Is ‘Black Irish’ Senator Ted Cruz eligible to run for U.S. President?

Right-wing Republican from Texas, Senator Ted Cruz

Senator Ted Cruz, the right-wing Republican from Texas, was born in Canada so he cannot run for president right?

Wrong. It appears his Irish American mother can make him eligible.

Cruz (43) has already been labelled ‘Black Irish’ by MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews who said Cruz has “a black Irish look”.

In a very negative note back in June, Matthews compared him to anti-Semite  Father Charles Coughlin and rabid anti-Communist Senator Joe McCarthy.

"I think [Cruz] fits in the tradition of Father Coughlin and McCarthy and, of course, maybe to a lesser extent, Pat Buchanan and, of course, [Bill] O'Reilly."

Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where his parents, Eleanor Darragh and Rafael Cruz, were working in the oil business. His father fought the right wing Batista regime in Cuba before fleeing.

But what makes him eligible to run for president?

Cruz's mother was born and raised in Delaware, in a family of Irish and Italian descent.

Cruz has said, "I'm Cuban, Irish, and Italian, and yet somehow I ended up Southern Baptist."

Cruz has been visiting early primary states. National Review the conservative bible has urged him to run. “It is an undercurrent and growing,”  Texas GOP consultant Bill Miller told the Washington Post .

“Most observers believe he is moving very fast toward a much higher visibility. The presidential buzz has begun in earnest.”

Jeff Judson, a major tea party figure in Texas wants him too.

“Yes, there is a buzz about Cruz running for president, but a different kind of buzz than with other prior candidates,” Judson said.

“He has serious gravitas - more than all the 2012 Republican presidential candidates combined.”

But is he a “natural-born citizen,” as the 14th Amendment says presidents must be?

Cruz’s mother was a U.S. citizen when he was born so he is a U.S. citizen too regardless of where he was born. But does that make him  a “natural-born citizen.”

Legal scholars say most likely yes but it has never been tested.

Democrats in 1967 tried to disqualify George Romney, Mitt’s father because he was born in Mexico. But a New York Law Journal piece at the time made a very persuasive case otherwise. The debate goes back to President Chester Arthur who many claimed was born in Canada.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has found that candidates like Cruz “most likely” qualify as natural-born citizens.

“The weight of more recent federal cases, as well as the majority of scholarship on the subject, also indicates that the term ‘natural born citizen’ would most likely include, as well as native born citizens, those born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents, at least one of whom had previously resided in the United States, or those born abroad to one U.S. citizen parent who, prior to the birth, had met the requirements of federal law for physical presence in the country,” wrote Jack Maskell.

So Ted Cruz may have his Irish American mother to thank for his eligibility to run for president.

What’s in a name? When it’s the “Wandering Dago” quite a lot

The Wandering Dago food truck (Photo: Facebook)

Saratoga Springs: A food truck called “The Wandering Dago” was ordered off the premises here at Saratoga race track in upstate New York because of its insulting name to Italian Americans.

Problem was the two owners were of Italian origin themselves and had no problem whatever with the name.
Most of the response we've gotten has been extremely supportive," said Andrea Loguidice, who co-owns the Schenectady-based Wandering Dago.

The Wandering Dago saga made headlines in the New York Times, Associated Press even London’s Daily Mail.

Loguidice says Dago originated from Italian workers in the old days wanting to be paid “as the day  goes.”

The Oxford dictionary described it as originating from Diego, a common Spanish name and used in a derogatory fashion against Italians, and Spanish, perhaps their equivalent of using ‘Mick” to describe Irish.

The Sons of Italy made the original complaint but Loguidice said they backed off when she told them the name was a sly tribute to her Italian ancestral roots and she meant no offense.

It’s a head scratcher. Is the term “Paddywagon” racist as an AOH official recently alleged in a letter to the mayor of Tampa Bay after a pub opened under that name? Most of our readers thought not

Do Polish people get deeply upset about the term “polack” or has that died away from its original meaning as an ethnic slur? I don’t know.

We know that many African Americans, especially hip hop performers use the N word to describe fellow blacks but there is no question that it remains a deeply offensive term used outside that context.

Which is where I think this argument leads. “Dago” used by an Italian or “Mick” used by well a Mick, or “polack” used by a Pole is far less offensive than when someone outside the tribe uses them.

I have used the term “Mick Clique” to describe the group of Irish American writers such as Jimmy Breslin, Jim Dwyer, Pete Hamill, Mike McAlary who dominated tabloid writing in the 80s and 90s . It was a term I heard some of those writers use proudly.

Within the tribe terms like “narrowbacks” for Irish Americans and “donkeys” for Irish born are widely used and tolerated.

So the rule of thumb could be that used by the tribe member itself the term “dago” can hardly be described a s racist. The problem is plastering it on the side of a food van means there is a unique opportunity for other Italian Americans who feel differently to be slighted.

In the end the Wandering  Dago van was sent off wandering again and will not be seen anytime soon at Saratoga race course. But the debate about whether  it was truly insulting or just tasteless will continue.

Meanwhile, in classic American style the Italian owners intend to sue the racetrack-- for defamation no doubt.

Arrogant Anthony Weiner destroying his wife as well as his political career

New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner pictured alongside
his wife Huma Abedin (Credit: AP)

I have known Huma Abedin for several years and cannot believe the mess she’s gotten into.

Huma was the striking young woman always at Hillary Clinton’s side, talented, beautiful and professional, always on top of her brief.

Now I see her on TV desperately defending her sleazy husband Anthony Weiner as daily revelations appear about his sexting to what may turn out be dozens of women.

I have met Weiner too. He came to my office two years ago when he was considering running for New York City mayor.

I took an instant dislike. He was arrogant and overbearing and seemed to suffer from ADD as he fiddled with his phone and gave no indication he was listening.

I don’t deny he was smart and passionate, especially on TV, but he was by all accounts a dreadful person to work for, firing staff at will.

His latest series of revelations surely disqualify him from ever being mayor.

In the process, I hope he does not destroy Huma.

Their unlikely marriage had heads shaking way back when the news became public.

The arrogant, overbearing congressman seemed a poor match for a woman who deeply impressed all who knew her, and who displayed a rare gift in sorting out who had access to Hillary.

Politics do indeed make strange bedfellows, but Huma and Weiner were the strangest of all.

I am not surprised she is standing with him. Her overwhelming sense of loyalty, honed during the Clinton years, was always one of her key characteristics.

But I worry that Weiner has destroyed this talented young woman who began as an intern with Hillary and has worked her way to the status of surrogate Clinton daughter.

Hillary must be beside herself seeing what is happening to one of her favorite people.

It will bring back the many bad memories of Monica Lewinsky, but worse, it will permanently scar a young woman who seemed on a path to the very top.

As for Weiner, it is absurd and ridiculous that he should remain in the race for New York mayor.

This great city deserves a lot better, and there is no question in my mind that more Weiner sexting revelations are on the way.

He should never have entered the race anyway. Clearly his sexual addiction had got the better of him, and he was unable to recognize that reality.

Now he has dragged his wife and son into the fray, and the sight of Huma valiantly defending him has caused much pain and anguish among her close friends.

Weiner needs to retire. Huma needs to find out whether there is any marriage left after all these revelations.

And New Yorkers need to pick a candidate for mayor whose private life will stay out of the public arena, and who will focus on what the city needs.

The last thing we need is to deal with the ambition of a wayward politician who has already done the city too much damage.

Why Congressman Peter King should run for US president

Rep. Peter King (Credit: AP)

He won’t win but Peter King is precisely the type of straight shooter that the GOP need to hear from in the next presidential race.

He could be the next John McCain, the man who tells truth to his own side.

King is a maverick and all the more interesting for it.

I have known him for about two decades and apart from a falling out over immigration (he has seen the light lately) we have been good friends.

King has that individualistic streak almost extinct in American politics. He has worked very hard on the Irish American agenda and helped bring peace to Northern Ireland.

He was once so committed to Irish nationalism that when President Reagan visited Long Island the Secret Service would not let King attend the event, labelling him an extremist threat.

He voted against President Clinton’s impeachment, partly because of Clinton’s work on Ireland, partly because Peter knew it was the wrong thing to do.

History has borne that truth out.

He stood up to the Tea Party fanatics especially when they blocked aid to the New York/New Jersey area after Hurricane Sandy.

It was astonishing, especially as many of those objecting had received huge federal funds in their own areas. Pete called them out on their hypocrisy.

Pete will tell inconvenient truths such as he did when questioned the other day about whether he would run.

He told the truth that the the Tea Party had dragged the GOP so far to the right that they would never win another presidential election unless they moved to the center.

He’s a blue collar Catholic Republican strong on faith and values, but liberal on working rights - very rare these days.

He is also one of the poorest members of Congress, no fancy income on the side, or family wealth, not a taint of scandal.

He has been great on Ireland, the first member of Congress to question why the powers that be did not talk to Sinn Fein on the grounds that talking was better than war. He was proved right when that policy worked.

He is also good value for a night out, not a political automaton, but a funny genuinely likeable character who does some mean imitations. His description of bringing Senator Al D’Amato to Northern Ireland at the height of The Troubles and how the petrified senator ended up sharing his room deserved to be on Saturday Night Live

All in all, a flesh and blood pol, in hock to none, overbearing, bombastic at times but always direct and straightforward.

The kind of person in other words who could never become president. But he’d sure puncture a few egos and talk directly to the heart and soul of the GOP if he tried.

Run Pete, Run!

Glamorizing the Boston bomber a dreadful move by Rolling Stone

Sergeant Sean P. Murphy/Mass. State Police via Boston Magazine

I have no doubt that Rolling Stone will defend its Boston bomber coverage on the basis of the First Amendment and I fully agree with that.

But glorifying Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the bomber, with a soft focus cover story and a clearly defined effort to create some kind of terrorist chic is a different matter altogether.

What other would-be terrorist out there now figures he can make the cover of Rolling Stone in a glam pose if he can just do something hideous enough?

Sure we should know what drove this punk to kill so many innocent people, but glorify him? No way.

As police photographer Sean Murphy who took dramatic pictures of the terrorist just before his arrest stated; “The truth is that glamorizing the face of terror is not just insulting to the family members of those killed in the line of duty, it also could be an incentive to those who may be unstable to do something to get their face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

Exploring why Tsarnaev and his insane brother Tamerlan had such hatred and their motivations for the brutal bombings is good basic journalism.

But actually glamorizing Dzhokhar’s deeds, especially to the 20 something audience that reads ‘Rolling Stone,’ is a very different matter indeed. There are few more impressionable readers.

How quickly we move on from the horrific images in Boston on marathon day, away from the tragic Richards family who lost a son, a daughter left with only one leg, a mother brain damaged after taking the full brunt of the explosion.

How quickly too, we forget the other horrific injuries that occurred among innocent bystanders and those taking part in a great Boston ritual.

No, we should not be celebrating the deeds of the bombers with rock star like cover stories. We have seen too much death by terrorism in the United States to be in the least impressed with murderous ideology.

Any attempt to glamorize them just feeds an evil propaganda machine that somehow the answer to political problems halfway round the world justifies bombing civilians at the Boston marathon.

Rolling Stone should withdraw its cover.

Here's the Fox News report on the controversy:

US peace envoy to Northern Ireland Richard Haass has huge task ahead

Richard Haass

The recalled American peace envoy Richard Haass headed to Belfast this week where he will see first hand the outpouring of sectarian hate from Loyalist demonstrators forced away from Nationalist areas.

If Haass needs a reminder of what a witch’s brew he is heading into he need only visit Short Strand or Ardoyne and see the damage done to Northern Ireland’s image by the mobs of yobs.

Watching the coverage, the words of William Butler Yeats describing the Playboy of the Western World riots come to mind.

“You have disgraced yourselves again.”

The scenes carried worldwide showed vicious attacks on police, every kind of missile available being thrown, sectarian rants and chants and a downright depressing vista that catapults Northern Ireland’s image back into the bad old days.

The forbearance of the police in the face of such provocation was remarkable as the mob made it clear they were out to injure or even kill them in the execution of their duty.

Speaking to a Northern Ireland business figure this week, he despaired of ever getting more investment as long as such tribal animosity is stirred up.

Yet he was quick to point out that marches all over the North went peacefully, none more than in Derry where accommodation between the Orange Order and local Nationalist residents has completely defused what used to be a perennial flashpoint.

If Haass does nothing more, getting Orange Order leaders talking to interface Nationalist communities is a critical.  There were half-hearted attempts made this year but they came far too late.

The issue of parades and flags come down to identity. It seems okay for these same Loyalists to burn Tricolors for their Orange bonfires, yet they complain bitterly when their beloved Union Jack is given only equal billing with the Tricolor.

Like all else in Northern Ireland, symbolism is critical. Treating both communities equally is what the Good Friday Agreement is about.  Elements on one side never got that message.

Haass is a sophisticated negotiator who still harbors ambitions of being secretary of state some day in a Republican administration. He knows his job in Northern Ireland will be tough but not impossible as George Mitchell proved.

The key issue for unionism must be to stare down these yobs in their midst who are making the jobs of responsible politicians impossible.

It was obvious prior to this week’s march that Orange Order leaders were fanning the flame of sectarian outrage in their speeches, demanding the right to march by Nationalist neighborhoods.

Haass must confront such issues with American plain speaking, forcefully stating that such behavior is no longer permissible. He must seek the establishment of a reconciliation group to discuss the deep grievances, real and imagined, felt on both sides.

But mostly he must, like Mitchell, listen and then act. His arrival in the North is the one bright moment in what has been a dreadful week of violence. He can make all the difference.

Don’t believe the media, race was key to the Zimmerman case

Protest against the not guilty verdict in the case of George Zimmerman shooting
Trayvon Martin (Photo: Gawker)

When everyone in the media tells you the George Zimmerman acquittal had nothing to do with race don’t believe a word of it.

It was all about race, all about a non-black jury who had no idea whatever about the life of a young black person and who saw him the way George Zimmerman saw him - as a threat.

The prosecution’s major mistake  began right at jury selection when they were totally outmaneuvered  by defense attorney  Mark O’Mara and formed a six person jury with no African Americans.

A tall young black man in a hoodie walking through a white neighborhood on a wet and dark night signified only one thing to Zimmerman and the non-black jury felt the same way too.

Never mind the fact that the 17-year-old had merely gone to a nearby store to get some skittles and iced tea.

Never mind that George Zimmerman stalked him and refused to back off even after being told to do so by a police dispatcher.

What subsequently happened was as predictable as an all-black jury acquitting OJ Simpson and probably just as big a travesty.

The outcome that George Zimmerman had no responsibility for the death of Travyon Martin is ludicrous.

The juror who spoke on Anderson Cooper on CNN unbelievably wanted Zimmerman to be on her Neighborhood Watch program even after this killing and referred to him as “George” throughout the interview.

Some defense lawyers like to talk about the reptilian brain, the part of our minds that make decisions subconsciously based on whether we see someone as a threat or a friend. It is what has helped us survive for millions of years as a species.

It was obvious to the  non-white jury that Martin was the threat,  the “other’. Zimmerman was a friend.

The jurors, like in the O.J Simpson trial, heard what they wanted to hear. The juror on CNN made clear she had no sympathy with Trayvon Martin’s  witnesses.

That was especially the case with the young woman Rachel Jeantel who spoke a language the juror frankly admitted she could not understand.

In the end, given that, the result was as inevitable as it was predictable. Throw in the useless prosecutors who overcharged to begin with and you had a recipe for Zimmerman getting off scot-free.

Sometimes the law is an ass, it was with O.J and it is now again with George Zimmerman.

David McCourt, another 9/11 victim, passes after unbearable grief

David McCourt never recovered from the tragedy that befell him on 9/11

David McCourt’s life ended on the day the hijacked planes crashed and killed so many at the World Trade Center.

Though he was not on board his beautiful wife and daughter were on the United flight that crashed.

Four-year-old Juliana was on a flight to Disney Land in California with her mother, Ruth, when their plane was hijacked out of Boston.

On the ground at the World Trade Center that dreadful day was Ron Clifford, a Cork native and Ruth’s brother, who narrowly escaped  death himself.

The following years were dreadful for the family as they tried to make sense of the horrific deaths.

For David, a successful businessman, deeply in love with his wife and enraptured by his daughter, the bad days never ended.

I met David McCourt on a few occasions afterwards and marveled at his resilience in the face of such tragedy. But deep inside it is clear he never recovered.

As Ron Clifford told me last week, David was a victim of 9/11 as surely as anyone who died there even though it was cancer that eventually claimed him at age 71.

“He never got over that tragedy” said Ron who has struggled mightily with his own grief and who has played a leading part in the effort to bring those responsible for the deaths to trial.

It is easy to see why when you see the beautiful pictures of mother and daughter.

'Ruth and Juliana were my life and my passion,' he told an audience at a New London synagogue.

'I was going to end it all. If faith could justify taking these two beautiful creatures, I just didn't want to go on. But something kept me going.

'It's been a journey of spiritual awakening to go from where I was.

'If you don't have the spiritual awakening, you don't survive.'

He formed a non-profit so that children would learn not to hate. He saw how hatred had twisted the minds of the 9/11 hijackers from an early age.

He was trying to leave the world a better place despite the tragedy and he did that by his example. Now he is gone and once more the world seems full of weeping for his family.

But I know Ruth and Juliana will be waiting for him.

Irish leader Enda Kenny showing a steely leadership despite crisis atmosphere - Abortion issue the latest hot button issue to be dealt with successfully

Enda Kenny

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny entered office with little expectation after a long career spent on the fringes apart from a stint as Minister for Tourism.

He was after all inheriting a ruined economy and a bleak future.

He has defied every low expectation since taking office however.

His latest triumph was shepherding the new abortion bill through the Irish parliament, despite losing five members of his own party.

The Irish Supreme Court, in reaction to the rape pregnancy of a 14-year-old ruled in 1992 that abortion had to be made available in limited circumstances to save the life of the mother.  Successive governments have ignored the ruling and tried to avoid a confrontation with the church.

Kenny, after the Savita Halappanavar case, which resulted in a young Indian dentist dying because  her non viable 17 week fetus was not terminated, did the brave thing and insisted that legislation be brought forward.

It was the kind of risky political play that other Irish leaders had shunned, focusing on an issue that is incredibly divisive and has no political upside.

Nonetheless Kenny persisted and to his credit has now put the issue beyond political wrangling by passing the bill.

In the process he  took on an entrenched church and delivered a powerful message that while he is a devout Catholic, he is not a Catholic first and Prime Minister second.

It was the second time since taking office that Kenny had driven home that point, the first his remarkable attack on the Vatican and their cover up of priestly sexual abuse in ireland.

The news of his abortion bill success came on the same day that another shameful chapter wa written in the life of the church in Ireland when it was revealed that the Dublin Archdiocese had sent a known pedophile priest abroad to California, knowing full well his vicious past, but never informing the diocese of Stockton, California about that past.

Kenny has called all that nonsense to account and has delivered a blow for transparent and effective government. The Catholic Church would do well to heed the warnings of  their own Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin that the lessons of the disgraceful cover ups in the past need to be learned and learned well.

Enda Kenny has defied the low expectations since taking office and has shown a remarkable ability to challenge sacred tenets of Irish life for generations and deliver change. Next up is a referendum on gay marriage. No doubt the church will be after him on that one too.

He may well go down as one of the best ever to occupy the office. That could never have been predicted when he took office.

The Brehon laws “The Lost Laws of Ireland” show complex sophisticated society

A superb new book explains Ireland’s ancient Brehon Laws in fine detail. Written by San Francisco attorney Catherine Duggan, who has studied the laws extensively, the book called The Lost Laws of Ireland is available from GlasnevinPublishing.com in Ireland.

As Duggan noted, the laws governed Ireland for over a millennium and she has synthesized much of the available scholarship in her new book.

“The laws are significant because they shed light on the complex sophisticated society of early Ireland that the laws reflect,” she says.

“The laws reveal a culture in which modern concepts such as equity, social mobility, negligence, unbiased witnesses and fair and open process of law and women’s rights were developed.”

Brehon Law was generally operational in Gaelic areas until the completion of the English conquest of Ireland in the early 17th century. They were first set down on parchment in the seventh century and were named after wanderings lawyers the Brehons.

By the time of Elizabeth I, the Brehon Laws were considered to be old, lewd, and unreasonable. They were banned and English common law was introduced.

However, thankfully, some of the Brehons thought to hide the precious manuscripts and a good number of them survived.

In 1852, two Irish scholars, Eugene O'Curry and John O'Donovan, took to translating the laws. In the words of another Irish scholar, what they found were "secrets" about Ireland's past.

The laws were "details,” Brehon scholar D.A. Binchy said, "details that describe ancient life in the days when the Irish still lived in mud huts and small ringed settlements and paid their bills in cows and bacon."

Here are just a couple of Ireland's ancient laws:

Musicians/Artists:

• The harpist is the only musician who is of noble standing. Flute players, trumpeters and timpanists as well as jugglers, conjurers and equestrians who stand on the back of horses at fairs, have no status of their own in the community, only that of the noble chieftain to whom they are attached.
• The poet who overcharges for a poem shall be stripped of half his rank in society.

Property/Land

• The creditor who holds your brooch, your necklet or your earrings as a pledge against your loan must return them so you may wear them at the great assembly. Or he will be fined for your humiliation.
• For the best arable land the price is 24 cows. The price for dry, coarse land is 12 dry cows.

Relationships

• February first is the day on which husband and wife may decide to walk away from the marriage.
• If a man takes a woman off on a horse, into the woods or onto a sea-going ship, and if members of the woman's tribe are present, they must object within 24 hours or they may not demand payment of the fine.
• The husband-to-be shall pay a bride price of land, cattle, horses, gold or silver to the father of bridge. Husband and wife retain individual rights to all land, flocks and household goods each brings to the marriage.
• A husband who through listlessness does not go to his wife in her bed must pay a fine.
• If a pregnant woman craves a morsel of food and her husband withholds it though stinginess or neglect he must pay a fine.
• If a woman makes an assignation with a man to come to her in a bed or behind a bush, the man is not considered guilty even if she screams. If she has not agreed to a meeting, however, he is guilty as soon as she screams.
• When you become old your family must provide you with one oatcake a day plus a container of sour milk. They must bathe you every 20th night and wash your head every Saturday. Seventeen sticks of firewood is the allotment for keeping you warm.

Health

• No fools, drunks or female scolds are allowed in the doctor's house when a patient is healing there. 
• No bad news to be brought and no talking across the bed. 
• No grunts of pigs or barking of dogs outside.

In Boston 10,000 undocumented Irish wait anxiously for news on immigration bill

Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform committee members and supporters in Boston

Boston: Father John McCarthy is the emigrant chaplain at St. Brendan’s parish in Dorchester, a Boston neighborhood.

He has been on loan for more years that he cares to remember from the diocese of Limerick.

As an emigrant and pastor he is passionate about the emigrants from Ireland he takes care of and estimates there are 10,000 Irish undocumented among his far flung flock.

These days he is a worried man, worried about whether immigration reform will pass this time at last.

“We have so many people just hanging on, desperate really” he says “ I know it is the same in other communities, but the Irish undocumented need this bill desperately.”

Looking after the undocumented is a huge part of his mission at the nearby Irish Pastoral Center.

Several times a week he visits Irish prisoners in Boston area jails. He is an old fashioned man of the cloth, a doer not a preacher and a huge admirer of Pope Francis and the humility and grace he has quickly come to represent.

He has faith in American goodness, that the extraordinary goodwill and kindness he sees every day towards the less fortunate will also prevail in the immigration battle.

“I don’t know what people will do if  it does not pass.”, he said. “Our hopes are sky high, it would allow them to contribute so much to America and American life.”

Father John made St. Brendan’s parish hall where the parishioners are 25 percent Irish available to the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, an organization I co-founded with Ciaran Staunton.

ILIR and supporters in Boston

Our task in Boston on Wednesday night was to inform the 100 or so Irish who attended the meeting about what was happening on immigration reform.

It is clear that the dream of reform is what keeps this Irish neighborhood alive, I met a woman who was undocumented for 22 years until her American son passed the age of 21 and made her legal.

How did it feel?: “I can't describe it,” she said. “I just hope others can achieve it too.”

I spoke to someone  else who told me how undocumented Irish drivers pick routes that take them through neighborhoods they know Irish American cops police, so that if they are stopped for having no license they may be treated leniently.

It is this life of subterfuge and underground existence that the new reform bill would sweep away in an instant. The contribution to America of such people from wherever in the world would be all that greater.

In Boston, the most Irish city in America, the new generation of Irish, most undocumented, wait and whisper hope.

“Please God this time,” says Father John, a hugely popular figure. “It would be a crushing blow if it does not happen.”

Let’s hope it does.

Irish politicians ultimately to blame for Irish property crash and burn

A ghost estate in Ireland

The David Drumm exclusive interview published on IrishCentral on Sunday has certainly caught the eye of the media.

The former CEO of the scandal-ridden Anglo Irish Bank spoke out after a cache of tapes of conversations between Drumm and other bankers at Anglo Irish during the 2008 financial meltdown were released. Drumm is now based in the U.S.

The BBC among others gave prominent coverage to Drumm’s apology for the nasty language on the now infamous tapes and also focused on his call for a new inquiry into what happened when Ireland gave complete guarantees to Irish banks at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008.

The result was a financial meltdown that continues to plague Ireland to this day.

Drumm’s chief  point is that he and Anglo should take their responsibility for their part of the mess but there are many other players; the bank regulators, the then Fianna Fail government and the other banks who were a huge part of the massive scandal as well.

The series of leaked tapes in the Irish Independent have certainly cast Drumm as the villain but he has begun to speak out about what he knows and when he knew it.

As a result there are many uneasy groups in Ireland waiting to see what Drumm’s best shot looks like.

At the end of the day, as was seen in the U.S. during the same meltdown period, bankers will do what bankers do which is get away with as much as they can especially when there is little regulation.

That was certainly the case in Ireland too where “light touch” regulation was the boast of the then government and bankers took full advantage to lend early and often to increasingly dodgy property speculators.

The Anglo tapes prove beyond a shadow that the bank regulator at the time was completely asleep at the wheel and seemed to know little or nothing about what was going on in the Irish banks.

All of which lays the ultimate blame squarely at the feet of the politicians. Every government sets the tone and the Fianna Fail government at the time were in hock to the property speculators. As a result the fox was watching the henhouse and the financial crash ensued.

There were many bit players, most notably the media which encouraged and pumped up the property boom because it filled their coffers and they were incredibly slow to cover the imminent bust.

In the end David Drumm was a player in the bust, but not the only one.

That is likely to become clearly evident if a proper inquiry is ever called.