A heroic Vatican priest who saved Jews from the Nazis -- New book tells amazing story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty - VIDEO

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty may be one of the greatest Irish men who ever lived, yet his story is hardly known.

Growing up in Ireland I never heard his tale, but I suspect I know why. He was the heroic Monsignor, based in the Vatican, who saved thousands of Allied soldiers from the Nazis and also saved hundreds of Jews from the death camps.

Perhaps because he was helping the British in the war effort his story drew a veil of silence in Ireland but it should not have. World War II was a time for people of all backgrounds to choose sides
between a monstrous evil and a force to battle that evil.

A new book I have just finished reading outlines in great detail the heroic and extraordinary efforts of a great humanitarian and Irish history.

The book is entitled “Hide and Seek” The Irish priest in the Vatican who defied the Nazi command by BBC journalist, Stephen Walker.

Though an intensely proud Irishman and deeply nationalist after seeing the Black and Tans in operation during his years in the seminary, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty realized early on that he needed to be
on the side of the good guys.

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That contrasted sharply with the position taken by Pope Pius XII who dithered while the Nazis over ran Europe.

Flaherty organized the escape route for allied troops who had escaped POW camps or had been shot down but survived.

Through an incredibly close network of friends and confidantes he set up safe houses all over Rome and in the Vatican itself where his work soon drew grave suspicion from the Nazis.

The book is a fascinating account of the stand off between Flaherty and the head SS man in Rome, Herbert Kappler.

Kappler suspected O’Flaherty and had him under surveillance at all times. O’Flaherty comes across as a Michael Collins however, hiding in plain sight, appearing each morning on the steps of Saint Peter's and meeting with those who were organizing the freedom runs.

He helped everyone who sought refuge, including many Jews, which infuriated Kappler. The SS commander tried to have O’Flaherty kidnapped with a view to summary execution but somehow O’Flaherty always managed to survive, earning him the nickname of the “Scarlet Pimpernel”.

Once, having left the neutral confines of the Vatican for a freedom route meeting, the Nazis raided the house and O’Flaherty, who was hiding in the cellar, was saved by sheer luck when two coal-men came to drop their supplies and he “borrowed” one of their outfits and strolled past the SS wearing the outfit and carrying a sack.

After the war he was celebrated all over the world but refused most of the honors. Kappler was tried and found guilty of war crimes. Amazingly O’Flaherty visited him frequently in prison and Kappler converted to Catholicism. O’Flaherty retired to his native Kerry for his final days and passed away there in 1963.

In a poem to celebrate his life, poet and fellow Kerry man Brendan Kennelly wrote of O'Flaherty:

"There is a tree called freedom and it grows
Somewhere in the hearts of men
Rain falls, ice freezes, wind blows
The tree shivers, steadies itself again."

The Israeli government planted a tree in his honor in 1973.

Was there ever a more courageous Irishman?

A clip from "Scarlet and the Black". The true story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty:

Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams as Ireland’s next Prime Minister? -- New poll makes it a possibility after the next election

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams as Ireland’s next prime minister may not be as fanciful as many think.

The real prospect of Sinn Fein leading the next Irish government is now apparent.

The latest opinion poll in the Irish Times shows Sinn Fein leaping to 24 per cent support with fellow opposition members Fianna Fail at 17 per cent and independents at 15 per cent.

Gerry Adams is now the most popular party leader after an eight point jump put him ahead of Enda Kenny
That combined total of opposition votes puts them at 56 per cent, well ahead of the governing coalition of Fine Gael and Labor who amass only 42 per cent of the vote.

It is clear that Sinn Fein are having the Labour party for lunch, the Labourites are down to 10 per cent with the vast majority of their voters shifting to Sinn Fein.

Even Fianna Fail, architects of the economic mess, are making a comeback because they are in opposition

It is inevitable in a massive economic downturn that the government parties take the heat. But the Labour Party is especially being decimated.

It is always thus it seems. Minority parties in governments --see Liberal Party in England, are usually the ones who take the brunt of the criticism.

The poll is yet another milestone for Sinn Fein who have commenced an inexorable march towards power in Ireland North and South.

While the shadow of the North’s war loomed large even in the recent presidential election, as time passes such concerns will disappear.

The next election is not due until about 2015, by which time Sinn Fein will have had several years to consolidate power.

They happen to be very good at that and are finally luring good young candidates in the Irish Republic to match the calibre of their leaders in Northern Ireland.

The European treaty poll this week should pass, according to all the experts and polls but one wonders if there is not a hidden no vote lurking in the undergrowth.

Certainly, given the statistics of this latest poll, if anti-government voters turn out in numbers they could easily defeat it.

There will be many nervous faces until the votes are counted.

NYPD top cop Ray Kelly may be all wrong in the Etan Patz case -- Latest suspect Pedro Hernandez just one of three so far to be fingered

NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly

The Etan Patz murder 33 years ago was one of the most significant in America's crime history.

Nothing was ever the same again after the six-year-old left his parent's West Village apartment  in New York to walk to school alone for the first time.

He never made it and his murder had never been solved.

Many crime experts date the explosion of fear in America over crime to that killing - the moment when we all felt less safe

Now it may become significant again for a very different reason.

Police Chief Ray Kelly has essentially accused a 51-year old, Pedro Hernandez, of carrying out the killing.

Except there is no evidence other than a confession by Hernandez whose family admits he has deep psychiatric problems.

There is no body, no witnesses, no physical evidence linking him to the crime.

If Hernandez withdraws his confession the police have no case.

Worse, a man called Jose Ramos, a convicted pedophile, was ruled to have committed the crime in a civil case by a Manhattan judge in 2004.

"Investigators both from federal prosecutors' office and the FBI over an extended period of time built up a tremendous amount of circumstantial evidence," Murray Weiss, a police reporter who covered the Patz case told CBS.

The lawyer for the Patzs , Brian O'Dwyer, said at the time that winning the lawsuit made it clear. "The point is to establish once and for all that Ramos is responsible for Etan's death."

So who is it, Hernandez or Ramos?

Or maybe it is someone else altogether; just a few weeks back cops tore apart a basement seeking to link a third man, Othniel Miller, to the killing.

They found nothing but Miller’s estranged wife claimed he confessed to the crime.

So that's three suspects right there.

When the Lindbergh child killing happened in 1932, over thirty delusional people admitted to the crime.

The Etan Patz case is getting just as crazy.

Ray Kelly may well have made a massive mistake here. First the press conference essentially announcing guilt, then the arrest, then the trial, then the verdict..

It is all backwards, like this tragic case has long been.

I believe it is a case almost impossible to solve bar some incredible evidence find.

"It's going to be very difficult to convince a jury," Larry Kobilinsky, a doctor of forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told CBS .

"Normally we collect the physical evidence and talk to the witnesses; then we catch a suspect, interrogate him and then sometimes they confess," said Kobilinsky. "This is just the reverse."

He has it right.

This Memorial Day remember Phoebe Prince if you can - Sparing a thought for those souls that need prayers as well as the brave

I know Memorial Day is usually for remembering those who fought so bravely for the United States in so many wars.

But I got to thinking that it would be great if we could remember other souls in need too, especially innocent children who suffered the ultimate fate.

Such a person was Phoebe Prince, a joyful 15-years -young girl from Ireland who was bullied to death at her South Hadley High School in Massachusetts.

The face and the memory is starting to fade and the great American media circus has moved on from Phoebe and her family, but somehow I cannot forget her.

She died too horribly, taking her own life after two separate gangs of bullies taunted her daily, threatened her, made her life miserable until she could not take it any more.

The sad part is that the adults in charge of the children come out hopelessly compromised too

Teachers saw the bullying and ignored it, the school board washed their hands of it, local parents tried to rumormonger that Phoebe was unstable to begin with.

Yet a brave District Attorney stood up to the see no evil adults and has now begun a prosecution for bullying a young girl to her grave.

There will be a trial in a few months of those who allegedly bullied her to death and the media carnival will come to town again.

Most importantly thought, three parents of bullied children elsewhere have come forward since Phoebe died and stated that having read about Phoebe they believe they stopped similar suicides among their own children.

So just as much as the example of our honored dead on battlefields from Iraq to Europe inspire us today, so should the message of a dead young girl from Ireland resonates.

That message is that we should say never again and truly mean it. Our children's lives are sacred.
Originally published in 2010.

Why a brain dead immigration policy is harming America -- New York Mayor calls for more and smarter immigration, not less

Mayor Mike Bloomberg addresses a crowd on the topic of immigration

Occasionally a politician speaks truth to power, and New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg did so on Tuesday.

He pointed out that in 1991, 18 percent of Canada’s and America’s immigrants were rated as highly skilled.

Then he stated that in 2011, Canada’s percentage had soared to 67 percent, while the United States was falling further behind, at 13 percent.

What an obvious idea Canada had, bring in the best and brightest and watch your economy thrive—it certainly has compared to the US.

He also stated that the only solution for destroyed inner city areas, such as in Detroit, was to import thousands of immigrants to bring back the vitality and energy.

“I would argue the federal government should go one step further. They should deliberately force some places that don’t want immigrants to take them, because that’s the only solution for these big, hollowed-out cities where industry has left and is never going to come back unless you get some people to move there,” he stated.

He knows because New York would be just as dead without the immigrant neighborhoods and workforce that ensure the city continues to thrive.

America has moved so far from its immigrant roots to the point that now there is a widespread effort to prevent immigration rather than encourage it.

Thus, even much needed software engineers, and highly skilled workers, are being refused entry and turning elsewhere.

President Obama is no hero as Bloomberg pointed out; he has deported more immigrants than any president before him and done nothing on immigration reform.

Bloomberg also suggested that federal government allow states to set their own immigration policies.

Seeing as right-wingers are essentially doing that in Arizona and Alabama anyway, I agree with him.

Canada has done this successfully, allowing each state to set its own immigration policy and adapt to its needs.

Let them come to New York, where the vibrant city with its hundreds of ethnic neighborhoods, bottom level crime rate, and decent employment show the way.

Well-done Mayor Mike for speaking truth to power. No doubt the tight asses who want to close off America will soon be on your case talking the usual rubbish.

Notre Dame lawsuit on health law is a huge blow for President Obama -- Damages Obama with Catholic vote, the key one in 2012 election

Father John Jenkins and President Barack Obama

The lawsuit filed by Notre Dame yesterday against the Obama administration and their health care law is bad news indeed for President Obama.

The Fighting Irish are putting up the gloves -- and it is against the president who needs their support more than ever this November.

In an election where the Catholic vote is widely seen as the critical swing vote, the Notre Dame move places the most famous Catholic institution in the United States firmly in opposition to the president on his singular policy on health care.

That is big news given that Notre Dame was widely perceived as being in the president’s corner after they invited him to be their commencement speaker in 2009 over the strong objections of local bishops.

Father John Jenkins is widely regarded as the most articulate and skilful Catholic college president in America, so his stance against Obama on this will be widely discussed and analyzed.

The wording of the lawsuit reflects Jenkins mindset. It is a passionate and emotional statement about the right of religious institutions to safeguard their own beliefs when it comes to what they wish to cover when it comes to medical care.

It is not the usual dry legalese stuff of most lawsuits and bears the hallmarks of Jenkin’s style.

Jenkins is no creature of the Vatican right-wing orthodoxy like so many American bishops. Therefore his lawsuit is all the more potent among moderate American Catholics.

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The college writes, “ This lawsuit is about one of America's most cherished freedoms: the freedom to practice one's religion without government interference. It is not about whether people have a right to abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception…. But the right to such services does not authorize the Government to force the University of Notre Dame… to violate its own conscience by making it provide, pay for, and/or facilitate those services to others, contrary to its sincerely held religious beliefs.

“American history and tradition, embodied in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, protects religious entities from such overbearing and oppressive governmental action. Notre Dame therefore seeks relief in this Court to protect this most fundamental of American rights.

Jenkins makes clear that, "We do not seek to impose our religious beliefs on others; we simply ask that the Government not impose its values on the University when those values conflict with our religious teachings."

It is very hard to disagree with that statement which could have been made by any religious or political leader since independence.

Jenkins is no rabble rousing bishop out to get the Obama administration on religious grounds. His lawsuit is a passionate dissent from the notion that government can mandate what a Catholic college can and can’t do  when it comes to core beliefs.

As Jenkins concludes, "For if one Presidential Administration can override our religious purpose and use religious organizations to advance policies that undercut our values, then surely another Administration will do the same for another very different set of policies, each time invoking some concept of popular will or the public good, with the result these religious organizations become mere tools for the exercise of government power, morally subservient to the state, and not free from its infringement."

Suddenly the one major Catholic institution which had backed Obama now seems to be backing off on this one major issue.

That cannot be good news for the incumbent president. He needs Catholic votes in key states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and indeed Indiana, where Notre Dame is located. This Notre Dame uprising will come as a major blow.

On reaching the ripe young age of 59 -- Who is that guy in the mirror I wonder

I woke up yesterday morning to discover an impostor.

I gazed in the mirror on my 59th birthday and realized I had been hijacked.

The grey haired, balding guy in the mirror with too many wrinkles and a paunch had clearly been foisted on me overnight.

The sleek, handsome as hell, gazelle like guy I went to sleep as had disappeared.

This has happened before but seems to get worse every birthday.

It is high time I reported it to the time police.

“Shurely Shum Mistake," I’ll tell them in my best Irish drunk imitation.

They, no doubt, will assure me they will investigate this impostor and have him arrested at their earliest convenience.

I’ll tell them I’ve noticed him skulking around since I was about 40 and the first grey hairs appeared.

“Yes sir, you can be sure, we know who he is we’ve seen him in action before.”

“Thank you officer," I’ll say.

I hope they put him away for a long time.

The thief of time is well known around these parts.

But I never thought he’d attempt to infiltrate my home.

There must have been an open door or window in my soul that he climbed in.

He’s clever, I never see him until I look in the mirror.

Clearly, he disappears at night and my true self returns.

Not next year though I’ll be ready for him.

Maybe in a butterfly net I’ll catch him.

Now there’s a thought.

Lock him up for everyone to see officer.

Kennedy curse talk revived after latest tragic death of Mary Kennedy -- Huge extended families will always suffer untimely losses and tragic events

The Kennedy family

Talk of a Kennedy curse is already filling online discussions and tabloid headlines after the suicide of Mary Kennedy, former wife of Robert F Kennedy Junior.

She tragically took her own life, at the age of 52, in the family home at Mount Kisco, in upstate new York.

Talk of a curse  makes for good tabloid fodder but study the history of any large and extended family and you will find ample tragedy as well.

It is nonsense of course, but it was used when Ted Kennedy’s daughter, Kara Kennedy, just 51, died unexpectedly last year.

It is true that untimely deaths run like a river through the history of the extended family and Kara and Mary were no exception.

But when you examine the deaths throughout the family, they were from war, assassination, and plane crashes; random and terrible events that struck many families exposed to risk and danger.

Four out of Ambassador Joseph Kennedy’s nine children died tragically, but there was hardly a curse involved. Joe Junior died in the war and Kathleen died in a plane crash and John and Bobby were struck by assassin’s bullets. It is hardly likely that Sirhan Sirhan or Lee Harvey Oswald were enacting a curse when they shot them.

There has been much pain in the next generation.

Ted’s two other kids, Ted Junior, who lost a leg to cancer, and Patrick, who has had major substance abuse and alcohol issues, illustrate just how tough the battle has been for the younger generation.

Michael died in a skiing accident, while others, including former Congressman Joe Kennedy Junior, had close scrapes.

John Kennedy Junior was also a casualty of course, dying far too young in that Martha’s Vineyard plane crash.

His sister Caroline remains the only direct inheritor of the JFK family name as a result.


Is it a curse or is it just what any family so large and so extended would go through?

I believe it is the latter. Talk of a curse is nonsense really, this is a massive extended family, always under scrutiny and one in which every illness and death is highlighted.

The mad men who gunned down JFK and his brother Bobby were not acting out some curse, but rather a twisted agenda of their own.

The death of this generation of Kennedys has actually been few and far between.

David died of a drug overdose, brought about by a very tough childhood after his father’s death. John died in a plane crash that arguably was avoidable, and that is it really, until Kara’s death.

So talk of a curse, with such large numbers in a massive extended family, is just nonsense. The Kennedys may not be that all American normal family, but then who is these days?

Remembering the Famine and its impact on the US -- Voices of those who survived still live on

I gave a speech in Drogheda, Ireland, yesterday on the impact of the famine in America. I was one of several speakers, including Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who is speaking today on the occasion of the national commemoration of the greatest European catastrophe of the 19th Century.

Here is an excerpt of some of my remarks:

“Missing Friends was the series every week in John Boyle O’Reilly’s Boston Pilot newspaper which allowed Famine era immigrants to America to seek out families and freidns who had gone before them.

It was the Facebook of its time. Famine emigrants rarely wanted to discuss the horrific nature of the voyage or the awful conditions they had to endure.

On Missing Friends, however, we hear their voices resonate.

It is not surprising  they never wanted to talk about it and who could blame them they were ripped from their families, catapulted across the bitter bowl of tears arrived penniless, many speaking no English.

Here are some of their voices from the past.

“Of JOHN QUILMAN, late of the parish of Inch, co’y Tipperary, who sailed from Waterford with his family last April.  His daughter, Mary Harrington, wishes him to know that her husband, James Harrington, died on their passage to this country; also her two children since. She is now in Troy and wishes to know where her father is.  Any information respecting him will be thankfully received by Mary Harrington, care of S. Duffy, or Mrs. Daly, Fifth street, Troy, N. Y.
27 November 1847

Of ANTHONY and PATRICK WATERS, natives of co. Mayo. They are informed that their sister, Mary, who was married to Patrick Boyle, is anxious to hear from them. Her husband died on the passage.  Should this meet their eye they will write to her immediately, care of the editor of the Pilot,Boston, Ms.
4 December 1847

Of BERNARD MURPHY, who emigrated from Co. Armagh, parish of Grangemore, townland of Aughmagorgan, in April last, with his father and 2 sisters. He was parted from his father at Quarantine Island, below Montreal. It is supposed he went to Kingston. Any information respecting him will be thankfully received by his father who is now living in Dover. If by letter, address Patrick Grimes, Dover, N. H., or John Doran, No. 6 Canal street, Boston, Ms.
11 December 1847

Of CATHERINE GILLEN, who landed in Boston last spring, with her father and family. She was sick and went to hospital and has not been heard from since. Any one knowing anything of her would confer a favor on her father, Hugh Gillen, by writing a letter to him in care of John Devlin, Pawtucket, R.I.
18 December 1847

Of BRIDGET CARROLL, a native of Killacooly, parish of Drumcliff, co. Sligo, who was taken into Grosse Isle hospital, below Quebec, in June last, and has not been heard from since. Any information respecting her will be thankfully received by her brother, Patrick Carroll, care of Mr. Samuel Downer, Second street, South Boston, Ms.
1 January 1848

Of PETER and ELLEN CARR, natives of county Down, parish of Gervathey, who left home in April and landed in St. John, 4th July.  They came in the ship Ambassadress. Ellen had the fever and was taken to Patridge Island, and Peter remained with her.  Any information of them will be thankfully received by their brother, JohnCarr, Lawrence City, Ms.

Of DENNIS MCCARTHY, late of Killmichael, co’y Cork, who sailed from Liverpool on the 1st of last May, and left his wife, Ellen Ahearn, in Quarantine near Quebec, in June.  She is now in Troy, N. Y., and wishes to know his whereabouts.  Any information respecting him will be thankfully received by addressing a line to Ellen McCarthy, care of Stephen Duffy, Troy, N. Y.

'Son  missing' John Fallon ‘had light hair, blue eyes; was about four feet, four inches in height; wore a blue spencer, a new scoop shovel cap, a fancy pants and had a freckled face.'

The voices of these emigrants resonate still.

As we can see many of the emigrants themselves were in despair, their dreams of a new life shattered by the reality of what awaited them. Only the Blacks in chains fare worse than the Irish.

As one famine emigrant put it plainly 'We thought we could not be worse off than we were; but now to our sorrow we know the difference. At home we had the chance of a doctors care and the certainty of the spiritual administration of a priest. Should death overtake us there we would be buried beside our beloved dead, in consecrated Irish ground, with the prayers and last blessing of our church. Here we have nothing.'

In April, 1847, Stephen E. De Vere, a compassionate landlord, travelled as an emigrant to Canada in a converted lumber and cargo boat.  His description of conditions is appalling.

'Before the emigrant has been a week at sea he is an altered man.  How could it be otherwise?  Hundreds of poor people men, women, and children of all ages from the drivelling idiot of ninety to the babe just born, huddled together without light, without air, wallowing in filth and breathing a fetid atmosphere, sick in body, dispirited in heart, the fever patients lying between the sound, in sleeping places so narrow as almost to deny them the power of indulging, by a change of position, the natural restlessness of the disease. The food supply was of the poorest quality.  Drinking water was mixed with vinegar to kill the stench.'

Yet they changed America, among the famine emigrants Patrick Kennedy, great grandfather of an American presdient, later Micheal Regan ditto, and indeed, Fulmouth Kearney ... William Ford, 1846 father of Henry Ford, the man who changed America, to name but a few.

In the American Civil War, 250,000 fought for the Union. They helped create the American political system, built the Catholic Church, changed the face of Ireland and America. Their legacy is with us all today.

The poet Evan Boland said it best:

“Like oil lamps, we put them out the back —
of our houses, of our minds. We had lights
better than, newer than and then
a time came, this time and now
we need them. Their dread, makeshift example:
they would have thrived on our necessities.
What they survived we could not even live.
By their lights now it is time to
imagine how they stood there, what they stood with,
that their possessions may become our power:
Cardboard. Iron. Their hardships parceled in them.
Patience. Fortitude. Long-suffering
in the bruise-colored dusk of the New World.
And all the old songs. And nothing to lose.”

Murdered Irish bar owner and a rape victim share different fates -- Judges decide 75 years for rape and only 3.5 years for murder

George Gibbons' father and siblings stand in front of the Court after Monday's sentencing. (Credit: Queens Ledger)

A Queens New York judge this week sentenced Peter Rodriguez to 3 and half to 7 years in jail for snuffing out the life of George Gibbons, a beloved Irish bar owner in Queens.

On Monday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers gave a 75-year to life sentence to former NYPS cop Michael Pena for grabbing a 24-year-old teacher off the street. The jury was unable to decide whether Pena was guilty of rape.

The victim was a new schoolteacher on her way to her first day at work.

Pena will be 103 before being eligible for parole. Rodriguez 36,will be under 40.

The disparity in sentencing makes for an incredible contrast

Horrific as the rape crime was, family can still hold and touch the schoolteacher and comfort her. Hopefully with time she can move on and make a good life for herself.

I’m not saying the sentence was not justified

But George Gibbons lies in a lonely grave and his killer got off with a wrist slap.

Where is the justice?

Peter Rodriguez had a previous record when he drove the wrong way, likely drunk, on the Long Island expressway. After killing George he fled the scene and was not arrested for days.

I know the Gibbons family well and there is no Irish family as well respected.

Their loss was tragic and a community mourned with them. On Monday, 100 people showed up in court to question why Rodriguez got such a light sentence.

Eddie Gibbons, George’s uncle, now deceased, was a leading figure in the community for years.

His store and pub, the Poteen Still, was a home from home for many, making the Irish papers available in his store and playing a leading role in helping out young Irish undocumented.

Eddie's brother, George senior, is cut from the same cloth, a man renowned for his good deeds and his work tin helping Irish immigrants, and his kids have carried on the great family tradition.

Now they are shattered and to add insult to injury Rodriguez has got a slap on the wrist.

Where does the justice come in? How much was George Gibbons’s life worth?

Not that much according to a Queens DA and a judge who agreed a plea deal.

Sometimes the system sucks.

Bobby Sands death was moment when all changed in Northern Ireland -- Turning point for ‘The Troubles’ reached 31 years ago this week

It was 31 years ago yesterday that Bobby Sands died on hunger strike in Northern Ireland.

I was living in San Francisco at the time, 6,000 miles from Ireland, but the anger was palpable among the Irish American community there.

We gathered outside the British consulate as a group walked behind a mock coffin chanting “Bobby Sands MP” in recognition that he had been an elected member of the British parliament.

In retrospect letting Bobby Sands die was one of the greatest mistakes the British made in the history of Northern Ireland.

His election before he died to the House of Commons showed the Sinn Fein leadership, still very much the junior partner to the IRA in 1981, that politics could actually work and bring tens of thousands out onto the streets and into polling booths.

Sinn Fein learned well and the political evolution began on that May night that the death of Sands was announced.

I for one, considered that the Sands death was a turning point in my beliefs.

Up to that point I had little time for the IRA, believing that the frequent atrocities and bombings were totally counterproductive in terms of building worldwide support for a united Ireland. John Hume’s “agreed Ireland” seemed a better concept.

I would not have been caught dead at an IRA man’s mock coffin demonstration outside a British consulate before Bobby Sands.

I saw many others like me on that night, people who had a deep ambivalence about the situation in Northern Ireland but who were utterly inflamed and upset at what Margaret Thatcher had just allowed to happen.

From Sands' death on, Sinn Fein began to take more and more prominence in the republican debate.

It is a long haul but there is a direct line from there to the peace process and the ultimate entry of Sinn Fein into shared power in Northern Ireland, an idea that would have been inconceivable that May evening 31 years ago.

But it happened, and the stage was set with the death of Bobby Sands.

As Yeats remarked, “all changed, changed utterly” from that point on.

Biggest ever Irish American fundraising dinner breaks all records-- American Ireland Fund New York event one for the record books

Kieran McLoughlin, President & CEO of The Worldwide Ireland Funds and Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chairman of The American Ireland Fund, brief Michael D. Higgins President of Ireland on the milestone announcement that The Worldwide Ireland Funds Promising Ireland Campaign has overtaken its $100 million goal 19 months early.

The biggest fundraising dinner in the history of Irish America or indeed Ireland, took place last night at the Lincoln Center in New York.

The American Ireland Fund raised a staggering $4.3 million blowing away all previous records.

They also announced they had reached their $100 million fundraising goal 19 months early.

I was glad to be present at an Irish milestone that did not involve record debt, unemployment or some other bad news that has bedeviled the Irish in these trying times.

Looking around the packed Lincoln Center venue where over 1,300 had gathered, it seemed every prominent Irish American business man and woman from the New York area was in attendance—a resounding vote of confidence in the AIF and the work they do.

The AIF was rightfully, shouting from the rooftops that Irish America has delivered once again for Ireland’s most worthy charities and in the process confirmed what a giving hand Irish American have.

The Ireland Funds' Chairman Loretta Brennan Glucksman, announced that the Promising Ireland campaign to raise $100 million for charities had not only reached its goal 19 months ahead of schedule, but had also exceeded its target.

Chief Executive and President Kieran McLoughlin revealed that the campaign total now stands at over $120 million.

All this was achieved during the toughest economic times in recent history which makes it even more impressive.

I’m glad that the new Irish president Michael D. Higgins was present to see and hear the extraordinary news. He can certainly bear the glad tidings back to an Ireland awash in negativity where any good news is surely deeply appreciated.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan was the guest of honor on the night and he spoke impressively of his own Irish journey, his people were famine-tossed arrivals in America in the 1850s and now he runs the largest bank in the world with over 238,000 employees.

Despite his incredible rise he has never forgotten those Irish who risked all in order to make it possible for him in America.

Both Loretta Brennan Glucksman and Kieran McLoughlin deserve enormous credit for reaching the milestone.

The AIF under them is simply an organization that outgrown its elitist image and has become far more responsive and attuned in both America and Ireland to community needs and wants.

They have $ 500 million in their sights now, after announcing that the overall total raised by the Ireland Funds since inception is now $430 million

Other VIPs attending included Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg; New York Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly; Speaker of New York City Council, Christine Quinn; Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel; and celebrated author Colum McCann. Martha Stewart was also in attendance.

I spent a fascinating few minutes with former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt who had certainly made the headlines recently in a spectacular divorce case.

He and brother David, now a major investor in Ireland, were clearly enjoying the night.

It was that kind of evening, there’s nothing quite like a rip roaring Irish party, especially when there is something to celebrate.

The AIF has done Ireland and Irish America proud.

New Irish president impresses major Irish Americans -- President Michael D Higgins lays out vital role of emigrant Irish for Ireland audience in New York

Michael D Higgins speaking at the IN-NYC (Credit:James Higgins) 

Ireland’s new president, Michael D. Higgins, is a public intellectual turned politician, the best since Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president.

Intellectuals do not do politics normally, which makes Higgins an unusual case to begin with.

But last night at the American Irish Historical Society in Manhattan, the glittering building on Fifth Avenue across from the Metropolitan Museum, Higgins proved how wise the Irish electorate were in choosing him.

It was no easy crowd to please, a pastiche of Manhattan Irish great and good, many jaded by years of such events.

But you could hear a pin drop during his remarks.

Higgins, 71, delivered the annual Thomas Flanagan lecture with aplomb and vision, making favorable comparisons in many minds with his predecessors Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson.

You don’t get more complimentary than that.
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Well maybe you can -- Don Keough, Chairman emeritus of the AIHS board and former Coca Cola President and Notre Dame Chairman stated that the Higgins comments were the best he had heard on the relationship and would reverberate in history and would be studied by future historians.

Fulsome praise indeed from the man who many consider the unofficial leader of Irish America.

The theme was the Irish need and ability to reinvent themselves at a time when the country desperately needs to do so again.

Higgins stressed that the Irish abroad were a vital part of that reinvention, that the very act of emigrating forces a major reinvention and remaking of the self to begin with.

Higgins stated that the Irish in Ireland had much to learn from the ability of the Irish in America to surf those treacherous waters, to reinvent themselves and climb up from starving Famine refugees to the pinnacle of American life.

He also showed how Irish America had helped save aspects of Ireland and its culture. Francis O’Neill, a Chicago policeman, had collected and saved thousands of Irish airs and musical pieces and sparked the later Celtic music revival music for new generations.

He noted that without the support of men like John Devoy and John Boyle O’Reilly, Irish self-determination such as it is would never have been achieved.

Higgins spoke of the despairing tone of the editorials in the Times of London after the Famine when they realized the Irish were spread to the four winds and the memory of what Britain has done during the Famine would never be forgotten. The Times was indeed prescient in that.

Higgins will play a vital role in Irish and Irish American relations these next seven years of his presidency. He is able to articulate and identify the ties that bind and his presidency will be an important buffer against little Irelanders who want nothing to do with the Diaspora and denigrate it every chance they get.

Higgins clearly thinks very differently and his trip to America is making that clear.

As Doctor Kevin Cahill, President General of the AIHS, stated, “President Higgins represents the nobility - and mobility – of the Irish people, both at home and abroad.”

The universal respect for him came from “his unquestioned command of all aspects of the culture of his people, and from the respect and affection that he had won across the political spectrum.”

Indeed.

The Month’s Mind -- A letter to Rory, remembering a laughing boy with us no more

Rory Staunton

The Irish religious ritual of a “month’s mind”, exactly a month after a departed has passed is a beautiful if sad occasion to remember a beloved.

So this is for my nephew 12-year-old Rory Staunton, now in the arms of the angels after tragically dying from a toxic infection in a New York hospital on April 1st.

Rory, we miss you so much.

Every morning I awake and wonder if the empty feeling will ever subside, if it all really happened that one so vibrant and beautiful should pass so unexpectedly leaving so many broken hearts.

Alas, it has.

The days have been tough for us Rory, the nights even tougher.

What your parents,Orlaith and Ciaran have endured I will never know, except they and your wonderful sister Kathleen have hearts so broken it is hard to see them ever heal.

Yet they are magnificent, trying their very best every day to keep going despite the most horrible blow possible.

The memories still cascade, so special, so sad, so unreal that we won’t see your big red head of hair come bouncing into our lives again, full of the latest breaking news from CNN or the science project you are working on, or the plane you want to fly or the car you want to drive or the dream you want to live or the cause you want us to take up.

I almost called you to say make sure you watched the last flight of the space shuttle to JFK last week when it came in perched on top of a mighty Jumbo 747.

You would have told me everything about how  the jumbo was able to carry such a massive load. You were always so comfortable in the sky.

You left an indelible mark young man. President Obama, President Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are among those hundreds who have written to your parents saying how deeply they feel for them.

Family and friends here in America and Ireland have been wonderful Rory, you have brought out the very best in everyone.

I know a family where sisters reconciled after reading about your death, deciding that they could not sustain the bitter word when life is so fleeting.

I saw an incredibly decent act when the immigration officer at Dublin readily stamped your passport one more time when you traveled home to Ireland with us on your final flight.

A Rory circle of virtue I thought at the time.

That’s a little part of your legacy Rory, and there will be much more to come.

You were a pathfinder. I remember last summer when we spent the weekend in rural Pennsylvania and I got you and everyone else totally lost trying to find the road home.

It was pitch black and I was afraid to admit I was scared, we had wandered so far off the beaten path.

You alone, so mature as always, found the way back to our friend’s house deep in the woods as if you had a GPS in your head.

Now we need you to lead the way again for all of us, to help us cope.

Oh and Rory, a little boy was born this week to your first cousin Danielle in Ireland. 

His name is Fionn Rory Muldoon after you.

Someday I will teach him about you and tell him what a difference you made and what a special boy you were.

You will live on in him and others always.

Until we meet again, Rory, and I know we will, I love you and miss you so much.

Your Uncle Niall