Driver's licenses for undocumented and new immigration reform bill shows sea of change in US views

Senator Marco Rubio

The recent decision by Illinois to grant driver's licenses to the undocumented is an indication of how dramatically the immigration issue is changing in the U.S.

Now there is a bill before the Massachusetts legislature on granting licenses, with hopes that New York will follow suit.

Just a few years back such bills would have been heavily defeated; indeed, attempts to process legislation in seven states failed.

The driver’s license issue is just the tip of the iceberg, though. There has been a massive change almost overnight on the issue of immigration to United States.

It is the best example yet that elections have consequences. President Obama’s victory certainly has shown that.

Whatever else about politicians, they can always read the results of elections. Put simply, the GOP can never win another presidential election unless they win a larger share of the Hispanic and minority turnout.

The old days of a white majority are gone forever, and Republicans have suddenly woken up in a different universe as the party of old men.

This is no country for old men only. Arguably the greatest catalyst for change in America in the past century was the 1965 Immigration Act which ensured that Hispanics would quickly grow to become the largest ethnic group in the U.S.

Hispanics now get to decide elections in key swing states such as Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado. Soon they will begin to impact heavily in Texas and Arizona too.

Republicans are looking at their ultimate nightmare, an electoral lock across the U.S. by Democrats who are already guaranteed about 240 electoral votes before they start if the current support they enjoy lasts.

California is a lesson in Republican overreaching if ever there was one. The state was always competitive until a Republican governor, Pete Wilson, decided it was time to crack down on undocumented and took aim at the Hispanic community with Proposition 187 in the 1990s which sought to exclude the undocumented from state services such as schooling and health care. The party has not won a presidential election there since and only one gubernatorial race since 1994.

The California-zation of many other states will proceed quickly unless the GOP does something quickly.

This is why we are witnessing a sea change among Republicans who have realized late in the day that insulting, deporting and generally slamming Hispanics is not the way to win elections.

There have been voices of moderation such as Jeb Bush and indeed his brother, former President George W. Bush, but they were crying in the wilderness as the anti-immigrant lobby held sway.

Now all has changed. Senator John McCain, for long a principled advocate of reform, has found his voice again on this issue, and more importantly he has been joined by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the two rising stars in the GOP who see their future prospects dim unless this issue is dealt with.

In the overall scheme the Irish are bit players, but a bill that passes and legalizes our estimated 50,000 undocumented and helps more future flow come to America would have a profound impact on the community.

Amazingly that now seems in sight after a dark period where anti-immigrant legislation was the norm. This time it looks for real.

Joe Biden must worry about Hillary and Barack love fest on '60 Minutes' -- Loyalty not a dominant theme for President Obama it seems

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on "60 Minutes"

Just days after rescuing Obama on issues such as the fiscal cliff and gun control, Joe Biden must be worrying what it takes to get some loyalty around the White House.

There was Barack on Sunday night on ‘60 minutes’ schmoozing with Hillary Clinton like two best friends forever and not a mention of Joe, good, bad or indifferent.

Barack does not do loyalty as one leading journalist recently remarked to this column. He must know that Irish Joe is gearing up for a run in 2016 and that Hillary is likely his biggest rival.

So there he was on the nation’s most popular news program offering a hosannah of praises to his former bitter rival.

Barack may have knocked back the idea in the ‘60 Minutes’ interview that such political considerations were important, but do you believe him or his lying eyes?

Everything is about the future election in Washington and Biden might have expected a little more loyalty after his herculean efforts to salvage the fiscal cliff talks and take the heat on gun control -- a joint appearance on ‘60 Minutes perhaps?

Read more news on US politics here

No doubt Joe’s hair plugs were on fire as Hill and Barack cozied up instead like an old married couple who had lots of tiffs and made it through despite that.

Despite all the good cheer there is no love lost now or ever between the Clintons and the Obamas. The scars of the bitter 2008 primary campaign will never heal.

Their political marriage worked out very well for both. Obama got a magnificent and workaholic Secretary of State and Clinton got the high profile and relevance that would have been denied her after her stunning primary defeat.

Obama’s tacit endorsement in 2016 will be critical to who wins the Democratic nomination and he seems comfortable for now embracing both his Vice President and his soon-to-be former Secretary of State.

But there will come a day either publicly or privately where the Obama endorsement will make a major difference in the 2016 battle.

It may not go to Biden or Hillary, it could go to Andrew Cuomo or Martin O’Malley, but I’m sure Biden felt he is entitled to it as the ultimate loyal foot soldier for a president who desperately needs his genuine warmth and political gifts such as working with the opposition.

But the Hillary joint interview showed if you need friends in D.C., get a dog, especially when it comes to Barack Obama.

Read more: Denis McDonough new Obama Chief of Staff deeply proud of his Irish heritage

Sordid tale of Boston College IRA tapes should now be over - Death of Dolours Price means no prosecution possible for British

Dolours Price

In Friday's Boston Globe newspaper, columnists Kevin Cullen states that he believes that the death of Dolours Price, the dissident Republican, meant that the issue of the Boston College IRA tapes was now over.

Price died of a suspected overdose in her Dublin home. She had suffered from mental health issues for many years.

The British government had been seeking the tapes in an attempt to link Gerry Adams to the murder of Jean McConville, an alleged IRA informer who was killed in Belfast in 1972.

Read More: Religion is the least important aspect of Irish people’s lives, survey offers holistic view of life in Ireland 

Price had apparently fingered Adams on the tapes but what use the word of a clearly ill woman would have been was never explained.        

Cullen’s point was well made; the death of Dolores Price means she cannot give evidence against Gerry Adams in court which was the main reason why the British government wanted to seize the tapes.

The tapes were part of the Boston College Project which was intended to be an oral history of The Troubles but quickly turned into a Gerry Adams witch hunt led by project director journalist Ed Moloney who clearly holds Adams in great contempt for daring to sign up to the peace process.

Despite the fact that the Boston College project was allegedly an historical one aimed at creating an oral an archive of The Troubles the British government decided that their long time vendetta against Gerry Adams could be well served by seizing the tapes.

Read More: Boston College Irish tapes - the truth about Ed Moloney’s book and letting the cat out of the bag

Cullen pointed that without Price the tapes are no longer useful to the British and they and the U.S. government should now reach an agreement that no further tapes will be sought.

The timing is perfect as I wrote here last week. The new Secretary of State, John Kerry, is on the record as opposing the British attempt to gain access to the tapes.  Now is the perfect time for Kerry to make clear to the British that they should give up their efforts to get the tapes.

The episode has been a sordid one from the beginning with the initial efforts to get Adams by the researchers followed by the British government efforts to use historical records to cause problems in the peace process.

There is enough death and destruction attached to The Troubles to last several lifetimes. Cherry picking cases or fomenting historical feuds is a waste of time

With the death of Dolours Price this episode can now be brought to an end. Hopefully John Kerry will take the opportunity to do so in no uncertain terms with the British.

Sully Sullenberger’s latest miracle - Rory Staunton’s hero lends name to fight for more stringent hospital checks

Sully Sullenberger and his wife Lorraine with Orlaith, Kathleen and Ciaran Staunton
last week in O’Neill’s. (Photo by Sean McPhail)

They say you should never meet your heroes in case you are disappointed, but in the case of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the opposite is true.

I had the great pleasure of meeting the man responsible for the “Miracle on the Hudson,” when he saved the lives of the crew and 155 passengers on a US Airways flight en route to North Carolina by executing a perfect landing on the Hudson River on January 15, 2009.

Earlier last week Sully, who has Swiss and Irish heritage, had appeared on Katie Couric’s talk show where he met 10 little babies born to passengers since that miracle day, and to recount the story of the incredible landing.

Sully’s bravery that day was one of the greatest feel good stories of its time, but his heroism does not end there.

Since that day he has resolved to continue his efforts to make air travel safer and also to ensure, based on pre-flight check lists, that hospital procedures, especially in emergency rooms, are greatly improved.

On January 15 Sully met with my family, my sister Orlaith and brother-in-law Ciaran Staunton, who lost their son Rory, a dedicated flier in the making who considered Sully his hero.

Rory died from sepsis last April after catastrophic medical mistakes were made in his care at NYU Langone Hospital in New York after he suffered a scrape in a basketball game at his school.

Rory’s battle for life was featured in The New York Times, and the coverage included his admiration and hero worship for Sully.

Sully read the article and contacted Ciaran and Orlaith, so a meeting was finally set up for last week.

It turned out to be a wonderful dinner at O’Neill’s, which the Stauntons own, in Midtown Manhattan as relatives and friends of Orlaith and Ciaran gathered. Sully, his charming wife Lorraine, and daughter Kelly also attended.

Sully sat down and read Rory’s term paper on him in its entirety, asked every question about Rory and his love of flying and what kind of child he was.

Sully was the polar opposite of so many self-obsessed “celebrities,” a title that does not fit easily on this former Air Force fighter pilot.

There was self–deprecating humor too, when discussing that fateful day and when he finally got off the plane after the most traumatic experience imaginable.

He called US Airways and introduced himself, and the official told him he’d have to call back as one of their planes had just gone down in the Hudson. “I am the pilot,” Sullenberger told him, followed by a stunned silence.

His wife at home was on a long call to a close relative and did not immediately pick up when Sully called, and when she did she was quietly annoyed. Why was he so anxious to speak to her?

“Turn on the TV,” he told her.

Sully unselfishly gives much of the credit to his co-pilot Jeff Skiles that day, who kept his cool and calmly told him his altitude, speed and likely landing trajectory as the water rushed up to meet them and alarms were going off all over the cockpit.

Sully believes that the extraordinary safety record of major US airlines (excluding commuter flights) since the last major airline crash back in 2001 is due in large part to improved communication procedures between pilots, and check lists that ensure flying is made as safe as possible.

He believes the same system should apply in hospitals all over the world, and that it would make a profound difference in the death rate for patients killed by medical errors.

My family’s loss is the living nightmare of the consequences of such errors. Blood tests that revealed Rory’s worsening condition were never even checked.

Having someone like Sully onboard is a tremendous boost to the chances that such a checklist system will son be implemented coast to coast.

Meeting Sully would have been a huge deal for Rory, and his hero would not have disappointed him. The wild blue yonder is where they were both most at home.

So fly straight Sully, and keep up the marvelous work. You made us all so proud to meet you.

The Vatican very happy that Irish bishops mess is being sorted out - Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown skips a generation of leaders

Cardinal Sean Brady (center) with Monsignor Eamon Martin (left) and Papal Nuncio Charles Brown (right) on the steps of Armagh Cathedral on Jan 18 2013. 

The Vatican is moving to completely transform the face of Irish Catholicism led by the dynamic Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown.

The New Yorker and Notre Dame grad has quickly worked out a strategy for the Irish church leadership beset by sex abuse cover-up allegations.

That strategy was unveiled in full by the announcement late in the week that Monsignor Eamon Martin of Derry would leapfrog a generation of bishops and would be bishops and become the future leader of the church.

Martin is a toddler in ecclesiastical terms, a mere 51 years old, and Brown has undoubtedly taken the step to recommend him as the future Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland to end once and for all the hideous in fighting that has consumed the church leadership.

There is apparently a poisonous atmosphere among the top clergy, caused in the main by the implications of the cover-ups and the failure of one leader, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, to go along.

Diarmuid Martin is fearless, but a deeply divisive figure among his fellow bishops because of his outspoken comments. In terms of public approval he would be by far the most popularchurch figure in Ireland but popularity is not where the Vatican is at.

Cardinal Sean Brady, head of the church in Ireland, has become a massive liability after it became clear that he had participated in some manner in the cover-up of abusive priests.

So he had to go, hence the move now by Brown and the Vatican to move beyond this tainted generation of church leader and choose a bright new star, untainted by child abuse scandals.

It is operation ‘clean hands’ and is already being referred to as such. There are many other senior appointments to come and we can expect more of the same.

The gamble for the Vatican is that young Eamon Martin may be out of his depth which would mean they have picked a lightweight who may be in situ at least two decades.

Brown however, appears to be a shrewd and clever playmaker who has seen the need to skip a generation and start afresh and who thinks the gamble on such an inexperienced prelate is worth the risk.

That remains to be seen but there will be a long sigh of relief in the Vatican that the Irish mess is on its way to being sorted out.

Former Bishop of Derry Edward Daly spoke for the majority when he said “He does not carry any baggage from the past with him,' Daly told the BBC.

'It's a challenging time for the church in Ireland. He has been asked to lead that church.'

Manti Te’o Notre Dame hoax is like an episode from ‘The Twilight Zone’ -- Fake girlfriend, fake death, is a twisted tale about life online - VIDEO

Manti Te'o and his fake girlfriend (Credit: Deadspin.com)

Manti Te’o’s lackluster performance against Alabama in the national championship game is now explained.

In a twist worthy of a Twilight  Zone episode it turns out that Te’o, the Notre Dame stand-out,  was the victim of a hoax girlfriend, a faked death and a professional scam perpetrated for no other reason it seems than to embarrass and seriously wound an outstanding young man.

The media is having a field day, especially the anti-Notre Dame shills. ‘Lying Irish’ is just one headline from The New York Post today.

I have just watched the entire press conference that Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick gave in South Bend and my head is spinning with the tale of deceit, lies and cold blooded callousness he revealed.

Much and all as we think a fake girlfriend would be an impossible trick to pull off, the fact is that online personas, avatars, and disguises are the stock in trade of millions of hucksters on the Internet.

We open our online accounts every day and there are a flood of such bottom feeders trying to inveigle their way into our lives.

In the case of Te’o they succeeded and in the process have created a sensational outcome that will deeply embarrass Notre Dame and all who sail with her.

Read more: Johnny Football got the Heisman and Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o got the shaft

Te’o’s only crime appears to be that he was so trusting that he was duped from day one in September 2011 when a woman masquerading as a Stanford student who was a big fan of his contacted him via Twitter.

Over the next 14 months or so it appears they carried out an intense online and telephonic relationship.

According to Swarbrick, there was a cast of characters who kept the dupe Te’o narrative going, an unbelievably cruel and sophisticated hoax.

The girl even came with a family, different characters who were introduced to Te’o who was obviously seriously smitten, strange as that may sound.

Or maybe not. People are smitten every day on the Internet by perfect strangers. Much of it is real, much of it is imagined. In Teo’s world the distant girlfriend became a constant presence.

As Swarbrick pointed out the scam was based closely on a documentary called ‘Catfish’ about this phenomenon of reeling in an unsuspecting person by virtue of a fable carefully constructed.

What possible enjoyment there could be from such a scam is hard to see but any scroll through the Internet reveals trolls and other evil people ready to do their worst.

Read more: Notre Dame support is a search for family and common roots for millions 

Just yesterday there was a series of articles about one of the heroes of the Sandy Hook shooting , a man who took in several of the panic stricken children who fled the school, being abused anonymously online.

Such is the world we live in and we should not be surprised when a major figure like Te’o, clearly way too trusting for his own good, was roped in to a scam.

It is deeply embarrassing for Te’o and for Notre Dame. One can only imagine what Coach Brian Kelly was thinking when he was informed of the hoax days before the biggest game of his life.

But the real victim here is Te’o, a young man caught in the full glare of the media headlights and revealed as naive and far too trusting.

People will ask how come he never demanded to meet her and apparently several planned encounters were canceled at the last moment. Those should have been warning shots for Te’o but he won’t be the first or the last fool in love to construct his own reality around events despite glaring holes in the story.

What satisfaction these bottom feeders got from their hoax I do not know but it is a sad reflection on our modern world that such people exist and thrive. I hope for Te’o and Notre Dame’s sake he can put all this behind him and be the great NFL player he is destined to be.

Just when you think you have seen it all a story like this comes along. Sadly, it is a truly a reflection on the times we live in.

A window on my past in an old just discovered video -- Rolling back the years to Tipperary, Ireland 1959

The 1959 Fleadh Cheoil festival in Thurles, County Tipperary

The past reaches out at the most unlikely times.

My brother Fergus, a Minister of State in the Irish government, was recently researching the history of the Fleadh Cheoil, (pronounced Flah Keoil) the annual massive traditional music festival held in different towns throughout Ireland with a view to attracting it to Drogheda, the town he represents.

Read More Irish news here

He came across this footage from 1959 of the Fleadh Cheoil festival in Thurles, County Tipperary, the town I grew up in. It contains fleeting footage of my father who was one of the organizers and offers an amazing glimpse into the life and times I grew up in. I was six at the time.

As the video opens it is the Whit weekend May 17, 1959 and the Fleadh Cheoil is clearly  the biggest thing to hit Thurles, Tipperary in decades.

The big march is taking place through Liberty Square in the center of town. The men are still wearing caps, there is an occasional  horse and cart, and the locals are done up in their best finery for the special occasion.

The parade of local dignitaries is under way, heavy on the Catholic Church monsignors and one glimpse of a purple cassock, the Archbishop perhaps.

The local and national businesses, including, a garish P. J. Carroll’s cigarette float, Dwans soft drinks, Bulmer’s Cider (still around) and Phoenix Beer are all represented. There is a blacksmith’s forge on the back of a truck, the fire belching out of it as it parades along. The kids must have loved that.

Once a glimpse and gone forever.

Later there are couples chastely dancing a reel as the musicians play (there is no sound) and then a hurling game, with a presentation to the winners.There are children marching, my family speculate we may be among them, but we will never know.

Read More: Golden Globe winner Daniel Day-Lewis donates Lincoln memorabilia to Wicklow hospice

Then there is a main stage with the priest making a speech, followed by a local dignitary. The camera pans and catches my father, 53 years old, hair slicked back with hair oil in the contemporary style, seated on the podium.

The video cuts to a medal presentation and then fades to black.

Fifty three years ago, in a small provincial town in Ireland, the air of excitement is palpable, the local pride bursting at the seams.

Read More: Historical Irish silent films are now available online - VIDEOS

I sit in a New York office thousands of miles away and ponder the imponderable past. Oh to be able to step into that video, walk up to the man on the stage and introduce myself again.

So much to say, but alas, will never be said in this life anyway.

But a peek at the past has made it possible to imagine.

Here’s the video:

Fascist groups now seen as behind Northern Ireland flag clashes -- Gerry Adams claims fascist group have leadership role in flag rallies

Violence in Belfast over union flag continues (Photo: Broadsheet)

Right wing fascist groups and mafia-type intimidators now appear to be at the heart of the flag protests in Northern Ireland.

Britain First, a fascist group based in Britain, has claimed to be at the forefront of leading  what it describes as peaceful flag protests. 29 police officers were injured over the weekend in clashes that threaten to restore the bad old days in Northern Ireland.

The clashes began last month after Belfast City Council ruled on December 3 that the Union Jack would no longer fly over City Hall every day but only on 15 select days and have continued unabated since.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott have both pointed out that outside agitation is forming a large part of the protest core.

Adams stated over the weekend that, “The vast majority of the protests taking place around the flag issue are illegal. Most are being organized by the BNP, (British National Party which is composed of fascists) the UVF and criminal elements, some of whom are well known drug pushers.”

Read more news from Ireland

On their website the British First group proclaims, “As protests continue across Ulster at the disgraceful decision to remove our flag from Belfast City Hall, Britain First has once again been at the forefront of peaceful demonstrations.

“Instead of going away, as those who would attack our flag and Ulster’s British identity had hoped, the protests are only getting stronger.

“We see protests in Ulster, we see them on the mainland – no surrender, we will never submit to this attack on our flag.

Read More: Loyalist flag riots leave 29 police injured in Belfast as violence escalates

“Many thousands have turned out to take a stand against this disgusting attack, many thousands more are on the way.”

PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott said social media is playing a role and youngsters as young as 10 are involved.

We’ve had an 11-year-old in custody but I believe some of [the rioters] are as young as 10,” Baggott said.

“The flag has become a rallying point. If you ask them what they are doing, [some] wouldn’t be able to tell you. It’s easy for them to be manipulated. They are not mature enough to see the consequences for their own life opportunities or the bigger picture.”

He said the riots “gathered a momentum of their own, quickly, through modern communications, which is a new phenomenon.”

Baggott said there was an urgent need for the Parades Commission to tackle the protests. “There has been a vagueness about the need for protests to be properly authorized and regulated through existing mechanisms, which at the moment is the Parades Commission. There has been an ambiguity around this for some time,” he said.

Read More: Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams says “vast majority” of the Belfast protests are illegal

The deeper issue is that the unionists can feel the power flow away from them. The recent census show a nationalist majority is in the offing in Northern Ireland with the Catholic numbers one birth cycle away from a majority.

Does that mean a united Ireland?

No, not necessarily, but it means parity of esteem issues like flags will become even more important.

VP Joe Biden suddenly looks like the smartest politician in America -- Irish American VP goes where no other politicians dare in Washington D.C.

Vice President Joe Biden arrives to a House 

Democratic caucus meeting at the Capitol on Jan. 1, 2013.

(Credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Joe Biden is suddenly the most popular politician in Washington and a real contender for 2016. The latest opinion poll by Public Policy shows him running a strong second to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination.

The Irish American Vice President, widely dismissed by the haughty press corps looking for the new and the beautiful, is at the very heart of the dramatic new initiatives by the Obama administration.

In a time of electoral gridlock, Biden appears to be the one figure who can reach out to the other side and force a civil discourse.

On the fiscal cliff he galloped to the rescue and cut the deal with Senator Mitch McConnell before riding off like the Lone Ranger. Opinion polls showed the public believed by a 57 per cent to 20 per cent margin that Biden’s deal was better for Democrats than Republicans.

Read more: The NRA will not allow Joe Biden to blame law-abiding gun owners for actions of madmen

Now on gun control he is defying the conventional wisdom again and getting real traction behind his recommendations which he will deliver to the president next week.

He has met with the NRA, Walmart, and every major gun constituency, forcing a dialogue where none existed before and making clear that action will be taken to prevent another Sandy Hook.

Don’t rule out the possibility of a deal that Biden can craft that the NRA can get along with, strange as that may seem.

Biden notes there appears to be a near universal belief that more background checks are needed for all gun sales.

He is determined that action will occur.

"There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet, but we're compiling it all with the help the attorney general and all the rest of the cabinet members, as well as legislative action, we believe, is required," he said.

Sure the NRA said it was “disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment.’’

But everything is different after Sandy Hook and Biden knows it even if the NRA does not.

He is suddenly being noticed. “These weeks can continue to set him up as one of the few who can deliver in an era when no one thinks accomplishments can happen and everyone believes Washington is broken — an appealing position to be in as he considers his future,” a Biden loyalist told the Washington Post.

Maureen Dowd in The New York Times stated, “Mr. Biden can spread everything out on the table and negotiate his way through all of his former colleagues' shortcomings, weaknesses, fears and frailties.”
In  a time when American politics is so polarized Biden has managed the extraordinary trick of being able to appear reasonable to both sides.”

Chris Cilliza, who writes the influential The Fix column for the Washington Post, wrote, “What’s apparent and indisputable over these past few weeks is that Biden has put himself at the center of the national political conversation in ways that have helped his boss but also himself.”

In this new political arena maybe a pol with old fashioned skills is what’s really needed. Joe Biden is certainly starting off 2013 on fire.

Next up, immigration reform for the miracle worker?

Read more: Gun nuts lose argument over assault weapons ban, threaten civil war - VIDEO

Notre Dame support is a search for family and common roots for millions -- Celtic FC, the other great Irish Diaspora side, are their only equivalent

Notre Dame fans tailgating for the BCS Championship.
(US Presswire)

Miami: Picture the scene in the distant parking lot at Sun Life stadium in Miami on Monday night.
I had gone back to my rented car to retrieve the car keys, realizing in my rush to get to the game I had left them in the ignition - duh!

A family of five was sitting around in near darkness, attention glued to a small computer screen in front of them showing the first half highlights.

They were the only live occupants of the parking lot, sitting in the eerie glow of the nearby stadium lights, a part of but apart from the BCS Championship game.

Notre Dame was so far behind at that moment against Alabama that if it were a boxing match the bout would have been halted, but the family of five seemed undaunted.

They wished me good cheer and asked if I wanted to join them. Curious as to their story, I did for a few moments.

They had driven from Virginia and had no hope of seeing the game and could not afford the tickets anyway. They had watched the Wake Forest game live in the stadium but otherwise they drove from game to game following the Fighting Irish from a series of parking lots.

They loved to tailgate and join their fellow subway alumni wherever the green was worn.
Before you dismiss them as nuts, you have to understand the nature of the true Domer to whom no Notre Dame game is ever out of reach.

Read more: Nightmare for Notre Dame ends a dream season for Fighting Irish

I met so many in South Florida who consider Notre Dame games a holy pilgrimage, who build their year around them and win, lose, or draw will follow the Fighting Irish to hell and back again.

After the game I walked back to that same parking lot with a family of three, a mother and two young daughters, also from the South.

They were able to recite chapter and verse of every game they had attended and the cross-country trips they regularly took.

I would think the two daughters were early teens if that, but they were able to remember Notre Dame players like other kids could say the names of the One Direction boy band.

What is the attraction, I asked the mother? “We’re Catholic,” she said simply. “We see them as family.”

There is a lot to that, the sense of family that grows up around Notre Dame followers. It is one great shared ambition finding voice on playing fields from California to New York and even Dublin last year.

TV ratings were up 67 per cent for their games in 2012. Notre Dame remains a phenomenon of American sport. They could play a community college and 80,000 would show up.

It reminded me again of the similarity to Celtic soccer team, that other great Irish Diaspora side from Scotland who have come to embody something very deep in the souls of the children of Irish immigrants worldwide.

There is a shared pride and commitment to the heritage and memory of those who came before them. Notre Dame have been playing football for 125 years.

Celtic was founded in 1887 by Brother Walfrid of the Marist brothers, an Irish religious order. Irish priests were the foundation stone of Notre Dame too by the Holy Ghost fathers.

Both teams were blatantly discriminated against by top sides, which resented their religion through the early years and relegated them to underdog roles.

Because of that through the generations the commitment to the teams, as an intrinsic part of the DNA of the Irish emigrant experience, has lived on in millions.

What I saw in the parking lot and witnessed this week was much of that, mixed with pride and an embrace of all that is best in old fashioned America.

Celtic defeated Barcelona this year, the greatest club football team in the world led by Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player in world soccer. It was one of the biggest shocks of recent times.

The Irish of Notre Dame went undefeated until the Alabama crash and burn but had a season to remember. Generations later those who follow them still have so much to treasure and to find common cause with.

Little wonder that they continue to be kingpins in their respective sports and to attract millions of followers, some of whom will never see them live.

Read more: Fighting Irish crusade crushed by the Crimson Tide 42-14 in BCS National Championship

Nightmare for Notre Dame ends a dream season for Fighting Irish -- Heavy hearts but heads held high after remarkable year

Nightmare end to the season for Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame team

Miami: In the end the dream season ended in a nightmare for Notre Dame, but the fans in Sun Life stadium in North Miami were still resilient despite the beating.

“Think how bad we’ve been for so many years,” said the woman from Virginia beside me as the Alabama juggernaut rolled over and crushed the Irish. “We made the national  title  game, that is amazing.’

True, but we had somehow convinced ourselves the stars had aligned and an incredible victory was at hand.

But as Daniel Patrick Moynihan noted, to be Irish is to know the world will break your heart.

There were a lot of broken hearts but no real complaints in Miami on Monday.

A journey that began in Dublin in September with a win over Navy took Irish fans on a magic carpet ride that finally crashed to earth on a humid night in Miami.

The refereeing decisions in the critical early plays went against Notre Dame, but even if they had got every bounce of the ball it would not have been enough.

It seemed like men against boys at times and the Irish faithful so boisterous, so upbeat, so hopeful at the start were soon reduced to shocked silence as Alabama moved the ball at will. The crimson tide proved unstoppable.

Read more: Fighting Irish crusade crushed by the Crimson Tide 42-14 in BCS National Championship

It was clear from the beginning that the Irish fan base were more energized. This was not Alabama’s first rodeo and their fans were far less boisterous in the pre-game cheering sections.

They were like the Yankees in baseball, they expect to be playing for national championships every year.

The Irish certainly do not. The long drought since the mid 80s seemed interminable. The pent-up demand for Irish success was never more evident, the dream of a national championship no mirage as the season advanced with win after win.

Earlier, the Notre Dame tailgate party in Miami Beach was a celebration of a remarkable year. 10,000 fans paid $75 dollars a head to wine and dine, bask in the Florida sun, reminisce and brag and talk about the big game. The atmosphere was electric, the anticipation total. The shattering disappointment to come was still unseen.

So defeat was utterly devastating.

We trudged out of Sun Life Stadium late in the fourth quarter, heads down and spirits sagged but the disappointment will lift. As the lady from Virginia noted, the Irish have come a long way and the road back was always bound to have many turns. But the Fighting Irish made their fans proud from Dublin to South Bend and beyond.

Alas, it was not a championship season but it was a wonderful year.

Notre Dame’s new ‘Rudy’ is Arturo Martinez, a cancer survivor -- Walk on will bring back Rudy memories to Fighting Irish fans

Notre Dame's Arturo Martinez

Miami: Notre Dame will have an inspirational player to match the famous Rudy story when they play Alabama tonight in the BCS Bowl.

Arturo Martinez will be suited up tonight for the Fighting Irish, a walk on who has survived Stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma.

He will take part in the pre-game warm ups with his team. “It will be 20 minutes of being just like the other guys," Martinez told the Miami Herald. "I’ll look up and see an ocean of people for the national championship game in my own backyard.”

Rudy Ruettiger is a legend for walking on at Notre Dame and getting to make the team in his final game as a senior, even for one play.

But Rudy never battled cancer and still made the team.

Arturo Martinez will not get into the game on Monday night. Hopefully as a senior he will get a walk on role, but his inspirational story will drive the Notre Dame legend once again, as a place where magical things can and do happen.

Read more: Joining the Notre Dame faithful in Miami on a mission

Martinez was a sports crazy ninth grader in Miami when cancer was first diagnosed,a golf ball sized tumor on his jaw.

He conquered the cancer and made his high school football team as a defensive end in his final year and went to Notre Dame, a college that had always inspired him.

After attending his first football game he decided to try out as a walk on.

The odds were huge, but like cancer, Arturo wanted to beat the odds.

“There are kids sitting in that chemotherapy room right now wishing they had the energy to play a sport...I had to do this not only for me, for them.”

After seven months getting in condition with the help of a Notre Dame conditioning coach, he sent his tapes to the team. A few days before the end of his freshman year he was accepted.

So like Rudy, Arturo is an inspirational figure.

“I call him Rudolfo," said Arturo Martinez Jr, Art’s father, “He’s our miracle."

On Monday night he will be a hero for everyone.

Read more: Joining the Notre Dame faithful in Miami on a mission

Joining the Notre Dame faithful in Miami on a mission -- Alabama and Notre Dame roll into town for BCS stand-off

Notre Dame gears up to face Alabama

Miami: The Notre Dame faithful are gathering in their droves here, the weekend of the big game.

But so are the Alabama battalions and the good-natured rivalry has already begun.

At a nice beachside restaurant here the numbers of Notre Dame and Alabama fans were about equal and the good-natured ribbing lasted through three courses.

On the plane from New York the numbers were overwhelmingly Notre Dame, the subway alumni traveling from all points North, South, East and West  to support their team on the big day.

Many are still pinching  themselves that they are here at all. You would have got odds of 100/1 on it before the season started.

I feel the same myself, suddenly strolling  around in shorts and a T shirt, when I should be shivering in a New York winter. I associate Notre Dame games with cold crisp Autumn days in South Bend , not T shirts and  88 degrees in South Florida.

Interesting  to me is how many Irish-born I know who are going to the game. The contest in Dublin between Notre Dame and Navy opened up a huge new fan base for the Fighting Irish, the fact that this is a dream season and that it kicked off in Ireland makes it even more remarkable.

The ‘Bama folks have seen it all before. Bill Petersen, a fanatic Alabama fan was in the restaurant eating with his wife and two daughters.”I wanted to bring them to learn and witness the old time football religion,” he said gesturing at his two young  girls. “It is  the closest thing next to religion in bringing Alabama folk together.”

And Notre Dame folk too. This game is already a blockbuster and South Florida will bleed crimson and blue and gold these next few days.

The talk is all about tickets which are apparently, dropping in price as the game nears. The question for many is when to buy their tickets, ten minutes before kick-off or now when the market seems to be saturated.

All I know is that through the graces of a dear friend, my in-law Pat Egan and I have two of the most precious ducats in all of sport-- and no, they are not for sale.

Go Irish!

No reason to allow Union Jacks to fly alone over Belfast any more - Unionists need to get used to equality agenda and equal symbols

Belfast City Hall

I’d almost feel sorry for the Loyalist protesters complaining about their Union Jacks no longer flying proudly over Northern Ireland were it not for the fact that they had it so good for so long -- and still do in terms of lording it over nationalists when it comes to symbols.

Danny Morrison, writer and former Sinn Fein political figure put it beautifully recently when he compared the place names of Belfast and showed just how dominant the unionist tradition remains.

If you’re a nationalist in his imaginary board game he says “You can't use the Queen Elizabeth Bridge, the Queen's Bridge, the Albert Bridge, the King's Bridge, Victoria Street, Prince's Street, Queen Street, King Street, Albert Street, the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital, a helicopter from the Kings Hall, Lower Windsor Avenue, the fields behind the Royal Academy. Nor can you be disguised as a prostitute from the Albert Clock, a student from Queen's, a worker with Royal Mail, a violinist with the Royal School of Music, a Queen's Counsel, a (former) member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a screw of Her Majesty's Prison Service, a soldier with Her Majesty's armed forces, a Crown Court judge. Nor by boat up Victoria Channel to Albert Quay, Victoria Wharf or Alexandra Jetty. You must use the Queen's English on the Queen's Highway or else you'll be in breach of the Queen's Peace.”

So there. Nice job Danny.

And how many nationalists names are there around Belfast? Not many that I can think off unless you count Ballymurphy. The Falls Road means in Gaelic, district of hedges-- hardly revolutionary stuff!

When you consider that Ian Paisley essentially sparked The Troubles when he charged up the nationalist Falls Road in the mid 1960s to remove a lonesome tricolor flying in an local building there my sympathy for the Loyalists lessens a little.

Remember we are not talking about flying the tricolor side by side, which would be warranted given the fact that the population numbers are now equal and Belfast City Hall has a Nationalist /Alliance majority .

We are talking about flying the Union Jack about 15 days a year instead of every day and no Tricolor. The Loyalists want to party like it is 1922 all over again and a Protestant state for a Protestant people.

Alas for them, that ship sailed a long time ago now and there can be no flag of convenience any longer that does not recognize both traditions.

So Loyalists should just get used to the new era, not try and fly yet another kite.