Boston immigration center apologizes to young woman they turned in to U.S. authorities - “The IIIC is deeply sorry for the hurt and upset that this incident caused the young woman”

IIIC apologizes to Irish intern in New York.

In an abrupt turnaround, the Irish International Immigrant Center in Boston (IIIC) has apologized to the young J-1 Irish visa holder it turned in to U.S. authorities after they claimed she had worked on a second job.  The woman still faces a deadline to leave the U.S.

The IIIC has also undertaken to review their procedures in dealing with young Irish immigrants after others stepped forward with complaints going back years about how they were treated by the organization.

Leading New York immigration attorney James O’Malley alleged that the IIIC has engaged in a consistent pattern of bullying of vulnerable young immigrants over several years. He is now representing pro bono the young woman who was turned in, seeking to prevent her departure.

The climbdown and reality check is welcome after IrishCentral, which employed the girl as an intern, put pressure on the IIIC to apologize and ensure that such an occurrence, where an Irish organization turns in an Irish immigrant after using evidence collected by monitoring her activities, would never happen again.

I want to thank all those who supported our stand and wrote letters and made calls on behalf of the young woman whose only offense was to live her American dream and write about trying to make ends meet in New York, which incredibly was monitored and acted upon by IIIC.
In their statement issued on Friday night the IIIC said:

“With respect to the recent incident in New York involving an Irish graduate on the program, upon further reflection the IIIC is deeply sorry for the hurt and upset that this incident caused the young woman. We recognize that it would have been more sensitive to first communicate with her host organization prior to our taking action, and to provide her with a warning that her unauthorized employment was inconsistent with the program regulations.

"It was absolutely not our intention to hurt anyone.

"The IIIC will perform a full review of the management of the J-1 Irish Work and Travel program in order to determine what changes should be made to ensure that our mission of providing support to Irish students and graduates is properly carried out.”

I hope this puts an end to an incident which revealed an unwelcome side of Irish immigration where emigrants are treated in a hostile rather than a welcoming way by a leading Irish organization heavily funded by the Irish state.

And to Amanda, thank you for your courage in standing up and not remaining silent about your treatment. You have ensured that future flows of immigrants from Ireland will be treated with decency and respect. We will work as hard as we can to ensure you can fulfill your year in America and will have the legal ability to return here in the future.

The Irish community returns to Hurricane Sandy hit Rockaways to aid ongoing recovery

Participants in the first Irish Day of Action in the Rockaways last November.

The Irish community is making clear that it will not forget the brethren in Breezy Point and the Rockaways, even if others have moved on after Hurricane Sandy.

On Sunday, June 2 in Rockaway hundreds of Irish are expected to descend on the Western Queens venue for the Rockaway Irish Festival. Several hundred will arrive early to help with the ongoing reconstruction after Hurricane Sandy.

A week later up to 20 Irish teams will take part in a Gaelic football seven a side competition in Breezy Point which will raise money for the local community.

The GAA tournament is the brainchild of the Gaelic Players Association in Ireland, which has done an incredible job linking up with Irish America.

Both events are a follow up to the hugely successful Irish Days of Action held in the aftermath of Sandy last year when over 1,000 Irish arrived from all over to help with the clean-up efforts.

Separately, a few weeks later, the GPA sent out some of its top players and skilled workmen to rebuild the gym and community center in the local Catholic church in Breezy Point, St. Thomas More. Their work was featured on NBC Nightly News.

“These will be huge days for the community,” said Peter Ryan, deputy consul from the Irish Consulate in New York who has been a leader in the effort from the beginning.

Referring to the day of action/Rockaway festival he said, “This is a chance to reconnect and forge new links between the Irish communities of several generations.”

The festival is organized by the AOH and is a two-day affair, with the Sunday the Day of Irish Action.

Ryan pointed out that buses will be leaving from the Irish centers in Yonkers, the Bronx and Queens, as well as from Manhattan and Mineola on Long Island to bring people there for the day.

All proceeds from the festival will go to St. Camillus Parish, which has been a rock for the stricken communities throughout the hurricane aftermath.

Those interested can go to Irish Day of Action on Facebook.

Meanwhile, the GPA is hosting the Breezy Gaelic Sports Team Building Day on June 8.

The event will bring work colleagues, family and friends together in a wonderful celebration of Irish sport and culture in the Rockaways.

Each team is paying $5,000 to take part, and all proceeds will go to Breezy Point charities.

Among the events are two Gaelic football competitions designed to cater for novices and
experienced players alike. The day will also feature games, music, entertainment, competitions, coaching and barbecue fun.

Former stars of Gaelic football including Kevin Cassidy from Donegal and Eamon O'Hara from Sligo will be on hand to coach participating companies, helping players to get the most
from this unique team-building opportunity.

Competing with other rookies, Breezy Cup contestants will learn the basics of Gaelic football. Experienced participants, men and women who currently play Gaelic football or who have played in the past, can compete with their company for the Irish American Cup.

Don't miss this rare opportunity to experience the excitement of the Irish national games at this exclusive event while helping to make a real difference to the lives of others.

Teams interested in taking part can call Teresa Ryan at 646-388-4464 or to sign up directly at www.gpa.splashthat.com.

Young Irish woman turned in to U.S. authorities by Irish immigrant support group - Boston-based Irish International Immigrant Center does the unspeakable

IIIC informs on Irish intern in New York

A Boston-based, Irish government funded immigrant’s rights organization has turned a young Irish girl in to U.S. authorities because she worked in a bar in contradiction of her visa terms.

The Irish International Immigrant Center (IIIC) received $253,000 in Irish government funding to help immigrants in 2011. They also received funding from the American Ireland Fund.

In all my years covering the Irish American community I have never seen such a callous act inflicted on a young Irish immigrant by an Irish organization allegedly established to help young immigrants.

They informed on her to the U.S. State Department after tracking an article she wrote for this publication about her life in America where she stated she tried to make ends meet by working in a bar. She is here legally on a year-long J-1 student visa.

In a harshly worded letter that she received yesterday, the IIIC stated that her visa was revoked and demanded that she immediately book passage home and leave the country by mid June.

The letter reads like a missive that immigration authorities would be proud of and the specter of an Irish immigrant rights group (allegedly) playing immigration cop on a vulnerable young woman is a sad one to behold.

The alleged immigrant rights organization made over $1 million processing visas in the last year for Irish students on the J-1 visa which allows recent college students or graduates to work in the U.S. for one year.

Boston Irish sources say the IIIC is known for nasty and bullying letters which are often received by new legal emigrants for very minor transgressions. Apparently because they profit heavily from every emigrant they process they also feel the need to spy on bully and cajole those they think have stepped out of line in order to preserve their cash cow.

Our young intern just happened to be working for us which is why we came across this dreadful betrayal; who knows how many others have stories to tell about the IIIC?

I would urge great caution for any would-be immigrant or present immigrant in approaching this organization.

What they have done to this young woman -- and who knows how many others they have bullied -- is far outside the pale for an Irish organization, especially one funded by the Irish taxpayer. 

The IIIC was formerly run by Sister Lena Deevey, a much acknowledged woman in the Irish American community who recently retired.

An Irish agency acting as immigration enforcers rather than helping immigrants is a new wrinkle for an Irish group. Monitoring Irish American media looking for “offenders” is positively despicable and  McCarthy-like.

Perhaps they can go the whole hog and get an U.S. immigration enforcement  officer on their staff and nab the undocumented as they arrive.

The new IIIC director is Ronnie Miller, and he seemed positively delighted to tell me yesterday how they had caught this awful girl in the dreadful act of working in a bar to make ends meet.

He knows damn well of course because students find it impossible to survive on intern’s wages that many have to find a way to supplement their income. The J1 visa is a very flawed vehicle in this regard but the lack of basic humanity in how these people deal with students is appalling to witness.

I asked friend Ronnie if it was decent at this time of great hope for immigration reform -- at a time when President Obama has suspended almost all deportations of young people -- that the IIIC would ruin a young Irish woman’s American dream by turning her in, informer-style, to U.S. authorities.
He said he did not want to discuss the matter any further.

An IIC employee, Jude Clarke, a Northern Ireland native like Miller, admitted he had monitored Irish media and saw that the young girl had written she worked in a bar, in addition to interning here at IrishCentral.

Shortly afterwards she received a letter signed by another genius, Ann Marie Byrne, director of the IIIC’s Learning Exchange Programs, demanding that she immediately buy a ticket to leave the U.S.
Playing the immigration officer, Byrne demanded the girl be gone from the U.S. by June 19, 2013.

In all my 30 years in the Irish American media, finding an Irish organization that turns in one of its own for a very minor breach of a visa issue is a new low.

It is also unique to find an organization that so cheerfully defends its jackboot tactics and gets substantial Irish government funding while dashing the dreams of young people.

Shame on them, and on the Irish government if it continues to fund this organization which picks on defenseless Irish immigrants and turns them in.

If you would like to contact the IIIC they are at 617 542 7654 or Facebook. For more visit their website, iiicenter.org.

Profile in Irish fighting courage - Heffernan’s campaign for respite care for families dealing with fatal rare illnesses such as Batten’s disease

Tony and Mary Heffernan with their son Liam.

The next time I think of fighting Irish spirit, when your back is against the wall and when all looks hopeless yet somehow a grace and courage comes, I’ll think of Tony and Mary Heffernan.

Tony, 41, from Kerry, and his wife Mary, 37, from Cork, have been dealt the most grievous blow life can throw at them.

One of their two beautiful children, Saoirse, succumbed to a deadly and incurable neurological disease called Batten Disease, and now their only surviving child Liam, just four, is also facing death from the same disease.

I met Tony over breakfast at Fitzpatrick’s Hotel last Saturday morning in New York.  A former ship’s captain, he was abroad when Saoirse suffered the first of a mysterious series of seizures which was ultimately diagnosed as Batten Disease.

It was the beginning of a journey into the heart of darkness, watching their angelic daughter fail from the disease, hoping against hope for a miracle cure which included a New York hospital stay.

Alas, Saoirse passed away in 2011, but the family was hit with a second hammer blow when little Liam was also diagnosed with the fatal disorder.

Faced with such circumstances many couples would give up, go screaming into the night, curse the heavens and let life do it worst to them.

But not the Heffernans. They have woven a golden tale of commitment, love and sacrifice from a web of broken dreams and dashed hopes.

They were both in New York last week for the American Ireland Fund dinner, not looking for sympathy or concern but rather to tell their story of Liam’s Lodge, their $6 million project aimed at helping other families all over Ireland who have children with incurable diseases and who desperately need a place of respite to stay when dealing it.


“Mary and I wished there was a facility like this for people like us, to give people the break they need. It is not a lot to give people a week’s break to help them to keep going through the year,” Heffernan explained.
“Hopefully, Liam will get to see this open, but it's against the odds for him to survive more than 12 to 18 months." 

Tony pauses for a moment.  “I know I’ll soon be carrying another little white coffin” he says, his voice breaking.  “I just hope no other family in the future will have to go through what we have gone through.”


Located outside Tralee and close to Kerry General Hospital, phase one will see an initial 10 specially designed units of Liam's Lodge constructed to provide a week of much needed respite for 520 families each year.

“In the longer term it will grow to 30 units on our site, supplemented by a number of satellite lodges around Ireland. The service hopes to be helping over 1,600 families a year in the near future,” Heffernan says.

The response and support had been tremendous in Ireland, with generous donors flocking to help the concept of Liam’s Lodge.

Tony and Mary have created Bee for Battens (www.beeforbattens.org), a powerful network throughout Ireland and soon they hope in the United States to battle the terrible disease, help those who have it and eventually find a cure which Heffernan remains confident can be done.

“We know it’s a steep climb,” he says, “but we know Saoirse our little angel is with us and that Liam would want this too, so that other children would never suffer like they have.”

I make it a point of never asking readers to be generous in my columns,  but I really feel this is an amazing couple truly doing extraordinary work. They can be reached through www.beeforbattens.org.

Senator Schumer says Irish deserve a separate deal for visas because of 1965 shutout - Says “Schumer visas” set to give Ireland 10,500 visas a year for the future

Sen. Charles Schumer

Sounding very upbeat, Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York), architect of the senate immigration bill says he is now very confident that 10,500 Schumer visas will be passed as part of the bill.

He asked for the Irish community across the U.S. to “gear up” to help passage of the overall immigration bill.

In a Friday afternoon interview with Irish Central and other Irish American media  Schumer said the 10,500 would be set-aside for Irish immigrants every year  and spouses would not count against the numbers.

Those applying would need  a high school education and can renew the visa every two years.

“The Schumer visas will be part of an immigration  bill, this has been a long time  goal of mine to make sure we have a permanent program for Irish immigration, not one that expires…”, he said

“Ted Kennedy’s spirit is hovering over this bill said Schumer saying he was inspired by the late Massachusetts senator to seek redress for the Irish.

“Senator Kennedy in 2006 said an unintended consequence of the 1965 Act had been to shut out the Irish from America.”

He quoted Kennedy as saying “What we were trying to do was eliminate discrimination.. but  worked in a very dramatic and significant way against the Irish.

Schumer says he believes the immigration bill can pass  in the senate before the end of June and with goodwill it can pass the House by the end of summer, early Fall.

The New York Times reported Friday that house bipartisan negotiators had reached agreement in principle on a House version of the bill.

Saying he was now over 90 per cent confident that the Schumer visas would be in any final bill from the senate, Schumer called for an all out effort by the Irish American community to push for the comprehensive bill.

“The greatest danger that this is not law is that comprehensive immigration reform will not pass. The Irish bill will be part if it passes he said.”

The overall package Schumer says has a better than 50 per cent chance of it passing.

He said the effort by Iowa Republican Charles Grassley to remove the Irish provision from the bill failed utterly.

He stated the Grassley amendment to kill the Irish bill got no support even from Republican hardliners.

“Senator Grassley  got no support from any of the others and he withdrew his amendment. It bodes very well,” he said.

The Schumer visa is a better bill than  the Morrison visas, or Donnelly visas bills, which  both had time limits, he said.

Prospects for immigration reform bill are 50-50 say the pols privately - House seen as major obstacle as Senate gets closer to a vote

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL),
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Senate Majority Whip Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) at a
news conference on immigration reform (Credit: Getty)

From Washington DC

The marvelous thing about American politics is how close you can get to the main players. You can literally stroll into every senator and congressman’s office and meet the staffer or, if you are lucky, the politician themselves.

In the halls of Congress they will pass you in the hallways, sit near you in the lunchrooms and generally be far more accessible than other political system on earth.

There is no comparable system in any other country I know.

I spent a day on Wednesday lobbying for the E3 visa component of the new immigration bill, which would give Ireland 10,500 work visas a year.

It was a learning experience. The opinions of congressmen and senators I spoke with differed greatly but I prefer to take the Republican viewpoint on this bill rather than the Democrats, who are understandably more optimistic.

I believe a good bill will come out of the senate thanks to New York’s Senator Chuck Schumer, and the other seven members of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight.” Schumer’s leadership on this and his support of the Irish amendment has given him Kennedy-like status in the community.

The support of Senator Marco Rubio from Florida is another key difference in this legislation. As the likely front-runner for the 2016 nomination of his party he is showing tremendous courage getting out front on this contentious issue, especially with his conservative base.

As long as he is on board however it is very difficult to see the GOP side scuttling the bill. I estimate it will win up to 70 votes in the end, sending it to the House with a strong message.

The House also has its bipartisan “Gang of Eight” who are working on proposals in secret and hoping to have their version of a bill.

The problems will be with those hundred or so congressmen and women from southern and southwest states that want nothing to do with immigration reform no matter what their head honchos believe in.

They see it as trouble first and foremost and dread drawing in a Tea Party type opponent if they decide to vote for a new reform bill.

All of which likely means that House Speaker Boehner will be faced with a difficult challenge.

He can use a majority of the Democrats and minority of Republicans to help pass a bill, but there is no guarantee he will go down that path.

The old GOP rule from former Speaker Dennis Hastert was that no bill would pass unless a majority of the majority approved of it.

If Boehner sticks to that it is clear there will be no bill.

However, there are strong indications that Boehner has reached the end of his tether with the hardliners in his own party, that he will step down at the end of this term and that he wants to leave a legacy.

Getting immigration off the table as a 2016 issue would certainly endear him to the GOP party leaders who know they have been whacked by the sense in the Hispanic community that they are rabidly anti-immigrant.

If Boehner bucks the trend and allows a bill out with less than 50 percent support from GOPers then I believe we will have an immigration bill. It will still have to go to conference and the final version will have to pass through both houses again but a bill out of the House is the critical part.

As I say GOP people I spoke to make that a 50/50 possibility at best. I hope the more optimistic view prevails but it will come down to Boehner and his need to burnish his legacy.

Chilling testimony before congressional hearing on Pat Finucane death - New hearings told how informer was murdered before he could give evidence

Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane who was shot dead by Loyalists.

Niall O'Dowd in Washington D.C:

You could hear a pin drop in Foreign Affairs Committee Room 2172 in the Rayburn building in Washington on Wednesday.

The occasion was new hearings on the Patrick Finucane murder, the Northern Irish civil rights lawyer who was gunned down in cold blood by loyalist killers on February 12th 1989.

Finucane is the murder that won’t go away, a nightmare for successive British governments. The reality is that everyone knows that Finucane’s death was ordered from very high up in the British establishment, quite how high remains the mystery.

Patrick’s son Michael gave eloquent and chilling testimony about that fatal day his father was gunned down in front of his wife and family.

Pat Finucane was a civil rights attorney who, as his son said, would have defended the men who killed him because the law meant so much to him.

He had become a thorn in the side of the British, was effectively named and set up in the British parliament by a member of the Thatcher cabinet. He was marked for death from that moment on.

But it was Jim Cullen, head of Friends of Sinn Fein in America who transfixed the hearings with his own tale of how he tried to get to the bottom of the Finucane murder.

Cullen has a fascinating resume. Following completion of law school, he was drafted into the U.S. Army as a private in September 1969. He was selected for appointment to the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He was later promoted up through the ranks to Brigadier General and Chief Judge, U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals.

As the son of Irish emigrants he took a keen interest in justice issues in Northern Ireland. He had an amazing resume from his time in military justice. He was once part of the investigation into the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

His mission in Northern Ireland he felt was the same as My Lai, find out the unvarnished truth and act on it whatever the cost. He says that is what was pretty much done in the Savile inquiry into Bloody Sunday in Derry, which resulted in acceptance by the nationalist community there that Prime Minister David Cameron had allowed the inquiry to do its best and find the truth.

In an attempt to do that in the Finucane case and faced with British stonewalling, an ad was placed by leading Irish Americans including Cullen in the 1990s in the Belfast Telegraph offering a reward for information on who killed Pat Finucane.

To Jim’s surprise the ad was responded to and he found himself in a Belfast hotel room with a Loyalist prepared to tell him the truth.

William Stobie told him he was the man who supplied the two guns for the murder of Finucane. He was a high up figure in the Ulster Defense Association who was also a Special Branch informer.

On the day of the murder in February 1989 he had told his handlers that he was about to be involved in a hit. They let him go ahead.

When the two assassins arrived at his home to get the guns Stobie saw a Special Branch car and his handler parked opposite his house observing the scene. He assumed they were there to arrest the two men when they reached the scene of the crime.

Instead they did a u-turn and drove away.

Later that day Stobie heard on the radio about the Finucane murder.

Subsequently Cullen said Stobie came under suspicion as an informer who knew too much about the Finucane murder, which became an international scandal.

Stobie knew he knew too much, told two journalists and eventually a third about his role and told the UDA if anything happened to him the story would go public.

Then after international pressure came the Stevens inquiry into collusion and the Finucane death. Allegations of a plot reaching all the way up to Margaret Thatcher were rife.

Later on Stobie let it be known he would testify about what really happened the day Finucane was assassinated to a sworn inquiry as had been demanded by the Finucane family.

As Cullen noted, that would have been explosive evidence. Stobie never got to give evidence. He was murdered in December 2001 by persons unknown.

What he would have revealed we will never know. I’m sure the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. Congress has heard many such horrific tales of assassination by evil forces of crusading lawyers and human rights activists.

But because it was Britain, because it was a former Chief Judge of the U.S. Army giving evidence, it seemed all the more chilling to hear of the fate of William Stobie, a man who went to his grave knowing many dark secrets.

“The prior knowledge of the Special Branch and the FRU about the murder, together with coordination of Special Branch and FRU activities at the very top of their command chains, make clear the extent of the governmental collusion in Pat Finucane’s murder,” Cullen said.

“The refusal by the British government to convene a credible independent inquiry into Pat Finucane’s murder ensures there will be no accountability for those who orchestrated and sanctioned the murder of Pat Finucane.

Faceless securocrats and their political protectors have successfully neutered the rule of law in Northern Ireland and have sadly intimidated the current political leadership of the U.K.”

Kudos to Republican Congressman Chris Smith for holding the hearings and for holding up the light to what will always remain one of the most horrific slayings of The Troubles.

It is always gratifying when truth gets a day out.

U.S. Tourism Ireland chief Joe Byrne says goodbye and hello again to massive acclaim - Popular Carlow native led tourist figures to Ireland to historic heights

Joe Byrne, former head of Tourism Ireland North America

Very few men or women get to attend two wakes in their honor, but Tourism Ireland New York CEO Joe Byrne is the exception.

Thirteen years ago he bid farewell to New York and was the center of a massive party from hundreds of friends in the Irish American community, who came to say goodbye to the outstanding public servant.

Joe left, but then America called him came back again and he drove Irish tourism numbers from the 400,000 mark to over one million, a landmark which will be surpassed this year.

But there is a real possibility of a third Irish wake for Byrne, as the Tourism Ireland honchos are not letting him retire but keeping him as a consultant instead. It is a shrewd move by Tourism Ireland chief Niall Gibbons who was present on the night.

Byrne himself warned in his “farewell” remarks that he would see everybody in 13 years or so and one should not bet against the hugely popular Carlow native.

As U.S. and Canada head of Tourism Ireland, Byrne ushered in the creation of an historical  tourism entity that encompassed Ireland north and south, no easy feat, which was part of the Good Friday agreement.

His work on pulling that off was acknowledged on the night, most notably by those from Northern Ireland who had worked for him and alongside him and saw how determined he was to include Northern Ireland in every travel promotion.

There was a “This is Your Life” moment early in the night when Byrne’s family from all over the world showed up much to his astonishment and surprise.

As the night went on the tributes flowed, and for once they were heartfelt and very much well-intended. It is doubtful Joe Byrne made a serious enemy during his career, or if he did the guy sure deserved it.

There was much debate over what is the best job in the world. Byrne reckons it is selling Ireland in America based in New York. As he said himself, he never worked a day in his life because he enjoyed the job so much

No one did it better, no one will continue to do it better. As his popular successor Alison Metcalfe reminded everyone, Joe Byrne was one of a kind, a unique salesman and decent human being who indelibly stamped his mark on the massive success of tourism to Ireland over the past 20 years from the U.S.

He and devoted wife Geraldine and extended family have everyone’s good wishes in the newest phase of their lives.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley reneged on Boston College commencement deal say Irish sources - Irish government said to be furious over statement condemning Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny

Cardinal Sean O'Malley with Pope Francis

Did Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley renege on a deal over the controversy surrounding Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s appearance as the commencement speaker at Boston College?

Irish government sources strongly believe he did and the level of anger towards the cardinal has left some of them spitting fire.

In addition, Boston College authorities are said by Irish government sources to be deeply upset at the turn of events that has left the prospect of large anti-abortion protests at Kenny’s appearance on May 20th very likely.

Both Boston College and the Irish government were of the opinion the matter had been handled sensitively on all sides and would quell the developing controversy when anti abortion groups began targeting Kenny.

According to my sources O’Malley had indicated agreement with a plan that would see him absent on the day at Boston College but with a plausible reason not directly related to Kenny for not attending.

That way he would have signalled his disapproval but not become embroiled in the controversy that has now been stoked by his comments.

They point out that O’Malley had recently warmly and very publically  greeted President Obama at the interfaith services for Boston victims of the marathon bombing despite Obama’s position as far more pro-active on defending abortion than Kenny.

The Irish government made the case firmly that Enda Kenny had very reluctantly introduced the minimal legislation that safeguards the life of the mother on the back of a Supreme Court judgement that mandated he or some future Irish government had to do it.

His move came after public consternation over the death of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian-born dentist who died of sepsis, after doctors in Galway refused to terminate her non- viable fetus despite her desperate pleas to do so.

There was uproar in Ireland over her death and the subsequent inquest found the hospital deeply culpable in her treatment.

The line in Cardinal O’Malley’s statement that “Mr. Kenny is aggressively promoting abortion legislation" is seen as especially misleading, Kenny is doing nothing of the sort say the Irish government sources. He is very reluctantly forced by a huge public controversy and a Supreme Court judgement from 1992 to act on the issue.

O‘Malley had been seen as by far the most reasonable voice in the American Catholic church in Ireland but that perception, given how he has dealt with this controversy is now changed.

“This could have been dealt with, as originally intended, as a diplomatic matter, allowing everyone their space” said an Irish government senior source. "Instead it is now a circus.”

Kenny for his part is said to be adamant that he will make the Boston College commencement address but feels personally hurt by how the matter has been handled. However senior diplomats speculate it will actually help him politically in Ireland given the harsh nature of the O’Malley condemnation.

Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley insults Irish in boycotting Irish leader Enda Kenny - Anger over cardinal’s move over abortion will win Kenny huge support in Ireland

Cardinal Sean O'Malley

So much for Cardinal Sean O’Malley the hope of the millions of moderate Catholics worldwide who almost became pope according to some reports.

The Boston cardinal has now shown his true colors in boycotting Irish leader Enda Kenny when he gives the commencement speech in Boston College next weekend.

Irish officials are said to be deeply upset at the cardinal who had indicated he would not attend but would make no statement, a sensible way around the issue. That was the state of play until yesterday when O’Malley made a deeply controversial statement which is said to have taken Boston College leaders by total surprise.

Kenny’s crime is following the ruling of his country’s Supreme Court which ordered that abortion legislation be drawn up in very narrow circumstances such as when the life of the mother is in clear danger.

The tragic consequences of not legislating were laid out in Galway recently when a young Indian woman died after a doctor refused to terminate her non-viable fetus, fearing she would be prosecuted  and Savita Halappannvar suffered an infection and death soon after.

Kenny took his courage in his hands after that and decided to finally enact the laws that the Irish Supreme Court had dictated had to be enacted all those years before in 1992 in the infamous X case when a young underage girl, raped and made pregant by a neighbor was refused permission to travel to Britain for an abortion.

The bill he drew up is as narrow a focus and interpretation as is possible in law, doing the bare minimum and severely constricting the right to an abortion except in desperate cases.

The usual Irish solution which might horrify O’Malley, is that unlike in the X case thousands of Irish women, many raped or victims of incest get to go to Britain for their terminations. That way Irish society can pretend such dirty truths do not happen to them.

Kenny knows all that and tried to do the humane thing and also enact the law as he is designated to do under the constitution.

As he remarked himself, the law in Ireland is the constitution not the bible. He deserves enormous credit for standing up.

But for his sins Kenny is now feeling a belt of the crozier from the suddenly hard-line O’Malley.

The fact that O’Malley is taking his instructions from Irish Primate Cardinal Sean Brady who covered up for the worst pedophile in recent history, Father Brendan Smyth makes the matter even more mystifying.

O’Malley has a stellar reputation in Ireland where he confronted the pedophile issue openly and honestly as part of a brief for American bishops sent from the Vatican.

Now I believe many Irish will look again and see the iron first of church intolerance under the benign presence.

To boycott the Irish Prime Minister is to insult Irish people everywhere which is what O’Malley has just done.

In the process he will drive Kenny’s popularity through the roof most likely. “There’s nothing like an attack on a country’s leader from afar done completely in the wrong context” said one senior Irish government official I spoke with. Kudos for Boston College for standing up to the pressure to discard Kenny as commencement speaker. It is good to see one Irish institution in Boston show some courage in the face of extremists.

No Glory for New York GAA team at Gaelic Park in Leitrim Connacht championship challenge

The New York squad. (Photo by Margaret Purcell)

Back in 2003 New York took Leitrim to extra time at Gaelic Park in the Connacht championship, almost causing a massive upset.

I went along on Sunday to the 2013 game hoping against hope that a repeat of such a thrilling match was on the cards, but dreading that New York would be outclassed.

Alas, my worst fears were borne out. An indicator of how far New York has slipped in 10 years was on show at the packed Bronx venue on Sunday when Leitrim walloped the hometown all-stars to the tune of 4-19 to 0-7 points.

It was right up there with an Alabama football game against Chattanooga or the Yankees against the Toldeo Mud Hens, a mismatch of historic proportions which sadly tells a tale.

The lack of emigration from Ireland is crippling the standard of GAA play in America, and unless we can get immigration reform of some kind the future of the game in the U.S. is in big trouble.

Hurling teams in New York have been slashed in half in the past few years, putting Ireland’s oldest game in imminent danger of dying out here without a resumption of emigration.

Sure there is a wonderful youth division, the Minor Board, which encourages young Irish Americans to play, but realistically only a small number of them continue on once reaching college age.

There have been some remarkable bright spots too, such as the recent formation of a first ever GAA team in Manhattan called the Manhattan Gaels which has provided a much-needed boost.

But the sad reality on show at Gaelic Park on Sunday told another lesson. GAA players who are elite athletes will not come to America illegally when they can emigrate and easily get jobs in London, Perth or Toronto.

It is hard to blame them, but their loss is deeply affecting the GAA here.  It is a sad reality because the huge crowd by Gaelic Park standards that showed up on Sunday is clearly enthused about Gaelic games.

It was a perfect Gaelic Park day with sunshine, wives and girlfriends showing up, many kids in tow and a great spirit and atmosphere.

There was a rousing Irish band, a hot dog stand, hamburgers and craic galore. The bar was packed and the visitors from Ireland brought good cheer and a festive atmosphere to the old grounds.

Old timers said it was among the largest crowds they had seen in years at the Bronx venue, and all we really wanted was a competitive game.

Alas it was not to be as a vastly superior Leitrim side ran amok and put scores over and under the bar with great regularity.

One could not but feel for the New York all-stars who had put their heart and souls into the preparations for the game and gave it their best despite the huge odds.  But they were utterly outmatched despite their gallantry and were hopelessly adrift by halftime.

The fear is that the GAA will re-evaluate this annual fixture in New York. Leitrim are not usually among the best sides in Connacht, and one can only shudder at what All-Ireland finalists Mayo or stern rivals Galway might have done to New York on Sunday.

The size of the crowd and the statement about the GAA’s broad mission which encompasses their hundreds of teams outside Ireland is important. But the massacre New York received serves no one’s purpose.

It is one more important reason to hope for immigration reform this year.

Governor Chris Christie undergoes weight loss surgery and enters White House race - Move will be seen for what it is, a declaration that he’s running in 2016

Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie and his wife Mary Pat Christie
(Photo: Reuters)

The news that Chris Christie governor of New Jersey has undergone weight loss surgery makes clear he is running for the White House.

He has already lost 40 pounds from the surgery according to The New York Post  which revealed he underwent the procedure in February.

The incredibly shrinking governor with Irish and Italian roots becomes an immediate front runner if a svelter, clean cut looking candidate emerges.

He told The Post he was doing it for his kids and not his political future but I’d bet a corn beef sandwich that White House calculations played a huge part.

Hitting age 50 and weighing 350lbs Christie knew he had to do something to tame his gargantuan appetite and lumbering figure.

He underwent the gastric surgery in great secrecy, having the surgeon visit him rather than the other way around.

Now he is ready to showcase the new Christie.

He becomes a formidable opponent and will be an immediate front runner.

His problem is getting out of the Republican primary. He is far too centrist to win at the moment given the slew to the right of the GOP in recent years.

But a Christie versus Hillary would be a smash, a political fight for the ages.

Bigoted Ulster still says no - Stormont votes against gay marriage as NBA player Jason Collins comes out

Jason Collins, the NBA player who came out as gay on Monday.

Ulster said no to gay marriage this week, and America’s first top-level athlete admitted he’s gay.

Neither development should surprise us, but it gives an interesting snapshot of two cultures heading in dramatically different directions.

Unionism has always been deeply opposed to gays and their lifestyle. Firebrand Ian Paisley earned his early spurs by leading a “Save Ulster from Sodomy” crusade.

Lord Ken Maginnis, a leading light for decades in Ulster Unionism, stated that gays were practicing “unnatural and deviant behavior” which was one step on the ladder towards “accepting bestiality.”

Hate speech if ever there was, and this from a man once considered among the more moderate of Northern Ireland Unionist leaders.

Given that it is hardly surprising that the two main Unionist parties voted en block to stop gay marriage this week in Northern Ireland.

The final vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly was 50 to 45, a very close run margin.

It should be noted that three brave independent Unionists voted in favor but they were unable to impact the final tally enough.

Equally interesting, though, is the fact that the Nationalist parties, the SDLP and Sinn Fein, voted in total numbers for gay marriage, joined by the Alliance Party and the Green party.

What is fascinating there is that the Catholic Church came out loud and early against a vote for gay marriage, but the Catholic parties clearly ignored them.

The church in Northern Ireland has been far more influential in recent times than their counterparts in the Irish Republic.

That is likely a hold over from The Troubles where the church and its flock were tightly bound together in common cause and often suffering.

So the unanimous Catholic vote for gay marriage in the North, despite the imprecations of the church, sends its own clear message.

There is no question that gay marriage would pass in the Dail (Irish Parliament), indicating a huge sea change there as well.

Recent opinion polls show that the measure has strong popular support and, unlike abortion, is not a hugely divisive issue.

The visibility of gay issues in the Irish Republic was helped greatly when hurling superstar Donal Og Cusack announced he was gay a few years back. The subsequent discussion and acceptance has meant a far more educated populace.

That will surely be the case in the U.S. now that Jason Collins has stood up.  The message is clear that there are gay people in every walk of life. They are your friends, neighbors, co-workers, star athletes even.

Northern Ireland still has to learn that reality. Hopefully this week’s events will help that along too.

‘Lucky Guy’ Tom Hanks evokes Irish America’s heyday in tabloid journalism - A Broadway play that celebrates and mourns an Irish era in its glory days - VIDEO

Tom Hanks as Mike McAlary  in 'Lukcy Guy'

The era of hard drinking Irish reporters who ran the tabloid empires of The New York Post, Newsday, and the New York Daily News has just recently passed.

However, it comes alive in a deeply evocative production of ‘Lucky Guy’ on Broadway, written by the late Nora Ephron, that I finally saw last night.

Tom Hanks plays tabloid columnist and all around bad boy Mike McAlary, who was king of the New York tabloid scene in that era before internet and when the sniffy New York Times would not touch the brazen Irish scribes with a bargepole.

Hanks just got nominated for a Tony for best actor and it is easy to see why. He catches McAlary in all his contradictions and genius and manages to evoke the era of the 1980s and 90s when New York was spiraling out of control and the Irish reporters were among the few making sense of it all.

The “Mick Clique” they were known as, and they were a dazzling array of talent, led by Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill who essentially helped invent the art of tabloid journalism and followed by great exponents of the art such as Jim Dwyer, Mike McAlary, Michael Daly, and others.

I knew all of them, especially Dwyer, so it was quite a startling experience to see him and the others portrayed on Broadway in a smash hit that just had its run extended.

There are lots of drinking scenes, corny Irish ballads and a few moments when it tips into stereotypes of hard drinking reporters.

But there is also a deep sense of an era slipping away shortly to be replaced with Internet access, royal gossip as king, and tabloids, chewing gum for the eyes.

The sense of a mission to speak up for the little guy in all his threadbare glory drove many of the journalists and still does. The sense back then was that news mattered and exposing corruption was important.

McAlary was a hard guy to like often during his career and I had one personal run in with him back in the day which revealed him as an awkward customer.

Yet Hanks manages to tease out the humanity, the genius, and the faults in the deeply conflicted writer.

He broke some of the greatest police scandals of all time in New York, most notably, while dying of cancer at just 42 years old, he told the story of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant sodomized with a plunger in a police bathroom by rogue racist cops.

McAlary won a Pulitzer for that, his last great scoop before succumbing to colon cancer at just 43 years old.

He was too young to die and an era pretty much died with him. In the last scenes the reporters are using cell phones, the bosses are cutting back, the tsunami of the Internet is about to come crashing down on every newsroom in America.

One of the songs they sing has a line “Isn’t it grand boys to be bloody well dead,” and dead that era is and some would claim print journalism.

It washed away the Mick Clique in all its glory and more is the shame. Sure, there are fine exponents like Dwyer who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and Dennis Hamill still writing but the days when tabloid was king and journalists were the little guy’s best defenders are gone.

More’s the pity for that.

See this play if you can, it has just been extended to July and if there is any justice Hanks will win best actor. It has also been nominated for best play.

Here's a clip of Tom Hanks and Maura Tierney in "Lucky Guy":