Diplomats gone wild at U.S. Embassy in Dublin say concerned Irish -- Horror stories about how Irish are treated after famed author Tim Pat Coogan refused

Hillary Clinton

Since the Tim Pat Coogan story broke here, I have heard numerous horror stories about the American Embassy in Dublin and how it is treating Irish applicants for visas to the United States.

As we know, famed author and historian Tim Pat Coogan was treated incredibly poorly and denied a visa for his U.S. book tour until Irish American pressure and New York Senator Chuck Schumer reversed the decision.

It is vital how an embassy treats the citizens of the country they are operating in. It sets a tone. The U.S. Embassy currently is presenting a very hostile face to the Irish.

There is no good reason for that. Ireland is not the Soviet Union circa 1955.

That’s not just my opinion -- it is that of a broad spectrum of Irish government personnel, lawyers who deal with the visa section of the embassy, and people who went through the process who I have spoken with.

It now appears that Tim Pat was the tip of the iceberg. Several who have dealings with the embassy have recounted episodes of rudeness, arrogance and most of all incomprehensible decisions by visa officers there.

Read More: United States visa ban on Tim Pat Coogan removed after Senator Schumer steps in

It is spoken openly about in Irish government circles. Many prominent figures in Ireland and here are scratching their heads at the treatment.

Representations have been made but nothing has changed. Visa officers in U.S. embassies have broad latitude, but the division in Dublin seems deliberately set on keeping applicants out of the U.S. based on the slightest whim.

Ambassador Dan Rooney, while a beloved figure to many, hardly seems to have reacted despite being told on numerous occasions about the treatment of Irish visa seekers.

Since the arrival of visa head Bradley Wilde in 2010, things have quickly gone downhill in Ballsbridge where the embassy is located.

Wilde has instituted a very aggressive regime which treats visa seekers in the main like potential burdens on America.

Rules appear to have been arbitrarily applied and changed, leaving deep confusion. Rudeness, failure to explain and downright bloody mindedness when depriving people of visas on the smallest technicalities seems rampant.

Read more: Niall O'Dowd -- Barring of writer Tim Pat Coogan from U.S. is an absolute disgrace

Maybe Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who visits Dublin next week, could take this up with Ambassador Rooney.

It is long past due as the Tim Pat Coogan case finally proved.

A new spirit in the Irish community after Rockaways Day of Action -- A real insight into how much a united community can accomplish

The Irish lend a helping hand in the Rockaways
(Photo: Sean McPhail)

The success of the Irish Day of Action in Rockaway when 1,000 Irish descended on the devastated Rockaway Peninsula has led to a new spirit in the Irish community.

Rocked back on its heels by the lack of emigration and the tough times for many of the older Irish organizations, the Rockaway day was an amazing insight into how much the community can still accomplish.

From earliest dawn on Saturday all over New York and in many places upstate the Irish came together in the best spirit of the Meitheal, the Gaelic word meaning a gathering to help neighbors in need.

What was truly heartening was the mixture from the youngest of Irish organizations to the oldest, to the geographic spread across all communities.

The role of the Irish consulate in coordinating the original response was immense.

Many years ago such a leadership role would have been far more difficult. The Northern Irish issue divided the community leading to boycotts stand offs and bad blood.

Read more: 1,000 Irish show up for Rockaway ‘Day of Action’ to rebuild community

That is no longer the case, allowing organizations to exist in a cooperative fashion as was proven on Saturday.

What was also obvious was how perfectly tailored to the problem the Irish response was.

We are a community that deals heavily in construction and skills related.

The Rockaways’ crying need was for such skills, especially electricians who are highly valued there because of the number of houses in need.

What was also stunning was the number of women who turned out, well over the 50 per cent mark.

It was an interesting insight into that Irish quality of empathy and caring so strongly represented in medical fields and child care by women in the main.

For many of the Irish-born who were unfamiliar with the Rockaways and Breezy Point the sight of so many tricolors and Irish name plates outside homes was itself an education into how important the Irish heritage and association for so many.

It was a learning curve all around and a day that ended with good cheer and good feeling. “Ni Neart go Chur Le Cheile” is the old Irish adage. “No strength until we pull together.”

How true.

1,000 Irish show up for Rockaway ‘Day of Action’ to rebuild community - Live aid for stricken Rockaway residents after Hurricane Sandy

On Beach 96th Street in the Rockaways, right by the ocean, the local health clinic was a needed lifeline.

Since Hurricane Sandy however, the clinic has been shuttered, the water made it up to the second floor and everything inside was destroyed.

The mold is visible on the walls, the carpets ruined and destroyed. The clinic is in sad disrepair.

Until Saturday when a hardy bunch of Irish volunteers arrived for the Day of Action.

As team leader Dubliner Eric Moore recounted it was like another hurricane had hit the place, but this time a benign one, driven by the good intentions of an Irish community which showed up in force to help the stricken Rockaways.

By the time I got there neighbors were poking their heads out the window or walking across the street to thank the Irish volunteers.

Just a block from the beach many of their houses had been destroyed when Sandy hit but the arrival of the Irish gave them hope that things were actually going to get better.

The 96th Street location was just one of five in the Rockaways peninsula that the 1,000 Irish who descended went to work on.

In Breezy Point, an AOH division cleaned out a Protestant church, perhaps the first time that has happened in history. The grateful pastor gave his blessings to the mainly Rockland Irish crew who worked all day.

At St. Francis De Salles church the monsignor finally had his basement cleaned out and the sand removed. His church has been the center of much of the activity but he has had not time to clean up his own house – until the Irish arrived.

One of my lasting memories from this day will be a crowd of Irish volunteers outside the parish residence as evening fell, sweeping, brushing, collecting, and clearly happy as they worked.

The day had started in the pre-dawn for most of the Irish.

From early morning 12 buses rolled from The Bronx, Yonkers, Queens, Manhattan and upstate Rockland. Hundreds of others drove by cars and trucks. Important logistical equipment  was  conveyed by Liffey Van Lines.

When the volunteers arrived they fanned out to the pre-scouted locations. While there was some confusion at the beginning at some of the sites, soon work details were available for all.

Right after the green on white Irish Day of Action T shirts (sponsored by Aer Lingus) were seen everywhere as the Irish got to work.

“We knew we needed a response to the events in the Rockaways, we knew from the community that there was a pent up demand to do something,” said Irish consul General Noel Kilkenny.

“We knew there had been lots of fundraisers and we wanted to do something different, “ said Ciaran Staunton of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform one of the main organizers. “So we decided on a Day of Action.”

The different Irish Centers run by Siobhan Dennehy, Orla Kelleher and Paul Finnegan got behind the idea 100 per cent. Deputy Consul General Peter Ryan convened almost daily meetings, even over Thanksgiving and worked with Speaker Christine Quinn on transportation and issues on the ground in Rockaway. Turlough McConnell handled communications with the community.

Location scouts such as Brian McCabe, Owen Rogers and Dan Dennehy went down to Rockaway to find the places of greatest need.

I am happy to say I was one of those original members who sat with Kilkenny and Ryan and decided on the Day of Action.

It was no sure success. It was set for the Saturday after Thanksgiving when many were away. It meant a very early start for the bus in the pre-dawn hour, it meant a lengthy day trip to the Rockaways and was very much dependent on weather.

We should not have worried, Soon the rampant goodwill among the community for those injured and damaged by Sandy turned into a powerful force.

We met so many exceptional people in the Rockaways. At Beach 38th street in St, Gertrude’s church, Reggie Warren and his staff operating in one of the hardest hit African Americans neighborhoods were running a clockwork organization with wall charts showing houses that needed to be cleared and people in need.

In Hamilton Beach, perhaps the hardest hit area after Breezy Point, our volunteers were immediately swept up by the professional crews gathered there and sent to work.

Likewise in Breezy Point the Habitat for Humanity folks had all their ducks in a row and our volunteers shovel ready for work assignments.

Of all the places damaged Breezy Point shocks the most. The area where the 111 houses burned to the ground resembles an atom bomb crater with twisted metal, trees and buildings in every direction.

Breezy is the most Irish town in America according to the U.S Census and it was great to see Old Glory and the Tricolor still flying high despite the massive setbacks.

By day’s end the Irish community had contributed a massive 7,000 man-hours to helping the Rockaways in their huge recovery project.

Many  sat in the heated tent opposite St Frances De Salles church, donated by Irish firm Navillus tired but content and telling the stories of their day and the incredible gratitude shown them by locals.

There were so many warm moments for them, and I know from conversations that many will be making their way down there in the weeks and months ahead.

The Irish community has shown the way on the Rockaways and hopefully many other groups will follow. It was a day for Irish pride no question about it.

Barring of writer Tim Pat Coogan from U.S. is an absolute disgrace - America’s greatest friend in Ireland insulted by the U.S. Embassy

Tim Pat Coogan

The barring of Tim Pat Coogan from coming to America for a book tour is disgraceful. He was refused a visa when he applied for one for his new book tour.

It is one in a clear pattern of a number of recent clueless decisions at the American Embassy in Dublin at the consular level that defy logic.

Read More: Famed historian Tim Pat Coogan confirms he was turned down twice for U.S. visa

Ambassador Dan Rooney is clearly unable or unwilling to use his own discretion in some of these cases.

Ever since Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith played a stellar role in the Irish peace process by running her embassy with an iron fist, the functionaries have done their very best to keep incoming ambassadors powerless.

Never mind that Kennedy’s role stand suit like a beacon in the annals of American diplomacy in Ireland. An ambassador the bureaucrats cannot control is a dangerous person indeed it seems.

They did not succeed in the Bush era where excellent appointments ensured that many political issues were retained at the ambassadorial level.

That does not seem to be the case today. The Tim Pat Coogan case is a travesty but senior Irish government officials have told me it is by no means the only strange decision emanating from the embassy in recent times.

There seems to be a hardening attitude there to make it as difficult as possible for people to come to the U.S. from changes in how the J1 one year visa program is being administered to several high profile turndowns.

Blink and you might think you were back in the McCarthy era.

Put simply, there was no greater defender of America in Ireland for the past few decades than Tim Pat Coogan, especially at times when the anti-American sentiment there was at its highest.

His pro-American stances, both in his Irish Press newspaper and his writing about the power of the Irish Diaspora were major factors in keeping the American flag flying in Ireland.

He played a key behind the scenes role in the Irish peace process, especially in the early days when his contacts with Father Alex Reid, the unsung hero of the entire process, were vital.

He was deeply trusted by the Kennedy family and it was a famous meal in Dublin he had with Senator Edward Kennedy convincing him of the need for a visa for Gerry Adams that swayed the Massachusetts senator as well as helping bring President Clinton into the loop.

Visiting Irish Americans are always assured of a hearty welcome from Tim Pat and his backing for America and stance against the anti-American rhetoric so often spouted in Ireland made him this country’s prime defender.

Yet this is the 77-year-old man who the American Embassy just refused a visa to come to America too and humiliated him in the process?

Is there no institutional memory whatever at the embassy that can separate and remember a friend? No one who was able to realize the deep insult they had just inflicted on America’s greatest journalistic ally there?

Where was Ambassador Rooney in all this, as we know he was personally aware of the case?

There are so many questions but one undeniable fact. It will be a blot forever on the Dublin embassy that it humiliated one of its greatest supporters and Ireland’s leading historian by refusing a visa to launch his new book on the Irish famine.

Disgraceful is the word for it.

Savita’s death is a tragedy - shouting and debating over the loss of beautiful life

Savita Halappanavar

I was on the Al Jazeera channel on Monday discussing the death of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland.

I was struck by how, in all the shouting and debating, the soul and spirit of the young Indian woman has been lost already.

Savita died in a Galway hospital after doctors refused her request for an abortion on her fetus who they agreed was not going to live. They allegedly told her that because Ireland was a “Catholic country” she would have to wait for the heartbeat to cease.

She spent three days in terrible agony, then contracted septic shock and died.

On the show I was on the usual sides were in opposition -- those who blamed the lack of an abortion on her dying fetus as the reason why she died, and the pro-life gurus claiming that she would have died anyway from septic shock. I was there to give the American reaction.

Few referred to the fact that the death of Savita, the 31-year-old beautiful Indian woman who worked as a dentist in Ireland, is firstly an unbelievable personal tragedy.

Amidst all the recrimination and argument as to how and why she died, it appears to me the human story has been lost.

Al Jazeera played a captivating video of Savita showing off her Indian dance moves. She had the looks of a Bollywood film star and the moves of a natural dancer.

In real life this wonderful and warm Indian professional was an emigrant to Ireland, worked as a dentist in Westport, Co. Mayo and was beloved in her community. Her husband worked in Galway at an American multinational there.

She led the way teaching Indian dance to local Mayo youngsters, and was arranging the events connected with her local Indian festival when she became ill.

In the early weeks of her pregnancy her husband’s family visited, thrilled to bits at the new grandchild. One can only imagine the happy occasion, especially in a culture that adores children.

The parents were hardly back in India, however, when the complications began.

At 17 weeks pregnant, Savita was rushed to Galway Hospital with complications. We all know most of what happened next.

But what stands out in my mind is that when she asked for a termination of a fetus that could not be saved, she was told “no” and that “this is a Catholic country.”

If that is true, what kind of ignorance fueled that type of response? The woman was in excruciating pain and her doctors refused to act.

So this lovely young woman sent three days in absolute agony, a fact not disputed by anyone in this case, while doctors fulfilled some magical religious custom.

And she died and left a heartbroken husband and family behind her. Not only has her husband Praveen lost his wife but also his new baby who no doubt he was thrilled to await.

Hopefully others will not lose sight of the wonderful human life that has been lost.

Savita has now become another statistic that will fuel the incendiary abortion debate. There is no issue I know of more strongly argued and more vehemently than the issue of abortion.

Alas, Savita now becomes part of that ongoing global battle. Her story appeared on Page 3 of The New York Times this week and has sparked worldwide coverage.

But we should never forget her to be a wonderful professional woman, a wife and someone beloved by her family.

That is the real tragedy here.

GAA goes Broadway in New York as a new era dawns for Gaelic games -- Historic banquet marks major expansion by Ireland’s largest sporting group

GPA Chairman Dónal Óg Cusack pictured with GPA Chief Executive Dessie Farrell

A new era dawned for the GAA Ireland’s leading sporting organization in a New York hotel last night.

The first annual dinner of the Gaelic Players Association, the umbrella group for all the 2,500 top athletes in Gaelic football and hurling, was a smashing success with over 400 prominent Irish Americans as well as the All-Star teams from Ireland.

More importantly however, the New York dinner signaled a fresh assault by Ireland’s leading sporting organization on the lucrative overseas market where tens of thousands already play their games.

Also present last night was GAA president Liam O’Neill who spoke about the new effort to spread Irish games worldwide on the wings of emigrants and the GAA’s legendary amateur status.

Though their players fill arenas as big as Yankee Stadium, the players are unpaid and in many cases,out of pocket as a result of giving their all for Ireland’s premier sports.

It is an incredible achievement and story that deserves far greater coverage and acknowledgement over here. Playing for the love and not the money is a foreign concept in big time sport anywhere in the world except Ireland.

Read more GAA news here

Ireland’s greatest athlete is Henry Shefflin who has nine hurling all Ireland medals, the equivalent of 9 super bowl rings -- but by day he is a bank employee making a relatively modest wage.

Guest of honor on the night was Donald R. Keough, the former top Coca-Cola executive who has done more to ensure bonds between Ireland and America remain closer than ever than any Irish American alive.

He was the one, as a former Chairman of Notre Dame and founder of the Keough Naughton Irish Institute there, who was the prime mover behind Notre Dame playing in Ireland this year-- and what an incredible success that was.

Now the GAA has come to play in America and based on the overwhelming success of the GPA players first dinner, there is a bright future ahead.

The games of hurling and Gaelic football are thrilling, fast moving, and can hold their own with any games on earth. With such a plethora of sports networks now here in America it seems a wonderful opportunity to spread the games of the Gael to new worlds.

The first steps for that American presence were taken in the Marriot Marquis Hotel in New York’s theater district  last night. The GAA are finally going Broadway.

Irish government and Catholic hierarchy need to disavow reasons for death of pregnant woman -- Will they stand up and be counted on wrong application of Catholic doctrine?

Protestors gather outside Leinster House (Irish Parliament building)
 during a demonstration in favor of abortion legislation in Dublin,
 Ireland, on November 14, (Credit: Peter Muhly/AFP)

The Irish government and the Catholic hierarchy there should make clear that they strongly disagreed with the dreadful decision to allow a young mother in a Galway hospital to die because her non-viable fetus continued to have a heartbeat.

There is no other correct decision for them to make. This is not a medical issue, it is a human rights one. It is incredible to think that in this day and age such a death could occur.

The life of the mother was sacrificed in this occasion by waiting for the 17-week-old non-viable fetus to die while she was miscarrying. When she desperately asked for the fetus to be aborted she was told “This is a Catholic hospital.” She later died of sepsis.

Savita Halappanavar (31), a dentist and of the Hindu faith, originally from India, went through two and a half days of dreadful pain while the fetus lived on.

Surely the Catholic Church and the Irish government need to step in here and say “not in our name”?

The fetus would never have lived, doctors in Galway agreed. The mother was bleeding and leaking amniotic fluid.

In Britain or the US, if it were seen that the mother was in imminent danger, the mother would have been given drugs to expedite the miscarriage.

In Ireland she was told to suffer and bear it and she died as a result.

If it sounds like a terrible plot from an Edna O’Brien novel from the 1950s then it is.

One can only imagine what this lovely young woman and her husband, both emigrants to Ireland, experienced in her final hours.

It is an enormous blot on the country, a throwback to the bad old days when women’s lives in childbirth were considered expendable.

The church and state need to make it clear that it was not done in their name.

Whether they will or not will tell us a lot about the new Ireland.

 Read more: Thousands gather to protest in Ireland over death of mother due to abortion denial

Irish fight back begins in Rockaways after Hurricane Sandy devastation -- Spending time with the brave residents of a devastated beach town

The Rockaways - Once a refuge for 9/11 emergency workers Harbor Lights Pub is now destroyed

Belle Harbor, Rockaway Beach, Sunday: The cruel sea came pouring into this peninsula driven by the hurricane force winds of Hurricane Sandy.

For the first time in living memory the waters of Jamaica Bay met the Atlantic Ocean over land and left havoc and destruction in its wake.

The only frame of reference I can give you in terms of devastation is 9/11 and even that was concentrated in a small part of New York City.

I visited Ground Zero and its surrounding neighborhood just two days after that attack and Rockaway, Broad Channel, and the other communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy are déjà vu all over again.

Here in Rockaway, street after street are utterly destroyed, mounds of sand pushed in by the advancing waves clogging basements, streets, high water levels as tall as six feet destroying homes perhaps for ever.

“We will rebuild,” says Pat Nee, the proud Mayo man known unofficially as the Mayor of Rockaway, as he takes me around his destroyed neighborhood.

Pat came to Rockaway via The Bronx in 1979 and left Ireland in 1956.

At 81 he thought he had seen it all. “I had seen nothing until I saw this storm” he told me.

Down the street Brendan Brosh is newly married and had just moved with his Texas-born wife Bianca to Rockaway where he spent much of his early years. Nothing remains of his house.

He was digging the sand out of his mother’s basement as we brought a few dozen Irish breakfasts for him and his extended family and workers courtesy of my brother-in-law’s restaurant O’Neill’s. It was their first hot meal in days.

Read more news on Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath here

As they gathered round, his family told harrowing stories of the night the storm struck -- including seeing the boardwalk literally float down the street, unmoored from its concrete holdings by the power of the storm. “Surreal” said Brendan.

There are many tales of heroism which will go untold, one in particular of a woman and child saved at the last moment after she fled her home panicked as the water advanced.

Fire joined wind and water in the great destruction orgy. Houses in several streets are burnt to the ground, great tangled mess of metal and cars burnt beyond recognition.

At the Harbor Light bar at Beach and 130th Street, a forlorn shamrock flag flies while all else is in ruins, burnt to the ground.

Harbor Lights owner Bernie Heeran is one of the most beloved men in the community. He lost his son in 9/11 and his bar became a gathering place for the many heroes of that dreadful event. When it comes to cops and firefighters, Rockaway and nearby Breezy Point are Ground Zero.

The heroes this time around are the thousands of volunteers that we met from all over, armed with little more than shovels.

Among them were groups of dedicated Mormons doing sterling work, Team Rubicon, an organization composed of armed forces veterans and just ordinary folks, hundreds of friends, relatives, neighbors, and volunteers who have pitched in to try and reboot the lives of so many.

Providing food for free is Gibbons Irish Bar from Maspeth Queens, who have set up a mobile kitchen and are preparing hot meals for the many relief workers.

Providing heat in a huge “warming tent” is Navillus Construction, an Irish company we can also be proud of.

Conspicuous by their almost total absence is the Long Island Power Authority who might possibly be the worst utility company in the world, given their response to this disaster.

The Red Cross is widely criticized here too for delaying too long. “They were missing in action, It’s been friends, neighbors, volunteers,” says Brendan Brosh. “We had to fall back on our own.”

No one knows what the future holds for the newly homeless and cold and in need in the Rockaways.

What is not in question is the spirit and drive in the community which is apparent the moment you arrive there.

“We will rebuild. We will come back,” says Pat Nee. “That’s what we Irish do.”

Read more news on Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath here 

Anger towards Obama, Cuomo, Bloomberg in Irish Rockaways - President’s visit may trigger a hostile reception for governor, mayor too

Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo will accompany President Obama on his tour of ravaged areas in New York on Thursday.

Expect a hostile reception especially in the Irish Rockaways, the people that New York forgot, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Talking to people there the sense of betrayal is very real. “We feel utterly betrayed by the government” said one Rockaway Irish resident to me today.

The anger will not be aimed specifically at the president but for the two polls with him.

The Irish communities in Rockaway and Breezy Point have been devastated by this tragedy and the

Mayor and governor have not impressed them in this crisis.

Both came out talking a big game but failed to deliver. The result is widespread homelessness, no heat or light and people going hungry in New York.

The two pols did hold a lot of self-congratulatory press conferences though, deferring to each other as the disaster management geniuses they really seemed to believe they were.

Yet it took Bloomberg well over a week to figure out what Governor Christie in New Jersey quickly figured out. The gas shortage would lead to long lines and alternate day filling up was the smart move.

Then there was Bloomberg’s ridiculous decision to go ahead with the New York City marathon when the city was still grieving and bleeding from Sandy.

Cuomo was throwing threats at the Long Island Power Company telling them to shape up. When they didn’t he – well he huffed and puffed and did nothing.

As The New York Post noted:
“Now Cuomo’s searching out the guilty parties — but he would do well to look in the mirror before he travels too far down that road.”

Turns out Cuomo has ignored filling vacancies on LIPA’s board and refused to act after Newsday reported that LIA was in dire condition and totally unprepared for a hurricane.

The impact of all that will be clear to President Obama when he visits and sees the continuing tragedy unfold.

If the two men with him hang back and give him the spotlight it may not be political modesty, rather self-survival.

Daniel Day-Lewis is incredible as Abraham Lincoln in new film - A film that will surely touch the souls of millions who see it

Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln"

Rarely in a movie theater do you feel a sharp intake of breath then hear a round of applause at the end of a film.

The tough New York crowd at the opening day of “Lincoln” however made clear their feelings after the Steven Spielberg film ended.

I think most of the applause had to be for Anglo-Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of America’s most beloved president.

Day-Lewis didn’t just play Lincoln he inhabited him, giving him a sense of humanity and deep emotion all too rare in the usual hagiographies.

We have always know Day-Lewis to be capable of great art in his Irish movies, as Christy Brown in ‘My Left Foot’ or Gerry Conlon in ‘In the Name of the Father’ The Guildford Four movie, but as Lincoln he surpasses his own high standards.

This all too human, Lincoln, deeply grieving the death of his son, arguing constantly with his clinically depressed wife, walking the empty halls of the White House late at night too troubled to sleep is a powerful portrait.

Above all the nobility of his cause comes through. Has there ever been such a struggle in this country as the battle to end slavery?

Day-Lewis plays Lincoln as a deeply divided soul, wondering whether the best objective is to end the war and deal with slavery later as most of his advisors urge, or force the 13th amendment through, come hell or high water.

The interior life of Lincoln is revealed, the man who disliked and was disliked by his father, the rough and ready plainsman ready with a bawdy joke or a funny story, the conflicted father when his oldest son wants to sign up for the army he is commander-in-chief of, the wordsmith like no other composing his Gettysburg Address and second inaugural speech, two of the most powerful pieces ever written

Day-Lewis al portrays Lincoln as a cunning politician, ready to use whatever tools at his disposal to pass the 13th Amendment banning slavery.

He is not too “Honest Abe” to countenance blatant bribery, not too proud to plead cajole and beg votes from Democrats he needs, not too saintly to let loose with profane invective and lashing out when his cabinet disagrees with him.

His genius was that it was all for a greater cause, can there ever have been a more worthy one?

He recalls seeing a boatload of black slaves in chains going down the Mississippi river when he was a child. It let a permanent mark on him.

This film will touch everyone who sees it and I urge you to go and bring your loved ones. It shows how magnificent a leader and yet how ordinary a man our most beloved president was. It touches the soul as surely as Lincoln did to so many in his own time.

Election night, Barack Obama’s re-election and Rory Staunton -- There is far more to this world than we have figured out just yet

Rory Staunton

There were few bigger fans of Barack Obama than 12-year-old Rory Staunton. His father, Ciaran, had brought him to the White House to the Irish celebration on St Patrick’s Day in 2011 and he had met the president and the first lady.

To say he was proud as punch was an understatement. When the president stopped on the rope line and briefly chatted with him, Rory was in seventh heaven.

Rory was the kind of kid who lived and breathed politics anyway, so the Obama meeting set him even more on a course that his parents and I, as his uncle, thought would surely bring him into politics some day.

He worshiped John F Kennedy too and featured him on his Facebook page as a hero. He already understood what it meant for an Irish Catholic in 1960 to make it to the White House at a time just one generation removed from ‘No Irish Need Apply’ signs.

Rory was already spreading his own civil rights message. In his school he began a campaign to “Spread the word to end the word,” the word was “retard”, and Rory was determined that its use be ended.

In late March when Rory became ill with sepsis after receiving a cut in a basketball game at school and was misdiagnosed at NYU Langone hospital, he was rushed back there the second day when he was clearly very sick.

Doctors wanted to measure his mental status and asked him two questions.

“Who is President of the United States?”

“Who will be the next President of the United States?”

"OBAMA. OBAMA."

Those were the last words he ever spoke before going into a coma.

After he died the President sent a beautiful letter. To say we were rooting for his re-election was putting it mildly.

That is why I missed Rory so much on election night this week. We sat in Rory’s house in Queens watching the returns come in, missing the big redhead on the couch who would surely have thrown a wad of facts and figures at us to beat the band and bore us all explaining the electoral college to anyone who would listen.

Though the race seemed close in the early states we figured Rory would take care of any minor problems in Obama’s path to re-election.

We all sensed he was with us -- just a feeling, hard to explain. To me there is far more to this world than we have figured out just yet.

Election night was just one more instance of that.

Twice that night the doorbell rang in Rory’s house and when we went outside to open the door there was no one there.

I remember sitting with Ron Clifford who lost his sister and his little niece on 9/11 when the television in his front room suddenly came on, frightening the wits out of me as no one was near.

Ron explained to me how the lights often flickered mysteriously especially when he was discussing them.

So, yes I do think Rory was there in some way with us on election night and that he celebrated with us around 11.15pm when Ohio put the president over the top.

Yeats wrote: “Come away O human child
To the waters and the wild
With the fairies hand in hand
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”

And more full of wonder and mystery sometimes too. Like when a doorbell rings and no one is there.

The Gathering not a scam but an opportunity -- Gabriel Byrne right on culture, wrong on The Gathering

Notre Dame fans arrive in Ireland among thousands enjoying what Ireland has to offer

First of all let me say that Tourism Ireland and The Gathering is a sponsor in several of our publications but I am trying to be as objective as possible about Gabriel Byrne’s recent comments calling The Gathering a scam.

I don’t believe that it is a scam but I do believe Gabriel has it right in several other comments he made about how the concept of the Diaspora is treated in Ireland.

Let me deal with The Gathering concept first. I know the people who came up with the concept originally, men like John Concannon of Irish Tourism and Tim O’Connor former Consul General in New York, and their advocacy for the importance of the Irish abroad is both far seeing and genuine.

I saw it working in the Notre Dame game in Dublin and the Tip O’Neill clan gathering in Buncrana, Donegal, both of which I attended in September.

Twenty-five thousand Notre Dame fans traveled to Ireland and got an overwhelming welcome from Irish people throughout the island. Sure, there may have been cynics about the whole enterprise, but the genuine welcome went very deep with the Notre Dame fans.

The Tip O’Neill gathering which I spoke at was more what the nuts and bolts of The Gathering is about. The former speaker of the house traced his ancestral roots to Donegal and the extended O’Neill family came in en masse, about 80 in all.

The locals joined in for a weekend that was poignant, fun and deeply meaningful for the O’Neills.

Read more: Actor Gabriel Byrne slams The Gathering as ‘a scam‘ aimed at gullible Americans

It was precisely the kind of targeted event, drawing on a local connection across the country, that The Gathering is intended to be.

Last year we at Irish America Magazine hosted our first Hall of Fame event in Wexford, right on the Quayside where Patrick Kennedy set off for America in Famine times. Our main honoree was Don Keough, former president of Coca Cola, whose great grandfather made the same trip from that exact spot.

To walk that quay with him, to visit the famine ship replica, was a deeply spiritual moment for him and the locals could not have been more welcoming and more informative about his ancestor’s journey.

That is what The Gathering promises to be to me, a series of events across the island of Ireland where locals draw on the genuine local historical record and reach out to their separated brethren across the Atlantic or indeed in England or elsewhere.

Where Byrne is correct is in his criticism of what happened to the cultural outreach from Ireland. Culture Ireland set up an extensive cultural program of Irish events across the United States.

Byrne served as cultural ambassador for two years and did his damnedest to expand the cultural footprint of Ireland over here.

Then the Irish government abruptly pulled the funding, ending the experiment long before it should have.

Byrne is also right that the return to roots of so many Irish Americans is a deeply spiritual journey and that there are some misguided Irish who scoff at the whole business.

They display an incredible ignorance of the ties that bind across the centuries for two countries that are inextricably woven together through emigration.

But I don’t think those folks who sneer make up the majority, no more than some gombeen politicians who see the Diaspora through dollar signs and little else do.

The Gathering is a step in the right direction in my book, not a scam, but an opportunity.

Why Chris Christie bear hug will deliver White House to Barack Obama -- Did New Jersey governor deliberately snub Mitt Romney after VP diss?

Chris Christie and Barack Obama speak during the President's visit
to Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s bear hug embrace of Barack Obama during Hurricane Sandy will deliver the White House again to Barack Obama, I believe.

Since he did so the polls have moved perceptively to Obama, which should allow him to eke out a 51 per cent to 49 per cent victory in the popular vote I predict.

It was an extraordinary moment and a dagger aimed at the heart of Republican contender Mitt Romney who had passed Christie over for the Vice President slot after originally indicating he was choosing him as Politico.com revealed.

(There is no love lost between the two Republicans, they angrily disputed why Christie was not on the stage at a Romney rally in neighboring Pennsylvania on election eve.)

Christie saw himself on the sidelines and knew a victory for Romney essentially sidelined him for a possible eight years. He likely made a calculation that Obama would be re-elected.

Facing probable political oblivion, Christie acted.

Read more on the US Presidential Election here

Embracing Obama ensured his re-election in New Jersey also with Obama hardly likely to champion a Democratic opponent. It also ensured that moderate Democrats will be naturally drawn to supporting him when he runs for re-election.

It was a lifeline to Obama. Barack Obama was in a desperate fight to the death last week and in a dead heat at best when the hurricane struck.

Americans rally to the president in a crisis and Obama has the Commander-in-Chief down to an art form.

But the Christie embrace was the icing on the cake. Americans yearn for the type of cross community politics that sees politicians from opposite sides work together.

There are few more popular figures than the larger-than-life Christie who has never met a doughnut stand he didn’t like and calls a spade a spade.

When he appeared all day with Obama it sent a clear message to Americans that despite the attempt to demonize Obama by the GOP, Christie was willing to work with him.

The polls that had been in a permanent freeze before Sandy began to tick back in Obama’s direction and he goes into Election Day with polls clearly moving in his direction.

In a very uncertain year, that last tilt in the polls will, I think, put Obama over the top. The October/November surprise in the end proved to be of all things a hurricane and a 350 pound governor from the opposite party feeling the love for the president.

That’s politics. Who wudda thunk it?

Read more on the US Presidential Election here 

Not in our name -- Irish Americans deplore Dissident IRA killing --Time to stand up and be counted on slaying of prison officer

David Black

The murder of prison officer David Black in Lurgan, Armagh by dissident IRA members who ambushed his car, was not done in the name of Irish America.

This community has made clear for years now that it stands with the peace process and not with those who wish to continue to visit death and tragedy on the people there.

We agree with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who said "There is no justification for this outrageous and cowardly act. I offer my sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Officer Black, who had a long and distinguished record of service."

It is a futile cause and a death in vain as it only solidifies the belief among the peace process parties and among Irish Americans that the current progress must continue.

It was never going to be a 100 per cent break with the past and violence but the killing of the prison officer, a Protestant, was yet another example of the lunacy at work in some quarters.

Does the killing of a prison officer or a policeman move the goal of a united Ireland one centimeter closer?

Of course not, quite the opposite.  Those who still take up arms despite the wishes of overwhelming majorities in both communities who support the process know that too.

It allows them their stupid delusions of grandeur that they are players in a conflict that has actually ended with  the Good Friday  peace agreement between all sides.

Nobel Prize winner John Hume referred to his goal as that of an agreed Ireland. As far as we can that has been achieved with a huge helping hand from Irish America and President Clinton and other presidents since.

Whether the future holds a united Ireland or the status quo depends on the future generations who will vote on such issues.

It certainly  does not depend on those who will wantonly take life in support of a violent ideal that has now receded into history.

It was heartening to see Northern Ireland’s two leaders, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness issue a joint statement on the killing, condemning it in the strongest terms.

Such is the only way to proceed in the North. The peace process has now been operational in one form or another since the early 90s. A generation has grown up not knowing violence or the despair of earlier generations.

That is how it should be, persuasion by political means not violence remains the goal of all who wish the peace process well.

We here in America want to reiterate again these killers do not speak for the overwhelming majority of Irish Americans.

Hurricane Sandy brings President Obama and Chris Christie together for a great moment in American politics -- Political rivals put America first down on the Jersey shore

President Barack Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (Credit: AP)

It was a great moment for American politics yesterday when President Obama and New Jersey governor Chris Christie strolled to the podium together after visiting the Jersey shore.

It was a remarkable moment, one that Americans starved of political grown-ups could favor. It was state and federal working together. It was two men submerging their political differences for the common good.

They made a political odd couple, the tall, muscled African American president and the roly-poly governor who clearly never passes a donut shop.

But together they pulled the lever on co-operation for the common good, the one part of politics that the vast majority of Americans want to see from their politicians.

In the shadow of the presidential election it was a far greater risk for Christie and for his political future.
Already there is a cacophony on the right that he should have invited Romney too. “Et Tu Christie” was one of the less profane headlines.

But there is only one president, the man who holds the purse strings on federal aid. Christie is known as a governor who gets it done and this time all politics was local, not national.

By embracing Obama, Christie ensured that federal help would be even more swiftly dispatched and that his state would be at the front of any line.

For Obama the idea of appearing with the man who slammed him at the Republican convention where he was keynote speaker must have seemed somewhat surreal.

But Hurricane Sandy has changed the dynamic of the presidential campaign and the catastrophe surrounding the hurricane has taken the media attention of the horse race.

I think both men will benefit from their meeting and their joint efforts to help the distressed residents of New Jersey.

In the long run if Romney is defeated and Republicans are looking for a moderate in 2016 they can look no further than Christie.

For Democrats the short term win is for Obama but the big winners are the American people who can finally see how politics can work for the benefit of the people and is not all about name calling.

President Obama And Gov. Christie Tour New Jersey Shore After Hurricane Sandy Disaster 2012