Driver's licenses for undocumented and new immigration reform bill shows sea of change in US views

Senator Marco Rubio

The recent decision by Illinois to grant driver's licenses to the undocumented is an indication of how dramatically the immigration issue is changing in the U.S.

Now there is a bill before the Massachusetts legislature on granting licenses, with hopes that New York will follow suit.

Just a few years back such bills would have been heavily defeated; indeed, attempts to process legislation in seven states failed.

The driver’s license issue is just the tip of the iceberg, though. There has been a massive change almost overnight on the issue of immigration to United States.

It is the best example yet that elections have consequences. President Obama’s victory certainly has shown that.

Whatever else about politicians, they can always read the results of elections. Put simply, the GOP can never win another presidential election unless they win a larger share of the Hispanic and minority turnout.

The old days of a white majority are gone forever, and Republicans have suddenly woken up in a different universe as the party of old men.

This is no country for old men only. Arguably the greatest catalyst for change in America in the past century was the 1965 Immigration Act which ensured that Hispanics would quickly grow to become the largest ethnic group in the U.S.

Hispanics now get to decide elections in key swing states such as Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado. Soon they will begin to impact heavily in Texas and Arizona too.

Republicans are looking at their ultimate nightmare, an electoral lock across the U.S. by Democrats who are already guaranteed about 240 electoral votes before they start if the current support they enjoy lasts.

California is a lesson in Republican overreaching if ever there was one. The state was always competitive until a Republican governor, Pete Wilson, decided it was time to crack down on undocumented and took aim at the Hispanic community with Proposition 187 in the 1990s which sought to exclude the undocumented from state services such as schooling and health care. The party has not won a presidential election there since and only one gubernatorial race since 1994.

The California-zation of many other states will proceed quickly unless the GOP does something quickly.

This is why we are witnessing a sea change among Republicans who have realized late in the day that insulting, deporting and generally slamming Hispanics is not the way to win elections.

There have been voices of moderation such as Jeb Bush and indeed his brother, former President George W. Bush, but they were crying in the wilderness as the anti-immigrant lobby held sway.

Now all has changed. Senator John McCain, for long a principled advocate of reform, has found his voice again on this issue, and more importantly he has been joined by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the two rising stars in the GOP who see their future prospects dim unless this issue is dealt with.

In the overall scheme the Irish are bit players, but a bill that passes and legalizes our estimated 50,000 undocumented and helps more future flow come to America would have a profound impact on the community.

Amazingly that now seems in sight after a dark period where anti-immigrant legislation was the norm. This time it looks for real.

Joe Biden must worry about Hillary and Barack love fest on '60 Minutes' -- Loyalty not a dominant theme for President Obama it seems

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on "60 Minutes"

Just days after rescuing Obama on issues such as the fiscal cliff and gun control, Joe Biden must be worrying what it takes to get some loyalty around the White House.

There was Barack on Sunday night on ‘60 minutes’ schmoozing with Hillary Clinton like two best friends forever and not a mention of Joe, good, bad or indifferent.

Barack does not do loyalty as one leading journalist recently remarked to this column. He must know that Irish Joe is gearing up for a run in 2016 and that Hillary is likely his biggest rival.

So there he was on the nation’s most popular news program offering a hosannah of praises to his former bitter rival.

Barack may have knocked back the idea in the ‘60 Minutes’ interview that such political considerations were important, but do you believe him or his lying eyes?

Everything is about the future election in Washington and Biden might have expected a little more loyalty after his herculean efforts to salvage the fiscal cliff talks and take the heat on gun control -- a joint appearance on ‘60 Minutes perhaps?

Read more news on US politics here

No doubt Joe’s hair plugs were on fire as Hill and Barack cozied up instead like an old married couple who had lots of tiffs and made it through despite that.

Despite all the good cheer there is no love lost now or ever between the Clintons and the Obamas. The scars of the bitter 2008 primary campaign will never heal.

Their political marriage worked out very well for both. Obama got a magnificent and workaholic Secretary of State and Clinton got the high profile and relevance that would have been denied her after her stunning primary defeat.

Obama’s tacit endorsement in 2016 will be critical to who wins the Democratic nomination and he seems comfortable for now embracing both his Vice President and his soon-to-be former Secretary of State.

But there will come a day either publicly or privately where the Obama endorsement will make a major difference in the 2016 battle.

It may not go to Biden or Hillary, it could go to Andrew Cuomo or Martin O’Malley, but I’m sure Biden felt he is entitled to it as the ultimate loyal foot soldier for a president who desperately needs his genuine warmth and political gifts such as working with the opposition.

But the Hillary joint interview showed if you need friends in D.C., get a dog, especially when it comes to Barack Obama.

Read more: Denis McDonough new Obama Chief of Staff deeply proud of his Irish heritage

Sully Sullenberger’s latest miracle - Rory Staunton’s hero lends name to fight for more stringent hospital checks

Sully Sullenberger and his wife Lorraine with Orlaith, Kathleen and Ciaran Staunton
last week in O’Neill’s. (Photo by Sean McPhail)

They say you should never meet your heroes in case you are disappointed, but in the case of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the opposite is true.

I had the great pleasure of meeting the man responsible for the “Miracle on the Hudson,” when he saved the lives of the crew and 155 passengers on a US Airways flight en route to North Carolina by executing a perfect landing on the Hudson River on January 15, 2009.

Earlier last week Sully, who has Swiss and Irish heritage, had appeared on Katie Couric’s talk show where he met 10 little babies born to passengers since that miracle day, and to recount the story of the incredible landing.

Sully’s bravery that day was one of the greatest feel good stories of its time, but his heroism does not end there.

Since that day he has resolved to continue his efforts to make air travel safer and also to ensure, based on pre-flight check lists, that hospital procedures, especially in emergency rooms, are greatly improved.

On January 15 Sully met with my family, my sister Orlaith and brother-in-law Ciaran Staunton, who lost their son Rory, a dedicated flier in the making who considered Sully his hero.

Rory died from sepsis last April after catastrophic medical mistakes were made in his care at NYU Langone Hospital in New York after he suffered a scrape in a basketball game at his school.

Rory’s battle for life was featured in The New York Times, and the coverage included his admiration and hero worship for Sully.

Sully read the article and contacted Ciaran and Orlaith, so a meeting was finally set up for last week.

It turned out to be a wonderful dinner at O’Neill’s, which the Stauntons own, in Midtown Manhattan as relatives and friends of Orlaith and Ciaran gathered. Sully, his charming wife Lorraine, and daughter Kelly also attended.

Sully sat down and read Rory’s term paper on him in its entirety, asked every question about Rory and his love of flying and what kind of child he was.

Sully was the polar opposite of so many self-obsessed “celebrities,” a title that does not fit easily on this former Air Force fighter pilot.

There was self–deprecating humor too, when discussing that fateful day and when he finally got off the plane after the most traumatic experience imaginable.

He called US Airways and introduced himself, and the official told him he’d have to call back as one of their planes had just gone down in the Hudson. “I am the pilot,” Sullenberger told him, followed by a stunned silence.

His wife at home was on a long call to a close relative and did not immediately pick up when Sully called, and when she did she was quietly annoyed. Why was he so anxious to speak to her?

“Turn on the TV,” he told her.

Sully unselfishly gives much of the credit to his co-pilot Jeff Skiles that day, who kept his cool and calmly told him his altitude, speed and likely landing trajectory as the water rushed up to meet them and alarms were going off all over the cockpit.

Sully believes that the extraordinary safety record of major US airlines (excluding commuter flights) since the last major airline crash back in 2001 is due in large part to improved communication procedures between pilots, and check lists that ensure flying is made as safe as possible.

He believes the same system should apply in hospitals all over the world, and that it would make a profound difference in the death rate for patients killed by medical errors.

My family’s loss is the living nightmare of the consequences of such errors. Blood tests that revealed Rory’s worsening condition were never even checked.

Having someone like Sully onboard is a tremendous boost to the chances that such a checklist system will son be implemented coast to coast.

Meeting Sully would have been a huge deal for Rory, and his hero would not have disappointed him. The wild blue yonder is where they were both most at home.

So fly straight Sully, and keep up the marvelous work. You made us all so proud to meet you.

VP Joe Biden suddenly looks like the smartest politician in America -- Irish American VP goes where no other politicians dare in Washington D.C.

Vice President Joe Biden arrives to a House 

Democratic caucus meeting at the Capitol on Jan. 1, 2013.

(Credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Joe Biden is suddenly the most popular politician in Washington and a real contender for 2016. The latest opinion poll by Public Policy shows him running a strong second to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination.

The Irish American Vice President, widely dismissed by the haughty press corps looking for the new and the beautiful, is at the very heart of the dramatic new initiatives by the Obama administration.

In a time of electoral gridlock, Biden appears to be the one figure who can reach out to the other side and force a civil discourse.

On the fiscal cliff he galloped to the rescue and cut the deal with Senator Mitch McConnell before riding off like the Lone Ranger. Opinion polls showed the public believed by a 57 per cent to 20 per cent margin that Biden’s deal was better for Democrats than Republicans.

Read more: The NRA will not allow Joe Biden to blame law-abiding gun owners for actions of madmen

Now on gun control he is defying the conventional wisdom again and getting real traction behind his recommendations which he will deliver to the president next week.

He has met with the NRA, Walmart, and every major gun constituency, forcing a dialogue where none existed before and making clear that action will be taken to prevent another Sandy Hook.

Don’t rule out the possibility of a deal that Biden can craft that the NRA can get along with, strange as that may seem.

Biden notes there appears to be a near universal belief that more background checks are needed for all gun sales.

He is determined that action will occur.

"There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet, but we're compiling it all with the help the attorney general and all the rest of the cabinet members, as well as legislative action, we believe, is required," he said.

Sure the NRA said it was “disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment.’’

But everything is different after Sandy Hook and Biden knows it even if the NRA does not.

He is suddenly being noticed. “These weeks can continue to set him up as one of the few who can deliver in an era when no one thinks accomplishments can happen and everyone believes Washington is broken — an appealing position to be in as he considers his future,” a Biden loyalist told the Washington Post.

Maureen Dowd in The New York Times stated, “Mr. Biden can spread everything out on the table and negotiate his way through all of his former colleagues' shortcomings, weaknesses, fears and frailties.”
In  a time when American politics is so polarized Biden has managed the extraordinary trick of being able to appear reasonable to both sides.”

Chris Cilliza, who writes the influential The Fix column for the Washington Post, wrote, “What’s apparent and indisputable over these past few weeks is that Biden has put himself at the center of the national political conversation in ways that have helped his boss but also himself.”

In this new political arena maybe a pol with old fashioned skills is what’s really needed. Joe Biden is certainly starting off 2013 on fire.

Next up, immigration reform for the miracle worker?

Read more: Gun nuts lose argument over assault weapons ban, threaten civil war - VIDEO

Notre Dame support is a search for family and common roots for millions -- Celtic FC, the other great Irish Diaspora side, are their only equivalent

Notre Dame fans tailgating for the BCS Championship.
(US Presswire)

Miami: Picture the scene in the distant parking lot at Sun Life stadium in Miami on Monday night.
I had gone back to my rented car to retrieve the car keys, realizing in my rush to get to the game I had left them in the ignition - duh!

A family of five was sitting around in near darkness, attention glued to a small computer screen in front of them showing the first half highlights.

They were the only live occupants of the parking lot, sitting in the eerie glow of the nearby stadium lights, a part of but apart from the BCS Championship game.

Notre Dame was so far behind at that moment against Alabama that if it were a boxing match the bout would have been halted, but the family of five seemed undaunted.

They wished me good cheer and asked if I wanted to join them. Curious as to their story, I did for a few moments.

They had driven from Virginia and had no hope of seeing the game and could not afford the tickets anyway. They had watched the Wake Forest game live in the stadium but otherwise they drove from game to game following the Fighting Irish from a series of parking lots.

They loved to tailgate and join their fellow subway alumni wherever the green was worn.
Before you dismiss them as nuts, you have to understand the nature of the true Domer to whom no Notre Dame game is ever out of reach.

Read more: Nightmare for Notre Dame ends a dream season for Fighting Irish

I met so many in South Florida who consider Notre Dame games a holy pilgrimage, who build their year around them and win, lose, or draw will follow the Fighting Irish to hell and back again.

After the game I walked back to that same parking lot with a family of three, a mother and two young daughters, also from the South.

They were able to recite chapter and verse of every game they had attended and the cross-country trips they regularly took.

I would think the two daughters were early teens if that, but they were able to remember Notre Dame players like other kids could say the names of the One Direction boy band.

What is the attraction, I asked the mother? “We’re Catholic,” she said simply. “We see them as family.”

There is a lot to that, the sense of family that grows up around Notre Dame followers. It is one great shared ambition finding voice on playing fields from California to New York and even Dublin last year.

TV ratings were up 67 per cent for their games in 2012. Notre Dame remains a phenomenon of American sport. They could play a community college and 80,000 would show up.

It reminded me again of the similarity to Celtic soccer team, that other great Irish Diaspora side from Scotland who have come to embody something very deep in the souls of the children of Irish immigrants worldwide.

There is a shared pride and commitment to the heritage and memory of those who came before them. Notre Dame have been playing football for 125 years.

Celtic was founded in 1887 by Brother Walfrid of the Marist brothers, an Irish religious order. Irish priests were the foundation stone of Notre Dame too by the Holy Ghost fathers.

Both teams were blatantly discriminated against by top sides, which resented their religion through the early years and relegated them to underdog roles.

Because of that through the generations the commitment to the teams, as an intrinsic part of the DNA of the Irish emigrant experience, has lived on in millions.

What I saw in the parking lot and witnessed this week was much of that, mixed with pride and an embrace of all that is best in old fashioned America.

Celtic defeated Barcelona this year, the greatest club football team in the world led by Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player in world soccer. It was one of the biggest shocks of recent times.

The Irish of Notre Dame went undefeated until the Alabama crash and burn but had a season to remember. Generations later those who follow them still have so much to treasure and to find common cause with.

Little wonder that they continue to be kingpins in their respective sports and to attract millions of followers, some of whom will never see them live.

Read more: Fighting Irish crusade crushed by the Crimson Tide 42-14 in BCS National Championship

Joining the Notre Dame faithful in Miami on a mission -- Alabama and Notre Dame roll into town for BCS stand-off

Notre Dame gears up to face Alabama

Miami: The Notre Dame faithful are gathering in their droves here, the weekend of the big game.

But so are the Alabama battalions and the good-natured rivalry has already begun.

At a nice beachside restaurant here the numbers of Notre Dame and Alabama fans were about equal and the good-natured ribbing lasted through three courses.

On the plane from New York the numbers were overwhelmingly Notre Dame, the subway alumni traveling from all points North, South, East and West  to support their team on the big day.

Many are still pinching  themselves that they are here at all. You would have got odds of 100/1 on it before the season started.

I feel the same myself, suddenly strolling  around in shorts and a T shirt, when I should be shivering in a New York winter. I associate Notre Dame games with cold crisp Autumn days in South Bend , not T shirts and  88 degrees in South Florida.

Interesting  to me is how many Irish-born I know who are going to the game. The contest in Dublin between Notre Dame and Navy opened up a huge new fan base for the Fighting Irish, the fact that this is a dream season and that it kicked off in Ireland makes it even more remarkable.

The ‘Bama folks have seen it all before. Bill Petersen, a fanatic Alabama fan was in the restaurant eating with his wife and two daughters.”I wanted to bring them to learn and witness the old time football religion,” he said gesturing at his two young  girls. “It is  the closest thing next to religion in bringing Alabama folk together.”

And Notre Dame folk too. This game is already a blockbuster and South Florida will bleed crimson and blue and gold these next few days.

The talk is all about tickets which are apparently, dropping in price as the game nears. The question for many is when to buy their tickets, ten minutes before kick-off or now when the market seems to be saturated.

All I know is that through the graces of a dear friend, my in-law Pat Egan and I have two of the most precious ducats in all of sport-- and no, they are not for sale.

Go Irish!

A new spirit in the Irish community after Rockaways Day of Action -- A real insight into how much a united community can accomplish

The Irish lend a helping hand in the Rockaways
(Photo: Sean McPhail)

The success of the Irish Day of Action in Rockaway when 1,000 Irish descended on the devastated Rockaway Peninsula has led to a new spirit in the Irish community.

Rocked back on its heels by the lack of emigration and the tough times for many of the older Irish organizations, the Rockaway day was an amazing insight into how much the community can still accomplish.

From earliest dawn on Saturday all over New York and in many places upstate the Irish came together in the best spirit of the Meitheal, the Gaelic word meaning a gathering to help neighbors in need.

What was truly heartening was the mixture from the youngest of Irish organizations to the oldest, to the geographic spread across all communities.

The role of the Irish consulate in coordinating the original response was immense.

Many years ago such a leadership role would have been far more difficult. The Northern Irish issue divided the community leading to boycotts stand offs and bad blood.

Read more: 1,000 Irish show up for Rockaway ‘Day of Action’ to rebuild community

That is no longer the case, allowing organizations to exist in a cooperative fashion as was proven on Saturday.

What was also obvious was how perfectly tailored to the problem the Irish response was.

We are a community that deals heavily in construction and skills related.

The Rockaways’ crying need was for such skills, especially electricians who are highly valued there because of the number of houses in need.

What was also stunning was the number of women who turned out, well over the 50 per cent mark.

It was an interesting insight into that Irish quality of empathy and caring so strongly represented in medical fields and child care by women in the main.

For many of the Irish-born who were unfamiliar with the Rockaways and Breezy Point the sight of so many tricolors and Irish name plates outside homes was itself an education into how important the Irish heritage and association for so many.

It was a learning curve all around and a day that ended with good cheer and good feeling. “Ni Neart go Chur Le Cheile” is the old Irish adage. “No strength until we pull together.”

How true.

Irish fight back begins in Rockaways after Hurricane Sandy devastation -- Spending time with the brave residents of a devastated beach town

The Rockaways - Once a refuge for 9/11 emergency workers Harbor Lights Pub is now destroyed

Belle Harbor, Rockaway Beach, Sunday: The cruel sea came pouring into this peninsula driven by the hurricane force winds of Hurricane Sandy.

For the first time in living memory the waters of Jamaica Bay met the Atlantic Ocean over land and left havoc and destruction in its wake.

The only frame of reference I can give you in terms of devastation is 9/11 and even that was concentrated in a small part of New York City.

I visited Ground Zero and its surrounding neighborhood just two days after that attack and Rockaway, Broad Channel, and the other communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy are déjà vu all over again.

Here in Rockaway, street after street are utterly destroyed, mounds of sand pushed in by the advancing waves clogging basements, streets, high water levels as tall as six feet destroying homes perhaps for ever.

“We will rebuild,” says Pat Nee, the proud Mayo man known unofficially as the Mayor of Rockaway, as he takes me around his destroyed neighborhood.

Pat came to Rockaway via The Bronx in 1979 and left Ireland in 1956.

At 81 he thought he had seen it all. “I had seen nothing until I saw this storm” he told me.

Down the street Brendan Brosh is newly married and had just moved with his Texas-born wife Bianca to Rockaway where he spent much of his early years. Nothing remains of his house.

He was digging the sand out of his mother’s basement as we brought a few dozen Irish breakfasts for him and his extended family and workers courtesy of my brother-in-law’s restaurant O’Neill’s. It was their first hot meal in days.

Read more news on Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath here

As they gathered round, his family told harrowing stories of the night the storm struck -- including seeing the boardwalk literally float down the street, unmoored from its concrete holdings by the power of the storm. “Surreal” said Brendan.

There are many tales of heroism which will go untold, one in particular of a woman and child saved at the last moment after she fled her home panicked as the water advanced.

Fire joined wind and water in the great destruction orgy. Houses in several streets are burnt to the ground, great tangled mess of metal and cars burnt beyond recognition.

At the Harbor Light bar at Beach and 130th Street, a forlorn shamrock flag flies while all else is in ruins, burnt to the ground.

Harbor Lights owner Bernie Heeran is one of the most beloved men in the community. He lost his son in 9/11 and his bar became a gathering place for the many heroes of that dreadful event. When it comes to cops and firefighters, Rockaway and nearby Breezy Point are Ground Zero.

The heroes this time around are the thousands of volunteers that we met from all over, armed with little more than shovels.

Among them were groups of dedicated Mormons doing sterling work, Team Rubicon, an organization composed of armed forces veterans and just ordinary folks, hundreds of friends, relatives, neighbors, and volunteers who have pitched in to try and reboot the lives of so many.

Providing food for free is Gibbons Irish Bar from Maspeth Queens, who have set up a mobile kitchen and are preparing hot meals for the many relief workers.

Providing heat in a huge “warming tent” is Navillus Construction, an Irish company we can also be proud of.

Conspicuous by their almost total absence is the Long Island Power Authority who might possibly be the worst utility company in the world, given their response to this disaster.

The Red Cross is widely criticized here too for delaying too long. “They were missing in action, It’s been friends, neighbors, volunteers,” says Brendan Brosh. “We had to fall back on our own.”

No one knows what the future holds for the newly homeless and cold and in need in the Rockaways.

What is not in question is the spirit and drive in the community which is apparent the moment you arrive there.

“We will rebuild. We will come back,” says Pat Nee. “That’s what we Irish do.”

Read more news on Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath here 

Not in our name -- Irish Americans deplore Dissident IRA killing --Time to stand up and be counted on slaying of prison officer

David Black

The murder of prison officer David Black in Lurgan, Armagh by dissident IRA members who ambushed his car, was not done in the name of Irish America.

This community has made clear for years now that it stands with the peace process and not with those who wish to continue to visit death and tragedy on the people there.

We agree with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who said "There is no justification for this outrageous and cowardly act. I offer my sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Officer Black, who had a long and distinguished record of service."

It is a futile cause and a death in vain as it only solidifies the belief among the peace process parties and among Irish Americans that the current progress must continue.

It was never going to be a 100 per cent break with the past and violence but the killing of the prison officer, a Protestant, was yet another example of the lunacy at work in some quarters.

Does the killing of a prison officer or a policeman move the goal of a united Ireland one centimeter closer?

Of course not, quite the opposite.  Those who still take up arms despite the wishes of overwhelming majorities in both communities who support the process know that too.

It allows them their stupid delusions of grandeur that they are players in a conflict that has actually ended with  the Good Friday  peace agreement between all sides.

Nobel Prize winner John Hume referred to his goal as that of an agreed Ireland. As far as we can that has been achieved with a huge helping hand from Irish America and President Clinton and other presidents since.

Whether the future holds a united Ireland or the status quo depends on the future generations who will vote on such issues.

It certainly  does not depend on those who will wantonly take life in support of a violent ideal that has now receded into history.

It was heartening to see Northern Ireland’s two leaders, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness issue a joint statement on the killing, condemning it in the strongest terms.

Such is the only way to proceed in the North. The peace process has now been operational in one form or another since the early 90s. A generation has grown up not knowing violence or the despair of earlier generations.

That is how it should be, persuasion by political means not violence remains the goal of all who wish the peace process well.

We here in America want to reiterate again these killers do not speak for the overwhelming majority of Irish Americans.

Boston College Irish tapes - the truth about Ed Moloney’s book and letting the cat out of the bag

Ed Moloney

Journalist Ed Moloney has been busy convincing everyone he is the victim in the Boston College tapes fiasco. The reality is different.

Put frankly, if he hadn’t decided to make some money for himself from his book on the tapes, Voices from the Grave, none of the issues that have now arisen around the tapes would have happened. The tapes by now would have quietly become the preserve of academics and historians.

Moloney’s intent was clear from the beginning. He hired anti-Gerry Adams researcher and dissident spokesman Anthony McIntyre and only interviewed IRA figures who hated Adams for various reasons -- hardly the mark of a dispassionate researcher/historian.

I have long maintained that Moloney was out to get Adams when he decided to do the tapes, and persuaded Boston College to underwrite the project and give it academic recognition – something the college now deeply regrets.

Moloney has denied all of this, but in a recent reply to a Unionist writer, Water Ellis, on his own blog site, he seems to admit it.

Here is the exchange in which Ellis congratulates Moloney for getting an extension from the Supreme Court on the tapes issue.

(Moloney erroneously presents this as a great victory. It is not, and merely a procedural issue. I do not believe there is a hope in hell the Supreme Court will hear the case.)

MOLONEY: “Ah Walter! I had thought you dead and gone. Never a losing cause, just keeping my promise to people. If I do have an obsession it is with outing liars, which is why I write about Lance Armstrong! There is another outrageous liar with whom we are both familiar, me perhaps more than you. Wears a beard and used to puff on a pipe a lot. Write about him too.”

ELLIS: “I hope you’re not suggesting that a certain one-time barkeep, for whom power was the ultimate performance-enhancing drug, will one day soon be stripped of his many titles.”

MOLONEY:  “A former barkeep with a power complex? Whom could you possibly be talking about?”

It is an interesting exchange, revealing as Belfast Republican writer Danny Morrison says, Moloney’s true mindset on this issue. It has been a “Get Adams” undertaking all the time.

Morrison writes, “Moloney, unthinkingly, in an email to Walter Ellis... reveals the whole purpose of his sham historic project!”

I have to agree with Morrison. Irish America has been taken for a ride by an individual whose main objective is to destroy Adams.

"Outing liars" by his very own words, meaning Adams, was Moloney’s main intent all along. He hid it well under a cloak of academic respectability unwittingly given to him by Boston College.

Now Irish America needs to make clear that it is against the handing over of the tapes to the British government, but also that they are not blinkered by what was actually being attempted here – nothing less than setting up Adams and endangering the peace process. Irish America should not be fooled to believe anything else.

Moloney is a strange character. He recently recounted two utterly fictional conversations he had with me from the 1990s on his blog in which I was allegedly taken to task for using his columns without attribution.

It never happened, I can say with every ounce of conviction I have. But like the Boston tapes saga, Moloney appears to ignore inconvenient truths when it suits him.

Catholicism fast becoming the dominant US religion new poll shows -- As Protestant numbers decline, Catholics now come center stage

Catholicism is now the biggest faith group in the United States

Catholics are now the single biggest faith group in America at 22 per cent, according to the latest Pew research poll.

The news will come as a positive boost to the American bishops who have endured massive negative publicity on child abuse cases these past few years.

The influx of Hispanics has certainly helped the Catholic numbers but the church seems in remarkable shape given its problems.

The emerging Catholic power is shown most clearly in the make-up of the Supreme Court where six of the nine justices share that faith.

Compared to Ireland where the drop-off in Catholic identification has been catastrophic, the American church has been far more solid.

But it surely points to the importance of issues such as immigration reform for the Catholic church to help increase its members.

It also shows that the old Irish dominance of the church in the U.S. will soon be a thing of the past. Cardinal Timothy Dolan in New York will likely be the last Irish prelate and end an unbroken line going back well over a century as Hispanics come to dominate.

The same poll showed that the various Protestant religions have dropped from 66 per cent of all religions forty years ago to under 40 percent.

Surprisingly, the fall-off is across the board from liberal churches to born-again southern churches.
It is an amazing drop-off especially given the media sense that the evangelicals are going from strength to strength especially in the political sphere.

America in fact is becoming more Godless, with twenty per cent saying they have no organized religion. One in five are either atheist, agnostic or of no organized religion.

I have to believe that much of that number is composed of people sick of the political interventions that religious groups continue to make.

I have always had the sense that most Americans I know consider their religion a private matter, not one to pump up in the public square.

Then again, perhaps the drift away is just an inevitable reaction to modern day life where community and church bonds have been weakened.

Either way, the Pew poll makes for extraordinary reading.

All changed it seems.

Irish donnybrook as Joe Biden versus Paul Ryan key for presidential debate -- Gift of the gab Biden versus ‘just the facts’ new politician Ryan

Irish American politicians Paul Ryan and Joe Biden gear up for their first major battle

Incredible, but the presidential race could come down to the debating skills of two Irish American politicians who were viewed as bit players just a few weeks ago.

Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan were supposed to be the afters, while the main course was Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

However, after Romney’s sensational knockout of Obama in the first presidential debate the Ryan/Biden stand-off in Kentucky suddenly looms large.

The polls are essentially tied which means that any major mistake or a similar poor showing by Biden could doom the Obama campaign suddenly on the back foot.

For Paul Ryan, a complete unknown to most Americans, it will be the first and only chance to introduce himself. Is he the cost cutter and right-wing ideologue that the Democrats paint him as or a visionary young politician who will loom as a giant some day as Republicans believe?

Biden, whose secret service code name is “Celtic” will be trying to stop the rot that suddenly pervades the Obama campaign after the president’s faux pas in the first debate.

Paul Ryan, descendant of Tipperary Famine era immigrants, will seek to continue the upward momentum and the suddenly kinder, gentler image of the Romney/Ryan campaign.

The two men could not be more different. Biden is the Irish politician of legend; warm, gregarious, and downright sentimental at times. Ryan is a more withdrawn number cruncher, bright as all hell, and someone who sees politics as a battle about ideas not sentiment.

But those stereotypes will only carry both men so far. This presidential election is a battle about core ideas and both men personify the difference even more than the presidential candidates.

It is the small government, cut and slash spending view as against the traditional model that we can solve issues through government and private partnership.

This is what will make this debate so fascinating. The American people are finally engaged after the first debate and it is game on with polls showing the race the closest since Kennedy/Nixon and Bush/Gore.

Ryan has the tougher task, introducing himself to the American people under the harsh spotlight of a desperately close presidential campaign.

He is not in Wisconsin anymore and there has to be a sense of nervousness and anxiety heading into his big night.

Biden on the other hand has been known for his verbal gaffes and has to watch that Irish gift of the gab which isn’t such a gift on occasions.

Biden was chosen in 2008 by Obama to reach that Catholic working class voter who is so crucial in swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Ryan was also picked in part because of that profile and both men will be aiming directly at the undecided vote, which contains so many Catholic working class voters.

They say Vice Presidential debates do not decide elections, but in one as close as this it could have a massive impact.

After Obama’s poor performance the pressure on Joe Biden is greater than he has ever experienced in a long political career.

But I have a funny feeling it will be the old dog for the hard road when the smoke clears.

Read more: New information on Vice President Joe Biden’s Irish roots uncovered

Read more: The Paul Ryan American dream -- fleeing famine in Ireland to Vice Presidential ticket

Thousands across U.S. gathered for Donegal-Mayo standoff -- Irish Diaspora shows up in record numbers for All-Ireland football final

Donegal become All Ireland champions for 2012

Long Island: I doubt if there has ever been a bigger crowd at the Irish Center in Mineola, New York for an Irish football game as there was on Sunday.

From early morning hundreds came streaming in from all over Long Island and Queens to see the novel final pairing between Mayo and Donegal in the All Ireland football final. It was a scene duplicated all over America and the world in Irish centers, bars and restaurants as well as online.

It was a beautiful September day, but the Irish Center crowd was much more interested to hear that the wind was blowing strongly in Ireland, which would affect the flow of the game.

By the time of the national anthem played live from Dublin’s Croke Park there was nowhere to sit and a deep sense of quiet pride was felt.

For emigrants to see Dublin’s Croke Park packed with fellow Irish, to see the Tricolor fluttering, to feel the same identity that crosses oceans and continents is always a profound moment.

Young and old, Donegal and Mayo fans as well as many neutrals came to see the Irish Super Bowl, the major game of the year between two counties who have endured massive emigration and were considered long shots to make it to the final at the beginning of the year.

The crowds at the Irish Center and elsewhere are dictated by which teams are playing, Kilkenny, hurling kingpins, will not draw any large numbers as relatively few have emigrated to the U.S. from the Leinster county.

On the other hand, Cork, Kerry, Mayo and Donegal bring out massive numbers, successive generations having left their far-flung homes in those counties to come to America.

For Mayo people, the All Ireland has become a trail of tears. Since they won their last one in 1951 they have contested six finals, including yesterday, and lost them all.

They are the Chicago Cubs of Gaelic football, lovable but always no cigar. Yet their fans continue to turn out in massive numbers as they did on Sunday, undeterred and bruised but not broken by the final result, which saw Donegal win deservedly.

Donegal are now 2 for 2 in all Ireland final appearances, their last appearance and win was twenty years ago. Like Mayo they are a county wracked by emigration and unemployment and their football team has become an emotional touchstone for Ireland’s most isolated county.

Remember, these are amateur players playing for the pride of their county and no money and a few dollars in expenses.

I spent some time in Donegal a few weeks ago and every available public space was plastered with Donegal team slogans.

Their victory will be more important to them than a Super Bowl for New York.

Donegal won, but the Irish love of sports and unique identity was the biggest winner of all. Despite all the bad news out of Ireland, the final proved once again that some Irish institutions will stand forever.

The GAA and the All Ireland football final are paramount among them.

Read more: Hills of Donegal to welcome Sam Maguire back home after stunning Croke Park victory 

Ireland needs a Minister for the Diaspora to identify next generation of Irish American leaders - Impact of men like Don Keough and Chuck Feeney greater than generations of Irish leaders

Chuck Feeney

Irish Americans such as Chuck Feeney and Donald Keough have had a more positive transformative impact in Ireland than generations of politicians there.

That was the main point I made in my speech accepting the Tip O’Neill Donegal Diaspora award in Buncrana last night before 400 people. I stated that I believed there are many other Don Keoughs and Chuck Feeneys out there in Irish America but the Irish government needs to get serious about identifying them.

It is not enough to just hold occasional Farmleigh Diaspora type meetings, make fine speeches praising the Diaspora and then let it fade until the next meeting. I believe the government should appoint a Minister for the Diaspora charged with identifying the next generation of Chuck Feeneys and Don Keoughs as well as having the minister work seriously on issues such as immigration reform in America which is very important to Irish living there as well as Irish hoping to emigrate legally.

The battle to get America involved in the peace process was very tough but a combination of far-seeing Irish government input and Irish American clout made the intervention of men like Bill Clinton and George Mitchell possible.

We need that same kind of energy and commitment now to issues like Irish American investment and immigration reform he stated. The work of Chuck Feeney and Don Keough were examples of what could be achieved.

Chuck Feeney’s $1.6 billion dollars contribution to Irish universities through Atlantic Philanthropies has meant that they can compete on the world stage and that future generations of Irish students can also compete with the best.

Before Feeney’s grant giving Irish universities lagged badly inresearch and were not equipped to cope in the modern era.

The fact that an unprecedented nine universities jointly honored Chuck Feeney this week shows just how critical his support was to them. In addition Feeney played a critical role in getting President Bill Clinton involved in the Irish peace process and funded the Sinn Fein office in Washington at a time when that organization needed every reassurance that the turn away from militant Republicanism could pay off.

Speaking about Donald Keough, I stated “He and Irish businessman Martin Naughton brought the Notre Dame Game to Ireland with its $150 million spin off for the Irish economy.”

“That game came about because of the Keough/Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame which Don Keough set up in 1993. Now it is the premier Irish Studies program in the United States and indeed world wide.

“But more than that, he established Coca-Cola in Ireland back when the IDA desperately needed major US clients to kick start Ireland’s economic development

“Today he remains a vital resource for Ireland in reaching out to other leading business leaders and discussing investment in Ireland with them,” I said.

I said I believed We needed to identify the next generation of Don Keoughs and Chuck Feeneys in the same way we need to identify the political successors to men like  Tip O’Neill who did so much for Ireland.

The Irish government should significantly ramp up its efforts to do so.

Why the Rose of Tralee remains Ireland’s most popular TV program by far -- Irish Diaspora comes alive as women from all over the world seek the crown

Daithi O Se photographed with this year's Rose of Tralee
Nicola McEvoy, Luxembourg

Ireland’s most popular program year after year drew to a conclusion last night.

No, it wasn’t the conclusion of a soap opera or a final debate for political office or a major football game.
It was the selection of the 2012 Rose of Tralee, the annual contest to find that special young woman from somewhere in the world, who best embodied the Irish spirit.

The winner, Rose McEvoy, is based in Luxembourg and when is the last time that country ever had a winner in a major competition of any kind?

One in three Irish people will have watched all or some part of the selection process for an event that runs live for two nights on national television and continues to amaze as to why so many watch.

It is not a beauty contest, there are no bikinis or fake body tans to show off.

None of the contestants are in the least famous, they are ordinary girls from major Irish cities and from all over the world.

This is the Irish diaspora come alive, with talented young women on stage and proud parents and Irish relatives all watching as well as a nation.

They call the Melbourne Cup the horse race that stops a nation, well the Rose of Tralee does the same for Ireland as millions gather to see the contestants on TV.

They are not particularly talented performers. Case in point, the Ottawa Rose this year wanted to milk a cow to show what she was best at.

They brought the cow into the studio but she proved too tough to handle so the segment was abandoned at the last minute -- not before the cow had deposited some droppings on the stage.

Where else would it happen?

I was watching some of it via internet (Thank you RTE) yesterday and it was live television at its best.
The Tyrone Rose decided she wanted to show off her Irish dancing, but in a floor-sweeping long dress that had everyone worried she’d trip over.

The South Australia Rose decided to play a card trick on presenter Daithi O Se (Our regular columnist) but got the card wrong. It was the six of diamonds, not the nine, so she accused O Se of thinking upside down.

Next up, the London Rose played a mean tin whistle which had the audience clapping and stomping but she was no James Galway.

The New York Rose Annemarie Lynch blasted out a version of Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ that rocked the dome in Tralee where the contest was being held.

The contest had that wonderful and magic blend of endearing amateurism and vulnerability that appeals to the masses.

It is the dream of generations of Irish mothers and fathers at home and abroad that some day their daughter will represent their city in the Rose of Tralee.

As the mother of the Cork Rose remarked last night, “We must have done something right,” as she viewed her vivacious daughter on stage.

What could be better than that for a parent?

Cardinal Dolan does the right thing by inviting President Obama to Al Smith dinner

President Obama and Cardinal Dolan

The decision by Cardinal Timothy Dolan to invite President Obama to the Al Smith dinner in New York is a very good political move.

Contrast that with his predecessor, Cardinal Edward Egan, who refused to invite Senator John Kerry when he was opposing President Bush.

Dolan was never going to allow himself to be caught in the meat grinder that Egan did on that occasion.

Though he is suing Obama over health care legislation Dolan knew that snubbing Obama on this occasion would cause a huge backlash.

The Al Smith dinner called after the first major Irish Catholic candidate for president, is a presidential year tradition, a night when the impact of the Catholic vote is recognized.

Cardinal Dolan does the right thing by inviting President Obama to Al Smith dinner -- Avoids the massive mistake of his predecessor Cardinal Egan who snubbed John Kerry

Dolan knew what happened his predecessor. Egan came under immense pressure and eventually kicked for touch and invited Hugh Carey as the Obama surrogate and President Bush senior as his son’s spokesman.

It all came crashing down on Egan who suffered a massive loss of prestige as a result.

With a Catholic Democratic governor in Andrew Cuomo with whom he has cordial relations, Dolan knew well that not inviting Obama would cause a huge rift.

Obama’s presence on the night will be significant. The Catholic vote is absolutely critical in this election, especially in key states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Ironically the tenets of Mormonism are far more hostile to Catholicism and potentially cause problems for Romney than anything Obama might have to say.

Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion, speaking of the vision he had to start his church noted that he asked his angel what about other religions.

"I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. He again forbade me to join with any of them;..."

Romney will obviously not be highlighting that aspect of the relationship between his religion and that of Catholicism.

Apart from the debates the men will not be seen in the same company other than at the Al Smith dinner.

Cardinal Dolan has done the right thing here and deserves credit. There is more than enough divisiveness in American politics already.

A night to remember with William Kennedy, greatest Irish American writer of his generation -- Recalling the Saratoga Springs glory days of Mafia, molls, gambling, and Irishmen

William Kennedy

Saratoga Springs: Close to 1,000 people crammed the Canfield Casino in Saratoga Springs in upstate New York on Tuesday night to absorb a talk by William Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize winning author of the great Albany novels such as “Ironweed’ “Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game”, and “Legs”.

Kennedy is the greatest Irish American writer of his generation and at age 84 looks and acts as spry as a man 30 years younger. Impeccably turned out in a white suit, Kennedy held the audience enthralled for almost two hours with tales of derring-do, gangsters, crooked pols, and influential Irishmen of the era.

Kennedy explained how Saratoga became the gambling Mecca, how they managed to fix the card games, who got paid off, what gangsters were behind the scenes, and how Saratoga eventually had to shut down its lucrative casino haunts because of political pressure.

In his long life Kennedy met many who had taken part in that golden era. His tales of those times were incredible, from the man who could control the dice when he rolled them, to how playing card manufacturers printed up entire packs of crooked cards with secret identifying signs so that the house could always win.

While nearby Albany was the font of corruption and home of political fixers, Saratoga Springs was home to the most colorful characters in America.

Mafioso legends Legs Diamond, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, and Meyer Lansky were among the hoodlums who roamed around in Saratoga at the time, as did the smooth-as-silk gangster Arnold Rothstein who allegedly fixed the 1919 World Series.

Damon Runyon was the chronicler of Saratoga, his essays today about the place as fresh as when they were written generations ago.

The creation of Saratoga gambling and racing was thanks to an Irishman, John Morrissey, a native of Tipperary, whose family brought him to America at a young age.

The town was already famous for its springs and for the high society types who made it their summer home before airplanes and Florida retreats.

Kennedy memorably described how mothers would parade their daughters up to six times a day along Broadway, looking for suitable men to marry.

Morrissey, as Kennedy outlined, grew up in poverty in nearby Troy where his family settled and he soon made his money using his fists. He parlayed his fistic prowess into becoming an enforcer for Tammany Hall, but took time off to stowaway to California when the Gold Rush hit.

There, instead of digging for gold he discovered a popular card game called Faro, found out all the tricks, and made a fortune.

Back home in New York he decided he wanted to expand gambling and horse racing in Saratoga Springs.

He achieved it in incredible fashion and it became the Mecca of the underworld and the fashionable center for summers away from New York City.

After Morrissey passed at the untimely age of 57, in 1878, Saratoga continued on its merry way until the casinos were eventually closed in the 1940s

These days the casino gambling is back legally in Saratoga Springs and the horses are running as they have almost every year since 1863 with a few pauses during the World Wars.

Bill Kennedy evoked the era, the backroom deals, the card sharps, the gangsters, their molls, the incredible atmosphere of the era, with such richness that the old Canfield Casino site where his talk took place, seemed to resonate with all the history and you could almost sense the ghosts of Morrissey and Canfield nodding approval.

Truly a night to remember with one of the greatest American writers of all.

Vicki Kennedy and the Kennedys 'brat boys' attack on her -- Ted’s widow brave in her efforts to keep the Kennedy sons in line

Vicki Kennedy pictured with Sen. Ted Kennedy

The news of a Kennedy family feud involving Vicki Kennedy, widow of Ted, and her two stepsons Patrick and Ted Junior, is hardly surprising.

It seems the family is fighting over Ted’s legacy institute and how the funding is organized as well as access to the Hyannisport house where Ted lived the last few years.

Seems the Kennedy lads wanted to use Ted’s mansion for their own ends but Vicki wants it as a permanent institute and memorial to her husband as he had specified in his will.

Some of the Kennedy clan allegedly wanted performer Taylor Swift to stay there on the recent July 4th holiday but Vicki would have none of it.

The Boston Globe revealed the feud after the brothers informed a family friend who clearly leaked it to the Boston paper. It was a pre-emptive strike against Vicki. “Brat Boys Attack” is how the Boston Herald headlined it.

My heart is with Vicki on this one. I have met her on several occasions, canvassed for a full day with her and her husband during his tough race against Mitt Romney back in 1994, and have observed her up close on many occasions since.

She strikes me as a wonderful woman, who prolonged Ted’s life and happiness and took him away from the often-sordid life he led after his first marriage breakdown.

They always seemed a special couple when I met them and she looked out for and watched over him on every occasion. You could see the love was reciprocated by him, as he clung to her like his anchor.

As for Ted’s sons, I’m afraid I have less kind things to say. Patrick was one of the most obnoxious politicians I have met, and I have met a few, full of his own importance and utterly unable to flash any of that famous Kennedy charm.

He had his problems with alcohol and bi-polar condition so it is probably not fair to go too hard on him. But like many Kennedys of that second generation, the sense of entitlement was palpable.

I remember flying to Ireland on the Clinton presidential plane on his famous visit there in 1995 and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Bobby’s daughter, insisting on two seats for herself because she felt so important. That’s the kind of entitlement I’m talking about.

Joe Kennedy junior came into my office one time for a briefing from me on Northern Ireland. By the time he stopped briefing me the session was over.

And so it goes. In fairness, I have never met Ted Junior and he gave a beautiful eulogy for his father, but I have no doubt that entitlement runs deep there too.

Vicki, on the other hand, exudes a genuine warmth and interest in people. In this particular Kennedy feud I think she is probably the aggrieved party.

Kennedy watcher Joe Battenfeld wrote in the Boston Herald: "Vicki Kennedy is right to resist demands by the family to use the house. Ted Kennedy put in his will that he wanted his historic, rambling home to become a place of learning for the public, especially young people. I'm pretty sure he didn't mean Taylor Swift."’

Amen to that.

The man who brought Notre Dame back to its Irish roots - Notre Dame/Navy game in Dublin just latest legacy of Don Keough

Don Keough (left), former Irish president Mary McAleese, and Martin Naughton 

When 35,000 Irish Americans make their way to Ireland for the Notre Dame/Navy game on September 1st, it will be the single biggest exodus of Irish Americans to Ireland in history.

Along with the supporters will come the Notre Dame marching band and hundreds of school sporting and educational administrators.

Navy will also have their share of supporters, many of whom will travel from American bases in Europe.

Senator John McCain is also considered a likely visitor and several other leading politicians have expressed interest.

It will be an economic and tourism bonanza for Ireland, which the country desperately needs. Hotels and bed and breakfasts all over Ireland are busting at the seams for that weekend.

The man who played the largest role in creating the Notre Dame presence both in Irish America and Ireland will also be a quiet visitor to inspect his handiwork.

Don Keough, now in his eighties, former Chairman of the Board of Notre Dame and founder of the Keough-Naughton Institute on the Notre Dame campus is the man who reconnected Notre Dame and Ireland.

He retains the enthusiasm and work ethic of a much younger man and his love for Ireland and Notre Dame’s Irish project is undimmed by the passing years.

While it should have seemed such a natural fit, Keough, former President of Coca Cola and now Chairman of New York investment bank Allen and Company, had an uphill fight on his hands creating the Irish connection at times.

He traces his roots to Wexford and was instrumental in Cole setting up a major operation in Ireland. However, his ambitions for Ireland spanned far wider than just business involvement.

There was a prevailing view in some circles in Notre Dame that the college did not want to be so closely tied to its Irish American identity and it needed to expand its base rather than focus on its magnificent Irish heritage.
While the leprechaun mascot and the Fighting Irish moniker was fine there was very little effort to match up the college with its Irish Catholic roots in any serious way.

Keough, whose sons and daughters attended Notre Dame, was having none of that. The Keough Institute later renamed the Keough-Naughton Institute named after Keough, and Irish businessman Martin Naughton who has played a huge role in establishing it, has now become the most sought after Irish studies program in the US.

As Notre Dame’s President John Jenkins notes: “Notre Dame’s Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies is the nation’s foremost Irish studies program, and Notre Dame has the most prominent presence in Ireland of any American university."

The Keough-Naughton Notre Dame Study Centre-Ireland is housed in historic O’Connell House in Dublin, engages in extensive cooperative agreements with Trinity College, Dublin, and University College Dublin (UCD).

It is the wellspring of all Irish activity and connectivity between Ireland and Notre Dame. It has a stellar faculty and hundreds of kids clamor to take the courses in Irish studies at Notre Dame while the Dublin campus is one of the most sought after locations for overseas study.

Side by side Keough and Naughton have developed Irish political and academic links. Prime Minister Enda Kenny went to Notre Dame last St.Patricks Day to toast the upcoming game.

College president Father John Jenkins has also become a huge booster for the Irish project.

His speech acknowledging the amazing role of Irish clergy and Notre Dame’s sacred place in the Irish American pantheon that he made at the American Irish Historical Society in New York a few years back is considered the best ever made on the topic.

When the teams trot out on the Aviva stadium pitch on September 1st before 60,000 fans many waving Irish tricolors Don Keough and Martin Naughton can take great satisfaction in what they have created.

Ireland and Notre Dame were once like two ships in the night, now they are sailing the same water s and both Irish America and Ireland are benefiting in a major way.

Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance and now Lord of the Manor -- Dance king plays host to 200 from American Ireland Fund in Cork

Michael Flatley and wife Niamh at Castlehyde

It was a perfect Irish summer’s night, the longest of the year and the Castlehyde County Cork mansion of Lord of the Dance Michael Flatley never looked better.

Once upon a time the palatial mansion and grounds had been host to some very different occupants, the antecedents of Princess Diana, the Spencers of Fermoy, who lorded it over the locals.

Doubtless they would have exhaled in horror at the visitors to their old surroundings on this very special night. Flatley no doubt would get a kick out of that.

Flatley, the Chicago-born dance genius, played host to 200 top Ireland Fund members from all over the world.

Driving through the lush Irish countryside en route to Castlehyde, which borders the Blackwater river, you could be forgiven for thinking that this part of earth is God’s acre.

Then came the thunderous rains of course, and you might indeed have second thoughts about how wonderful the visit really was.

At the mansion however, fate was restored and good work was afoot. The Ireland Fund has soared past its stated target of $100 million raised since Ireland’s downturn and will easily surpass that record.

Present to mark the occasion was co-founder US Ambassador Dan Rooney, who pronounced how moved and proud he was at the incredible progress of the organization he and Tony O’Reilly started back in 1974 with high hopes.

Michael Flatley accepted a Pittsburgh Steelers football from Rooney and made as if to launch it into outer space. Asked to speak, he was the master of brevity, merely intoning the immortal words that the bar was open and good time was being lost.

He could not have been a greater host. Like with his dance creations, the emphasis is on perfection, and the mansion, with its beautiful foyer, soaring ceilings, Irish bar - what did you expect - and exquisitely decorated rooms fitted the bill.

Michael and wife Niamh, herself a principal dancer, stood at the door and personally greeted everyone who entered. There was  no sign of little Michael, the son and heir, but his influence was obvious from his playground set to the many photos on display in the house.

Exhibits throughout the mansion frame Flatleys’career from the heights of Madison Square Garden sellouts and White House appearances to the early days when he mixed some boxing, some flute playing, some dancing and some construction work before he made it big.

And made it big he has. As he stares out over his manse, Flately must sometimes pinch himself as to how far the humble son of Irish emigrants has come.

And he has done it with class, as his mansion readily attests to. Flatley has given back to Ireland as well as Irish America.

Next year he will likely be one of the ambassadors for the Gathering, the effort to bring the worldwide Irish home. No one has greater star power or willingness to help than the Lord of the Dance. We are lucky to have him.