Vice President Joe Biden to be honored in Irish America Hall of Fame -- Biden set to be main speaker at annual Irish America event

Vice President Joe Biden

Our sister publication Irish America magazine is delighted to announce that Vice President Joe Biden will be the main speaker and an honoree at the annual Irish America Hall of Fame event in March in New York.

The Irish America Hall of Fame was founded in 2010 by Irish America magazine to honor the extraordinary achievements of Irish American leaders.

Biden is of Irish descent on his maternal side of the family. His great-grandfather, James Finnegan, emigrated to America from Carlingford, Co. Louth in 1850.

He traveled with his mother Jane Boyle Finnegan from Carlingford and they boarded the ship the “Marchioness of Bute” in Newry, Co. Down according to top genealogist Megan Smolenyak.

His great grandfather incredibly was a near blind musician who made the crossing with the family when he was very young, just 10-years-old.

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As Smolenyak writes, “I knew from my research to this point that I was looking for a James Finnegan who was born around 1840 with parents named Owen Finnegan and Jane (Boyle) Finnegan, who would have probably married in the late 1830s, since James was the oldest of their known children.

“After a lot of digging, I found James ‘Finegan,’ baptized on December 18, 1840 in Lordship Parish in Co. Louth with parents named Owen Finegan and ‘Jean Bail’ (likely a distortion of Boyle due to factors such as poor penmanship or transcription errors, as Griffith's Valuation shows no Bail families). Owen ‘Finigan’ and Jane Boyle had married on December 8, 1839 in Cooley Parish in Co. Louth.”

Biden’s story is the story of America. From humble beginnings and ancestry in Co. Louth to the vice presidency of the United States, it is an amazing story.

In addition to Biden the 2013 inductees include art collector, entrepreneur and benefactor Brian Burns, businessman and philanthropist Robert M. Devlin, hotelier and humanitarian John Fitzpatrick who is the new chairman of the American Ireland Fund, and former Congressman Bruce Morrison, an esteemed lawyer and immigration reformer.

“Our Hall of Fame honors those who have excelled in their chosen fields while acknowledging that we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors – those brave Irish who took the first steps into the unknown so that their children might have a brighter future in America,” said co-founder and editor-in-chief Patricia Harty.

Read more: Joe Biden fast becoming most influential VP in history

In addition, a special presentation will be made to former U.S. ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith, honoring her diplomatic work on peace in Northern Ireland and her furthering of the Kennedy family’s distinguished legacy of public service.

This year marks an important milestone in Kennedy history, as the 50th anniversary of both President John F. Kennedy’s seminal visit to Ireland, on which Kennedy Smith accompanied him, and of his tragic death.

The Irish America Hall of Fame celebrates its honorees’ diverse and significant contributions to American and Irish society, and their personal commitment to safeguarding their Irish heritage. The hall is housed at the Dunbrody Famine Ship and National Emigration Centre in New Ross, Co. Wexford, the ancestral town of President Kennedy.

Previous inductees include President Bill Clinton (2011), actresses Maureen O’Hara (2011) and Fionnula Flanagan (2012), dancer and choreographer Michael Flatley (2011), former Coca-Cola head Don Keough (2010) and executive chairman of Ford Motor Co. Bill Ford, Jr. (2011).

Shock as Fianna Fail Zombie back from the dead -- New opinion poll shows party heading the rest

Leader of the Fianna Fail party Micheal Martin

Who wudda thunk it?

Less than two years after receiving the worst trashing in Irish electoral history and falling from 41 per cent to 17 per cent support Fianna Fail are back.

Yes, that Fianna Fail, the party that was as popular as bed bugs in a nun’s knickers when the last election came around after their ‘light touch’ on regulation destroyed the economy.

Two opinion polls show them ahead of Fine Gael and every other party, standing at around 27 per cent.
In the immortal words of Gerry Adams, “They haven’t gone away you know.”

No, and they are back, but why?

It smacks of voter desperation frankly, and anyone but the current shower, to use an Irish vernacular.

Times are still very bad, emigration is an ever-constant, the EU bankers are not really lifting their boot from Irish necks over the bank debt and the decision to guarantee Anglo and other banks loans looks like it was a massive mistake. (See Iceland)

Read more on Irish politics here

Despite the fact that it was Fianna Fail that took that step, they are now absolved from it. It’s like they went to Lourdes and worked a miracle.

It is hard to fathom the Irish voter. They were greedy too in the good times, and voters elect the governments they deserve.

Now they want to throw their toys out of the pram again despite the current government squarely facing up to their responsibilities and doing their best -- or so it seems to me.

Read More: New poll finds Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin most popular leader in Ireland

That is obviously not the view from Dublin and elsewhere and vengeance is high on the agenda.

There was a media consensus that Fianna Fail would not be back in power for a generation, if ever, and the party would have a desperately hard time surviving but like lemmings to a cliff the voters are flocking back.

Party leader Michael Martin is clearly making a good fist of it.

Still, the results of these polls are shocking. Memories are indeed very short and demands to do better are heard loud and clear.

But the Irish voter needs to look in the mirror too to discover who is to blame for all this perdition that Ireland is experiencing. Voting for Fianna Fail will hardly make it any better.

Read more: Magdalene survivors call for fair compensation package ahead of Irish government meeting

Defending the Irish community against racist claims in New York Times -- Same old story as Hurricane Sandy relief efforts questioned

Irish Day of Action - Irish community lends a hand after Sandy

Some weeks back I had calls from several concerned Irish working to restore Breezy Point and other areas in the Rockaways about the attitude of the  New York Times reporter Sarah Maslin Nir who was covering the story.

She seemed intent, according to them, on pointing out to everyone that Breezy Point was a whites only community and that the community there had been accused of racism in the past.

The calls were from people who had flown in from Ireland to help with the restoration of Rockaway and some Irish based here were perplexed at the attitude of the reporter who was making her concerns known loudly.

With good reason. The piece that ran in The Times today is laced with innuendo about the allegedly racist Irish, quoting Al Sharpton prominently calling Breezy Point an “apartheid village.”

(No mention of when Al slandered Irish Americans during the Tawana Brawley hoax case absurdly accusing them of IRA involvement.)

Here’s a typical paragraph from the reporter’s piece. "But complicating the current embrace from abroad is the gated community’s extreme insularity. Breezy Point is the whitest neighborhood in the city, a demographic makeup that critics say illustrates the enclave’s entrenched xenophobia, a dark flip side, perhaps, to all that ethnic pride."

No evidence is given of any xenophobia. Have foreigners been beaten up there? Blacks shot? Has there been massive racist reports from Breezy? Not that I have noticed.

Read more: Irish sports heroes are helping rebuild shattered Rockaways

The facts are very different to this type of innuendo. The Irish community reached out to all residents in Rockaway, Black, Irish, Jewish, Italian and were encouraged to do so by those in Breezy and everywhere else.

I know a little about this. I was at an initial meeting at the Irish Consulate in New York with just Consul General Noel Kilkenny and Deputy Consul Peter Ryan when an Irish initiative to help the Rockaways was discussed.

It was soon after Hurricane Sandy had hit when the issue of what to do about the Rockaways was raised. Noel Kilkenny noted the massive ground swell of emotion in the Irish community to do something to help and asked for my advice.

I had actually gone down to Rockaways the previous weekend and talked to local people there in preparation for the meeting.

It was clear to me that financial assistance was not enough. From all over the Rockaways and Far Rockaways too, the plea was clear, people needed boots on the ground, help digging out. I had liaised with Brendan Brosh, a local Irish American left with a badly damaged home, who works with former Comptroller William Thompson, an African American, who suggested that a major effort across the Rockaways would really help.

Which is why I suggested to the Consul General that Days of Action, not fundraising, be considered, something the community had done very successfully a few years back on the issue of immigration when we sent thousands to Washington for immigration reform. My brother in law, community activist Ciaran Staunton, and I had discussed it on our visit to Rockaways and agreed that while money was great, helping rebuild immediately was much more important.

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Noel and Peter jumped on the idea and I remember they organized a meeting of community leaders shortly afterwards. They did stellar work setting up the subsequent Days of Action.

Everyone agreed and it was specifically addressed at the first community meeting, that the initiative needed to be Rockaways wide, not just located in the Irish neighborhoods there. It was clear from talking to people down there that many of the hardest hit areas were those where the African American community lived.

Many in Breezy Point made that point to me directly, that bad and all as they were, they had more resources than many of the poorest and hardest hit in other areas that were not Irish. I would say that was a constant refrain.

And so it proved to be.

The two days of action were major successes. Up to 1,000 Irish took part and under the leadership of the Irish Consulate and the Irish immigrant centers as well as locals on the ground like former NYPD officer Brian McCabe, the community spread across the Rockaways, working in every area. Many have returned every weekend since. The Irish Centers in Queens and The Bronx continue to organize relief efforts there which they have done from right after Sandy struck.

I spent a day visiting the sites and the appreciation and the thanks in the African American community was as heartfelt and welcoming as that which was received in Breezy. Everywhere I went I had the impression of people in dire circumstances acting with dignity and resolve and very thankful for the help.

The athletes from Ireland, working on a separate initiative, did a remarkable job working with everyone also. In all the time I spent down there it was an uplifting experience, the Irish government and the Irish American community acting together in common cause. I went so far as to tell Noel Kilkenny and Peter Ryan that it was the Irish community's finest day in America for many a long year.

While acknowledging the good work, The New York Times reporter saw much of it differently. She writes “Even in the days after the storm, volunteer firefighters in the community repeatedly told a visitor as she left to beware of the residents of Far Rockaway, the predominantly black neighborhood at the other end of the peninsula.”


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Would the fact that there was a well documented spike in crime after Sandy not have been on their minds when giving her some friendly advice for a woman alone in avoiding such areas? Was it racist to offer some helpful insight?

(These volunteer firefighters would be drawn from the same community which sacrificed so many dead and injured on September 11th 2001 and performed heroically after Sandy.)

It hardly seems fair to let the racist innuendo hang in the air over this story which is a feel good one on so many levels.

But prejudice isn't always about color of the skin, it can be about attitude and a deep mindset which sees communities in cliches and stereotypes whatever the color of the skin.

I certainly think The NY Times has done that on this occasion.

Are St Malachy’s legends right? Will Benedict XVI be the last Pope?

St. Malachy

I love the old Irish legends, none more so that St. Malachy’s prophecies.

According to the legend, St. Malachy of Armagh predicted that the pope after Benedict will be the last, and he will be “Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The end.”

Malachy, the 12th century bishop of Armagh, has thrilled and dismayed readers for centuries.

The prediction in full is: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The end.”

Experts say it could refer to an Italian pope who would take Peter’s name. Or perhaps to Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, one of the front-runners for the throne of Peter.

In 1139, then Archbishop Malachy went to Rome from Ireland to give an account of his affairs. While there he received a strange vision about the future that included the name of every pope, 112 in all from his time, who would rule until the end of time. We are now at the second last prophecy.

His predictions are taken very seriously. As one report states, "In 1958, before the conclave that would elect Pope John XXIII, Cardinal Spellman of New York hired a boat, filled it with sheep and sailed up and down the Tiber River, to show that he was ‘pastor et nautor,’ the motto attributed to the next pope in the prophecies."

As for the prophecy concerning the 111th pope, Pope Benedict, the prophecy says of him, "Gloria Olivae," which means "the glory of the Olive."

The Order of St. Benedict is also known as the Olivetans which many claim makes Malachy's prophecies correct. The next and final pope then should be "Peter Romanus."

St. Malachy gave an account of his visions to Pope Innocent II, but the document remained unknown in the Roman archives until its discovery in 1590.

Many of the prophecies are spot on. For example, the one about Urban VIII is Lilium et Rosa (the lily and the rose). He was a native of Florence and on the arms of Florence figured a fleur-de-lis.

Pope John Paul II is De Labore Solis meaning "of the eclipse of the sun.” Karol Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920 during a solar eclipse.

Peregrinus Apostolicus (pilgrim pope), which designates Pius VI, appears to be verified by his many journeys to new lands.

So will Benedict’s successor be the last pope? The Irish seer of the 12th century has said it will be so. Time will tell.

Arise Sir Mike! Bloomberg the Brit wannabe revealed by New York Times -- Ascot, top hats, staying with Prince Charles, all part of the new Mike

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, right,
 greets Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, left as her husband Prince Philip watches (Credit:AP)

The mystery over what Mike Bloomberg will do when he stops being Mayor of New York seems to be solved.

The New York Times reveals today that Bloomberg wants more than anything to be British and is building the ultimate vanity project in Britain, his own ‘grandiose’ development in London’s financial district, named after himself--who else?

The article also reveals that Mayor Mike loves to attend Royal Ascot races in his top hat and tails and has stayed at the country home of Prince Charles. Thrilling stuff!

The Times notes that, “He bought a box at Ascot, the high-society horse racing grounds, and flew in celebrities by helicopter from London. (Guests received a photograph of themselves drinking Champagne with the top-hatted host.)”

The Boston-born, New York Jewish mayor has clearly had a major attack of Anglophilia, an incurable affliction when it infects American wannabes.

Mike is buying his way into high society in London. “There is no question,” Ms. Peyton-Jones, an art gallery director said, “he’s among the most important supporters of contemporary culture in this country.”

I’m sure he is and I’m sure the Brits are snickering all the way to the bank with the NY mayor Brit wannabe writing all the checks they want.

As The Times notes, Mr. Bloomberg, “an Anglophile with a taste for English Regency style — is exporting his vast quantities of financial, social and political capital to this ancient city, where he has long yearned for influence.”

Regency style dear reader is when you are a fan of the neo-classical architecture that reigned during the time of George IV, who ruled in the early 1800s. Bronx residents will be very familiar with it and speak of little else. Bloomberg Place, The Times tells us, is “roughly the size of a Manhattan city block, is the future European home of Michael R. Bloomberg’s company and charity.” And perhaps Bloomberg itself, it seems like. 

So intent is Mike on making an impression that Prime Minister David Cameron has roguishly suggested he should run for Mayor of London.

The Royal family are also in his sights and he spent a night at the home of Prince Charles in Scotland but alas, didn’t like it; “Won’t stay there again,” he said of the vast estate. Bloomberg it appears offers considerable help to Conservative party politicians. He dispatched a top PR team to help David Cameron get elected and has spent $1.5 million on Conservative candidates.

It is all a long way from the Bronx and Staten Island and their mundane concerns. But Mayor Mike will surely do us all proud as a British wannabe. 

Reader it is only a matter of time before we’ll be referring to Sir Mike and bowing and scraping in his presence!

When you are knighted you have to walk backwards out of the room so as not to show your rear end to the monarch. 

Hope Mike doesn’t make a horse’s ass of that.

Emigration is Irish government's savior once again --- Same old story in a different era as thousands leave

Group await a departing flight at Dublin Airport

Are emigrants abandoning Ireland, or is Ireland abandoning them? This was the headline in a recent face-off debate in The Irish Times.

The debate was spurred by a new Facebook page called “Ireland Abandoners” which attacked young people for leaving Ireland in the lurch and taking off for better climes.

The page created a minor sensation, with thousands batting forth the question before Facebook took it down at the instigation of a group of Australian emigrants.

Pity really, because it would have exposed the continuing fault line which appears to happen in every generation between those who go and those who stay.

Emigration is so fused into the brain of the Irish as a natural phenomenon that the idea of leaving family, friends and a land you grew up loving seems a normal rather than an utterly abnormal experience.

In fact there are few more transformative events in any one’s life than leaving their native land.

It causes massive problems if people are unprepared. Ask any of the Irish outreach centers in the U.S., Britain or Australia.

Read more: Immigration reform time - now is the time to make Irish and American history for the thousands living in limbo

This is why, given the option of staying, the vast majority would not “abandon” Ireland at all. The self-evident truth is lost on so many left behind however.

Those left behind by definition are usually more prosperous and able to ride out the waves of a difficult recession that washes over and swamps those less well off or less educated.

In every generation of Irish since the Free State was founded in 1922 there has been massive emigration. 
In the 1920s it was Civil War veterans who took the wrong side who fled. Thirty years later it was the dispossessed rural sons and daughters of Ireland unable to make livings from poor family farms.

In the 1980s it was the newly educated class who found themselves heading to Boston and Berlin.

Now 30 years later, it appears to be everybody and not drawn from any specific class -- 87,000 for the year ending April 2012 according to the latest statistics.

The underlying reality in the 1920s, ‘50s, ‘80s and 2010 is the same. The failure of successive Irish governments to find enough employment and opportunity for their people speaks to a massive collective failure of the Irish nation.

The major difference between emigration in good times and in bad times is whether it is voluntary or involuntary. In good times obviously it is the former. Nowadays, however, I meet many of this new crop of emigrants who miss the fields of home as earnestly and obviously as their grandparents did in the 1950s.

This is no hi-tech movement of happily displaced upwardly mobile groups, though I’m sure under the term “voluntary emigration” you would find many of them clutching that banner.

Read more: Brain drain continues as Irish snap up 6,350 Canadian work visas over four days

This feels like the 1980s again, even a tinge of the 1950s, with folks who have no business emigrating either because of lack of skills or sheer inability to handle the massive emotional and physical disconnect making the trek. That is a failure that can be squarely laid at the feet of successive governments which once again have failed the basic challenge keeping their people employed. 

Ironically, it is those leaving who are keeping the powers-that-be in power. If they stayed unemployment would rocket and social unrest would likely occur.

But as long as there is Aer Lingus EI 105 for New York or Ryanair to London to take them away, the crisis will never truly hit.

True confessions of a San Francisco 49ers fanatic - As a new emigrant I fell in love with 49er underdogs

Joe Montana

I arrived into San Francisco one June night in 1979 with a few dollars and a dream like most Irishmen who leave. I knew no one and cared less, I was in America, exactly where a young Irish emigrant should be.

No pessimist ever crossed the Atlantic and I could not wait to get started in the new world so different from the cramped and narrow country I had left behind.

San Francisco had not been my first stop, that was Chicago but after a freezing winter there, there was no going back.

As a sports fanatic I immediately gravitated to supporting the local teams, to find common cause with the folks I was working with on construction sites and the Irish community.

American football and baseball were gobbledigook to me. Back then you rarely saw it on TV overseas.

To this day I do not know the finer point of baseball, a game, alas, I have never warmed to as it reminds me of watching cricket which makes paint drying look exciting.

Football was a different matter, a chess game between two coaches as superb athletes vied and probed for every advantage.

The  San Francisco 49ers were one of the worst teams in football at the time, coming off a 2-14 season I think. They made the modern day Jets look successful.

But there was excitement in the air with a new coach called Bill Walsh (like Jim Harbaugh a Stanford coach before coming to the 49ers) now considered one of the greatest, and a very underrated quarterback by the name of Joe Montana, a Notre Dame grad...

After a year they were 6-10 in 1980, not bad, but still a long way from the top notch sides such as Dallas and Pittsburgh.

Then in 1981 out of nowhere the 49ers with Walsh running the new fangled West Coast offense and Joe Montana destroying team after team with unlikely wins and comebacks, the 49ers shocked the football world and won the Super Bowl.

I was along for the ride, hooked by the unlikely story and falling in love with the combative underdog style and last-minute heroics such as ‘The Catch’ by Dwight Clark in the end zone that defeated Dallas, then the royal princes of football.

I had found my team and have never relinquished them since. I was in Stanford Stadium in 1984 paying $200 that I could not afford for a ticket when they defeated Miami in the Super Bowl in a game that proved an anti climax because they were so dominant. They have won all five super bowls they have played in - an amazing record.

Soon after, I came to New York but never stopped loving the 49ers, even when the bad times came as they inevitably did.

I met Joe Montana at a Notre Dame game about ten years ago and was as awestruck as a teenager. I read an interview with him where he talked about how the field and the action seemed to slow down when he had the ball and he always thought he had lots of time to find his man. Such is the preserve of great athletes.

So today is a special day as this brand new version of the 49ers play in the Super Bowl and I will proudly wear my Montana jersey and cheer them to the hilt.

So go ‘Niners’ and bring back those wonderful memories back from this emigrant who will never forget what they meant to him.

Ed Koch not popular with many Irish during his career -- Late NY Mayor defended British role in North after Irish trip in 1988

Ed Koch celebrating St. Patrick's Day

I never had much time for Ed Koch, the mayor of New York from 1978 to 1989. The mayor died today.

He was a blusterer who early on in his career stopped listening and began pronouncing and never stopped.

I remember interviewing him and seeing that familiar politician’s fault where questions were answered with the same familiar soundbite, year after year.

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He was New York. Larger than life, for better and for worse, and often I felt the latter more than the former.
He was in power too long, somewhat like the current mayor Michael Bloomberg, and had become a poor imitation of himself by the time he stepped down.

On Irish issues he was captive to whomever he last spoke to.

Sure, he wore his big Irish sweater every St. Patrick’s Day and loved being photographed at the parade but at the height of the Northern Ireland "Troubles" he contributed very little to the American role.

Read More: Ed Koch endorses Christine Quinn for New York Mayor 

Indeed, his most famous faux pas as far as Irish Americans were concerned occurred in 1988 after he went on a five-day visit over there with his frequent bosom buddy John Cardinal O’Connor.

Here is how his trip was reported on AP:

“Mayor Edward Koch says Irish-Americans who ''beat up the British'' for their role in Northern Ireland are taking the easy way out" ran the headline.

The story ran “The mayor, back at City Hall on Tuesday, defended remarks he made in Dublin earlier in the day at the end of his five-day pilgrimage for peace in Ireland with Cardinal John O'Connor.”

In Dublin, Koch had praised the ''good attitude'' of the British, saying ''I do not believe that they deserve the castigation that any of us, myself included, have heaped upon them. I do not believe that the British are occupying forces.''

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Well that went down well in The Bronx and Flatbush and Koch never quite regained his equilibrium with the Irish as a result.

Hardly surprising.