All changed utterly in Ireland after this utterly dramatic election

The Irish election can be summed up in the experience at one polling station in Dublin at 7 a.m. on Friday morning last just as the voting began and recounted on national television by one of the guest experts, Dr. Michael Marsh of Trinity College.

First in the door was a young man with suitcase in tow heading for the emigrant plane to America but stopping off first to cast his vote against the Fianna Fail government whose policies had forced him to abandon Ireland.

If there was ever a symbolic moment that was it, a harbinger from the Gods of the carnage to come as the party that has led Ireland for most of it's 85 years was decimated beyond recognition.

From 77 seats in the 2007 election and over 40 per cent of the vote, they slumped to 20 or so seats and 17 per cent of the vote.

They have ended up with only one seat in Dublin, the capital city, the equivalent of a political neutron bomb.

Several of the famed family dynasties, the Lenihans, Coughlans, Haugheys, all took direct political hits and their legacies may be at an end.

Ironically the only famed family member to survive was Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, for many the face of the economic collapse whose cack-handed negotiations with the bankrupt Irish banks, European Union and IMF led indirectly to the $150 billion debt nightmare that the Irish now have over their heads.

Ironically, Lenihan's brave battle against pancreatic cancer may have helped him win the seat when so many lost theirs.

The mishandling of the Irish economy also destroyed the junior coalition partner, the Green Party who were completely obliterated, ending up with no seats in the next Dail (parliament).

Incoming Prime Minister Enda Kenny called it a 'democratic revolution' clearly drawing comparisons with what happened in Egypt and elsewhere, but achieved directly through the ballot box.

All changed, changed utterly as W.B. Yeats once remarked about the 1916 Easter Rising that won most of Ireland its eventual freedom.

In five years time that Rising will celebrate its 100 anniversary, a powerful moment for the Irish psyche.

Indeed, Enda Kenny has taken to referring to it as the ultimate goal of his expected five years in office, to deliver Ireland from the economic servitude it now is buckling under by the sacred anniversary.

He has an incredibly tough task ahead, it is not clear even whether he will enter coalition with the Labor Party or will have enough seats when all the seats in Ireland's complicated election procedure are finally determined, to govern with the help of some independents.

Either way he faces the mother of all battles and on a new battleground where he has utterly vanquished his usual rivals.

It is a new dawn in Irish politics, but whether it can lead to a new day still remains to be seen.

Fine Gael/Labour coalition outcome of Irish election says exit poll --Fianna Fail vote collapses, Independents surge

READ MORE- Irish Live Election Coverage Results

READ MORE- Part1: Election diary from Ireland

READ MORE: Part 2: Election diary from Ireland

An exit poll by RTE, Ireland's state broadcaster shows a Fine Gael/Labour party government is the most likely result of today’s general election count.

The poll shows Fine Gael at 36.1 Labour at 20.5 per cent, Fianna Fail at 15.1 per cent, Sinn Fein at 10.1 per cent , Greens at 2.7 per cent and Independents at 15.4 per cent.

A desire to punish main government party Fianna Fail for their economic policies was foremost on the minds of Irish voters yesterday the RTE exit poll shows.

The exit opinion poll reflects what polls during the campaign have found, that Fine Gael the largest opposition party will form the next government most likely with Labor.

If so it will be a major achievement for Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny set to be next Prime Minister.

Only a few months ago he fought off a determined challenge by almost his entire shadow cabinet of ministers to replace him.

Having won that battle Kenny entered the campaign in fighting form and played out a three week devastating attack on the government parties and their handling of the fiscal crisis.

In the debates he proved able to hold his own with his more vaunted opponents and emerged untouched from what many pundits believed could be his Waterloo.

In contrast, his Labour Party counterpart Eamon Gilmore had a disappointing campaign, which began with high hopes that they could share power with Fine Gael and could well be the main party in that coalition.

If the exit poll is right Gilmore regained some late ground, enough to ensure a coalition government.

For Fianna Fail the election has been a disaster but perhaps no more than they expected it to be.

Having left the public finances in a shambles they will now struggle to reestablish themselves as a party of government.

Despite changing leaders mid stream to Michael Martin the overall impact has been that only the very hard core vote of the party appears to have stayed with them.

Sinn Fein will have had a good election if the exit poll holds true and will register the highest vote the party has done since the 1918 election in the south of Ireland.

The size of the independent vote is no real surprise either as disgruntled and angry voters sought single issue candidates out.

The Green Party has done better than expected as their prospects were always dim after being part of the disastrous outgoing government.

READ MORE- Irish Live Election Coverage Results

READ MORE- Election diary from Ireland

Can Ireland be saved? Newsweek asks the question as election looms

"Can Ireland Be Saved?" is the bold headline that "Newsweek" runs this week when looking at the Irish election.

Certainly not by the current government is the first answer.

In the new Irish Times poll, satisfaction in with the Irish government is at 4 percent, which tells you all you need to know about what will happen on Friday when the election takes place.

These guys make the U.S. Senate look like Ronald Reagan in terms of popularity.

We know what is going to happen on Friday.

Fianna Fail, the party which has taken the largest percentage of votes in every Irish election since 1927, will likely be reduced to the third largest party in the state, with an outside chance that Sinn Fein could even pip them for that.

This will be an earthquake of an Irish election, where all the known factors in previous elections will be gone with the wind.

As for Fianna Fail, the 78 seats after the last election could be as low as 20-25 on this occasion, not quite annihilation but not far from it.

That wind is now squarely behind the Fine Gael opposition leader Enda Kenny, who will be Ireland's next Prime Minister.

All that needs to be decided is whether he will preside over a single party government, one with a few independents giving Fine Gael their 84 seat number for a majority, or a coalition with the Labor Party.

The second of those two possibilities is the most likely in my opinion.

In that case it will be up to Kenny and his cabinet to save Ireland.

That may sound overly dramatic, but it is not. The economy is in such bad shape, so many Irish are leaving the country and so much needs to be worked out with the International Monetary Fund and European Union that the next leader can expect many sleepless nights.

Kenny could be up for it. He is used to doing the impossible. After the 2002 election he took over Fine Gael when the party had only 31 seats and seemingly locked out of power for ever.

He rebuilt Fine Gael to where they are now within shouting distance of single party government for the first time ever.

Ireland will need that magic touch come Friday's resuts.

Obama trip to Ireland now likely with announcement of British trip in May

News of a Barack Obama state visit to Britain in May has sparked new speculation that the president may drop in on the Emerald Isle either before or after his visit there.

Presidents Kennedy, Clinton and Reagan all took in Ireland as well as Britain on visits during their presidency.

The White House announced that Michelle Obama would accompany her husband.

Any announcement on an Irish leg of the trip will doubtless be held off until the St.Patrick's season when Obama hosts an annual Irish gathering at the White House

Vice President Biden recently told a Washington insider that he had told President Obama that he wanted to visit Ireland, but Obama told him 'I'll get there first."

Obama's Irish roots have been traced to Moneygall, County Offaly on the Tipperary border.

The American Ambassador Dan Rooney has consistently stated that he believed a trip to Ireland by the president was inevitable.

The former Pittsburgh Steelers owner has a close relationship with the president, after supporting him early on in the key state of Pennsylvania

Latest Drunken Irish comments post Bloomberg in online magazine

Nasty little lash at the Irish in theawl.com, the Gawker.com wanna be site over the Bloomberg drunken Irish faux pas.

The article written by Alex Balk says the mayor was right, the Irish are essentially drunks

“We all know how sensitive the Irish get when you bring up the fact that their greatest contribution to world culture is Bushmill's Single Malt. They get so angry and upset that the only thing that will calm them down is a nice, stiff drink. Or a drink of any kind, really; they're not picky.”

Balk says the mayor did little wrong.

“Still, this is one of those occasional moments where we feel for the mayor. Sure, it was a terrible attempt at humor, less hacky than half-formed. It contained none of the eloquence of the three wishes/pint of Guinness bit, or the one about the new pub where they get you laid. But this is Mike Bloomberg we're talking about here. ..

As for the lesson to take away from the whole thing the writer says “is that the only group who can make fun of Irish for being drunks is the Irish themselves, a fact that they happily demonstrate by their own actions every day at pretty much every bar in town with a shillelagh on the wall, the Chieftains on the jukebox and a watered-down bottle of Powers Gold Label near the cash register. God, those people really like their booze.”

Hmm.

Emigration suddenly a major issue in Irish election as poll date nears

JUST how much emigration is an issue in the Irish election can be gauged by the fact that two of the first three questions in the leaders debate held on Monday night were on that topic.

Enda Kenny of Fine Gael, Micheal Martin of Fianna Fail, Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein, Eamonn Gilmore of the Labor Party and John Gormley of the Green Party all squared off in a Dublin studio before a live audience.

It was the highlight of the campaign so far, the moment when the leaders finally met each other and leveled their broadsides.
The first questioner was an elderly man from Cavan who stated in a shaky voice, and seemed close to tears, that three of his sons had now emigrated, two to London, one to Bahrain.

He found it hard to articulate his words, clearly close to a breakdown. "I'll never see my grandchildren," he stated poignantly.
His face said everything you needed to know about what the end result of bankers, greed and government complicity has meant to the ordinary people of Ireland.

Forget about all the flash figures and the billions being argued about. The sheer human cost of what has happened to families across Ireland was etched in clear worry lines on that old gentleman's face.

This, is what he was saying, is what all the fraud and cover up means to me and my kin, probable separation forever from my grandchildren.

Adams pointed it out in his answer that it was a scene being repeated across Ireland. By this time next week another 1,000 people will have left Ireland, he stated.

The poor father had put a human face on a very great tragedy indeed.

How deep that tragedy goes was exemplified by the third question from the studio audience. It was from a young Meath GAA official who talked about what was happening to his local club because of emigration.

Once, he said, the parking lot at the club was full of cars, craic and conversation. Now the side could barely field a team.
He talked of the young players leaving for foreign fields and the impact, not just on the club but in the rural communities all over Ireland.

It was a heartfelt plea yet again for politicians not to ignore the terrible human costs of the massive recession.
The GAA is the very heartbeat of rural communities in Ireland. It is the center of almost every activity, and its strength is the great energy and commitment of the local people who keep the flags flying.

Now the kids are leaving and the GAA is bereft again. They will end up playing in Gaelic Park in New York, Ruislip in London and elsewhere across the globe, but they will be lost, perhaps forever, to the little villages and towns that saw them as their lifeblood.

The five party leaders tried their best to paint a picture where those kids could come back to a new Ireland, but it all seemed a trifle disengaged. They were much more comfortable haggling over the minutiae of how much the EU/International Monetary Fund bailout package was going to actually cost, and figures in the billions were being tossed around like confetti.

I felt an eerie sense of deja vu. During the 1980s a similar exodus had occurred in Ireland. Also at that time, until they were forced to, the politicians on all sides pretty much ignored the problem.

Some even claimed the island was too small to support four million people and some inevitably had to leave. It was the kind of insular political thinking that cost Ireland dear.

This time around it was arrogance more than insularity that prevented the government from seeing what was coming. They repeatedly dismissed warnings from emigrant groups here in the U.S. that the leave takings of the 1920s, 1950s and 1980s would be repeated again, and there was a dire need to get some form of legal visas for Irish coming here.

Now the chickens have left home to roost on foreign fields, and we are left with sad old men dreaming of grandchildren they may never see.

Ronald Reagan's leprechauns in the White House beats Mayor Bloomberg's gaffe

Mayor Bloomberg's Irish gaffe has reminded me of what I consider is the worst ever St.Patrick's dog and pony trick

A few years back Ronald Reagan had a bunch of dwarfs dressed as leprechauns in the White House for St.Patrick's Day.

One came and sat on his lap. I kid you not.

I'm glad I found the photo above from Life magazine so you know I'm not making this up.

Then another leprechaun came up and pretended to shoot him-- the other leprechaun that is.

All in good fun but the Irish Ambassador at the time confided he had never been so embarrassed.

So much for taking the Irish seriously.

So given that is the standard of most hokey Irish trick ever played what else can be as bad.

This year Seems Southwest Airlines are serving free booze on their planes on St.Patrick's Day.

The low cost traveler has always had a way with the Irish.

Former CEO Herb Kelleher used to dress up as a leprechaun on St.Patrick's Day and fly coach.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I first read that. Probably a bit of both.

This leprechaun dressing up doesn't grab me at all.


But serving free booze certainly makes the very obvious connection for Southwest.

Then there is the story from Sioux Falls , South Dakota, where they have a parade but no Grand Marshal.

In fact they are actively looking for one.

So if you fancy leading the excited throngs through downtown Sioux Falls, e mail Wendy Neuharth at wneuharth@siouxfalls.com.

The deadline is Feb. 21.

Maybe the winner could get a free flight on Southwest too,dressed as a leprechaun.

Time to stop beating up Mayor Bloomberg --latest effort misses the point

Read more: Mayor Bloomberg outrages Irish Americans with 'people that are totally inebriated hanging out windows' comments

Read more: Mayor Bloomberg apologizes for drunken Irish comments - SEE VIDEOS & POLL

A group of Irish bar owners held a press conference in New York on Sunday complaining about Mayor Bloomberg's Irish remarks, first reported here.

I think it is time to give it a rest lads.

I was the only journalist present when Bloomberg made his remarks. I think we have made our point.

Bloomberg has apologized and no doubt learned his lesson. That should really be enough.

And another thing, he has been the best mayor for the Irish in a very long time on many issues.

He is the most prominent politician in America supporting comprehensive immigration reform which might afford our undocumented some day to become legal.

Through his business, Bloomberg News, he has invested in both the Northern Ireland economy and the Republic of Ireland economy, badly needed at this stage.

He has made many trips to Ireland to helped kick start investment, and has provided valuable advice for many Irish business owners.

He supports the rights of marginalized Irish groups to march in the St.Patrick's Day parade and has marched in the alternative Queens one every year.

His administration has been immediately responsive on Irish issues such as the peace process when help was needed.

I don't think we can expect much more.

He screwed up, he apologized, time to move on.

Let's not use this incident any more for cheap publicity stunts.

We and he are better than that.

Read more: Mayor Bloomberg outrages Irish Americans with 'people that are totally inebriated hanging out windows' comments

Read more: Mayor Bloomberg apologizes for drunken Irish comments - SEE VIDEOS & POLL

Mayor Bloomberg not alone in telling bad Irish jokes -- such wisecracks a staple for many politicians

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Irish jokes gaffe earned him 'Knucklehead of the Week' award from The New York Daily News yesterday, but the reality is that he will not be the first or last politician to tell a bad Irish joke.

Indeed, Bloomberg has often used another Irish joke in his routine, which he has used often in Ireland as well as America.

This one involves an Irish guy who is dared to drink ten pints of Guinness in a row. He disappears for a while and when he comes back he says he has been across the road in a different Irish bar, trying out to see if he could do it.

Okay, not very funny.

Senator John McCain is another politician who has a single transferable Irish joke that he tells on many occasions to Irish audiences.

It involves the O'Reilly twins, drinking in the same bar, pretending they don't know they are twins and discovering they are from the same town, same street etc.

It is part of the repertoire of many American politicians.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York uses a different tack, always referring endlessly to the Irish relatives who married into his family.

Former Senator Al D'Amato pretty much did the same thing when he was in active politics.

It can be cringe-inducing stuff

Ronald Reagan always had a version of an Irish joke ready for any and all occasions, as did House Speaker 'Tip' O'Neill.

Most people considered them pretty harmless as do I.

It is all part of the social cohesion where so many Americans from different ethnic backgrounds meet and greet each other.

Most use it to break the ice, to connect with an audience by getting a laugh.

But how do you know when a joke crosses that line from cute to contentious?

Answer is you don't. Its a bit like pornography, you know it when you hear it.

Where Bloomberg made his mistake was referring to a real institution, the American Irish Historical Society (AIHS) and implying that a bunch of drunks ran the place.

It was a bit like saying the Metropolitan Museum is run by alcoholics.

As The New York Times made clear in a Saturday article, nothing could be further from the truth about the AIHS.

The AIHS is housed in the greatest Irish building in America, a Fifth Avenue townhouse and features cultural, artistic and scholarly pursuits which makes its members the very last people to pin such a description on.

So Bloomberg might have been better sticking to his fictional joke.

So when you add up the Bloomberg gaffe, a press eager to highlight problems in his controversial third term and an Irish controversy made for tabloid headlines such a 'Irish Stew' it is clear why the story caught on.

As for the mayor one can imagine he'll check more closely on what to say before his next Irish audience.

As will many other pols.

An Irishman in Cairo on the night of liberation

When I spoke to Bernard O'Kane in Cairo on Friday evening local time, he was just a few miles from Tahrir Square, driving to join the jubilant throngs who had just received the incredible word that Hosni Mubarak was gone.

Bernard, a native of Belfast, has spent thirty years in Cairo, lecturing in Islamic architecture at the American University there.

This day he considered one of the greatest of his life.

He had driven from the suburb of Maadi, ten miles away, and could barely inch along given the tens of thousands out on the street celebrating.

"The people are so joyful, there are incredible scenes the whole way in" he said. "The people have done it."

These are incredible moments" he said, "the last few days nobody knew what was going to happen, but today has seen such an amazing moment."

In Tahrir Square yesetrday people had come up to him, realizing he was a foreigner and told him their hopes and dreams for the new Egypt.

That new Egypt was still in the balance until today's events.

Once Mubarak quit It was like a damn had burst and the spirit of a great and ancient civilization was suddenly unleashed.

Asked what was the tipping point for the departure of Mubarak he said it was most definitely the economy.

Everything was at a standstill and the protesters were not going away he explained, the Egyptian leaders were destroying the economy by not conceding , so they only had one recourse open to them.

He had been in the square last night but left before the Mubarak broadcast when he said he was staying. The mood suddenly turned very sombre.

But today the hopes and dreams had been fulfilled.

With Bernard was a young Egyptian artist, May Kaddah who suddenly saw a whole new future for her three year old son.

The joy and elation in her voice was clearly audible.

'This was the people's revolution" she said, "there was no leader, the people altogether spoke."

She explained how she had spent days on Facebook, communing with other Egyptians, swapping articles and debating the future.

"Now the future is here:" she said "and my country is free."

A quote from Irish labor leader James Larkin came to mind when I put down the phone.

"The great appear great only because we are on our knees. Arise"

The Egyptians are a risen people

Mayor Bloomberg right to apologize about drunken Irish, but mystery remains

Read more: Mayor Bloomberg apologizes for drunken Irish comments - SEE VIDEOS

I think the Irish American community should accept Mayor Bloomberg's apology for his comments on the inebriated Irish but I am still baffled as to why he said them.

I was there for the comments made at the American Irish Historical Society, (pictured) and was first to report them, but a day later they still intrigue me.

The story went viral because what Bloomberg said seemed so off the wall.

He said that usually when he walks by the building "there are a bunch of people that are totally inebriated hanging out the window waving"

Bloomberg conjured up a vision of inebriated Irish people hanging from windows, drunkenly cheering on the St.Patrick's Parade as it passes.

If you knew the AIHS as it is known, you know the likelihood of that happening is about the same as Hosni Mubarak being elected next president of Egypt.

It is a beautiful Fifth Avenue mansion, a center of culture, history and learning, the closest the Irish in America have to a national library with a treasure trove of artifacts and historical documents that set it apart.

The programs offered are usual classical music, learned Irish writers, poets and academic lectures.

I have been to several AIHS St.Patrick's Day events as I am on the board and I can assure you there were no drunks screaming or hanging from the windowsills.

If anything the atmosphere is a little too subdued for St.Patrick's Day and where Bloomberg got the notion that hijinks were regularly happening escapes me.

Even in as smart a man as Bloomberg, the tendency to stereotype slips out ,he could not let the celebration of a book launch about the St. Patrick's Day Parade pass without a pointless wisecrack that came over like a skunk at a garden party.

The person I was standing beside turned to me and asked 'Did he just say that?' when he made the comments.

I knew what he meant.

Bloomberg was standing in the greatest Irish building in the United States, just renovated at a cost of $6 million, a home of Irish learning and culture and all he could come up with was a lame drinking stereotype.

Is that what he thinks the Irish are really about ?

It was not good enough for this mayor or for Irish Americans to give him a pass.

Quite rightly he has now apologized and there the matter rests.

At least I hope it does.

Read more: Mayor Bloomberg apologizes for drunken Irish comments - SEE VIDEOS 

Mayor Bloomberg outrages Irish Americans with 'people that are totally inebriated hanging out windows' comments

In bizarre remarks delivered at a St.Patrick's Parade book launch at the American Irish Historical Society in New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he lived nearby and was used to seeing "people that are totally inebriated hanging out windows" at the Society which is on Fifth Avenue.

Bloomberg's remarks drew some boos from an astonished crowd who had gathered along with Grand Marshal Mary Higgins Clark to celebrate the launch of the book entitled "Celebrating 250 Years of the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade" by Irish American historian John Ridge,which recounts the 250 years history of the parade.

The American Irish Historical Society, located at 80th Street and 5th Avenue in New York,is one of the oldest Irish societies in America and emphasizes support for scholarship, culture and research.It recently won an architectural award for best renovated building in the city.

Board members were upset at the drunken Irish reference which falls into the usual stereotype of the drunken Irish around St.Patrick's Day.

Many leading members of the Irish community were present,including Irish Consul General Noel Kilkenny, St. Patrick's Parade Chairman John Dunleavy and Director General of the American Irish Historical Society Dr.Kevin Cahill.

Bloomberg's comments were made at the very start of his speech and he continued on in strange vein asking when the parade was being held and commenting it was good it was always on the same day so he wouldn't confuse it with Columbus Day.

Bloomberg has cultivated close connections with the Irish American community and has strong support which makes his comments all the more unexpected. He has been a frequent visitor to Ireland and has advised on economic issues there.

Time to revisit immigration reform for Irish

Read more: Emigration ripping Ireland apart says leading cleric - SEE POLL

Walking around the Irish neighborhood in the Bronx and Woodlawn on Sunday I got a sense of a great absence.

At a time when 100,000 are set to leave Ireland by April 2012 the silence on the streets of the Bronx, where new arrivals are still quite rare was deafening.

McLean Avenue and Woodlawn were busy enough, but nothing like what I saw in Kilburn on a recent visit to London where young Irish emigrants are teeming in by the planeload.

Ireland’s loss should have been America’s opportunity, but somewhere along the line, going back to the disastrous 1965 immigration act which ended most emigration from Europe, we lost the plot
That bill was conceived to end the European dominance of emigration to America which was a fair enough objective and to allow other nations access, but in the process it effectively ended European immigration altogether.

Senator Edward Kennedy, who was a key figure in passage of that bill told me he had never intended that to be the consequence, but that is how it all has ended up.

No Irish need apply nowadays as assuredly as it did after Famine times.

This should be a great new era for the Irish in New York, the replenishment of Irish organizations, businesses and social gatherings like what happened in the 1920, 1950s, 1980s.

That thirty -year cycle of emigration is underway again now in Ireland but the preferred destinations are not the Bronx and all points west and north but Australia and Canada.

Sure there will be some who will come to America, but the reality of living illegally here has by now hit home in Ireland,

Back in the 1980s, thanks to a concerted Irish government and Irish community push, we managed to win the Morrison and Donnelly visa programs which took care of the undocumented who lived here then.

This time around we have not been so lucky. The Irish government was unbearably arrogant about immigration for several years having consigned it to the past in the midst of the Celtic Tiger, despite warnings that it inevitably would resume.

Thus, when opportunity was snatched up by a country like Australia which did a deal for its citizens to get 10,000 a year renewable work but not immigrant visas a year successive Irish authorities stood idly by
The Kennedy/McCain immigration bill was as close as we have come and the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform of which I was a founder, turned out thousands of people in Washington on many occasions in support of it.

It was a far from perfect bill but post 9/11 and the xenophobia in America against foreigners it was by far the best vehicle. Alas, it came untracked.

So now we have essentially no obvious vehicle but perhaps it is time to put on the thinking caps again. The floods from Ireland will not stop for several years, already there are signs that despite the consequences, many are starting to come here.

We need to help them out, to begin the quest again to equalize the immigration laws and allow Irish to come here legally in acceptable numbers.

Read more: Emigration ripping Ireland apart says leading cleric - SEE POLL

Ronald Reagan at 100 --remembering the most Irish of president

Happy 100th birthday Ronald Reagan, in many ways the most Irish of presidents. As the You Tube video makes clear, there were grand celebrations back in your ancestral town of Ballyporeen when you were elected.

Reagan enjoyed his Irish visits. He had the humor and wit of the Irish , but also the incredible communication skills sometimes known as the gift of the gab.

There was a deeply sentimental side to him too and he captured how many Americans wanted to see themselves, straight shooters with firm ideas and an ability to get things done

This was a guy who was born with a wooden spoon in his mouth. He didn't go to Harvard or Yale, but rather Eureka College in Illinois.

His father wasn't blue blood,instead he was a shoe salesman and a bad Irish drunk.

If you look at the fathers of recent presidents they sure were not role models. Reagan and Clinton's were alcoholics, Obama's never stuck around.

Because or in spite of such poor male images, these men all succeeded in getting to the highest office in the land.

Reagan has three separate careers, as a mainly 'B' movie actor, a pitchman for major corporations and then a late blooming political career which saw him leap from governor of California to the White House.

I wasn't in America long when Reagan ran for president. I think his campaign was one of the greatest of all time.

The morning in America montage at a time when America was reeling from the Iran hostage crisis and a foundering economy was masterful.

A few years later I got a VIP tour of the White House along with a journalist I was dating who was very friendly with the press secretary.

As we exited the West Wing, Reagan suddenly appeared in the distance making his way to the Air Force1 helicopter.

He made an indelible impression, tall , tanned, big cowboy boots, great shock of wavy black hair.

He turned and waved vaguely in our direction.

This was a man with presence.

He proved it when president. As a Democrat I disagreed with a lot of what he did, but he did change the argument from what could government do for you to what could we do for ourselves without government.

That debate is still going on but I doubt it would have the same rancor if Reagan were still around.

The definition of Irish genius is telling a person to go to hell in such a way that he actually thinks he will enjoy the journey.

Ronald Reagan had that ability, always pleasant no matter what compared to the dour humorless characters we have today.

I cannot imagine Obama and Boehner yucking it up like Reagan and 'Tip' O'Neill used to do when politics for the day was over.

He told Gorbachev to tear down the wall and changed history but he changed America too, for the better I feel in many ways.

So happy birthday Ronnie Reagan. The relatives back in Ballyporeen still say hi.

Suicide is suddenly an issue in the upcoming Irish election

Suicide has become a surprise issue in the Irish election.

Because of it likely next Prime Minister Enda Kenny has refused so far to take part in a debate with other party leaders.

That is because one of the hosts of the debate, journalist Vincent Browne, had once suggested that Kenny go off and commit suicide because he was such a poor politician.

On the September 30th edition of ‘Tonight with Vincent Browne’, he suggested that Kenny should "lock himself in a dark room with a gun and a bottle of whiskey." He later apologized for the remark.

Kenny however, was not mollified,saying that he had been in enough homes in Ireland where a family member had committed suicide to know the real pain and hurt that it caused.

Browne is a ferocious inquisitor, Ireland's answer to Mike Wallace of '60 Minutes' and a trailblazer in Irish journalism who established Magill Magazine and the just closed Sunday Tribune newspaper.

There is no doubt his comments on Kenny crossed a line however, but Kenny is leaving himself open to renewed criticism that he is dodging a debate.

How all this plays out is hard to know. There will be other debates which may mean this flap is soon forgotten and one can certainly see Kenny's point that Browne has crossed a line.

But the issue once again focuses on whether Kenny is dodging a debate which is never good ground to be standing on.

However, he could turn it to his advantage by focusing on the issue of suicide which is a huge problem in Ireland right now.

Obama lacks the political courage to call Mubarak what he is -- an evil dictator

As one of the pivotal moments in recent history unfolds in Egypt President Obama is acting like a cat got his tongue.

Instead of speaking out forthrightly against the terror unleashed by the Mubarak mobs he has equivocated and calibrated every response.

Instead of telling Mubarak that after 30 years of misrule he should go, our president uses weasel words and qualifiers.

Where is George W Bush when you need him? At least he called a spade a spade

Or Ronald Reagan telling Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall?

Or John F. Kennedy proclaiming Ich Bin Ein Berliner ?

If ever there was a moment to stand up for democracy, for people over the powerful it is now.

I thought that was vaguely the platform that Mubarakobama was elected on but clearly not one he cares to deliver on.

Sure there have been fine words and wonderful promises, but in his first foreign policy crisis he is pussyfooting around like a tenderfoot.

Sure there are regional issues, sure there is the long term to consider but how bad could it be to stand up for democracy when millions are on the street pleading for their chance at it?

He would be be an instant hero on the Arab street and reverse much of the damage done for decades in the Arab world.

But Obama is curiously mute lacking the bigness to overcome the whispers from advisers not to call a spade a spade and convince him it is all too complicated.

Churchill called out the Nazis, john F Kennedy and Ronald Reagan the communists in Berlin.

Who will call out the Egyptian dictator?

Alas, it seems not this American president.

More's the shame.

Ich Bin Ein Mubaraker .

The real heroes and villians of Irish crash finally revealed in 'Vanity Fair' masterpiece

In the most inspired piece of writing I have seen in a very long time Michael Lewis has dissected the Irish economic crisis like no one else has in this issue of 'Vanity Fair.'

Lewis, of course is America's best financial writer, the man who will always be remembered for 'Liar's Poker' his inside look at the downfall of Salomon Brothers and several best sellers since.

He brings a forensic quality to his journalism, well able to present difficult financial data in an easily understandable manner.And he zeroes in on the heroes and villains.

Now he turns his attention to the Irish mess after previously dissecting the Greek and Icelandic messes.

What he discovers is truly shocking.

The bondholders who the Irish people are now in hock to for $100 billion or so, didn't expect they would get repaid when the banking system collapsed.

The best they were hoping for was about 20 cents in the dollar.

How they got a complete guarantee from the Irish government is Lewis's best work in this article.

Suffice to say Finance Minister Brian Lenihan does not come out well.

There were only two experts who shouted stop before the collapse

The first was a little known economist called Morgan Kelly from University College Dublin. He was shouted down when he made his objections known to the massive housing bubble.

As Lewis writes when Kelly tried to get his warning published he was laughed at.

"This time Kelly sent his piece to a newspaper with a far bigger circulation, the Irish Independent. The Independent’s editor wrote back to say he found the article offensive and wouldn’t publish it.

Kelly next turned to The Sunday Business Post, but the editor there just sat on the piece. The journalists were following the bankers’ lead and conflating a positive outlook on real-estate prices with a love of country and a commitment to Team Ireland.
(“They’d all use this same phrase, ‘You’re either for us or against us,’ ” says a prominent bank analyst in Dublin.) Kelly finally went back to The Irish Times, which ran his article in September 2007.

Kelly was laughed off the stage.

Indeed then Prime Minister Bertie Ahern mocked Kelly and other naysayers saying that people like him should go off and commit suicide.

As Michael Lewis writes "In Morgan Kelly’s narrative: the Irish economy had become a giant Ponzi scheme and the country was effectively bankrupt. But it was so starkly at odds with the story peddled by Irish government officials and senior Irish bankers—that the banks merely had a “liquidity” problem and that Anglo Irish was “fundamentally sound”—that the two could not be reconciled.

"The government had a report thrown together by Merrill Lynch, which declared that “all of the Irish banks are profitable and well capitalized.”

The second man who shouted stop was Philip Ingram an analyst with Merrill Lynch.

As Lewis writes;

On March 13, 2008, six months before the Irish real-estate Ponzi scheme collapsed, Ingram published a report, in which he simply quoted verbatim what British market insiders had told him about various banks’ lending to commercial real estate. The Irish banks were making far riskier loans in Ireland than they were in Britain, but even in Britain, the report revealed, they were the nuttiest lenders around: in that category, Anglo Irish, Bank of Ireland, and A.I.B. came, in that order, first, second, and third.

Merrill,who made millions advising the Irish government,fired him.


So why did Finance Minister Brian Lenihan and his government agree to underwrite all the bank losses?

Lewis thinks Merrill Lynch played a leading role again.

"In the seven-page memo to Brian Lenihan—for which the Irish taxpayer forked over to Merrill Lynch seven million euros—they kept whatever reservations they may have had to themselves. “All of the Irish banks are profitable and well capitalized,” wrote the Merrill Lynch advisers, who then went on to suggest that the banks’ problem wasn’t at all the bad loans they had made but the panic in the market

The heads of Ireland's two largest banks also incredibly,assured Lenihan that they had no bad debt on their books.

As Lewis notes; "Lenihan faced a choice: Should he believe the people immediately around him or the financial markets? Should he trust the family or the experts? He stuck with the family. Ireland gave its promise. And the promise sank Ireland."

It was a tragic mistake.

As Lewis writes. "The investors who owned the roughly 80 billion euros of Irish bank bonds,....were stuck. They couldn’t take their money out of the bank. And their 80 billion euros very nearly exactly covered the eventual losses inside the Irish banks.

These private bondholders didn’t have any right to be made whole by the Irish government. The bondholders didn’t even expect to be made whole by the Irish government."

But incredibly, they were.

Eyewitness to history-- An Irishman in Tarfir Square with the protestors

Bernard O' Kane has spent thirty years in Cairo, lecturing in Islamic architecture at the American University there.

However, he has never seen scenes like he witnessed in Tarfir Square, eight miles from his home, over the past few days.

And he never expected to be a vigilante.

For the last few nights he has taken part in a neighborhood watch in his suburbs, making sure that the looters stay away.
"Maybe when they hear my Belfast accent they'll be afraid I'd kneecap them" he jokes

The Belfast native is seeing first hand what a revolution looks like and he will never forget what he has witnessed as he told me by phone from Cairo.

Yesterday morning he took the metro to the protests.

" I was so impressed by the crowds yesterday" he said referring to the massive demonstration. "It was extremely relaxed, friendly, lots of people giving speeches, but a fun atmosphere."

"I was so impressed by the army management of the crowd, they were frisking everyone on the way in and stopping police and anyone with weapons.

This morning when he returned he sensed a darkening of the mood and left before the violence started up.

The violence today really worried me he said " It was instigated by government paid thugs rather than a popular uprising."

He said he will consider going back to the square tomorrow but will wait to see how the scene looks.

To his delight, his Internet had just come back on shortly before we talked and he was once again able to watch worldwide coverage.

Like everyone else he does not know how it will all turn out.

But he knows he is witnessing a magnificent moment.

"this is a popular revolution" he says, it is all sections of society, upper middle class, working class."

Like everyone else he is just hoping it all turns out right