up and telling mass goers he and his brother had been abused by one of the pedophile priests.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams stays strong

As long as I have known Gerry Adams I have known him as a private, deeply family orientated man.

When I spoke to him on Monday I could sense that strength in family was still very much at the heart of his latest response to the news that both his father and brother have been named as child sex offenders.

It cannot be easy for a moment to deal with such realities, but Adams can draw on great personal support from within his family.

It is rare to see photographs of Adams’ wife Collette, or of his son Gerry Junior. There are good security reasons for that, but even taking that into account Adams has created a zone of privacy around himself that allowed him to have a personal life.

He is rare among politicians who insist on that. By all accounts Collette Adams has been a tower of strength for her husband during the very difficult years, but unlike, say, Pat Hume, who has performed similar Trojan work for her husband John, Collette has stayed very much in the background.

Occasionally there are glimpses. I ran into Adams with his son and grandchild in Croke Park in Dublin at this year’s All-Ireland football final. Father, son and grandchild were having a wonderful time together. It was a rare glimpse into the private Adams.

Thus the news this week that Adams’ father had abused children in his family and that his son, Gerry’s brother Liam, is now accused of a similar crime must come as a very tough blow indeed.

I’m sure going public with his father’s misdeeds was very difficult for Adams, who revealed some of his inner torment in his public statement.

"In the late 1990s we discovered that our father had been sexually, emotionally and physically abusing members of our family," said Adams.

"This abuse happened over many years. This discovery and the abuse which preceded it have had a devastating impact on our entire family. We are still struggling to come to terms with what happened. We live with the consequences every single day.

"Abuse of any kind is horrendous but sexual abuse, particularly of a child, is indescribably wounding and heartbreaking.

"Victims of abuse in our family are still, years later, recovering from the trauma inflicted on us.”

A close friend told me that making the statement was one of the most difficult times of Adams life. That is really saying something given the extraordinary pressures Adams has faced as he and Martin McGuinness led the Republican movement to the negotiating table and into government in Northern Ireland.

Along the way he was shot and almost killed, threatened, reviled, and painted as the anti-Christ. Through it all he retained his equanimity and kept his eye on the prize.

But these revelations about his brother and father are something different.

We don’t pick our family, of course, and Adams is no more responsible for the sins of the father or brother than anyone else.

But the enormity of the issue when family misdeeds become catapulted in the media and are forced into the open in such a painful way makes it a very difficult time indeed for Adams.

Typically, though, when I spoke with him he seemed to feel a sense of relief that it was all out in the open at last, and that it might help others in the same situation.

Top 10 Susan Boyle moments of 2009

We all have our Susan Boyle favorite moments from 2009, the year she streaked like a comet across our skies. Love to hear from you about yours. Here are mine:

1. The very first time… when she appeared on Britain’s Got Talent and the amazed reactions of everyone when she began to sing.

2. Her appearance at Rockefeller Center when her album debuted and she went to join her fans afterwards at the nearby restaurant. Her adoring fans could not get enough.

3. Hearing her sing “Wild Horses” for the first time, a song I would never have thought she should have chosen and realizing she really has an incredible voice.

4. Her first interview with Meredith Viera on NBC, where this cheeky, funny and very capable lady put a lie to all the tabloid tattle.

5. When the word came that she had smashed all British and American records for a new release.

6. When she was named Woman of the Year by Matt Lauer on NBC.

7. When she refused to respond to jibes by former "friends" Amanda Holden and Sharon Osbourne.

8. When I went on a New Zealand radio station discussing Susan and suddenly realized the world wide impact she had.

9. Listening to “How Great Thou Art” first time I got the record.

10. Reading the dumbfounded response of the British tabloids as Susan’s fame and support worldwide became apparent, after they had written her off as a one-night-wonder.

IRA man should not be extradited from U.S. in Nairac murder

Pat Maguire was living quietly in New Jersey when his past caught up with him on Monday .

He was one of nine men said to be responsible for the death of British undercover soldier Robert Nairac in South Armagh 32 years ago.

Robert Nairac was educated at Oxford and joined the British undercover services after college. He attempted to infiltrate the IRA but was instead rumbled by them. He met his death in a lonely country wood just over the border from South Armagh. His body has never been found.

The Nairac murder has never gone away.

Perhaps because he was such a star in the British Army, perhaps because he had the good looks and Oxford background his death resonated far more than the hundreds of other Tommies who also died in the conflict.

Pat Maguire was allegedly there on the night that Nairac was killed. Soon after he fled to America and made a safe home for himself in New Jersey and lived quietly ever after, married and had four children, held down a good job.

Then the past came knocking yesterday in the shape of a British Sun newspaper reporter who had tracked him down.

So for Patrick Maguire the Troubles have never gone away -- but they should. Since the peace process a general amnesty has essentially been in place on all sides in Northern Ireland . It should apply to Patrick Maguire too. Enough lives have been ruined by that conflict. It is time we all moved on. It is a waste of everyone's time to try and drag up the past. An IRA man once said to me that we needed a solution the "dead could live with' We have that now and it is no good bringing them back to life.

Whew! -- Guinness says production not damaged by fire

Good news on the Guinness front. The brewery is now reassuring their customers that production of Guinness was not hampered by the fire in Dublin today at their headquarters --whew!

Interesting that is the second line on their press release after they stated how the fire happened. It shows you the priority of how people are thinking I guess.

My goodness - no Guinness--now that would be a catastrophe.

Fears for Guinness Supply after Fire

The Guinness brewery fire will raise fears about a shortage of the Black Stuff as Guinness is known locally,over the Christmas period. Clearly it was a major fire with 11 fire brigades at one point being called

The country is flooded with returned emigrants over the Holiday period and the first order of business is usually toasting friends and good fellowship with a pint of the black stuff.

A Guinness shortage would rank right up there with a national emergency. Fortunately, it is likely that supplies have been ordered well in advance for the Christmas season

Worse, however, it may put a downer on one of Dublin's biggest attractions, the Guinness Store House where visitors every year get to witness up close and personal the Guinness magic. It is a multi million dollar revenue generator badly needed in these trying times

No details yet obviously if that attraction is now closed but here's hoping if it is, it will be a temporary arrangement.

Britanny Murphy's Irish roots

Brittany Murphy was Irish — hardly a surprise, given her last name. The actress, was over in Europe plugging her movie Sin City when she told Ireland’s Sunday Tribune all about her Irish roots.

The Murphy surname actually comes from her mother, who raised her after her parents divorced when she only two. “My mother and uncle’s last name is Murphy and it’s the name I’ve always used all my life,” she said.

“My family is very Irish. They give Murphy sweatshirts out to everyone when we go somewhere. We have the emblem from Murphy’s stout put on the sweatshirts like a family crest.”

The busy actress never made it to her ancestral homeland, though. “There were two times recently when I thought I’d be able to go, but work-wise it just didn’t happen, sadly,” she said at the time.

Sadly she will never make it now

Before Berlusconi, an Irishwoman who tried to kill Mussolini

Silvio Berlusconi may have had his nose broken and teeth shattered during the recent attack on him but an Irish woman meant deadly harm to Berlusconi's predecessor Benito Mussolini when she tried to kill him in 1926.

Albina Gibson, described as " a gray haired Irish woman" accosted Il Duce as he left an event and sat in a car and put a revolver to his face. She pressed the trigger three times. Mussolini reared back his head and the bullets seared his nostrils. but did not seriously injure him.

Mussolini brushed the assassination attempt off.

Outraged fascists grabbed the Irishwoman and tried to injure her but she was rescued. She was later committed to an insane asylum in England where she ended her years.

Housekeeper stole $3 million from U2's Adam Clayton

What a shock! U2 member Adam Clayton may have had as much as $3 million stolen from him by his housekeeper a Dublin court has been told.

Adam Clayton has secured a high court order freezing the assets of his former housekeeper Carol Hawkins after alleging she may have stolen $3 million from him.

The evidence suggests that Mrs Hawkins bought an apartment in New York, had shares in several horses and used Clayton's debit and credit cards for the private use of her and her family.

In September 2008 Hawkins went to Clayton and admitted she had stolen $20,000. He had dealt with it in a "compassionate manner" and kept her employed the court was told.

It turned out however that she may have withdrawn about $1,000 twice daily for a period of 13 months from his credit and debit cards.

Two accountants also discovered trips to Chicago for her son and a friend as well as numerous other expenses charged against Clayton's accounts.

The case will continue in Dublin's High Court on Monday. More to come obviously

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly's political views are irrelevant

Is there anything more ridiculous than the 'controversy' over Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly's alleged views on abortion?

Some Notre Dame blog sites are trying to stir trouble by claiming that Kelly supports abortion rights and that his wife does too. This they claim, should disqualify him from coaching the Fighting Irish

What this has to do with football is beyond me. After all Lou Holtz was in deep water when he made a favorable comment about Adolf Hitler on ESPN a while back. It was dumb as a post but did it reflect on the fact that he was a great football coach? No

I have no idea what Charlie Weis's political opinions were but he was a bad college coach irrespective.

That is the reality. We live in an era where people on both left and right are trying to politicize everything, including unfortunately, glorious fall days watching college football.

Brian Kelly could be Hindu for all most of the Notre Dame fan base care. They desperately want a winner at all costs. Trying to bad mouth him because of his alleged political views is completely crazy -- and a waste of everyone's time.

A great Irish chieftain has passed

08/26/2009 09:30 PM

Teddy, they hardly knew you.

To call you the greatest of all the Kennedys might strike some as lofty rhetoric. But it isn't. You gave your life to your country, as surely as those patriots of old gave theirs for the United States and your beloved Ireland.

A great Irish chieftain has passed.

Sure, Jack became president and Bobby became a folk hero. But they never accomplished what you did throughout your life.

Protector of the poor, the downtrodden , the voiceless, the needy. Those in pain, those in suffering. The litany goes on. You were there for them — oftentimes you stood alone. That great booming voice, relentless, despite the odds.

Yes you were flawed. Are we all not?

But underneath lay a relentless dignity, courage and decency that I never found in another politician living or dead. You will still stand taller in your grave than the critics who hounded you.

That was you, Teddy. I was so proud to call you friend.

One of my most cherished memories ever will be the call from you as I sat in a Dublin hotel in August 1994. The IRA ceasefire had just been announced. There were no cell phones then — an excited hotel employee came running into the restaurant. "Ted Kennedy is on the phone."

Everybody there applauded. They knew what you had done — you brought peace to Ireland.

Without your critical backing for the visa for Gerry Adams from President Clinton in 1994 there would have been no IRA ceasefire. Without you President Clinton would never have have had the political muscle to give Gerry Adams the visa that led to that ceasefire and to peace in Ireland.

You made Clinton appoint your sister Jean Ambassador to Ireland where she played a key role in the peace play. You were the voice for Ireland on Capitol Hill for a decade, like you were the voice for so many other causes.

When you decided Gerry Adams wanted to make peace you brought America with you. It was a huge risk but you took it willingly.

I learned then with Kennedy in your corner everything was possible — even ending a 30-year-old conflict that everyone said was unsolvable.

Right on the cusp of the Adams visa British dirty tricks tried to set up a bogus IRA outfit in San Diego of all places. They called in a fake threat and the president wavered.

You called me around midnight and asked me to get Adams on the phone — to tell him straight that you,Ted Kennedy, would stand by him and vouch for him with the president that very night and the visa would go ahead. Clinton stopped wavering and granted it.

It was a huge leap of faith but not to you it wasn't. You rarely calculated the odds but if it was right you did it — like peace bringing peace to Ireland.

What a politician you were. One of my fondest memories is the day you and the beautiful Vickie took me campaigning with you during a tough re-election battle against Mitt Romey in Massachusetts in 1994. It was a close race but that day I saw Ted Kennedy the master politician in action.

Everywhere you went you were like the character from "Cheers," where everybody knew your name. No matter whether they were high up or low down, you grabbed them in that great bear hug, asked about their family, even knew the names of their kids.

All day, in every building, along every street across every district, I saw the same extraordinary outreach. I had never seen anything like it.

You were to the political world born but you created your own legacy as the greatest American to ever serve in the Senate.

And boy, could you make a speech! I had the misfortune to precede you on many occasions, when I was organizing the immigration reform rallies over the past few years.

We brought 3,000 people to Washington as part of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform Movement. You came to all our rallies and I introduced you — and got out of the way as quick as I could. It was like bending before a powerful gale, once you took the podium.

Whether it was the "Boys of Wexford" song we always played for your entrance, or your deep emotional ties to Ireland, your staffers told me they were among the best speeches you ever made. I think it was because in your heart you identified so profoundly with the underdog, with the undocumented of whatever nationality trying to begin life in America like your great grandparents from Wexford did right after the Irish famine.

You never forgot your roots, your deep identity with the downtrodden and your brothers' dream that you could help raise people up.

Eighteen months ago I testified before your Senate committee on immigration. You turned it into a wonderful dissertation on the role of the Irish in America.

As the other senators sat and watched in some bemusement we ranged over every Irish topic from immigration reform to Northern Ireland to your beloved County Wexford and the news from Ireland.

You put on quite a show and the other panelists beside me sat dumbfounded. They had come for a discussion on immigration instead they got one man's love of his heritage and his history.

How you loved that history. Your siblings told me you were the reincarnation of Honey Fitz, your mother's father, a great big bluff Boston politician, who masked his political acuteness with a hail fellow well met outlook.

You didn't need to hide your light — you were the brightest in the Senate on great issues such as minimum wage, civil rights, immigration and health reform and the great wars of our times. You opposed Iraq and Vietnam, you saw the dangers of Watergate before anyone else and the promise of Obama before most.

A lonely voice often — but so often a visionary one.

Your brothers were always with you. You took me around the Kennedy library one rainy night in Dorchester in the 1990s. You showed me their historical artifacts, and their unbelievable impact not just on American life but on its psyche.

I wondered that night how difficult that must have been for you, to always walk in their footsteps, dwell in the shadow of two of the great Americans of the past century.

Yet you surpassed them. In his wonderful book "Edward Kennedy, A Biography," New York Times writer Adam Clymer argued persuasively that you were not just the greatest senator of your time but of all time.

Clymer wrote: "A son of privilege he has always identified with the poor and the oppressed. The deaths and tragedies around him would have led others to withdraw. He never quits but sails against the wind."

Once more into the breach, Teddy.

Some years ago you invited me to a small dinner you were holding for then Irish Prime Minster Charles Haughey at your home in Virginia. As the night wore on and the conversation turned to Ireland you had tears in your eyes describing the harsh ocean passage across the Atlantic your forefathers took. It was like they had left yesterday and you understood the pain they must have felt all those years ago on the "bitter bowl of tears" the Atlantic Ocean represented.

That ability to empathize, to understand how others felt, to remember and reach out to the downtrodden the underprivileged and those most in need as you went through life set you apart.

Now you are on the long journey home to join Bobby and Joe, and Jack and Eunice and the others. They will greet their kid brother with a smile and a hug, I'm sure, and an acknowledgment that you did not just well but very well.

In a famously competitive family that will be praise indeed. I'd say they are right.

The Boys of Wexford are finally reunited.

Why Ted Kennedy picked Obama

01/30/2008 09:56 PM

Irish leaders were among those contacted by the Clinton campaign as it became obvious that the late Senator Edward Kennedy was considering backing Senator Barack Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton.

The feeling was that Irish Americans close to Kennedy might make the difference in persuading the Massachusetts senator to stay neutral rather than throw his support behind Obama.

In the end calls were made, but they had no impact in changing the senator's mind. The senator's wife Vicki, as well as Caroline Kennedy, were apparently very influential in convincing Kennedy to make the move at this time.

It was certainly a surprise. The Kennedys and Clintons had formed a genuine bond when Bill Clinton was in the White House.

Some of it centered around Northern Ireland, where Kennedy was the chief persuader in getting Clinton to grant Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams a visa in early 1994 despite ferocious opposition from the British government.

That decision worked out very well for both men, giving Clinton one of the great gains of his presidency in foreign policy and rehabilitating Kennedy in the eyes of many Irish Americans who felt he had become too tied to the British and Irish government positions on the North.

The Kennedy endorsement of Obama was not entirely surprising, however. Kennedy has always had a leaning towards the younger dynamic candidate rather than the status quo. He was very taken with Senator John Edwards when he first entered the Senate and saw him as a future president.

Edwards, of course, has disappointed with his poor finishes in the primaries, but Kennedy probably felt that Obama represented the last throw of the dice for him in terms of the opportunity to influence a presidential race. At this late stage in his life, the liberal lion knew he would not have many more opportunities to impact a national election.

Bill Clinton was hardly pleased by the endorsement. He told friends that he had given Kennedy pretty much everything he had asked for during his presidency, and there was clearly a sense of betrayal over Kennedy's surprise move.

But politics ain't beanbag, as has been often quoted in this campaign.

Kennedy staffers were quoted in one report as stating that Obama's support for Kennedy's failed immigration bill was also a major factor in his decision to throw his support to him.

Susan Milligan wrote in the Boston Globe, "Kennedy was also impressed by Obama's deep involvement last year in the bipartisan effort to craft legislation on immigration reform, a politically touchy subject the other presidential candidates avoided, the (Kennedy) associate said."

In fairness to Senator Clinton she supported that bill and voted for all of its provisions, but obviously Obama made a far deeper impression on Kennedy with his backing.

Kennedy provided a link to the old blue collar, labor coalition that Obama initially had trouble convincing to support him during this primary campaign.

Now that Ted Kennedy has passed, the question remains if Obama really is the second coming of JFK, as the former president's brother clearly believed he may be.

The reality is that those are impossible shoes to fill, as much for the legend as for the reality of the JFK legacy. Obama can only continue to put one foot in front of the other and do his best. The Kennedy endorsement was obviously important, but in the end he will have to achieve greatness on his own dime.

Ted Kennedy's big mistake over Ireland

09/04/2009 05:56 PM

Ted Kennedy made one major mistake in his career which has cost generations of Irish-born access to America.

As the author of the 1965 Immigration Act, he saw to it that the long-standing laws that gave a huge advantage to European immigrants was removed.

That was fine and there needed to be a far fairer balance between Europe and other regions of the world when it came to legal emigration to America.

What Kennedy unwittingly did however was effectively end forever - or at least to this date, any legal emigration from Ireland.

Kennedy later acknowledged that the end of legal emigration from Ireland was an unintended consequence of the bill he pushed through Congress.

He appeared at several Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform events in Washington D.C and vowed to try and right the wrong to his ancestral countrymen.

He tried his best but the defeat of the Kennedy/McCain bill last year was his final effort

There were warnings at the time. "Tip" O'Neill later speaker of the house asked the Irish government if they wanted an exception in their case.

The government of the day amazingly replied no, sealing the fate of hundreds of thousands of their emigrants who have lived illegally in America since then. There was opposition from Irish organizations but Kennedy brushed it off.

His aides were worried about a bill that would take away Irish immigration to America but Kennedy ploughed ahead, aided and abetted by brother Robert who was also in the Senate at the same time.

The previous so-called national origins policy was utterly discriminatory but it would have been the right thing to ensure that mother countries of generations of American immigrants had some legal recourse to immigration.

Some southern Republicans strongly opposed Kennedy's efforts to end immigration as America knew it, but he moved past them.

It was the time of huge civil rights breakthroughs and Kennedy saw immigration in the same light.

On September 22 1965 the Senate voted 76-18 to pass the new bill that utterly excluded emigration from Europe save in a very small percentage of cases.

We Irish are suffering the consequences since.

Mary Robinson and Gerry Adams - her finest hour

09/04/2009 09:55 PM

I had the privilege of interviewing Mary Robinson on Thursday for the IN NYC group of young Irish professionals at the Irish consulate in New York.

The former Irish president and U.N Commissioner on Human Rights spoke for over an hour on topics as diverse as Afghanistan, her native county Mayo an the issue of climate change that she is deeply involved in.

I was particularly struck however, by her recounting of one of the most extraordinary moments in the Irish peace process, the day in early 1994 she went to Belfast and shook the hand of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

At the time the IRA were not on ceasefire and the British and Irish governments were apoplectic that she even contemplated such a visit and such a meeting. The attempts to stop her ranged form the ridiculous to the sublime. He own party leader Dick Spring of the Labour Party strongly recommended she not do it. The Irish government hummed and hawed and clearly wanted her to stay home.

The British were more inventive, threatening to withdraw her security if she stepped on their soil and allegedly giving out her private phone number.

They were all so anxious to stop her because they knew what it meant.The political isolation of Sinn Fein would end and the firm policy of never engaging with "terrorist communities," otherwise known as the people of Republican West Belfast.

The demonization of those communities and of Robinson herself for visiting them was in full swing by the time she got to Belfast.

But she was keeping a promise to Irish people everywhere that she would be an inclusive president. To that end she had visited or held receptions for many of Ireland's most disadvantaged groups and communities.

She accepted the offer to come to West Belfast on the same basis. As Gerry Adams was the local political leader she saw no reason not to meet him.

Such a clear-headed political strategy was lost on the other powers-that-be at the time. They portrayed Robinson as the cat's paw of the IRA and tried to demonize her in the worst way possible.

In the event she went ahead with the visit which proved an overwhelming success and a huge boost to the fledgling peace process.

She received an ecstatic welcome from the West Belfast community who had long been so demonized. She shook Gerry Adams' hand but that hardly seemed the most important thing to her in retrospect. Rather it was that she was fulfilling the mission she had set herself as head of
state to be president of all the Irish people.

On that day in Belfast Mary Robinson did Ireland proud.

How his Irish Catholic faith brought Teddy Kennedy home

09/03/2009 04:55 PM

"It was my faith that brought me home," Teddy Kennedy writes at the end of his memoir "True Compass" which will be published on September 14.

His extraordinary account of his battle with cancer in the final pages of that memoir will serve as an inspiration for all who face the same terrible fight. His closing line is an eloquent and wonderful epitaph for an Irish Catholic who battled demons in life.

Somehow, Kennedy found a way to overcome those demons even though he spent his life in the shadow of famous brothers and in the bright glare of the relentless media spotlight.

His Irish heritage forms a huge part of the book, as might be expected. His work on the Northern Irish peace process gave him as much satisfaction as those of us who worked with him on it suspected. It is quite simply, one of the great triumphs of his later life.

On the darker side, he frankly admits that he drank way too much in the years after Robert's death. That and Chappaquiddick he says almost caught him in a death spiral but somehow he survived.

Kennedy was nothing but a fighter, often one who suffered from self inflicted wounds. His brothers died at their zenith, so were displayed in amber in an aura of perfect grace.

With Teddy we got the man in full, flawed, yet magnificent in his determination to never give up on his ideals.

Kennedy did not wear his religion on his sleeve like many bible thumpers but in the end he hewed to the biblical message that "blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Nobody helped the poor like Teddy Kennedy, nobody felt their pain more. It is a message his detractors deliberately choose to ignore, focusing instead on his all too easy flaws. Another biblical message should give them pause: "Let him without sin cast the first stone."

Kennedy's deep Irish faith came from his mother, Rose. She sought solace in her faith during the many tragedies she suffered.

He is contrite about Chappaquidick and said the death of Mary Jo Kopechne haunted him all his life. "Atonement lasts a lifetime," he said. We will never know what really happened on that lonely road off Chappaquiddick Island. Kennedy strongly denied that he was drunk on the night of that dreadful accident.

Suffice to say that Kennedy felt its impact the rest of his life and that his deep Irish faith helped him cope.

Maura O’Connell’s special link with Ted Kennedy

09/03/2009 08:55 PM

Once again the world’s fascination with the Kennedy family and its legacy captivated all of us last week after the death of Senator Edward Kennedy at the age of 77.

Because of the importance of the Kennedys in Irish American history, perhaps the impact seemed larger to us especially as we watched along with the world the final ceremonies including the Irish Wake at the JFK Library in South Boston.

Endless tributes and commentaries filled the broadcast airwaves and print media providing a larger more complete picture of the complex youngest son of Joe and Rose Kennedy.

One of more eloquent remembrances that I saw came from Maura O’Connell, a singer based in Nashville who unexpectedly became a friend who penned her personal thoughts for CNN.com late last week and shared some further thoughts with this writer.

Like politicians, singers -- particularly those close to the folk tradition like O’Connell -- deal with the human condition and are often defined by their ability to interpret it. Those who see a common humanity and accept that we all have faults within our makeup find inspiration in reaching out to those who can help us understand ourselves and those all around us, whether they are close to our hearts or the community at large.

Kennedy and Maura O’Connell share an Irish connection, of course, but that isn’t necessarily the link that drew them together.

In her essay for CNN entitled “Why I Sang at Kennedy’s Wedding” we learned more about their little-known relationship that was one more telling example of the senator’s own personal style in relating to a host of people and allowing them to influence his life.

Most of us may remember that Maura O’Connell first came to prominence in Ireland and America as the vocalist with the popular trad group De Danann at the beginning of the 1980s with songs like “Maggie” and “Molly-O” that she rendered in her own inimitable style.

But even though she grew up in the traditional music bastion of Co. Clare, the Ennis native had much more eclectic taste in songs and a sense of adventure that eventually brought her to Nashville in the mid-1980s where she fell into the New Grass music scene that was a little bit country, little bit folk and roots.

It was a scene that was growing more sophisticated and cosmopolitan in its reach while still being topical, romantic, dramatic or humorous as it described our lives and times.

Around the time that Senator Kennedy was courting Victoria Reggie on his “redemptive” path in 1991 and 1992, O’Connell was well on her way to the prolific career that has produced 11 solo recordings out of Nashville. In particular her CDs Helpless Heart (1989) and New Life (1991) contained songs that called out to the reforming youngest son of the Kennedy male line.

O’Connell was on the road in San Francisco when Kennedy tried to contact her Nashville home out of the blue to book her for one of the most important gigs of his life. Not sure if she should take the phone message seriously, she called him back a day later.

While she was honored to be asked to sing at the upcoming nuptials, she accepted the invitation after the senator convinced her that her songs had made a huge impact on him, and that he and Vicki wanted her to sing at their small private wedding ceremony in his D.C. area home.

In particular, the Hugh Priestwood song “A Family Tie” that O’Connell included on 1991 album describing both an alcoholic husband and a wayward son who still needed the support of the family was pivotal in the discussion drawing them together.

The wedding in 1992 saved Kennedy and allowed his greater attributes to flourish once again. By all accounts true love had smitten him, and O’Connell found him to be utterly charming and devoted to his new wife.

“It was a beautiful day and we were treated royally like honored guests and not some band that came in the back door,” she told me by phone.

“He was so much at ease and personable as he put us at ease as well as he told us so many details about all the iconic Kennedy photos that adorned his private office where we sat before the ceremony.”

In recalling the song she sang for their first dance, the standard “You’ll Never Know,” appropriately enough from her CD New Life O’Connell said Kennedy was the very picture of a man “who was very happy to be marrying the woman he loved and the whole occasion was charming, intimate and beautiful.”

It also was the beginning of an enduring friendship with her family and the Kennedys.

While the gregarious Kennedy loved to sing in true Irish fashion, his ability to do so didn’t match the formidable songstress, though she found his efforts endearing both on his wedding day and at times when he came to see her perform at the Birchmere Music Hall in Alexandria, Virginia or at other functions he invited her to over the years.

On CNN she wrote, “God bless him, he hadn’t a note in his head,” but in our conversation she elaborated on that saying, “He genuinely loved to sing and I love to see people sing just for the nature of singing without regard to the quality of their voice.”

Sharing the words of a song is another valuable form of communication to people like O’Connell and Kennedy which became a bond between them. Teddy and Victoria thoughtfully sent gifts and notes to Maura upon her own marriage to Mac Bennett the following April and upon the birth of their son Jesse.

Three years ago, O’Connell accompanied Jesse, 13, on a trip to Washington, D.C. for a camp for young leaders of America. Disappointed that the activities did not include any opportunity to meet with any serving politicians, she made a call to the senator’s office.

Time was immediately carved out for Kennedy to meet with the group of children giving a personal example of why public service was important, and an instant civic lesson that made a lasting impression.

Young Jesse, who is disabled and wheelchair bound, saw first hand the kindness and dedication of a legislator who not only helped write the Americans With Disabilities Act, but went beyond the letter of the law and expressed the spirit of it as well.

Many of us recall the special place of reverence on the wall in Irish households for a picture of Jack Kennedy along side that of the current Pope. In the Ennis household of the O’Connell family atop the piano was a framed photo of Maura’s father with a younger Teddy Kennedy taken at the nearby Shannon Duty Free Shop in the early 1960s.

That picture now stands in Nashville home of Maura O’Connell as another fitting example of a family tie that binds, but one that reflects a much happier connection than the song suggested so many years ago when this Irish connection was made.

O’Connell’s latest CD released earlier this year, Naked With Friends, on Sugar Hill Records, features a number of duets with the singer and friends in Ireland and America with an emphasis on sharing songs familiar and not so familiar and can be ordered at www.mauraoconnell.com.

A new Kennedy star is born

08/29/2009 10:55 PM

A new Kennedy star was born today.

Teddy Kennedy Junior, looking for all the world like his departed father gave a eulogy that far surpassed the boiler plate of President Obama who was unable to rise to the occasion.

Teddy's memory of losing his leg to cancer and his father helping him to climb a steep hill in a snowstorm using his artificial leg left tears in everyone's eyes.

If Teddy Kennedy Junior ever decided to throw his hat into the fray for the Massachussets Senate seat it would be no contest.

With a name like that, as powerful an oratorical style as that and with the memory of his father so fresh in everyone's mind it would not even be close.

Kennedy's other son Patrick gave a warm eulogy also but never reached the heights of Teddy Junior.

Whether the New York lawyer and Wall Street worker Teddy Junior would ever think of a political career is open to question - but one thing is clear - he is far superior to anyone else of his Kennedy generation.

Joe Kennedy, the former congressman looked tired and older during the service. His race has been run andit appears unlikely he will run for the seat.

Bobby Kennedy Junior - after promising much - decided not to run for the Senate seat in New York and has passed on the opportunity for ever.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend became Lieutenant Governor of Maryland but suffered a charisma deficit in direct proportion to the amount of excess charisma her uncle Teddy had. She too is out of politics

Vicki would certainly win it, but the weight of the Kennedy legacy would weigh too heavily on her if she does, as it did on Jackie Onassis when she had to find a life outside the claustrophobic Kennedy clan.

As for Barack Obama; where has the magic gone? This was the opportunity for him to reach back to his halycon days onthe camapign trail when he seared the soul of America with his oratory.

Since winning the White House he has been a disappointment, preferring a no-nonsense delivery to his wonderful high-flying oratory.

That is understandable but the Kennedy eulogy was a time to let fly, to soar, to inspire, to educate and build on the dream that Teddy dreamt.

He did none of that. Obama is looking more like a creature of the Chicago political machine, cautious, wary, always with an eye on the chance of cutting a deal rather than inspiring a new direction.

Teddy woud have been disappointed.

Gerry Adams visa was a very close call - Ted Kennedy

09/15/2009 02:25 PM

Senator Edward Kennedy says that the Gerry Adams visaa awarded by the US government in 1994 was granted despite the best efforts of " powerful institutions" including the State Department and the British government.

In his memoir "True Compass," which was released after Kennedy's death on August 27, the senator reveals how close the effort came to collapsing.

He clearly spells out that the decision by the Clinton administration to award a U.S. visa to Gerry Adams in January 1994 was a far closer call than had previously been thought.

The Adams visa was pivotal in the quest for peace in Northern Ireland. It had a galvanizing effect on the peace process and helped lead to an IRA ceasefire a few months later.

Adams himself has admitted that the ceasefire might never have happened without the visa.

And on a personal level, Kennedy's memoir reminds me just how hard we worked to secure the visa - and how difficult it was to achieve.

Chief among the many opponents to the Adams visa was the U.S. State Department.

Kennedy describes the State Department as being "locked into a view of Adams as a terrorist, and the British Embassy which resented U.S. involvement in what it considered its home affairs.”

"We were going up against powerful institutions," writes Kennedy, "skilled in the many ways of derailing initiatives they didn’t like." Were we ever.

On January 26, 1994, Kennedy writes that he and Senator Chris Dodd “narrowly averted a White House denial of the visa by personally speaking with chief of staff Mac MacLarty and foreign policy advisor Sandy Berger.”

Then Kennedy says the State Department tried to derail the visa via a different route; by sending a challenge to Adams, a demand for two assurances that the department clearly believed Adams would reject.

"One was that Adams personally renounce violence….the other that Sinn Fein and the IRA were committed to ending the conflict on the basis of the joint declaration document.”

Here is where I came in. I was acting as the intermediary between Adams and the White House at the time and over the following 48 hours we sought a form of words that would satisfy all sides.

It was incredibly difficult. Adams, with good reason, was increasingly anxious that he was being set up by the State Department to make a statement that would damage him and that they would then refuse him the visa.

As Kennedy points, that certainly seemed to be the case.

When Adams was interviewed by the US Consul General in Belfast, the official Val Martinez told him “In my opinion there is no way you’ll get the visa.”

Adams was convinced he would not get the visa. He called me and I tried to explain to him that the State Department did not represent all the US government and that the political wing, ie the Clinton White House, was still in favor

Kennedy was deeply upset by the nonsense the State Department was pushing. He reveals (for the first time) that he called them and told them he would add language to the State Department authorization bill saying that Adams should be granted a visa.

They finally balked at that but the British were not done with their efforts.

As Kennedy recounts it; “hand grenades turned up in San Diego. Each one had a note affixed, demanding a visa for Adams.”

It was clearly the work of British dirty tricks trying to deny Adams at the last.

After a flurry of midnight phone calls that I participated in with Kennedy and Adams the Sinn Fein leader agreed to condemn the incident.

The visa was his and the peace process received an incredible boost.

It could never have happened without Kennedy. His memoir is self-effacing but it affirms that fact.

I told you so! Standing ovation as Susan Boyle stuns Tinseltown

09/17/2009 11:49 PM

Far be it from me to say 'I told you so!'

Far far from me to remind the nay-sayers and the gloaters who said she was "fragile" and "ill" that Susan Boyle blew them all away with her performance last night on "America's Got Talent."

The TinselTown crowd - and that's a tough crowd to impress - got to their feet and gave her a standing ovation after she sang her version of "Wild Horses" from the Rolling Stones.

Another 25 million viewers in their homes across America must have done the same.

I know I did.

From the moment she nailed that first difficult note, I thought "you've done it girl. You've come a long way from Blackburn now!"

Wearing a floor-length black gown, Susan showed just how far she - and we - have traveled.

It seems like light years ago when she first burst on to our screens in "Britain's Got Talent."

Sure, there's been road bumps along the way, and Susan was straightforward when she described the exhaustion which overtook her at the end of the "Britain's Got Talent" run.

"All I remember is being put in an ambulance and being taken to a clinic. I've never felt so tired. I look back at it now, it was a necessity because I was tired."

"I used to be a kind of spectator looking out at the world, but now I'm part of that world," she said. "And although frightening, I'm going to embrace it, because I feel a bit more confident within myself, more able to cope, more able to take part in the dream."

It's a dream come true alright, People were crying and cheering at the end of her song.

And even better,the girl they called "Susie Simple," at school has proved them all wrong.

I just wish her mother was here to see the success her daughter has become.

I expect she's looking down from heaven with tears in her eyes.

Intellectual firepower in Dublin for global Irish conference

09/18/2009 09:55 PM

There is an incredible amount of intellectual fire power gathered at the Global Irish Forum in Dublin this weekend.

On the first night about 50 of us were packed into a bus and brought to the residence of the U.S. Ambassador Dan Rooney. What followed was a wonderful warm welcome by an inspiring host who, of course, knows all about celebration from his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Frankie Gavin and the new De Danann played a rousing concert and the lead female singer looked a dead ringer for former De Dannan diva Maura O'Connell; even better she sang like her too. It was a great opening to the forum.

Craig Barrett former Chairman of Intel was there, as were John Hartnett and John Gilmore of the Irish Technology Leadership Group.The ITLG is in the process of raising $100 million to fund start-up ventures in Ireland. So far they have about $40 million of that raised and venture capitalists striving to jump on board.

The ITLG may well be the engine that helps recovery in Ireland more than any other single group. The idea is simple - make Ireland an incubator like Silicon Valley of innovative technology and creative thinking. Provide the funding and allow the Irish group to utilize an American base in San Jose where the ITLG is located. Then using best American business practices and Irish innovation create a successful start-up.

All new companies need money, contacts and luck, The last cannot be guaranteed but the other two certainly look like they will be provided by the ITLG folk who are truly blazing a trail.

Also at the event is Liam Casey, a young County Cork native who has singlehandedly created a vast and successful manufacturing and Fed Ex type empire in China. Casey is so successful that "Atlantic Magazine" recently said he understood China better than any other westerner.

Amazingly Casey speaks little Chinese, which he says allows him to keep an outside perspective on his dealing there. Either way Atlantic says he has solved the Chinees puzzle like no other person alive.

The hotel we are staying in shall remain nameless except to say it captures much of the excesses of the Celtic tiger. TV screens on the wall in the dining and bar area show a fake fire in a fake fireplace. The place has as much atmosphere and warmth as downtown Peoria on a winter's day. Ah well.

Those are the calibre of people at the weekend long forum. The big sessions start tomorrow.

Susan Boyle set for fairytale Christmas

09/18/2009 09:34 PM

Susan Boyle is looking at a fairytale end to a fairytale year.

She is being tipped to top the charts in Britain and America this Christmas.

Susan stunned America earlier this week with her spine-tingling version of the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses."

Now, British bookies Ladbrokes say her album "I Dreamed A Dream" is a hot favorite to top the charts in both countries when it is released around Thanksgiving.

The shy songstress has kept a low profile after she rocketed into America's hearts on Wednesday.

Poignantly, she visited Disneyland in California, saying she was fulfilling a long-held childhood dream.

It's funny how we take these things for granted in America.

I can remember as a boy growing up in Tipperary how I would hear stories about coming to America.

Stories about Hollywood and Disney and all the things that children dream about.

I got to live my dream here in America and I've visited all the places I used to dream about when I was a kid.

I'm delighted that Susan is getting to live her dream too.

Craig Barrett shows Intel-ligence Ireland sorely needs at global forum

09/18/2009 08:45 PM

One man stood out on day one of the Global Irish Forum in Dublin today. That was Craig Barrett, the man who brought Intel and 4,000 jobs to Ireland and is now retired chairman.

The discussion on what the Irish economy needed was off the record, but suffice to say Barrett called it as he saw it — and he certainly has the knowledge, experience and juice to make the comments he did. No one else came close.

The first plenary session featured 180 businessmen and women from all over the world, all brought together because of their respect and love for Ireland debating what Ireland needed to do in the near-to-medium future to rescue their economy.

The Irish government turned out in full display. Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen stayed most of the day, Deputy Leader Mary Coughlan spoke as did the man in the spotlight Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, who is currently trying to stave off the worst banking crisis in history.

Little wonder so many Irish pols showed up — this forum is rare good news in desperate times in Ireland and the government has pulled a master stroke by convening it.

What was fascinating was the diversity of views and the diversity of backgrounds.

I learned that Asian visitors to Ireland have major visa problems which is preventing many more tourists from there coming here. I learned that the Irish community in Paris numbers a few hundred active highly skilled members and they are particularly good at networking job opportunities for each other.

I learned from the Capetown, South Africa, delegates that an Irish firm is now supplying some of the electricity to Capetown which had been hit with bad blackouts.

I learned from the Argentine Irish delegate that the recession does not seem to have hit as hard in South America as it has elsewhere.

I learned from the Australian delegate that the Irish-born population down under has been shooting upwards as the economic malaise hits home in the old country.The Canadian delegate says the same thing is happening in his country.

In the evening, we went to to Aras an Uachtarain, literally the President's house, to meet Mary McAleese and her husband Martin. As always it was a rare pleasure to meet and greet with one of Europe's great political leaders.

She gave a marvelous speech saying how proud she was to stand with the Irish from all over the globe who had come back home to add some optimism to the mix of pessimism and cynicism now prevalent here. By evening's end, anything seemed possible for Ireland Inc.

But this day belonged to Craig Barret.

Is Susan Boyle a fake?

09/23/2009 06:30 PM

Ann Powers is the music critic of the Los Angeles Times, and is the first major newspaper critic to write about Susan Boyle seriously.

However, I disagree strongly with her following quote:

"Boyle has something Americans have sought in popular music for more than a century, even as they also seek its opposite: the mask of sincerity."

Mask of sincerity? What on earth is that - is she saying that Boyle is faking sincerity?

If so I couldn't disagree more. It is her utter and total sincerity that has won Boyle the heart of millions.

If she was faking her original introduction to show business when she confessed she had never been kissed and looked like a deer in the headlight, then she fooled me.

If she made it through the most incredible prime time fast forward introduction to fame that any singer in history has ever experienced while faking it, then she fooled me again.

If the down-to-earth, no nonsense person we have seen since is not the real Susan Boyle, then double down on fooling me.

Susan Boyle is not faking sincerity - she personifies sincerity. She can no more change the real person within than the average person out there, which is such a part of her charm.

There has been no botox, toy-boy, night club-hopping, there has been no tabloid scandals other than invented ones. She has retained a dignity and sense of self that is incredible given the pressures on her.

Now I do agree with the following Powers quote:.

"We root for Boyle for reasons that have nothing to do with the way she sings. It is heartening to see a not-quite-50-year-old woman who'd never previously caught a break find success, even if at times she seems more traumatized than fulfilled by fame.

But to be surprised by her singing is, frankly, an unfair response. Boyle has trained hard to sing the way she does; she is as careful as a singer comes. We should stop being startled by her performances and respect her for the qualities she's cultivated: scrupulousness and dependability."

Now that is the Susan Boyle I recognize.

Bill Clinton works his magic at Northern Irish Forum

09/24/2009 11:58 PM

Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland's First Minister could hardly keep the smile off his face.
The usually dour Democratic Unionist Party leader was positively lighthearted as he surveyed the 600 Irish Americans in the audience Wednesday at the Clinton Global Initiative session on Northern Ireland at the Sheraton Hotel in New York.

Call it the Bill Clinton effect.

Beside Robinson, the former president was working his political magic as only he can on the group of Northern Irish leaders as well as the Northern Secretary of State Sean Woodward and Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin.

Unknown to most this hotel was the very place Bill Clinton first encountered an Irish audience back in 1992 when he was a relative unknown running for president. That night he promised a visa for Gerry Adams and a peace envoy. Everyone smiled then too, saying it was just another promise from another politician.

We should have known. When it comes to Northern Ireland Bill Clinton delivers.

I think the secret is out. On the podium Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness was beaming too. In the audience Sir Reg Empey, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, and Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein were part of the smilefest.
Up on the podium Hillary Clinton's new U.S. economic envoy, Declan Kelly, was positively radiant.

He had pulled together the impossible, persuading Northern Ireland's warring leaders to come to America at short notice and take part in the forum. His plan had paid off. It is a very impressive start for the new envoy.

There have not been too many kind words exchanged between McGuinness and Robinson in recent months. In New York they were acting like soul brothers.

It seems that proximity to Bill Clinton has that effect for Northern Irish leaders.
He reminds them they have far more in common than divides them, that their political courage has brought Northern Ireland to a world stage like this not because of conflict but because of the historic resolution of that conflict

After all, no one helped more in solving their problems whether it was a visa for Gerry Adams which brought Sinn Fein in from the cold, or sending George Mitchell to spearhead the Good Friday Agreement or visiting Northern Ireland as president and creating the biggest day out since the Battle of the Boyne .

It was that Good Friday Agreement that Clinton rightly pointed to at his forum as an example of how to resolve conflict in world trouble spots.

The Agreement contains two contradictory notions and allows both sides in Northern Ireland to claim victory. It is full of creative and quite brilliant ambiguity and essentially allows both sides to reassure their supporters that they have not sold out.

A senior IRA figure described it to me memorably as a document "our dead can live with." Amen to that.

At his forum, Bill Clinton was using the document to remind the Northern Irish leaders of how far they had come, putting it in an international context as a model for other countries who have conflict resolution issues.

We heard that Peter Robinson had been to Afghanistan, that Martin McGuinness had been to Baghdad, all in the worthy cause of showing how Northern Ireland had created peace in a divided society. Great and important stuff.

The integrity of the quarrel in Northern Ireland has often been remarked upon most notably by Winston Churchill who referred to the dreary spires there re-emerging unchanged after the cataclysmic events of Word War 11.

That may be so, but the resolution of that conflict sends an even more important message to a world desperately in need of good news. It can be be done, yes we can, is feidir linn,

Bill Clinton embodies that spirit of can do in Northern Ireland. Little wonder Northern Irish eyes were smiling at his forum. Sure he'd steal your heart away.

Why hate-filled Glenn Beck is no Bill O'Reilly

09/26/2009 09:55 PM

Glenn Beck and his merry musings are fooling no one.

The hysterical denunciations of the other side are taken straight from the play book of the "Know Nothings" the racist group that tried to drive the Irish out of the U.S. after they landed here during the Great Famine.

Calling Obama a racist against whites, making Acorn,a group that enrolls blacks to vote a punching bag, taking every extreme statement by the other side and portraying it as official Democratic Party policy is the same demonizing tactic the Know Nothings used when they portrayed out Irish ancestors as ape and mocked our religion as superstitions.

Alas, the murder of a census worker in rural Kentucky is part of the inevitable outcome of whipping up such passions.

William Sparkman was a 51-year-old single father who had gone back to college in his mid-40s to earn a degree. He was looking for a teaching job when he took a temporary position as a census worker. Now he is dead, hanged and tied with the word 'fed' scrawled across his chest.

Did Glenn Beck kill him ? No. Did he help provide the rope that hung him? Maybe. His obsessive anti-government ranting was probably taken seriously by some ignorant "Deliverance" backwoodsmen who picked on a poor single father.

Sadly at the moment Beck is winning. His cover story in Time magazine means he has arrived but it is a one way journey for him. Like all the other racists cloaked in 'reasonable' discourse he can only outdo himself by becoming even more outrageous until his words begin to lack significance and he becomes full of sound and fury signifying nothing. I give him two more years max.

Compared to Beck, Bill O'Reilly is a principled conservative,someone I can disagree with but who knows where the line is between advocacy and hate speech. O'Reilly, perhaps mindful of his own ethnic history, would never stoop to the levels of Beck when railing against those he disagrees with.

O'Reilly always saves a slot for the other side, Sometimes he goes close to the edge but never too far. He is a professional who realizes the impact of his words on his millions of supporters.

In contrast Glenn Beck will do anything for a cheap headline and a rating point. He is one of the main reason there is such a poisonous political atmosphere in America today.

Peter Mandelson: The most obnoxious pol ever

09/27/2009 08:55 PM

I'm glad that former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern tells the truth about Peter Mandelson in his upcoming biography.

Ahern says Mandelson held up the peace process when he was Northern Secretary and was essentially a waste of space.

I couldn't agree more. I found Mandelson to be the most arrogant and insensitive British politician I've ever met and that is saying something.

I think I have met every British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since James Prior back in the early 1980s. None came close to Mandelson for arrogance and obnoxiousness.

He simply refused to listen. When I met him he told me how everything was even though he was hardly a wet day in Northern Ireland at the time. I say through an insufferable half hour lecture on how Irish America knew little about the place even though we had just played a seminal role in helping find a solution there.

Later in his autobiography Mandelson stated he was using a conversation with me to send a message to Sinn Fein and the IRA. If he was it was a weird one to send. What I heard was "I am the most obnoxious person you will ever meet and I know everything and you know nothing."

In a strange way I compare it to another obnoxious politician, former Congressman Joe Kennedy Jr., who came to me at one point for a briefing on Irish America's view on the Irish peace process. Like Mandelson, Kennedy never shut up and every statement he made showed me even more how little he understood.

I'm glad Bertie Ahern has stood up and told it how it was with Mandelson. Clearly Mandelson was not only obnoxious to me and Irish Americans but to everyone else as well. I should not be surprised.

Bravo Senator Graham for blasting Glenn Beck and far right

10/02/2009 08:34 PM

Senator Lindsay Graham has always been my favorite conservative. I got to know him during the campaign to legalize the Irish undocumented when I headed up the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform.

Graham has Irish roots, and despite the fact that he represents South Carolina, one of the most conservative states in the union, he has that Irish gift of telling it like it is even to his own side.

He reminds me of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan who had the same gift of telling Democrats uncomfortable home truths such as the welfare crisis and the impact of single parent families.

Graham and John McCain were the only two on the Republican side who talked sense on immigration and I helped raise money for McCain on the back of it. Those who speak truth to power should be supported whatever the party.

I always found Graham was refreshing. He is a true individualist who never bought into conspiracy theories and always told it straight.

Now I see he is telling truth again with his straightforward and brave account of how far right the lunatic fringe the Republican party is tending.

He told a conference hosted by Atlantic magazine that Glenn Beck is aligned with that strange group I like to call “very rich white men whinging” and said about Beck, “Only in America can you make that much money whinging. He (Beck) is aligned with cynicism but we became a great nation not because we are a nation of cynics but a nation of believers.”

Graham also called those who claim Obama was not born in America “crazy” and told them to “knock this crap off and get on to more significant problems.”

“I'm here to tell you those who think the president was not born in Hawaii are crazy,” he said.

Good for Graham. He also stated he was very worried about the passions that cable news channels were whipping up in recent weeks.

If you read Tom Friedman's chilling article in the New York Times this week where he essentially predicted the current poisonous atmosphere could lead to an assassination attempt on Obama, you know where he was coming from.

“If you get rewarded for being a jerk you are going to just keep doing it,” Graham said.

He pointed out a recent article in Newsmax magazine, a far right wing rag, that said a military coup against Obama could happen as an example of the media madness.

Thank God we have politicians like Graham who are not afraid to criticize their own side. We can only hope that such truth and decency will permeate many more politicians at this dangerous time. America badly needs it.

Chicago, Obama and Pat Ryan wuz robbed

10/02/2009 09:55 PM

I feel sorry for Chicago and the Irish-American team that put together their Olympic bid.

Pat Ryan of AON, helped by Mayor Daley and businessman Andy McKenna, used every trick in the book to try and win the games for the Windy City, including bringing in the president.

To not even make it past the first round was a crushing blow.

I know Pat Ryan and consider him an honorable and decent man. He deserved much better as did the other Chicago leaders involved.

Read New Yorker magazine this week about the gang problem in Rio and shudder. The International Olympic Committee has taken a big chance in my opinion.

South America certainly deserved the games but the notion that Rio is a safe and comfortable city to visit is really blown away by the New Yorker article. Put it this way – it will not be on my itinerary in 2016.

Chicago is big enough to rise up and thrive again. There is a deep strain of anti-Americanism among the elite in other nations abroad and the International Olympic Committee leadership is no different. I've grown sick of it frankly.

Of course when it comes to sponsorship the IOC will all be flocking to the American corporations and American primetime programming will dominate the scheduling of the event.

By denying Chicago and treating them so shabbily the IOC may well have bit the hand that feeds them. No American city will bid again for a long time given the humiliation Chicago has experienced.

That is greatly to the detriment of the games themselves.

Galway girl from America makes trip worthwhile

10/03/2009 09:55 PM

"I feel like I'm one of you, my ancestors came from Galway bay."

So said the middle-aged American woman on the 10.45 train from Galway to Dublin.

God bless Americans! Her sweet account of her heritage got a major conversation going with a bunch of Dublin women returning from a girls week out in Galway.

"I bet you all come from large families," she said.

"I'm one of ten," said the Dublin woman.

"I'm one of seven," said another.

"I'm one of one," said the third to great laughter.

There is something about Americans in Ireland. They bring the Irish out of themselves.The whole way to Dublin there was laughter, craic and even ceol, as one of the Dublin women gave us "Molly Malone."

Now try and imagine a similar scene on Amtrak or the Long Island Railroad, where strangers meet in their thousands every day. Not likely.

But it took the yank to break the ice, the innocence of her declaration that she was as Irish as them and her folks, who came from Galway bay.

God bless you, Galway girl, you made sure a long trip from Ireland's western outpost to the capital city was full of fun, craic and song.

And the American made it happen.

Roman Polanski no different than Irish pedophile priests

10/05/2009 08:45 PM

What is the difference between Roman Polanski and a Catholic priest child abuser? A Roman collar and an extraordinary media bias, I'd say.

Polanksi raped a 13-year-old child in 1976 and fled to France. Many priests in the U.S., mainly Irish Americans, sadly, around that time were doing the same thing.

Polanski fled to Europe and was feted. The priest abusers were covered up for by bishops and cardinals. Eventually that edifice came tumbling down and the church has suffered the horrific consequences since – and deservedly so.

Not Mr. Polanski, who has gone on to win an Oscar and become a European cause célèbre in the intervening years.

When he was arrested in Switzerland the outrage was palpable. How dare they arrest a child rapist!

One wonders would the same cast of characters who decided his arrest have felt the same if it was a priest who was taken into custody on child rape charges?

Whoopi Goldberg said she felt Polanski's crime was not "rape rape” – well what then was it?

Movie producer Harvey Weinstein called Polanski's actions "a so-called crime." Wonder if he would say that of it if it was priest who was involved?

French intellectual Bernard Levy said Mr. Polanski had merely "committed a youthful error.” Spare me please.

The Polish Prime minister said he was disgusted at the American and Swiss authorities, and the president of the German film academy called for the “solidarity among prominent people" to defend Mr. Polanski.

Any day now surely we can expect Whoopi and Harvey and the others to form the “Misunderstood Catholic Priests Pedophile Society" calling for the release of the poor souls who raped young children like Polanski did.

Not bloody likely. They should all be ashamed of themselves. What kind of message are they sending to young people with this claptrap?

Polanski is no more outside the law than any other American citizen. He should be extradited to face the charge he ran away from.

The surprising Susan Boyle

10/16/2009 01:50 PM

Susan Boyle likes to box. Who would have thought it?

Susan Boyle likes the Rolling Stones. Who would have thought it?

Susan Boyle apparently likes London more than her home town of Blackburn in Scotland. Surprising.

Most commentators had her in a box. You know the one, the eccentric old maid from Scotland who somehow got famous by a once in a lifetime exposure on television. She'd be a one hit wonder they said, soon sent back to deserved obscurity.

Most commentators predicted her first album would be a safe and mushy mixture of tried and true classics with little of note on it. Then came cover versions of the Stones, Madonna, the Monkees.

Whatever was she thinking?

She seems to have got it exactly right. Less than a month before release her album is already firmly ensconced at number one on the presales chart and the internet is buzzing like never before. Her fan club numbers are going up not down.

The surprising Susan Boyle.

What is next? Self-composed songs? Yes I hope so.

She could weave a magic thread or two from a life less ordinary, a life often lived in the shadow of great pain and the light of exemplary courage.

Such experiences make us vulnerable but acutely aware of life around us, the good, the bad, the ugly.

Her heart was touched by fire by her tough upbringing and it was that fire that came to the fore when she finally got her moment in the limelight. She grabbed it and kicked it to kingdom come.

I'd love to see that side of Susan Boyle, not the singer of other’s songs, but perhaps a touch of the inner poet we all carry around with us, our own experiences described.

I don't know if you have ever heard Edith Piaf sing “Non Je Ne Regrette Rien (“No I Regreet Nothing”). You just know it’s about her life, and tragic it was, forced into prostitution, losing her only child, yet conquering all to become France's most popular singer.

When she sings that song it becomes her.

Frank Sinatra did it to a lesser extent on “My Way.”

I'd love to see Susan Boyle pen her song, her cover version of her life.

Probably not, but remember this is a surprising woman. The surprising Susan Boyle.

Donal Og Cusack a true hero for the rebel county Cork

10/20/2009 08:14 PM

Donal Og Cusack's decision to state openly that he was gay is an extraordinary moment for Ireland.

He is the first sportsman in a sports-crazy society to ever take that decision. One that will expose him to much hatred and comment I am sure.

Irish sports, especially hurling, are macho pursuits, in which gayness or even a hint of it have never played a part.

The GAA, a rural-powered organization, is essentially a conservative institution where priests and bishops often play a leading role.

Yet here is Donal Og Cusask, not just any old player but a true legend in the game and a man who has still several years playing time left, coming out to the general public.

He does not know what reaction he will face when he dons the famed red jersey of Cork next year when the hurling season begins.

No doubt there will be many who will taunt and jeer him but I have a feeling that Ireland has reached that place where they know a gay goalkeeper is of no threat compared to what the many pedophile priests have done to the Irish way of life.

Donal Og has played in New York and I have met him on at least two occasions.

He left a lasting impression as a great goalkeeper, but also someone who was prepared to speak up on issues such as player power in an organization that had denied players any say for far too long.

Cork players are known as "The Rebels."

Donal Og Cuasck certainly fits that bill.

In another way though he is a hero, a man who has braved the toughest challenge of his life to make his point that gay men can be legends in hurling as well.

I wish him well.

Bill O'Reilly wants to work for Obama

10/23/2009 09:47 PM

Bill O'Reilly wants to work for Barack Obama. No I'm not kidding.

That is what O’Reilly reveals in his column in The New York Post this week.

Here's what Bill wrote: "President Obama should fire White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
and hire me as his top adviser. Don't laugh I can almost guarantee higher poll numbers for Obama if he brings me on board.”

But how does Bill O' intend to achieve that feat?

"First thing I'd declare a truce with Fox News. Right now the president is spending more time launching offensives against Fox than... the Taliban."

Fair enough, Bill would certainly help with Fox, but what about the other networks then? They would sure as hell be upset off if Bill is taking the briefings.

Still it would be delicious to see David Gregory or Andrea Mitchell of NBC quiz Bill on Iraq.

Then Bill says he would commit 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan because the U.S. Army "deserves a chance to win" there.

Uh oh, Afghanistan has fought off every invader since the time it was part of the “Great Game" between the British and the Russians in the 19th century. They both got defeated and got out somewhere along the line. Can America be any different?

Bill thinks so. I'm not so sure.

Bill has a good idea on tort reform to lower the cost health care lawsuits and lower premiums and he says Barack needs to drop the public option. Part one I can see, part two I don't think so.

The insurance companies are rapacious and bloody-minded – ask anyone who has dealt with them. They won't change unless there is significant government regulation and involvement.

Bill also thinks Obama has a fascination with far-left radicals. Sure they been a couple of lefties in his administration but look at the main players – Robert Gates, Hillary Clinton, Timothy Geitner Joe Biden – far left radicals? I think not.

I agree with Bill that Obama needs to stay off TV for a while. He has reached the overexposure level and needs to draw back a little.

So overall Bill has some good ideas and some not so good.

But he should remember it is not about ratings for a president – it’s about legacy. Obama needs to spend his capital on issues like health care otherwise his presidency will be a failure.

Unlike other Fox anchors I think Bill wants him to succeed.

Why do I have sneaking feeling Bill O'Reilly likes this guy?

Celtic fan Susan B(h)oyle goes her own way

10/24/2009 09:34 PM

Susan Boyle going to a Celtic soccer match makes a very large statement.

I'm sure her advisers were not too keen when she stated she was going, but being Susan, I'm sure she swept away any naysayers.

Celtic is not just any football club. About half the people in Scotland and Northern Ireland can't stand them, the other half love them.

Celtic was started by Irish Catholic immigrants in Scotland in 1888. Since then they have taken on a powerful significance for that
community. The Rangers, their great Glasgow rivals, were started in 1872 and are seen as the Protestant club.

At a time of high sectarian tensions, the two clubs came to represent far more than just football as usual.

Generations of Glaswegians, Scottish and Irish people came to identify with one team or the other. There were often violent sectarian clashes. Just one year ago a Catholic in Northern Ireland was savagely murdered by drunken Rangers fans celebrating a victory over their old enemy.

Their annual clashes are massive games watched by up to 80,000 fans and millions worldwide,. Here in the US there are probably hundreds of Celtic supporter clubs. Their fans are known as the "bhoys," leading to one wonderful headline this week about the "Susan B(h)oyle Celtic Fan."

The Celtic anthem is "Fields of Athenry," about the Irish famine. The best-known Rangers song is "We are the Billy Boys," which celebrates a famous Protestant victory over Catholics at the Battle of the Boyne in 1609.

In Northern Ireland today, young people frequently identify themselves by wearing a Celtic or Rangers sweatshirt. It is like a tribal badge and instantly associates the wearer with one side or the other. Interestingly, I was out at a Notre Dame game last weekend and
saw several supporters wearing Celtic jerseys.

As the descendant of Catholic Irish immigrants, Susan Boyle would have a classic Celtic supporter profile. She proclaimed it so proudly by wearing their scarf and attending a game. Others might have preferred her not to. Yet it is the best example so far of Susan Boyle being her own woman.

Jewish group forgives tenor Tynan ... How about the Yankees?

10/28/2009 04:56 PM

I am delighted to see that the Anti-Defamation League has decided that Ronan Tynan is not the devil incarnate after his ill-considered joke a few weeks ago about not wanting Jewish tenants in his apartment building.

Now, it remains to be seen if the Yankees get the message and allow Tynan to sing at their stadium again.

I'm on record as stating that the Yanks made a huge error when they banned Tynan after his stupid anti-Semitic joke -- that Tynan had an incredible record of charitable activities and that the action was utterly unlike him.\

I'm glad the Jewish Anti Defamation League now agrees, and urge the Yankees to get on board.

According to a press release from the ADL, Tynan, the acclaimed Irish tenor, will perform at the opening dinner of the Anti-Defamation League's annual meeting on Thursday evening, Oct. 29 in New York City. The press release notes that Tynan has also convinced the ADL the remarks, meant as a poor joke, were totally unlike him.

In a meeting with ADL leaders, Tynan unequivocally and sincerely apologized for a comment he made about Jews. The ADL leaders said that "in talking with Dr. Tynan and hearing his life story, it was clear that he is a good man who understood that he had made an inappropriate comment that was hurtful not only to the person who heard it but to the community."

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, added, "it is our belief that when an individual who has a record of good works, as does Dr. Tynan -- who performed at many charitable events, particularly after 9/11, and for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan -- slips up on one occasion, a sincere apology should help everyone move on."

Tynan said he was grateful for the opportunity to talk through the issue with ADL.

"I understand totally the insensitivity of my remarks. I do understand from my own life how hurtful and wrong prejudice is." Tynan was born with a lower leg deficiency and has had both of his legs amputated below the knee.

Tynan will perform his rendition of "God Bless America" at the ADL dinner, which is focusing on ADL's educational and anti-bias programs.

Now, how about the Yankees showing the same sense of forgiveness?

A man in full: University of Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins gets his Irish up

11/06/2009 08:56 AM

As speeches go, it was one of the finest ever delivered at the American Irish Historical Society annual banquet, now over 100 years old and thriving. It was held Thursday night at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

Fr. John Jenkins stood up as gold medalist and delivered a speech that reclaimed the Irish roots of Notre Dame in a way no other president of Notre Dame has.

He spoke movingly of his own heritage, his family roots on his mother's side, who were Condons from Cork, and the deep resources of faith, family and friendship that his Irish background bequeathed to him.

In the audience was Donald R. Keough, the man who created the Keough Naughton Institute of Irish studies, which has restored an Irish awareness to the campus that was absent too long. It must have been a proud night for him to see this heritage reclaimed.

Jenkins is quickly becoming a great college president, one to perhaps rival even Fr. Ted Hesburgh, the legendary leader of the college for 35 years from 1952 to 1987.

The baptism of fire for Jenkins was his invitation to President Barack Obama to be commencement speaker. Jenkins was assailed on every side by conservative alumni and angry bishops, who wanted him to cancel the invitation.

"You cannot change the world if you shun the people you want to persuade, and if you cannot persuade them … show respect for them and listen to them," he said at the time. As a Catholic leader, it was a fearless statement in the face of so much criticism

He faced the critics down, and Obama appeared to a rapturous welcome from the students and faculty. Those who really mattered most — the students themselves — perfectly understood what Jenkins wanted to do, to open up a dialog in the best Aquinas Catholic tradition. It is no coincidence that Jenkins is an expert on Aquinas.

On Thursday night, he took on another issue that has often been overlooked, some would say conveniently — and that is the deep Irish roots of the university. In this multicultural world, it has been fashionable to downplay those roots, to confine it to football fighting songs and the leprechaun who struts his stuff at games.

Jenkins, however, took a deep look at those important roots, talked about the four Irish brothers who helped Fr. Edward Sorin establish the school, and then of the initial term of derision, the Fighting Irish label attached to Notre Dame in a Michigan newspaper in the early 1920s.

He noted that turning that term of derision into the mission statement of a Catholic university at a time of deep anti-Catholic sentiment was the greatest achievement of the college in those troubled times.

He parsed and analyzed what the term fighting Irish stood for, and quoted Irish President Mary McAleese when she was commencement speaker at Notre Dame in 2006.

"By the Fighting Irish, we don't mean fighting in the sense of argumentative, though we might occasionally mean argumentative, but what we actually mean mostly when we talk about it is an indomitable spirit, a commitment, never tentative, always fully committed, to use the words that I got ... this morning, total commitment to life itself. No matter what life threw at them, and it threw quite a few wobblies at the Irish from time to time, that indomitable spirit that always sought to dig deep to find the courage to transcend, to keep going..."

That trumps a fighting leprechaun or a chant at a football game. What Jenkins was saying was that all of the Note Dame family, from whatever ethnic background, had made or were making the same journey Irish immigrants and their descendants did to keep the hope alive, to dream the dream.

He spoke movingly of his own mother, now 80 years old and the mother of 12 children, whose own mother faced desperate odds after her young husband was killed in a tragic accident that left her widowed with three children to raise in the Great Depression. Her tale of struggle and success was a quintessential American immigrant story, which is being repeated all over America today in Hispanic and Asian families, and in whatever ethnic group that is new to these shores.

Jenkins was using the Irish experience as the benchmark, as the example that others follow. We are all Fighting Irish, fighting for the same opportunity, faith and freedoms. That's why his university has become the symbol of freedom for so many millions of Americans.

In a strange way, his speech brought Notre Dame home. It was inspirational.

Anita Dunn's exit a big win for Fox, O'Reilly and Beck

11/10/2009 09:56 AM

The resignation of Anita Dunn as communications czar in the White House is a victory for Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Fox News.

Dunn resigned soon after she made this infamous statement about Fox. "The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party," she said.

The powerhouse website WorldNetDaily was the first to report the tempest, and Dunn's politial obituary was soon written as well.

Fox attacked back and the fallout was immediate. Other television channels backed Fox, no matter how much they agreed with Dunn and her comments which were later also backed up by David Axelrod, Obama's most senior advisor.

But Dunn went and done it again a few weeks later when she proclaimed that Mao Tse Tsung was one of her favorite philosophers.

No matter what she meant to say the fact is that Mao killed millions on his march to power and also when in power in China and is hardly the pin-up boy she suggests.

I think the weight of both those missteps doomed Dunn.

Her attack on Fox was puzzling to begin with.

The oldest no-no in the book is picking a fight with someone who owns a printing press, or in
Fox's case, a vast arsenal of media outlets.

Dunn simply never explained what she was trying to do which came across as a blatant attempt to censor Fox and make them untouchable.

But in today's "Tower of Babble" media world, Fox is a major player and ignoring them or shunning them is like trying to play soccer without the football.

They are simply a necessary part of the media furniture and no matter how much the Obamaites dislike them they have to deal with them.

Dunn of course will claim that she was an interim appointment and wanted out anyway but the recent slip ups have messed with that message.

Look for the Obama camp to quietly end the Fox fixation and allow their spokespersons back on the air with Chris Wallace and others.

Glen Beck and Bill O'Reilly it seems talk loudly and also carry a big stick.

Obama and his acolytes should have known that.