Rory Staunton continues to save lives even though he is gone from us - One year later, remembering a brave boy who touched so many people

Kathleen Staunton, Rory Staunton and Alana O’Dowd at the end of January,
 2012, at the United Irish Counties dinner in Queens.(Credit:Margaret Purcell)

One year ago, on April 1, 2012, death, like a thief in the night, stole my beloved nephew Rory Staunton. He was 12-years-old and like the season he died in, was full of promise. The thrill of life was everywhere about him.

Death is always an unwelcome guest, but when it claims the young and the brilliant it seems especially unfair. There is no sense to it, only a numbing reality every day that a boy once and always loved by those who knew him has gone forever.

Rory was not made for death. He was on his way to manhood, already 5’10”, broad shouldered, strapping, outgrowing my sister, his mother Orlaith, soon catching up on his father Ciaran, who was already complaining about shirts disappearing and shoes borrowed.

My favorite picture of Rory was taken a couple of months before he passed at the United Irish Counties dinner in New York. He stands with his arms around the shoulders of his sister Kathleen and my daughter Alana, towering over them.

It is a protective pose, one Rory easily adopted as a child wise beyond his years. In his gleaming eyes and happy smile you see the future reflected.

Then he was gone. He was felled by a cut, an infection and a hospital and doctors that misread the warning signs on seven different occasions.

Their neglect was so great it featured in articles on the front page of The New York Times. Out of the horrific tragedy his parents fashioned a strategy – that no other child should die of such neglect.

Through their incredible courage and hard work Rory’s Law will shortly be signed into being in New York and soon, we hope, around the country and the world. The law will protect children in emergency rooms and spread the word about sepsis, the eminently curable disease, if identified in time, that killed Rory.

Rory has already saved lives. Letters to his parents recount how several parents insisted on returning their children to emergency rooms when they read about Rory and suspected their child had the same condition.

Here is one example: “Rory's story saved my child's life!! I prayed to God as well as Rory on Saturday and thanked him, for without him, I wouldn't have been aware that a child could die from a cut on the arm! I am so sorry for your loss! Thank you for putting Rory's story out there.”

There are many such stories, and there will be many more, we hope, in the months and years ahead as the Rory Staunton Foundation (www.rorystaunton.com) goes from strength to strength.

But none of it will bring Rory back. The grief of losing a child is incomprehensible.

What are children but our little ambassadors to the future? They are beloved envoys who will tell of our lives when we are gone, and keep our memories alive for generations to come.

They will comfort us as we age, know every sorrow of our changing faces, accept us for what we are, fight with us, love with us, grow with us and educate us.

Rory was all that and more, described by one of his teachers as the most profound young man he had ever taught.

We all had looked forward so much to seeing a child called Rory Staunton grow up. He had that kind of extraordinary potential.

Now, we who are left behind must struggle to tell Rory’s story, his race run far too soon, but a strange thing has happened. Others have taken up the burden, and Rory’s story has spread far and wide and has saved lives.

Think of him this Easter, a time of blessed renewal when flowers bloom and dreams begin and the future looks bright once more after winter’s dark days.

Rory is part of that now, forever young in our hearts, forever beloved. Sweet afterlife, you beautiful boy.

Joe Biden challenges Irish Americans to help undocumented Hispanics become legal - Says discrimination against Irish generations ago same as against Hispanics today

Vice President Joe Biden speaking on Thursday at
Irish American Hall of Fame event

Joe Biden threw down a challenge to Irish Americans to come in behind the Hispanic lobby and seek immigration reform because of the shared history of discrimination against the two groups.

Speaking in New York on Thursday at the Irish America Hall of Fame hosted by our sister publication Irish America magazine, Biden challenged Irish Americans to remember their own pasts and to use that knowledge to fight discrimination today.

He quoted from a rabidly anti-Irish editorial from 1892 in The New York Times depicting the Irish as drunks and thieves. He also stated that the Ku Klux Klan was founded to smear Irish Catholics as well as blacks.

He stated that that type of hatred was still alive in anti immigrant sentiment against Hispanics and others today and that the Irish needed to help combat it.

"There are 11 million [undocumented] Hispanics, who by the way, are just as proud, just as noble, care just as much about their families as we do," Biden said. "Like our forbears, they possess overwhelming potential to build this great country. But today we are facing the most existential moment and we must ask ourselves: What do we stand for? What kind of nation are we? And perhaps most importantly, what kind of nation are we going to be become?"

Nominating speech for Joe Biden for Irish America Hall of Fame

Biden recalled Irish leader Enda Kenny pointing out over St.Patrick’s Day that Ireland had 50,000 undocumented today and had said to him, "Mr. Vice President imagine not being able to come home for your mother's funeral and knowing you'll never be able to come back,” Biden recalled. "It's not just the Irish. That's a circumstance—not only for Irish undocumented—but Latinos, Asians and others."

Joe Biden s said the 50,000 undocumented Irish should to be brought “out of the shadows,”  and they and other “undocumented” in the US “should be entitled to earn a path to citizenship.”

“They are Americans but they are not citizens – they are undocumented. We need to find a fair and effective and decent way to take them out of the shadows,” Biden said.

The system was broken, he said, and “needs to be fixed.”

Biden’s speech to an audience of 300 Irish American leaders was a direct challenge to them to get involved in the issue. As such it was a very brave clarion call by a leading Irish American who did not fear to push his own ethnic group to do more on the controversial issue.

He also stated that U.S. immigration policy was truly lacking when it allowed 40,000 PHD’s a year to leave the country after graduation. “Maybe one of those PHD’s could find a cure for Alzheimers” he stated.

Much of his speech was devoted to his Irish background and how intensely proud of that heritage he was.

He remembered his mother telling him never to feel he was not equal to everyone else and spending long hours with him teaching him Yeats poems to recite as he fought a stuttering problem.

On a lighter note, Biden, told what inauguration in the Hall of Fame meant to him.

"I would never dream that I would be in this position," Biden said. "I'm not surprised that I am vice president, but I am surprised that I am in the Irish Hall of Fame."



Here's the full video of Joe Biden's speech:

Irish Foreign Minister was wrong to boycott men only event in Savannah over St.Patrick’s Day

In Atlanta on Friday, Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore (right) 
presented Don Keough, former president of Coca-Cola, 
with the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad.

Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore canceled a proposed trip to Savannah, Georgia for St. Patrick’s Day on the grounds that he would not attend the men-only Hibernian Society dinner there.

“Count me out — I'm not doing it," Gilmore told The Irish Times. "I don't believe in segregation either on a gender basis or on any other basis."

His move won him praise and blame in equal measure. The main opposition party in Ireland, Fianna Fail, said Gilmore’s stance was a mistake, and that he must "regularly visit countries with different values to ours or meet leaders whose policies he disagrees with."

On the other hand, a former female minister in the Irish government, Gemma Hussey, stated on Twitter, “Well done Eamon Gilmore - those Savannah Hibernians refused to have an Irish woman minister (me) in the ‘80s so now they get none.” 

The male-only Irish dinner issue is a vexed one. Many years ago this newspaper for the hell of it sent a woman disguised as a man to the all-male Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner in New York. She bound up her breasts, put on a tuxedo and trotted off and passed muster with no one passing a comment.

Her verdict was searing. It was, she said, one of the most boring nights of her life, with hundreds of men drinking, praying, bowing and scraping to each other and a dais full of dignitaries who droned on and on.

In other words, it was much like the standard dinner, male or female, mixed or not, that we too often attend.

In more recent times, the Kerry Association in New York had major problems for years because they refused to let women join until 2011. Their annual dinner dance has suffered badly because women were not allowed in the association. 

This year they’ve moved the dinner to April in hopes they can get better crowds. The move shows that the ban on women hurt what should be among the biggest associations in New York.

Excluding women is not a good idea . . . but what happens when women exclude men?

Organizations such as the Daughters of the Revolution, the National Organization of Women, the La Leche league (focused on breastfeeding) and the League of Women Voters bar men from their deliberations.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor quit an all-female group, the Belizean Grove, begun in opposition to the all-male Bohemian Grove of high-powered men when she became Supreme Court Justice.

Should it be what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander too? Or are there organizations that more blatantly discriminate by being unisex than others?

I think the latter is right. I think the Friendly Sons should be allowed their night in the Sheraton Hotel or wherever they want.

I also think the Kerry Association took the right step in opening up the group to women, and it was downright wrong to bar them in the first place, given they had no other alternative to celebrate their Kerry pride.

Equally, I really don’t know why men would want to belong to the Daughters of the Revolution, but I can understand that they might seek membership in the League of Women Voters which can be very influential.

As for the Hibernians in Savannah, I think Gilmore should probably have gone to the event and made the point that they should include women rather than snub them. As Churchill once said, jaw, jaw is better than war, war.

Optimism for immigration reform clear at St. Patrick’s White House bash - President Obama signals change, praises Irish for Hurricane Sandy work - VIDEO

President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner &
Taoiseach Enda Kenny  (Credit: White House by Pete Souza)

The White House rocked to the sound of Irish traditional music and laughter last night as the annual St.Patrick’s bash took place.

Inside the main East Wing entrance a group of marines bedecked in kilts played Irish tunes and harmonies and had the toes tapping as the evening began.

Politicians of all stripes and states, Irish community leaders, all mingled and ate at the food stations in the beautifully appointed rooms waiting for the big moment when the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and President Obama appeared on stage in the East Room.

Outside the wet weather had given way to bright sunshine and there is no city as beautiful in early Spring especially from the White House.

How Irish is this White House in the era of the first black president? Well let him tell you himself as he proudly did last night when he appeared.

“We have way too many Irish and Irish American and wannabe Irish Americans in the house for me to name but I will say that the next four years are shaping up to be very green ones here in the White House. My new Chief of Staff is a McDonough. My National Security Advisor is a Donilon. Our new CIA Director is a Brennan. My new head speech writer is a Keenan. And Joe Biden has very kindly agreed to stay on as Irishman-in-Chief.”

With that kind of lineup there is no fear of the White House St.Patrick’s Day event winding down anytime soon.

Of all the names he mentions, Denis McDonough as his Chief of Staff is perhaps the most vital. He has been described as Obama’s alter ego who understands perfectly the president’s wishes.

During a brief conversation I had with him, McDonough made clear the commitment to immigration reform that rippled through almost every conversation on the night.

After years of despair comprehensive reform is back on the agenda in a big way. The view is that there could be as many as 70 votes in the senate for the legislation forcing the House to act on it.

More than one person pointed out it is because elections have consequences, that Republicans now know that they have to deal on this issue to have any chance of competing for minority votes across America.

The upbeat mood on the night contrasted with the last few and you could feel a sense of optimism. The Irish economy, as Prime Minister Enda Kenny made clear, is clawing its way out of a deep hole slowly but surely.

President Obama addressed the other issue that has dominated Irish American discussion lately, the extraordinary response in Ireland and among Irish America after Hurricane Sandy.

Here are his remarkable words;

“We saw that again in October, when Hurricane Sandy set off one of the worst residential fires in New York City’s history. Hundreds of homes were left charred and flooded, and many families were suddenly faced with the task of picking up the pieces and rebuilding their lives, including in Breezy Point, a neighborhood with a large Irish American population.

“In fact, more than half of Breezy Point residents can trace their families to the old country, and the folks back in the old country were not about to sit by and watch their American brothers and sisters struggle alone.

“So they pitched in. Gaelic rock stars raised money. Athletes from the Gaelic Games did construction work and brought the Sam Maguire chalice with them to lift spirits. The Irish Tenors came over to sing Christmas carols.  The Irish government pledged hundreds of thousands of dollars, not just to help the residents of Breezy Point, but to help folks rebuild across the region. And the Taoiseach himself was in Breezy Point on Sunday to attend mass.

“As one official said, New York has been very good to the Irish; now the Irish are giving back to New York.  And that’s the story of America and Ireland:  We look out for each other, we have each other’s backs...and we recognize that no challenge is too great and no obstacle is too high if you’ve got a friend beside you and a nation behind you.  That’s been our history; that will be our future.”

Indeed it will. The St.Patrick’s bash this year was short on time (Obama had to leave for Israel, Joe Biden was  coming back from Rome) but long on substance and on the Irish contribution to America. Long may it continue.

A St. Patrick’s gift from the Irish nation to Breezy Point after Sandy - Irish leader Enda Kenny visits as embattled community fights back

 Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny surveying damage after Hurricane Sandy in Breezy Point,
Queens accompanied by local leaders (Photo: James Higgins)

The Breezy Point community in Queens turned out in their hundreds on Sunday morning at St. Thomas More Church to welcome Irish leader Enda Kenny and celebrate a Saint Patrick’s Day many present feared they would never see after the horrific events of Hurricane Sandy.

A cold wind whipped in off the Atlantic and Breezy was living up to its name as parishioners hurried inside to the  parochial church that has become the center of their recovery drive.

Despite the elements the plucky Irish community in one of the most Irish parishes in America were in joyous mood, buoyed by the presence of the Taoiseach and the Bishop of Brooklyn  Nicholas Dimarzio.

The bishop must have wondered if he was the only Italian left on Breezy amid a sea of  green-clad faithful but he paid fulsome praise to the community and to the Irish workers from outside who inspired by Irish consulate and Irish American organizations outreach had given up their time and talents to help restore Breezy.

About 1,500 Irish workers had shown up  on two separate weekends to help out all over the Rockaways. Many continue to return there.

In addition, a team of skilled workers from Ireland, put together by the Gaelic Players Association had single handedly restored the church gymnasium, a center  for youth activity.

Monsignor Michael Curran invited parishioners next door to that center,  the Monsignor Connolly Hall to celebrate with the Irish leader.

Once there, over tea and soda bread Prime Minister Enda Kenny delivered an impassioned speech about the solidarity felt in Ireland towards Breezy and other points in the Rockaways that had been damaged by Sandy.

As he pointed out, the very gymnasium they were in, with the  sparkling new floor, had been under several feet of water and had been  rebuilt by Irish athletes from the Gaelic Players Association with financial aid from  the Irish taxpayer.

His words made a deep impression on those present. It was clear that the Irish American community on Breezy would not forget that gesture of friendship which had come at a time of extraordinary hardship for them.

Kenny has been very impressive on this trip to  New York. As a rural representative from County Mayo he understands the emigrant and Irish American mentality very well and it showed in his ease and facility with those who lined up to meet him.

Earlier he had toured the devastated area and had seen at first hand the power of wind and wave when harnessed in a hurricane. It had obviously made a deep impression on him.

The Irish government under Kenny has made great strides in outreach to Irish America and Breezy Point typifies that approach. There is no question that it has paid off in terms of bonds created, goodwill enjoyed and future contacts for both sides of the Atlantic.

As St.Patrick’s stories go it didn’t have the drama of a parade or the glitz of a swanky dinner.
What it did have was a heartfelt emotion and a concrete contribution to solving one community’s agony. Irish America and Ireland should be very proud of that accomplishment.

Rockaway heroics highlighted by Irish leader Enda Kenny in New York - St. Patrick’s tribute to Irish American community after Superstorm Sandy struck

Hundreds of thousands turn out in NYC for the St. Patrick's Day Parade
despite wind and snow.

Enda Kenny, the Irish leader, took New York by storm on Saturday, marching in the parade before two million spectators and keeping a schedule that would have left younger men flailing as he raced from one Irish event to another.

In the process Kenny provided clear evidence that after years of lip service, the role of the Diaspora has finally really begun to matter to influential Irish politicians. The success of  The Gathering, the year-long effort to woo the Diaspora back home, has emboldened the Irish abroad and the Irish government to think much bigger about the relationship with Ireland, as communication has become a two way street.

For instance, it is a very long time indeed since an Irish leader took in St. Patrick’s Day in New York -- an indictment in itself -- a day when the world’s largest media market opens its heart to everything Irish and two million line the sidewalks of new York for the parade.

Breakfast with Mayor Bloomberg, a world figure in finance and politics, is probably worth crossing the Atlantic for anyway, as is a meeting with New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Irish American candidate who looks a shoo-in for mayor.

Then there was the meeting with the Irish organizations that led the fight to help the stricken Rockaways and other areas devastated by Hurricane Sandy.

That took place at the Irish Consulate in New York, where Kenny personally thanked the dozens of Irish organizations that came together to reach out to the Rockaways in such spectacular fashion.

His message was the same later at the American Irish Historical Society where he was warmly greeted by Director General Dr. Kevin Cahill.

Kenny recognized the impact of the Rockaways outreach by the Irish community, united as never before.  As he stated, the New York Irish proved their meitheal, the Gaelic word for organizing together to help in a crisis.

“When disaster struck in the form of Hurricane Sandy, this extraordinary city began to see for itself just how extraordinary the New York Irish are how at home they feel here,” Kenny said.

“They were extraordinary in their volunteering extraordinary in their generosity extraordinary in their compassion for this their adopted ‘home’.

“When our consulate organized two Irish Days of Action your officials made sure to make the most of the 1,500 and more volunteers who arrived in force to lend a hand.

“The Irish government has committed funding of $320,000 to help community projects in the areas worst affected. Mayor, (Bloomberg) under your leadership the people of New York responded magnificently to the impact of Sandy. The response was only inspiring. It was clear that New Yorkers had long ago learned that old lesson.”

On Sunday Kenny will visit the devastated Rockaway and Breezy Point neighborhoods which took the brunt of Sandy, and attend a St. Patrick’s Day Mass there.

After that Kenny heads for Washington and the annual St. Patrick’s Bash at the White House on Tuesday before taking in the West Coast later in the week.

But his time in New York is what will resonate with Irish Americans, and the partnership he highlighted between the Irish government and the community in helping deal with the Rockaway crisis.

 It can surely be a harbinger of future cooperation in so many areas.

Here’s a video from St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City:

Still giving while living - Chuck Feeney to give away $6 billion by 2016

Irish American philanthropist Chuck Feeney

San Francisco - Chuck Feeney makes it clear he enjoys giving away his money.

One of America’s great philanthropists, he has pioneered the Giving While Living concept now embraced by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates among other billionaires.

Basically, Feeney will have given away his $6 billion fortune by 2016 – all of it, not keeping some of it for a rainy day.

It will give him intense joy the on the day he gives away his last nickel.  He hopes his last check bounces.

Feeney says it will give him a freedom he never enjoyed when he had a huge fortune that he made in Duty Free Shops mainly hanging around him like a millstone.

One of the world’s richest men at one time, he was never comfortable with his wealth. Now he has found a way to enjoy it.

I have known Feeney for over 25 years and have never seen him so happy as he contemplates life as a regular pauper.

Feeney is driving by his latest huge philanthropic venture, donating $270 million to a new state of the art hospital campus in San Francisco that will cater to women, children, cancer and also research.

The hospital complex that is springing up in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood is a sight to see, transforming a previously rough neighborhood into a thing of beauty.

The complex stretches for city blocks and will be state of the art when it is finished. It will be a major research center, and Feeney says he hopes many lives will be saved as a result.

On the other side of the country, in New York he is investing another $350 million in creating Silicon Valley on New York's Roosevelt Island where a vast new campus is also taking shape thanks to him.

Generations of technology inventors whose breakthroughs will greatly further people’s lives will pass through its doors he hopes.

The scale of his philanthropy is breathtaking, especially when you hear about it from Chuck Feeney, who lives as modestly as a church mouse and never met a $5 lunch special he didn’t like.

Feeney smiles as he takes me around San Francisco.  He is never happier than when discussing how to give things away.

“People forget it is fun,” he says.  “It inspires others. You always feel better about yourself.”

Not all billionaires agree. Feeney instances a number of them who he has tried to reach with his message, but have failed to respond.

“How many yachts do they need, how many glamorous houses and wives? ” he asks.

He is the antithesis of men like Donald Trump, who brags and boasts and gives very little to charity.  Feeney was utterly anonymous until 11 years ago when he went public in order to encourage others to give while they live.

It worked.  He can justifiably claim much credit for Gates and Buffet agreeing to do so.

He’s right too, of course, about enjoying giving even when you bring it down to the micro level in most of our lives.  If you give that subway beggar a few bucks it means even more for you than him.

Feeney discovered that early in life and commenced a spectacular career that saw him climb the pinnacle of business success, and just as quickly start giving it all away.

In the process he has transformed higher education in Ireland where he has donated over $1 billion, as well as donating much more to organizations serving the needy.

The day after our visit around the campus we sit outside a restaurant on a perfect day in San Francisco. The New Jersey boy looks at the blue water and blue sky and raises a glass.

“It doesn’t get any better,” he says.

If you are Chuck Feeney it certainly does not.

Irish Americans need to reflect on St. Patrick's Day - be more proactive in immigration reform and consider the next generation

Irish Americans need to reflect on their roots and their actions on St. Patrick's Day

This is the time in March when many of the 35 million Irish Americans don the dollop of green paint and go in search of a parade, a concert or a pub to celebrate their heritage.
 
The vast majority disappear back into the mist once the special day has passed.

More and more we in Irish America need to question what St Patrick’s Day is all about. It is time for us to do more than the shamrock trot.

The most modern and meaningful arc between America and Ireland today is not the annual St Patrick’s Day parade and its hoopla but Irish Americans reaching out a helping hand to Ireland.

Irish-American soft power has always been enormously important to Ireland. Back in the 1920s and up to the 1960s, emigrant remittances from America kept many thousands of households alive and paid for generations to be educated. The access to America and its jobs was vital for emigrants.

American tourism to Ireland keeps hospitality businesses in many towns and villages alive. American businesses are at the heart of the Irish economy, employing well over 100,000 people.

The end of large-scale Irish immigration to America following the 1965 Immigration Act here brought an end to an era. America is closed off for new Irish emigrants, barring comprehensive immigration reform. Achieving immigration reform and allowing Irish to emigrate legally would be a massive boost if Irish America could help achieve it.

Immigration reform

We need to be far more proactive on immigration reform by recognising the importance of a future flow of Irish to America. It is no secret that Republicans for a variety of reasons will listen to Irish far more than other groups.

That help can be as simple as an organised call to Congress in a day of action, organising a local Irish lobby group or joining with Hispanic heritage organisations to push for fairer immigration laws.
There are many examples of Irish Americans who have not forgotten their hardscrabble heritage or lost the will to help.

More than 1,000 Irish construction workers, Irish and American, fanned all across the Rockaway neighbourhoods in New York from the African-American to Irish enclaves during two recent Irish “days of action” there after Hurricane Sandy.

It was an example of Irish American power at its best and Taoiseach Enda Kenny has recognised it by committing funding to areas and congratulating those who took part.

Most of what Irish Americans must achieve in Ireland will be on a voluntary basis by giving philanthropic support.

This is where Irish America comes in, with its soft power and its traditional role of helping Ireland.
Irish American Chuck Feeney through his Atlantic Philanthropies has transformed third-level education in Ireland as well as funding numerous deserving charities to the tune of over $1.5 billion.

The American-Ireland Fund is one of the largest sources of private support in Ireland. Its hugely successful “Promising Ireland” campaign will likely surpass $150 million by the year’s end.

In recent years, under chairman Loretta Brennan Glucksman and chief executive Kieran McLaughlin, it has developed a tremendous young leaders’ subset and taken on many of the toughest issues in Irish life. It is inspired and driven by the great American tradition of philanthropy, one of this country’s greatest exports and instruments of soft power.

Next generation 

Actively seeking the next generation of Chuck Feeneys and major donors to Irish American groups like the American-Ireland Fund should become a top priority of Ireland and Irish America.

The end of the Troubles has given the next generation of Irish America the permission to become fully involved in Ireland in a way their parents often hesitated to.

Now is the time to ask them to step up to the plate after the St Patrick’s brouhaha has faded. “Giving while living” is the Chuck Feeney mantra adopted by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among others.

Other Irish Americans can do that too for Ireland’s sake. What is needed is leadership, drive and year-round interest.

For the next Pope it is the faithful departed who count - Debate appears to have missed the most important truth of all

Catholic Cardinals the world over are now assembled in
Vatican City for the conclave that will elect the next pope

With the election for pope now underway it is remarkable how little time appears to have been spent on the best way to woo the faithful back to the mother church.

Sure, there are debates about how the church handles child sex abuse, the Vatican bank, Wikileaks and the Curia.

Very little however, has been said about the fact that huge numbers are deserting the church in droves.

That is not only about the sex abuse issue but also because millions feel the church is now a cold house for them, far too conservative and intrusive in its teachings.

There is an overwhelming focus on crime and punishment issues, very little on the good deeds and future changes that can bring the faithful home.

The clerical crisis, where vocations have plummeted, is just one example of that, empty pews across America, Ireland and the world is another.

So you sense that the Cardinals currently in conclave are like shepherds who have lost their flock but have yet to notice.

The internal wranglings about how the Church is run are actually secondary to the macro crisis that the faithful are departing.

Popular popes like John 23rd and John Paul I managed for a time to stem that flow but it has continued apace under Benedict.

The next pope will have the vital task of ensuring that Catholics once again feel wanted and needed in a church that gives every appearance of indifference and a focus on shadow not substance.

That is why whoever is elected faces a mammoth task. Winning the faithful back is the biggest part of that job.

An Irish American pope could be a real possibility - Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley now a focus in top Italian circles

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley a real contender for head of the Catholic Church

The extraordinary possibility of an Irish American pope seems to be taking flight this week.

In a poll of experts by Corriere della Sera, Italy’s equivalent of The New York Times, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley was the favored pick.

An online poll of readers also placed O’Malley in first place.

It is extraordinary that Italian experts and ordinary readers would be plumping for O’Malley given that the Italians owned the papacy for centuries and are very keen to have it back after a Polish and German incumbent.

But an American? That seems to upset the applecart in a profound manner.

Americans have never been taken seriously in the conclave, rather like at the UN where an American will never be Secretary General, the belief is that the world's main superpower has enough power without heading up other world organizations.

But O’Malley has struck a chord in Rome. He is a Franciscan, an order that Italians adore, he is humble, unlike so many of his pontificating would-be pontiff cardinals, and he has clean hands on the child abuse sex scandals.

All of which, in a conclave where experts say there is no outright favorite, makes him a real contender.

And he is not the only American. The New York Times published a lengthy positive piece on Cardinal Timothy Dolan contrasting his sunny demeanor and easy way with the press compared with that of many of his dreadfully dour colleagues.

Dolan certainly has a self-deprecating Irish humor that serves him very well and a manner and a presence and intellect that would take care of the communication issue, which bedeviled the retired pope.

Dolan still has murky issues with his handling of the pedophilia scandal in Milwaukee when he was Archbishop there, which may hurt his chances.

But if the conclave decides on the need for a new and more open papacy with an emphasis on spreading the message Dolan could fare very well.

I think that O’Malley may be the more serious candidate, however.

The first priority should be a pope who can clean house with a new broom after the scandal filled years.

O’Malley did that in Boston after the dreadful cover-up of pedophile priests orchestrated by Cardinal Bernard Law.

Could he do it in the Vatican?

A few weeks ago such a question would have been absurd.

Now it is definitely a possibility.

The man leading the fight to legalize the undocumented Irish in America - A quiet hero takes a bow in San Francisco at the American Ireland Fund dinner

ILIR chairman Bart Murphy (center) with fellow ILIR advocates Kelly FIncham, Bruce Morrison, Celine Kennelly and Ciaran Staunton

San Francisco: The American Ireland Fund annual dinner here in San Francisco honored Bart Murphy, one of those quiet heroes of the Irish American community who too often get overlooked.

I made the 3,000 mile journey to pay homage to a friend of long standing, but also a man who will play a key role in the future of the Irish in this country.

I was delighted when the American Ireland Fund, the most prestigious Irish group in the U.S., decided on Bart as their California honoree. It was an acknowledgement of the importance of an issue and of a man who has decided not to play it safe with some worthy charity, but to try and help Irish in the U.S. who desperately need that help.

There are up to 50,000 of them scattered around the U.S. and with the fall-out  from the last election still resonating the opportunity has suddenly arisen that the GOP will finally act on the issue of immigration reform which has been stalled for decades.

If they do, Bart Murphy will be a key player. Bart, a lawyer and successful real estate investor  is Chairman of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, an organization that will be the first responder in the Irish bid to legalize the thousands of Irish who have the misfortune to live in undocumented status in America.

Chairman of ILIR is a job I once held and it is a tough one, carrying the hopes and dreams of so many thousands of Irish undocumented on your shoulders

But Bart Murphy has broad shoulders.

His selfless efforts on behalf of those undocumented and the many other great causes he is involved in led over 500 people to pay tribute to him last night at a packed St. Francis ballroom in downtown San Francisco.

Rarely have I heard a more spontaneous reaction to an honoree at an Irish event.

The standing ovation went on for minutes and the genuine warmth and affection for Murphy, who could easily focus on increasing the family fortune rather  than spend so much time working on Irish causes, was very evident.

Focusing on helping the Irish undocumented is not the sexiest gig in the Irish American community. It is an issue many Irish Americans shun, not wanting to be reminded of an immigrant issue that doesn’t fit easily into an Irish toast on St. Patrick’s Day.

But Bart Murphy has taken it on and his time has come as the issue comes center stage. I can report from San Francisco that it is in very good hands.

Phoebe Prince was not bullied to death, claims author in new book - Argues her many mental problems led to suicide, not ‘bullycide’

Phoebe Prince (Credit:ABC)

The tragic January 14, 2010 death of Irish teenager Phoebe Prince does not qualify as ‘bullycide’ according to a controversial new book on the subject by author Emily Bazelon.

Bazelon covered the Phoebe Prince trial for ‘Slate’ and she claims in an interview in the Boston Herald this week that what happened to Phoebe was “not beyond the pale” and that Phoebe had multiple personal issues that were the underlying cause of the suicide.

I could not disagree more with Bazelon’s conclusion which adopts a “blame the victim for having her own problems” mentality.

To recap, Prince was bullied mercilessly soon after she moved to South Hadley Massachusetts from the rural town of Fanore, County Clare in Ireland with her mother.

In her new high school two groups of students took turns making her life miserable after she allegedly stole the boyfriend of one of them.

As a newcomer Phoebe was utterly isolated and she suffered terribly.

Despite the fact that her aunt had outlined Phoebe’s troubled past and her problem with bullying, school authorities did nothing

On January 14, 2010, after a day of bullying which included dreadful verbal abuse and having a can thrown at her from a passing car Phoebe went home and hung herself.

Her body was found by her traumatized 12-year-old sister. Immediately dreadful comments about her appeared on Facebook, placed by the bullying teens.  Emily Bazelon is the author of the new book “Sticks and Stones, Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy.”

She believes that what happened to Phoebe was not enough to trigger the suicide.

I wonder what she would consider unacceptable behavior then.

She points to Phoebe’s many problems as justification for her comments.

Phoebe had been bullied in school in Ireland, she had taken to cutting herself, she drank liquor and smoked pot. She had massive fights with her mother and agony over her parents’ separation.

Just weeks before she killed herself she had taken an overdose of pills but survived.

I agree with Boston Herald columnist Margery Eagan who reported on the Phoebe case and disagrees with Bazelon. Eagan believes this strengthens the case that she was bullied to death, not weakens it.

This was clearly a girl who had high potential to do herself harm to begin with. After all, well-balanced teens rarely commit suicide and Phoebe clearly had her share of mental problems.

This made the attitude of the school authorities, who knew she was being bullied and she had mental issues, even more confounding.

They should also have been charged with the neglect and failure to protect Phoebe though they got off scot- free.

Bullies pick on the most vulnerable and the six teenagers saw Phoebe as a ripe target . The harassment against her was criminal.

A young girl died needlessly because other teens abused her and adults looked on. Just this week, Bailey O’Neill, another Irish kid in a Philadelphia suburb died after being beaten up by bullies. He was just 12 years old.

By excusing the South Hadley teen mob Bazelon is on dangerous grounds. Reasons and excuses for suicide can always be found.

However, ignoring horrific bullying as a root cause defies common sense.

Queen Elizabeth is right not to go green at Buckingham Palace for St. Patrick’s Day

Queen Elizabeth made the right choice refusing to go green for St. Patrick's Day

Judging by the 1,500 Facebook likes our story on the Queen refusing Buckingham Palace going green for St.Patrick’s Day got, it seems it has struck a chord.

For once I’ll side with Her Majesty and her court. I can only imagine the raised eyebrows around the Lord Chamberlain’s quarters when the request came in.

But I applaud Tourism Ireland for a wonderful public relations story that they likely knew would end in a refusal.

Seriously, if the palace were to go green would that mean a reciprocal arrangement that the Irish president’s residence would fly the colors of the Union Jack for a night too?

Also, would Orangemen insist that on July 12 the palace go all Orange in honor of their big holiday?
The mind boggles and no doubt the Queen and her courtiers were well aware of the mess they would step in if they allowed it.

Tourism Ireland is trying very hard to convince British tourists to come back to Ireland. Since the economic recession hit the British tourists have been missing.

Hence the focus on turning Buckingham Palace green and now the search for Kate Middleton’s Irish roots, all of which beats the drum for Ireland in Britain.

Anything to do with the royal family can have powerful impact.

Killarney’s original role as Ireland’s premier tourist town owes its existence to Queen Victoria vacationing there way back when.

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to Ireland in 2014 will certainly offer the opportunity to give Ireland a higher profile, especially if they bring their new addition along.

So Ireland will be pitching hard for the British business but a green Buckingham Palace will not be part of it .

But the chutzpah involved probably made the British authorities green with envy at such a bold move.

Daniel Day-Lewis’ love for Ireland born from his talented father’s affection

Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep

Daniel Day-Lewis may have been born in Britain and attended public school there, but for the past 17 years he has been a proud Wicklow man, living in splendid isolation in a marvelous Georgian mansion on a 100 acre farm.

Like his father before him, Cecil Day-Lewis, who became Britain’s poet laureate, the soil of Ireland was always deep in his bones.

Cecil Day-Lewis was Anglo-Irish, born in Stradbally, Co. Laois, the son of the local vicar. He lost his mother at just four years of age and the family moved to London but returned to Wexford for family vacations.

Though he became Britain’s best-known poet, he never forgot his Irish heritage.

Cecil Day-Lewis wrote some of his best poetry about Ireland, especially the house where he was born and about his maiden aunt, Agnes Squire, who looked after him when his mother died.

Writing of her he said, “Of one who made no claims because that was her nature and loving so, asked no more than to be repaid in kind. If she was not a saint I do not know.”

The Irish genes and affection for Ireland clearly came down the generations to Daniel.

He has become the greatest actor of any era, winning an unprecedented third Oscar for Best Actor last Sunday night.

He still counts the Freedom of Wicklow which he received in 2010 as one of his greatest achievements.

At the time he said, "This is the place that sustains me, the place where I planted myself.

"When the work is done, it's to this place that I return to as a refuge.  It's a place where I feel the freedom to lie fallow if I need to for a period of time.

"Living in this place that I have now for 15 years I've always felt, more than any other place that I've been, that Wicklow is in harmony, complete harmony, with the demands that life has made," he said.

Locals in the tiny village of Annamoe fully expect to see him drop into the Roundwood Inn and have his usual pint of Guinness, though he keeps to himself when he does.

Daniel is his father’s son, spanning both the British and Irish identity and revealing a talent that is truly remarkable given his difficulties in adolescence.

Daniel was a difficult child who got thrown out of many schools for misbehavior. Indeed, he only found his groove when he reconnected to Ireland.

His first great breakthrough was when Dublin director Jim Sheridan and producer Noel Pearson signed him to play Christy Brown in My Left Foot.

I knew Pearson quite well at the time, and remember the almost fairytale atmosphere when the little movie they made beat the best in Hollywood, thanks to an incredible performance by “our Daniel,” as Pearson called him.

The celebration party that was held in Eamonn Doran’s on Second Avenue in New York, where Pearson was a regular, went on late into the night, and the birth of a great era in Irish filmmaking had begun.

Day-Lewis was at the center of all that. As Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four in the film In the Name of the Father, he delivered a performance of such power that I remember being in tears watching it.

He then linked up with Sheridan for The Boxer which never reached the heights of his other films, but was nonetheless was a great effort.

Day-Lewis was truly ferocious as Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York, a great but flawed film, and of course there were the two latest Oscar movies, There Will be Blood and now Lincoln.

Now he will step back into obscurity he says, back to his beloved Wicklow where he will recharge and replenish. Day-Lewis says it might be five years before he acts again, an extraordinary span.

Irrespective of the future, he has claimed the present like no actor ever. Ireland should be very proud of its adopted son.