Mayo’s demons were hauntingly visible during All-Ireland GAA final

A dejected Colm Boyle of Mayo after another losing the All-Ireland final on Sunday at Croke Park. Source: rte.ie

The demons appeared again, right on schedule, during the second half of the All-Ireland football final in Croke Park in Dublin on Sunday afternoon.

It appeared for a time that Mayo, the Chicago Cubs of Irish sport, lovable losers of seven All-Ireland final appearances since their last victory in 1951, would finally remove the curse and defeat Dublin.

At the Irish American Center in Mineola, Long Island where over 500 had gathered, mostly Mayo fans, you could almost feel the Red and Green supporters relax a little as the team started well and were ahead by a point at halftime.

Several times, including last year, Mayo had been blown out of the game by the first 10 minutes. Last year Donegal had the All-Ireland final won before people were warm in their seats with two early goals.

I had witnessed the same scene a few years back in person when Kerry was the opposition and Mayo folded like a cheap card table after just a few minutes.

Sunday felt different though, and the crowd at the Irish Center, like hundreds of thousands of Mayo folk across the world, felt their confidence rise as the team eked out an early lead and looked at least 50-50 for victory as the second half began.

Then came the demons.

Suddenly passes that had been accurate in the first half went astray, tackles were missed, scores conceded.

But then Mayo, with a fine goal of their own, set the game on fire, and suddenly it was game on with only minutes remaining.

But try as they might the nervous legacy of failed final titles came back to haunt Mayo, and Dublin spurted ahead again with a clinching goal.

Mayo kept it close, losing in the end by a single point, but in truth Dublin, who looked even more nervous at the start, were full value for their victory.

Fro the Mayo fans in Croke Park, in Long Island, all over America, Canada, Britain and Australia, it was the familiar heartache, left standing at the altar without the bride one more time.

The long trek homeward after the final without the Sam Maguire Cup must have been a heartbreaking one, as it was for their many fans all over the world.

Even the familiar phrase of “wait ‘till next year” rings that bit more hollow when seven “next years” have gone by without a single trophy.

Few counties have felt the chill of forced emigration like Mayo has, and few counties have endured such heartbreak on the playing fields.

But they are an indomitable lot, surely ready to start the trek all over again next year when they will start as near favorites again to win the All-Ireland.

On Sunday it is fair to say 31 counties of the 32 were cheering for them, but despite that Mayo fell short.

There is talk of a curse, but that seems like a latter day invention and Mayo people will have none of it.

Hope springs eternal. The mother beside me at the Irish Center with her young child in her lap and her red and green necklace and jersey remained upbeat.

“We’ll be back,” she said confidently, giving her child a hug. “He’ll grow up knowing Mayo have won an All-Ireland.”

I hope he doesn’t have to wait too long like the rest of us.

Nasty fight within Clinton camp for access to the president and first lady

Controversy over who has access to Hillary and Bill Clinton
(Photo: Fanshare)

Just in time for the Clinton Global Initiative in Manhattan this week comes a major new controversy about who has access to former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary. There is a large Irish angle also.

Recent media attacks on Doug Band, formerly Bill Clinton’s right hand man also rope in his Irish business partner Declan Kelly, both of whom run Teneo, a public affairs company closely connected to the Clintons.  (Full disclosure: I have known Declan Kelly for many years.)

The New Republic has a big article entitled “Scandal at Clinton Inc”  slating Band, who graduated from being Clinton’s body man, taking care of the most menial tasks, to the architect of his post-presidency massive popularity as head of the Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation which has shoveled billions into deserving causes.

Along the way Band has become a very rich man, and his partnership in Teneo with former Irish public relations guru and U.S. economic envoy to Northern Ireland Kelly has resulted in a highly lucrative career for both.

The New Republic makes it clear that many believe Teneo has used the Clinton contacts to create its core business, and that Clinton has now become upset with the very public linking of Teneo with his foundation and the soliciting of Foundation donors for Teneo business.

The article claims that a major rift now exists between Clinton and Band  and that despite that, Band still does business proclaiming his closeness to the former president.

The New Republic finding is echoed in a New York magazine profile of Hillary Clinton where Band and Teneo are once again used as whipping boys for Clinton dissatisfaction.

In particular it seems Chelsea Clinton, who is playing a much bigger role with the newly christened Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, is upset.

 “Chelsea’s arrival was a clear if unspoken critique of Doug Band,” New York magazine author Joe Hagan writes. “In Chelsea’s view the foundation started by Band had become sprawling and inefficient...threatened by unchecked spending and conflicts of interest.”

Clearly, given that it is Clinton Global Initiative week, there is a concerted effort to attack Band and Teneo, and some insiders within the Clinton camp are leading the charge.

Among the alleged offenses in the New Republic piece are Declan Kelly taking too long to introduce Clinton, Tony Blair and George W. Bush at a Teneo event and showcasing Teneo staff instead, and Kelly stating that Teneo had delivered Clinton to a conference in Ireland when the claim was that he was invited by the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny.

There is clearly a lot at stake here. Band has now been scrutinized and criticized in The New York Times, Time Magazine, the New Republic and New York magazine, as well as in several tabloids such as the New York Post.  Amazingly for a public relations expert, he has not seemed to answer back.

The other vexed question concerns Huma Abedin, Hillary’s closest aide who had a part-time contract with Teneo while still employed by the State Department. Her dual jobbing is now the focus of a congressional investigation by Darrell Issa, the Republican congressman known for digging deep.

All of which indicates a huge struggle is underway for the ear of the Clintons and to denigrate Teneo and its principals as the 2016 presidential race comes into focus.  (See New York magazine’s cover story on Hillary this week as evidence of that.) Will Band and Teneo prevail and keep the confidence of the Clintons?

Stay tuned.

The amazing story of the Wexford Opera Festival told in New York this week

The O'Reilly theater at the Wexford Opera House

I attended the first fundraising dinner for a most unusual Irish showcase event this week.

The Wexford Opera Festival, among the most popular opera festivals in the world, put on a smashing first night in America at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York on Wednesday.

At the end of it dinner chairman Shane Naughton announced that $250,000 had been raised which was topped by a further $50,000 later that night by honoree Dr. Pearse Lyons of Alltec.

There was opera singing out of this world, good humor and grace and a night to remember for the 300 or so guests present.

Ireland and an opera festival hardly go hand in hand but it is a real tribute to a group of Wexford people who met 62 years ago in the small South Eastern town, current population 20,000. The committee which back then was led by the local doctor, decided to start, of all things, an opera festival.

One can imagine the second guessing on that one but it went on to become one of the great festivals in Ireland every year, and apparently, very highly regarded on the world stage. Now New York has joined in with its own committee.

For sixty two years now many hundreds of thousands of people have made a pilgrimage to Wexford Festival Opera in search of buried operatic treasure. Since 1951 this town has hosted what has become known as one of the world’s most remarkable festivals. Wexford Festival Opera prides itself in giving new life to unjustly neglected operas, introducing artists and audiences to the forgotten masterpieces. And it does this in high quality productions which annually delight both critics and audiences alike.

But far from being satisfied with presenting three productions each year, also on offer is a packed programme of morning events, lunchtime concerts, afternoon ShortWorks and recitals and late night revues. As if this wasn’t enough, a vibrant Fringe Festival offers everything from art exhibitions through to singing and swinging pubs.

And throughout all this, there is the remarkable camaraderie engendered by the warmth and intimacy of Wexford town itself. From the brand new Wexford Opera House seating just over 770, the 350 strong volunteer corps ready to welcome you to Wexford, to the hotels, bars and restaurants along the High, Main, and side streets of this Viking town, Wexford is a town which is truly taken over by the Festival. There’s something in the air that quickens everyone’s pulse – a common heartbeat of expansive good feeling and heightened sensibility that brings people back to Wexford.

Key Republican Paul Ryan comes out swinging for immigration reform at Irish event

Republican Congressman Paul Ryan at breakfast hosted by the Irish Immigration Reform
close to Capitol Hill. (Credit: Jay Premack/ILIR)

Congressman Paul Ryan, the former Vice Presidential candidate and a likely GOP presidential front runner in 2016, has come out swinging on the need for immigration reform.

Maybe it was the Irish hurling stick that the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) president Ciaran Staunton gave him in honor of his Kilkenny ancestors that did the trick, but Ryan made a firm promise to Irish Americans present at an ILIR Republican congressional breakfast on Wednesday that he would do his utmost to deliver immigration reform. IrishCentral also co-hosted the breakfast.

While other Republicans have been running away from the issue Ryan is embracing it and given his clout in the party he certainly can have a huge impact.

Ryan stated that immigration was definitely on “the to-do list” for House Republicans this fall, probably right after the budget crisis is dealt with.

“It’s going to be one of those legislative processes that is going to take some work. There are those of us who are very much dedicated to doing this,” he stated.

In person Ryan is impressive. He had no handlers, strode into the breakfast room at the Republican Capitol Hill Club and had a friendly word for everyone. He was one of seven key GOP Congressmen who attended and was this year’s honoree.

Also present was new Irish Ambassador to the U.S. Anne Anderson and about seventy Irish American community leaders from key states. Former Congressman Jim Walsh was also involved in bringing the GOP congressmen to the event.

Once up on stage Ryan, 44, made clear his affinity to his heritage, tracing his family roots from Kilkenny and the journey over to Wisconsin. He quoted extensively from a Famine ship document which warned the immigrants what to expect in America and to work hard.

Ryan rekindled hope that the GOP house will actually turn to this issue as one of the few where they can agree a way forward with Democrats. After weeks of bad news about how the issue was being utterly overshadowed by the budget mess that was good news indeed.

The poise and easy charm that Ryan has makes him a formidable political operator. He was also clearly on top of his brief, not always the case with politicians and immigration.

Afterwards the Irish contingent retired for a bull session to discuss the best way to push for reform. There was a dramatic moment when a young illegal Irish woman spoke up about how difficult her life was in America in her current status. Suddenly for everyone the issue was more than an abstract problem affecting someone else. The impact was there right in front of us.

I sense a far more united Irish community and Irish government approach this go round on immigration reform. The Ryan news was a welcome boost but much more needs to be done. I think there is great commitment among the Irish this time to get it done and hopefully they will.

A great Irish priest is silenced by small-minded critics

Fr Iggy O'Donovan

Father Iggy O’Donovan celebrated the funeral Mass for my mother in Drogheda, a large town 30 miles from Dublin, in 2000 when she passed away.

He did a fine job as he always did when his pastoral duties were called for. He was a people’s priest, hugely popular in Drogheda where his down to earth demeanor and friendly smile won him huge popularity.

Now he has effectively been banished from his job and told to take a year’s sabbatical no doubt in some distant place because he has upset the church’s orthodoxy.

Ignoring bureaucratic rules was something Iggy has done. I remember there was some silly rule at the time of my mother’s death that members of the family could not eulogize the departed. Iggy pointedly let me ignore it to speak about my mother’s life.

A summer ago I was a passenger in my friend’s car when he got stuck on the beach in nearby Bettystown. Father Iggy happened to be taking his daily stroll, and he pitched in with the rest of the gang as we tried to push it clear of the oncoming tide. We had a laugh and a chat when the mission was accomplished.

Iggy is the kind of priest who can make the Catholic Church popular again, a true man of his people. As prior at the local Augustinian church he was one of the best-loved figures in Drogheda, lately a depressed industrial town.

But far from being celebrated, Iggy was under scrutiny from the very same church he was trying to humanize and make relevant again after its recent horrific history.

He believed in ecumenism and bringing the different Christian faiths together. He scandalized the hierarchy by having a Protestant minister co-celebrate Mass with him in 2006. He barely escaped with his collar after that while pedophiles flourished.

He was being watched and told people so. There were conservative spies, one man in particular  who was reporting every possible transgression to the powers in Rome.

There was plenty to report. Iggy spoke his mind and a great compassionate one it is.

His farewell sermon was a beauty, forcing attention on Father Tony Flannery, silenced by the Vatican for his liberal views and persecuted ever since.

Here is what he said. “I speak of Father Tony Flannery. If I had not been made aware first hand of the details of this case I could not have given it credence.

“Even hardened veterans are shaken by the murkiness of the devious world of ecclesiastical politics. How has it come to this, that a great and good priest like Tony, who has dedicated his life to the preaching of the Gospel, is persecuted with a zeal that is as pathological as the paranoia that feeds it?

“How has it come to this, that intolerant and extreme right wingers, encouraged apparently by certain authorities and career-orientated priests, can meet in solemn conclave to determine who is guilty of what these people label heresy.”

Brave stuff. Maybe it is hopeful that in the reign of the new pontiff Francis such a speech will be looked on as provocative, leading to needed debate, not censure.

In an unprecedented move Drogheda Mayor Richie Culhane addressed the congregation and said he believed Father Iggy was leaving because "ultra-conservative elements within the church have forced the hierarchy to push Iggy further afield and out of Drogheda."

The mayor spoke the truth. The massive applause and standing ovation for Father Iggy showed what the ordinary people thought of the Vatican witch-hunt. Iggy's legacy will long prevail after the Pharisees have departed.

Horse dung surely no reason to stop Central Park carriage rides

Horse carriages lineup on Central Park South, in New York City

Joe Lhota, GOP New York mayoral candidate, is against horse and carriage rides in Central Park.

That puts him in opposition to 300 drivers, about half of them Irish, who depend on the horse rides for their livelihood.

But while his likely opponent Bill de Blasio has opposed the horse rides on the grounds of animal cruelty, Lhotta says it is because the horses are (gasp!) known to manufacture horse manure.

Lhota, told a radio host he would shut down the $15 million carriage industry, a fixture in New York for generations, because “The smell that they drop there is unfortunate,” he said. “The smell on Central Park South is also unfortunate.”

So 300 perfectly good tourist related jobs will be eliminated if Joe becomes mayor because of horse dung.

To which I say horse manure.

Lhota used to be in charge of the subways. I suggest he eliminate them if smell is the criteria.

Ever strolled through Times Square subway in August when the sweat is drenching and the thousands of commuters could do with a good bath?

Or stood in that overcrowded rat hotel called Penn Station that Lhota also used to oversee when there are train delays, the air conditioning is useless and you can smell the ripe sweat glands of your fellow men and women?

Now that’s smell Joe.

Some outdoor horse manure smell in comparison is pretty minor. And besides with the horse diapers it is a passing phenomenon for most people.

So wise up Joe, losing 300 jobs because horses do what comes naturally in the horse diapers attached to each carriage is an insane proposition.

You are starting to make the Democrats the party of good sense on this issue. An animal rights pitch, even though I believe the horses are treated very well, has far more resonance.

So cut out the horse dung Joe and admit you just stepped in it.

Cutting 300 good jobs at a time when it is hard to find decent employment makes no sense.

In fact it is horseshit.

Violence and political tension still mar Northern Ireland peace process prospects

Martin McGuinness, Richard Haas & Peter Robinson

Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson sat side by side at the Wall Street 50 event organized by our sister publication Irish America magazine in New York on Thursday night and seemed the best of colleagues.

At the podium when they spoke separately, the First Minister Robinson praised McGuinness and Deputy First Minister McGuinness did the same when it was his turn.

The two men and their parties, the Democratic Unionist party and Sinn Fein effectively govern Northern Ireland in a power sharing arrangement that has confounded the world for almost six years now.

Before Robinson, back in 2007 it was the Reverend Ian Paisley who first partnered with McGuinness as the world stood agape.

For the 300 guests drawn from Irish Wall Street  seated amid the soaring architecture and array of  model yachts that took part in the Americas Cup, little seemed out of the ordinary.

Yet it was an extraordinary moment to witness, the leaders of the two ethnic tribes in Northern Ireland, sharing power and sharing each other’s success.

Robinson was impressive, outlining in detail how Northern Ireland has come through ethnic conflict  and British-Irish tensions that devastated generations since partition.

It can’t have been easy for him, facing an Irish American crowd which unionists are often uncomfortable facing, but he handled it very well.

McGuinness was his usual ebullient self, utterly at home, relating the struggle of the Irish in America and reflecting on how lucky we all were sitting in the Yacht Club that those who came before us had allowed us this opportunity.

But behind the warm rhetoric and pleasant words there is a reality that all is not well in the power sharing government.

You would never have known it but McGuinness and Robinson have been at deep loggerheads ver several issues, most notably Loyalist violence which led to a long hot summer this year.

When dissident Republicans  have committed violent acts, when policemen  have been killed, McGuinness has been forthright and out front about condemning them.

Yet McGuinness says when the opposite happens and Loyalist riot and policemen  are  hurt Robinson stays silent.

In addition, Robinson has changed his stance on the creation of a peace center on the site of the old H Blocks, a massive project which renowned world architect Daniel Libeskind creator of the new World Trade Center, was due to build.

That was a shattering blow for McGuinness who saw the new project as  a massive job booster for the area and a long term tourism and cultural and historical landmark.

The good news is that Richard Haass former American special envoy to Northern ireland will be returning to the North to seek a way forward in sorting out the difficulties.

He will have a very tough task, parades, loyalist violence and tension between Sinn Fein and DUP are long standing issues at this stage which have proven very hard to counter. But I’lll bet on old fashioned American know how and insight in helping frame a solution.

As Churchill remarked “Jaw jaw is better than war war “ and seeing the two men together  in New York this week has further reinforced the extraordinary nature of the compromises that have worked so far.’

The Irish peace process is studied in almost every conflict resolution area in the world. Its’ success has allowed two communities to grow to a certain point of accommodation but  as was revealed this week there is some ways to go.

But imagine the alternative to the scene we witnessed at the New York Yacht Club-- a continuing spiral of violence an endless propaganda war between British and Irish as to who was right and wrong, deaths and injuries as regular media fare ?

We really have had the luck of the Irish on this one.

Why Christine Quinn lost mayoral race, 'She’s Irish' says Columbia prof

Christine Quinn marches with her wife Kim and her father in Dublin's
St Patrick's Day Parade

Professor Ester Fuchs, a professor of  political science at Columbia University,  is clear on why Christine Quinn lost the New York mayor’s race.

“She’s Irish,” Ms. Fuchs told The New York Times. “That was a bigger problem for her than anything.”

Fuchs was claiming there was no Irish vote left, I guess.

Really?

Yet the official figures from 2012 of the five boroughs of New York show close to a half million Irish still living here - not an insignificant voting block.

The fact is that gays did not vote for Quinn even though she is gay, and women did not vote for her even though she is female and would have been the first female mayor.

That surely shows there was an endemic problem with the campaign that had nothing to do with her Irish roots.

But no, Fuchs believes it all had to do with being Irish.

In this weird election when blacks did not vote for Thompson the black candidate, gays did not vote for Quinn, Jews did not vote for Wiener, perhaps Fuchs could talk about those voters being the problem for their respective ethnic or gay candidate.

But no, she decided that Irish was the real issue with Quinn alone.

Would she have said if Di Blasio lost that Italian Americans had let him down because (a) there was not enough of them or (b) they didn’t vote for him because they didn’t like him?

As it turned out Catholics, according to The New York Times, voted pretty much the same as everyone else did in the election, with Quinn in third place with them too and Di Blasio leading.

There were numerous Irish organizations that fundraised and rallied for Quinn. But there were many Irish Americans, like those in any other ethnic group who were fed up of the Bloomberg era and saw Quinn as his proxy.

No, I really don’t think Professor Fuchs, that it has much to do with her ethnicity at all.

It had much more to do with being front runner for too long, her handlers mistaking the mood of the electorate and the inability to connect even with gay and female and yes Irish voters.

And professor, just for your sake, here are a few neighborhoods that still call themselves home to many Irish in the five boroughs area as compiled by Wikipedia according to the most recent census.

Professor Fuchs we haven’t gone away you know.

North Riverdale, Bronx
Woodlawn, Bronx
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn
Marine Park, Brooklyn
Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn
Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn
Broad Channel, Queens
Belle Harbor, Queens
Breezy Point, Queens
Rockaway Park, Queens
Rockaway Beach, Queens
Sunnyside, Queens
Maspeth, Queens
Woodside, Queens
St. George, Staten Island
West Brighton, Staten Island
Randall Manor, Staten Island

The greatest Irish experience of all, watching the All Ireland hurling final

All-Ireland GAA hurling final, Cork v Clare

There are about 200,000 native Irish living in the United States and a couple of hundred showed up at the Irish Center in Mineola, Long Island for the All-Ireland hurling final of 2013 between Cork and Clare on Sunday last.

It was a scene that was replicated in hundreds of Irish Centers and bars across America, Britain, Australia and wherever Irish gathered.

From early in the morning on Long Island they came, young and old alike, the younger ones mostly bedecked in Cork jerseys though a fair smattering of Clare colors too.

Some looked like they had spent a long night waiting for this moment when their team would take to the field (about 10.15 New York time) and vie for the title of All Ireland champion.

The older contingent was definitely more Cork than Clare, a nod to the fact that emigration from Ireland’s largest county was among the most numerous from Ireland.

The fact that Cobh or Queenstown as it was known then, was the great port of embarkation and located in Cork probably helped ensure that many there left.

What brought the modern day emigrant fans together on a sunny new York morning was arguably Ireland’s greatest sporting occasion.

While Gaelic football is more popular and played in more counties it is still an indescribable thrill to watch a game described in the old annals as being played by the legendary warrior Cu Chulainn among others, still taking center stage in Ireland.

A thousand years ago the first hurlers were mentioned in the Irish annals and the game still thrives.
There is something about Croke Park on hurling all Ireland day, the 82,000 spectators, the playing of the national anthem before the ball is thrown in, that is deeply, utterly tribal and Irish.

To know hurling is to know Ireland, a passionate, skilful and hard-hitting game of the tribe that astonishes those foreigners who see it for the first time with all its speed and grace.

The players are all amateurs, many farmers and rural folk who go back to work right after the game.

No million dollar salaries or golden contracts, just the pride of the village, the town, the county.

One of the Cork players was from a tiny club and village that had never had a player on a Cork All Ireland team before. The local excitement was immense. Where else would you get such community pride?

On Sunday the men of Clare and Cork played out a titanic struggle and the excitement was palpable at the Irish Center as the teams entered the final few minutes locked in close combat.

Clare were the better team but conceded three goals and were unable to score any themselves which allowed Cork to come thundering back.

The final few moments as Cork sneaked a single point leader only to falter as Clare equalized with practically the last puck of the game amazingly from a corner back, the rough equivalent of a linebacker scoring a touchdown in football.

So, wonderfully they will all get to do it again. The Irish Center will be even more packed I bet as a result of this titanic first game. Something to look forward to on September 28th!

Collapse of Christine Quinn mayoral vote leaves Irish American support shocked

Christine Quinn delivering her
concession speech on Tuesday night (Credit: Daily News)

Christine Quinn’s third place finish in the New York mayoral race is a devastating blow for a candidate who was 15 points ahead just a few months ago.

Back then she seemed to have it all, a powerful job as City Council President, a bold and brassy New Yawk personality and widely favorable press.

Then it all went wrong.

The post mortem on her campaign is likely to focus on whether Quinn could have prevented her huge lead slipping away or was she a victim of a polarized electorate who saw her as too close to Mayor Bloomberg.

Quinn realized too late that fatigue with Bloomberg was the overarching issue of the campaign. She had run as his sidekick and successor.

Ironically, if Quinn had run against Bloomberg four years ago or opposed him on term limits she would likely be the next mayor today. There was clear fatigue among New Yorkers after 12 years of Bloomberg and they wanted a fresh face.

Quinn had run on competency, and her partnership with Bloomberg. The electorate had had enough of the mayor however and still deeply resented his power grab third term when he overturned term limits.

There was a very different mood a few months back as the race commenced. The Irish American seemed certain to be the city’s first gay mayor and was hugely popular in the Irish American community where she was very well known.

In retrospect she was in front way too early and for too long - see Hillary Clinton in 2008 for the presidential nomination.

She was simply a sitting duck and when the New York Times unleashed a hard hitting front page expose accusing her of having an explosive temper and being very hard on her staff it was the beginning of the end.

Following that Quinn released her autobiography that her campaign had looked  on as a pivotal event to get her better known on her own terms.

The book however, disappeared without trace. Then the “stop and frisk” issue began to dominate and Quinn’s stance broadly in support of Mayor Bloomberg won her no friends among the liberal electorate.

Getting defined by your opponent is usually a fatal error in politics and Quinn, portrayed widely as Bloomberg’s today, is exhibit A.

Bill De Blasio was helped by Anthony Weiner’s implosion as voters sought out an alternative. Timing is everything and he had smart advisors who helped position him to the left of every other candidate.

His victory if he avoids a run off will give Republicans some hope that Joe Lhota can paint him as too far left. But New York is an increasingly minority city  and more Democratic  by the day.

Quinn and many in the Irish American community will be profoundly disappointed with her collapse  after looking like a winner for so long.

Irish hopes of an Irish American mayor have been dashed and it is hard to see any future now for Christine Quinn after this shattering defeat.

Politics is indeed a cruel sport.

Why black female pol should host St Pat’s breakfast in South Boston -- Her deep ties to Boston Irish community make it a no-brainer

Linda Dorcena-Forry

The uproar over whether Haitian American state senator Linda Dorcena-Forry should host the annual Southie St, Patrick’s Day breakfast in Boston has made media headlines.

There are few more legendary Irish events than the Southie breakfast, which has achieved iconic status from its historic cast of characters from the Kennedys to Billy Bulger to every Irish pol North of Providence.

The battle lines are drawn already with local Irish pol Bill Linehan stating he should host and that Forry has no real roots in the area.

Forry responds that she is the State Senator for the area and has won the right to host.

I can see Linehan’s point –one could not imagine an Irish American ever hosting a Martin Luther King Day celebration in Harlem—but Linda Dorcena-Forry is not just another black politician.

She is actually married into one of the leading families in the Irish American community the Forrys who own the Boston Irish Reporter among other publications.

As Linda has pointed out her four sons are half Irish-half Haitian and she has been to Ireland several times with them.

“I have four bi-racial children -- Irish-American and black,” she told the Globe.

“I’ve been to Ireland four times. We celebrate the culture in my house. My two oldest sons were baptized in St. Augustine’s chapel in South Boston. I’m not just a random black woman who has this seat.”

If that’s not Irish enough for the Southie breakfast then I think it is a sad day.

I think it will speak volumes of how far Southie and the Irish have come if there is a black woman hosting the breakfast, cracking the jokes and leading the long green celebration on St.Pat’s Day 2014.

I hope the innate good sense of the Southie Irish will bring about that outcome. It would speak volumes about how this is a far better era for race relations in Boston.

Saying a sad goodbye to Seamus Heaney in Dublin

Mourners come to pay their respects for Seamus Heaney

Dublin: They came to say goodbye to Seamus Heaney, Ireland’s greatest modern poet, on Sunday night and the crowd was somber and respectful.

Afterwards they spilled out into the surrounding church courtyard, men and women of all ages and background conversing on a beautiful late summer evening in South Dublin about a poet who touched the lives of so many.

Outside the Sacred Heart church in Donnybrook was full to overflowing, cars double-parked along what is one of Dublin’s busiest traffic routes.

Inside, the body of the poet was laid out with a simple prayer book placed on the coffin. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin remembered a spiritual and deeply humble man who inspired generations of Irish. They were no idle words manufactured for the occasion.

The wait to commiserate with the family and pay respects was long but no one seemed to mind. The death of a great poet is a moment of huge significance in Ireland where literary tradition and cultural expression is a great part of society.

When a Nobel literature prize winner passes it signifies the fall of a very big tree in the forest.

A few hours earlier in Croke Park at the All Ireland semi final between Dublin and Kerry, the 80,000 present delivered a standing ovation when a moment’s silence for Heaney was called for.

Imagine such a reaction before a Super Bowl in America where no poet has anything remotely like the hold that Heaney had on the Irish population?

Partly it was Heaney’s reputation too. He was a wonderful person as well as a great poet.

There were never any airs and graces, no great man puffing himself up like many other literati. Such a persona was complete anathema to Heaney who like his poetry was simple, yet profound.

I last met him last year at the American Ireland Fund dinner in Cork where Bill Clinton was among those utterly in awe when the Nobel Prize winner walked in.

Bill Clinton is rarely that impressed with anyone other than fellow world leaders, but Heaney made a profound impact on him.

Heaney had a kind word for everyone there, was shy at the podium, yet embraced what the Ireland Fund was doing.

Over the years I have met him at various Irish American events and always marveled at his humble attitude. He was not overly impressed with success, paid attention to the low and lonely more than the high and mighty and was a living proof of Ireland’s extraordinary ability to create geniuses.

Consider that his high school in Derry St. Columb’s had past pupils such as him, fellow Nobel Prize winner John Hume, Brian Friel,  who many believe deserved a Nobel, and composer Phil Coulter among others. And that is just one high school.

Heaney would have been right at home with the politicians, intellectuals, and ordinary folk who came to mourn his passing.

Publisher’s Weekly once wrote that Heaney  “has an aura, if not a star power, shared by few contemporary poets, emanating as much from his leonine features and unpompous sense of civic responsibility as from the immediate accessibility of his lines.”

Amen to that and may he rest in peace.

My Gathering; Personal roots come alive in little Kerry town of Dingle

Dingle, Co Kerry

Dingle: In this marvellous summer of The Gathering in Ireland I had come to Dingle, my father’s ait duchas (home place)  to add my family to the mix.

The sun was shining as if by right last week in Dingle, in a summer that will live forever in the minds of the locals as among the best ever. If you haven’t seen the majesty of West Kerry with its soaring mountains, sparkling beaches and tidy towns in the sunshine then I suggest you find an opportunity. God’s country pure and simple.

The Kennedy from Baile Na Boc, the Dowds from Kilcooley, the O’Sheas from Ballydavid ,the Bricks from Gorta Dubh,  the O’Dowds from America, Drogheda, Dublin and other points all came to meet and greet. There are already plans to expand into a new Gathering sometime soon.

I learnt the tales of the fishermen and the farmers and the hard working women I am descended from, the tales of love, loss, emigration and return that pockmark every Irish family. I inhaled them because they become more important to me as I get older and wish to pass them on. A thoughtful local radio producer had dug up tapes of my father, also a writer, talking in Gaelic on radio about Kerry long ago. What a precious gift.

I met relatives I never knew, they shared tales of my grandmother Kennedy I had only the vaguest memory of. Suddenly, a large part of my family heritage came alive to me. I am a walking case study of how The Gathering improved my sense of heritage. Who are we but the sum of those who came before us, lighting the way?

I was also speaking at the Dingle Historical Society, a dynamic local organization headed by local doctor Conor Brosnan which hosts regular forums on the issues that matter in Ireland and locally.

Recently they heard from former Supreme Court Justice Hugh O’Flaherty on his incredible uncle the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty from nearby Killarney who saved thousands from the Nazis when based in the Vatican during the Second World War. Gregory Peck played him in the movie.

The local interest and participation is extraordinary. I was their seventy fifth speaker and the local library was thronged to capacity as it always is. To my surprise there were many Americans now living in Dingle among them. I met expatriates from Maine and California, all living their Irish dream.

Though known as a tourist town, Dingle has a vibrant cultural and community ethos that marks it out among Irish towns. Perhaps it is the prevalence of Gaelic speakers in the town which sets it apart but you get the impression of a deeply curious, intellectual community that has history, tradition and intellectual rigor to draw on.

In Benner’s Hotel afterwards I heard conversations about the Hapsburgs, Henry VIII, the geologic age of the West Kerry landscape, the origins of the First World War and many other topics, not the usual Thursday night fare in an Irish pub.

But mostly I connected with relatives I have never known, learnt their stories as they learnt mine. In a global world, dominated by vast corporations and government institutions it was wonderful to reach back into a community and get a renewed sense of the truly important aspects of life, where you come from, who speaks for you and yours, what they say.

All else is less important. Abraham Lincoln talked about the “mystic chords of memory” that bind us all in one of his greatest speeches. Ronald Reagan borrowed those lines in his address to the Irish parliament  in 1984. They came alive to me last week in a special way.