Cardinal Dolan right to see the light and agree to speak at Democratic convention -- Huge error appearing at Republican convention only with closing prayer

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan (Photo: AP)

Cardinal Timothy Dolan is doing the right thing speaking at both the Democratic National Convention and the Republican one.

His decision came after a storm of criticism about him appearing only at the Republican National Convention in Tampa and not at the Democratic one in Charlotte, North Carolina.

There was also news of a secret meeting between Mitt Romney and Dolan at Dolan’s office in New York which took many observers by surprise.

Why a secret meeting? Why not acknowledge out front that the Cardinal Archbishop of New York was meeting one of the two men who will be president come January next year?

Clearly Dolan, by far the most powerful figure in the American Catholic Church, was displaying a partisan approach that went down badly with many American Catholics.

On social justice issues such as immigration and caring for the poor, the church is far closer to the Democratic party.

On doctrinal issues such as abortion and church affairs, they are closer to the GOP.

The Catholic faithful are probably split in a similar manner with the more conservative wing leaning towards the Republicans and cultural Catholics siding with Democrats.

So the New York archdiocese and Dolan went ahead and finally did the decent thing and acknowledged both parts of their divided faithful.

In a statement on Thursday, the New York Archdiocese stated:

“Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, has accepted an invitation to deliver the closing prayer at next week’s Democratic National Convention. As was previously announced, he will also be offering the closing prayer at the Republican Convention on Thursday of this week.

The news of the Democratic convention gig also came after the New York Times revealed that Romney had secretly met with Dolan last month.

“The two had a private meeting, previously undisclosed, at the chancery in New York, across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, said Peter G. Flaherty, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign on religious issues.


Secret meetings and offering benedictions to one side and not the other should not be the style of the Catholic Church and its undisputed leader.


Dolan has already displayed animosity to Obama and sued him over his health care law. He has made plain his disdain for this president and his policies.

On the other side, he positively gushed in a recent radio interview about GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan who hails from his home state of Wisconsin.

It has become obvious for some time that Cardinal Dolan loves his media image and pumps it up at every opportunity.

He positively preens in the spotlight which is harmless enough, but putting the Catholic Church squarely on the side of the Republicans was a major mistake.

It does not seem that long ago that Protestant churches mounted a savage campaign against Catholic John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Many of those churches never fully recovered from the backlash to that onslaught.

This is a deeply divided society right now, even at the level of the US Bishops where some have criticized VP candidate Paul Ryan for targeting his budget cuts at the poor.

Cardinal Dolan should have really known better than to totally align himself with one side.

Luckily he has seen the light.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly gets rave reviews for handling of Empire State shootings - Talk of run for New York mayor against Christine Quinn will be revived

New York City Police Commisioner Ray Kelly

New York is lucky to have in Police Commissioner Ray Kelly a man who inspires confidence and embodies authority when a crisis hits New York.

Yesterday, when a gunman shot a former co-worker and two police officers shot him dead at the Empire State Building, Kelly was on the scene in a flash and within two hours had issued a complete account of what happened to the massed ranks of press.

It was a typical Kelly performance, crisp, confident and all business. Ironically standing behind him was the woman he could face in a race for New York Mayor next year if he so chooses to run.

Republicans in the city salivate at the idea that Kelly might run for them in 2013. He is the only candidate they could lure who could win the office. While he has not ruled out a run, it might take a lot for the 70-year-old to throw his hat in the ring.

Christine Quinn, the City Council speaker, took the opportunity of the shooting and the fact that it occurred in the district she represents to look tough on crime and tie herself to the popular mayor and police commissioner.

In every camera shot she was square jawed and serious, standing either directly beside or behind the mayor and the commissioner.

The word is Kelly and Quinn are not bosom buddies and the body language between them certainly indicated that.

It is easy to see why. According to polls, Quinn is easily outstripping her Democratic opponents and Kelly may be the only remaining block to her becoming mayor.

Kelly would certainly have a major shot, especially in the white Catholic boroughs where he would be very popular.

Chances are that he won’t run but it is no sure thing. In his response to the Empire State Building killings, Kelly showed again his calmness under pressure and ability to inspire confidence and a feeling of security.

Those are handy attributes if you are thinking of getting into the political game.

NYPD top cop Ray Kelly may be all wrong in the Etan Patz case -- Latest suspect Pedro Hernandez just one of three so far to be fingered

NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly

The Etan Patz murder 33 years ago was one of the most significant in America's crime history.

Nothing was ever the same again after the six-year-old left his parent's West Village apartment  in New York to walk to school alone for the first time.

He never made it and his murder had never been solved.

Many crime experts date the explosion of fear in America over crime to that killing - the moment when we all felt less safe

Now it may become significant again for a very different reason.

Police Chief Ray Kelly has essentially accused a 51-year old, Pedro Hernandez, of carrying out the killing.

Except there is no evidence other than a confession by Hernandez whose family admits he has deep psychiatric problems.

There is no body, no witnesses, no physical evidence linking him to the crime.

If Hernandez withdraws his confession the police have no case.

Worse, a man called Jose Ramos, a convicted pedophile, was ruled to have committed the crime in a civil case by a Manhattan judge in 2004.

"Investigators both from federal prosecutors' office and the FBI over an extended period of time built up a tremendous amount of circumstantial evidence," Murray Weiss, a police reporter who covered the Patz case told CBS.

The lawyer for the Patzs , Brian O'Dwyer, said at the time that winning the lawsuit made it clear. "The point is to establish once and for all that Ramos is responsible for Etan's death."

So who is it, Hernandez or Ramos?

Or maybe it is someone else altogether; just a few weeks back cops tore apart a basement seeking to link a third man, Othniel Miller, to the killing.

They found nothing but Miller’s estranged wife claimed he confessed to the crime.

So that's three suspects right there.

When the Lindbergh child killing happened in 1932, over thirty delusional people admitted to the crime.

The Etan Patz case is getting just as crazy.

Ray Kelly may well have made a massive mistake here. First the press conference essentially announcing guilt, then the arrest, then the trial, then the verdict..

It is all backwards, like this tragic case has long been.

I believe it is a case almost impossible to solve bar some incredible evidence find.

"It's going to be very difficult to convince a jury," Larry Kobilinsky, a doctor of forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told CBS .

"Normally we collect the physical evidence and talk to the witnesses; then we catch a suspect, interrogate him and then sometimes they confess," said Kobilinsky. "This is just the reverse."

He has it right.

Why a brain dead immigration policy is harming America -- New York Mayor calls for more and smarter immigration, not less

Mayor Mike Bloomberg addresses a crowd on the topic of immigration

Occasionally a politician speaks truth to power, and New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg did so on Tuesday.

He pointed out that in 1991, 18 percent of Canada’s and America’s immigrants were rated as highly skilled.

Then he stated that in 2011, Canada’s percentage had soared to 67 percent, while the United States was falling further behind, at 13 percent.

What an obvious idea Canada had, bring in the best and brightest and watch your economy thrive—it certainly has compared to the US.

He also stated that the only solution for destroyed inner city areas, such as in Detroit, was to import thousands of immigrants to bring back the vitality and energy.

“I would argue the federal government should go one step further. They should deliberately force some places that don’t want immigrants to take them, because that’s the only solution for these big, hollowed-out cities where industry has left and is never going to come back unless you get some people to move there,” he stated.

He knows because New York would be just as dead without the immigrant neighborhoods and workforce that ensure the city continues to thrive.

America has moved so far from its immigrant roots to the point that now there is a widespread effort to prevent immigration rather than encourage it.

Thus, even much needed software engineers, and highly skilled workers, are being refused entry and turning elsewhere.

President Obama is no hero as Bloomberg pointed out; he has deported more immigrants than any president before him and done nothing on immigration reform.

Bloomberg also suggested that federal government allow states to set their own immigration policies.

Seeing as right-wingers are essentially doing that in Arizona and Alabama anyway, I agree with him.

Canada has done this successfully, allowing each state to set its own immigration policy and adapt to its needs.

Let them come to New York, where the vibrant city with its hundreds of ethnic neighborhoods, bottom level crime rate, and decent employment show the way.

Well-done Mayor Mike for speaking truth to power. No doubt the tight asses who want to close off America will soon be on your case talking the usual rubbish.

Murdered Irish bar owner and a rape victim share different fates -- Judges decide 75 years for rape and only 3.5 years for murder

George Gibbons' father and siblings stand in front of the Court after Monday's sentencing. (Credit: Queens Ledger)

A Queens New York judge this week sentenced Peter Rodriguez to 3 and half to 7 years in jail for snuffing out the life of George Gibbons, a beloved Irish bar owner in Queens.

On Monday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers gave a 75-year to life sentence to former NYPS cop Michael Pena for grabbing a 24-year-old teacher off the street. The jury was unable to decide whether Pena was guilty of rape.

The victim was a new schoolteacher on her way to her first day at work.

Pena will be 103 before being eligible for parole. Rodriguez 36,will be under 40.

The disparity in sentencing makes for an incredible contrast

Horrific as the rape crime was, family can still hold and touch the schoolteacher and comfort her. Hopefully with time she can move on and make a good life for herself.

I’m not saying the sentence was not justified

But George Gibbons lies in a lonely grave and his killer got off with a wrist slap.

Where is the justice?

Peter Rodriguez had a previous record when he drove the wrong way, likely drunk, on the Long Island expressway. After killing George he fled the scene and was not arrested for days.

I know the Gibbons family well and there is no Irish family as well respected.

Their loss was tragic and a community mourned with them. On Monday, 100 people showed up in court to question why Rodriguez got such a light sentence.

Eddie Gibbons, George’s uncle, now deceased, was a leading figure in the community for years.

His store and pub, the Poteen Still, was a home from home for many, making the Irish papers available in his store and playing a leading role in helping out young Irish undocumented.

Eddie's brother, George senior, is cut from the same cloth, a man renowned for his good deeds and his work tin helping Irish immigrants, and his kids have carried on the great family tradition.

Now they are shattered and to add insult to injury Rodriguez has got a slap on the wrist.

Where does the justice come in? How much was George Gibbons’s life worth?

Not that much according to a Queens DA and a judge who agreed a plea deal.

Sometimes the system sucks.

Biggest ever Irish American fundraising dinner breaks all records-- American Ireland Fund New York event one for the record books

Kieran McLoughlin, President & CEO of The Worldwide Ireland Funds and Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chairman of The American Ireland Fund, brief Michael D. Higgins President of Ireland on the milestone announcement that The Worldwide Ireland Funds Promising Ireland Campaign has overtaken its $100 million goal 19 months early.

The biggest fundraising dinner in the history of Irish America or indeed Ireland, took place last night at the Lincoln Center in New York.

The American Ireland Fund raised a staggering $4.3 million blowing away all previous records.

They also announced they had reached their $100 million fundraising goal 19 months early.

I was glad to be present at an Irish milestone that did not involve record debt, unemployment or some other bad news that has bedeviled the Irish in these trying times.

Looking around the packed Lincoln Center venue where over 1,300 had gathered, it seemed every prominent Irish American business man and woman from the New York area was in attendance—a resounding vote of confidence in the AIF and the work they do.

The AIF was rightfully, shouting from the rooftops that Irish America has delivered once again for Ireland’s most worthy charities and in the process confirmed what a giving hand Irish American have.

The Ireland Funds' Chairman Loretta Brennan Glucksman, announced that the Promising Ireland campaign to raise $100 million for charities had not only reached its goal 19 months ahead of schedule, but had also exceeded its target.

Chief Executive and President Kieran McLoughlin revealed that the campaign total now stands at over $120 million.

All this was achieved during the toughest economic times in recent history which makes it even more impressive.

I’m glad that the new Irish president Michael D. Higgins was present to see and hear the extraordinary news. He can certainly bear the glad tidings back to an Ireland awash in negativity where any good news is surely deeply appreciated.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan was the guest of honor on the night and he spoke impressively of his own Irish journey, his people were famine-tossed arrivals in America in the 1850s and now he runs the largest bank in the world with over 238,000 employees.

Despite his incredible rise he has never forgotten those Irish who risked all in order to make it possible for him in America.

Both Loretta Brennan Glucksman and Kieran McLoughlin deserve enormous credit for reaching the milestone.

The AIF under them is simply an organization that outgrown its elitist image and has become far more responsive and attuned in both America and Ireland to community needs and wants.

They have $ 500 million in their sights now, after announcing that the overall total raised by the Ireland Funds since inception is now $430 million

Other VIPs attending included Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg; New York Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly; Speaker of New York City Council, Christine Quinn; Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel; and celebrated author Colum McCann. Martha Stewart was also in attendance.

I spent a fascinating few minutes with former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt who had certainly made the headlines recently in a spectacular divorce case.

He and brother David, now a major investor in Ireland, were clearly enjoying the night.

It was that kind of evening, there’s nothing quite like a rip roaring Irish party, especially when there is something to celebrate.

The AIF has done Ireland and Irish America proud.

New Irish president impresses major Irish Americans -- President Michael D Higgins lays out vital role of emigrant Irish for Ireland audience in New York

Michael D Higgins speaking at the IN-NYC (Credit:James Higgins) 

Ireland’s new president, Michael D. Higgins, is a public intellectual turned politician, the best since Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president.

Intellectuals do not do politics normally, which makes Higgins an unusual case to begin with.

But last night at the American Irish Historical Society in Manhattan, the glittering building on Fifth Avenue across from the Metropolitan Museum, Higgins proved how wise the Irish electorate were in choosing him.

It was no easy crowd to please, a pastiche of Manhattan Irish great and good, many jaded by years of such events.

But you could hear a pin drop during his remarks.

Higgins, 71, delivered the annual Thomas Flanagan lecture with aplomb and vision, making favorable comparisons in many minds with his predecessors Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson.

You don’t get more complimentary than that.
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New Irish president impresses major Irish Americans


Chinese are coming and building one of the biggest developments in Ireland
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Well maybe you can -- Don Keough, Chairman emeritus of the AIHS board and former Coca Cola President and Notre Dame Chairman stated that the Higgins comments were the best he had heard on the relationship and would reverberate in history and would be studied by future historians.

Fulsome praise indeed from the man who many consider the unofficial leader of Irish America.

The theme was the Irish need and ability to reinvent themselves at a time when the country desperately needs to do so again.

Higgins stressed that the Irish abroad were a vital part of that reinvention, that the very act of emigrating forces a major reinvention and remaking of the self to begin with.

Higgins stated that the Irish in Ireland had much to learn from the ability of the Irish in America to surf those treacherous waters, to reinvent themselves and climb up from starving Famine refugees to the pinnacle of American life.

He also showed how Irish America had helped save aspects of Ireland and its culture. Francis O’Neill, a Chicago policeman, had collected and saved thousands of Irish airs and musical pieces and sparked the later Celtic music revival music for new generations.

He noted that without the support of men like John Devoy and John Boyle O’Reilly, Irish self-determination such as it is would never have been achieved.

Higgins spoke of the despairing tone of the editorials in the Times of London after the Famine when they realized the Irish were spread to the four winds and the memory of what Britain has done during the Famine would never be forgotten. The Times was indeed prescient in that.

Higgins will play a vital role in Irish and Irish American relations these next seven years of his presidency. He is able to articulate and identify the ties that bind and his presidency will be an important buffer against little Irelanders who want nothing to do with the Diaspora and denigrate it every chance they get.

Higgins clearly thinks very differently and his trip to America is making that clear.

As Doctor Kevin Cahill, President General of the AIHS, stated, “President Higgins represents the nobility - and mobility – of the Irish people, both at home and abroad.”

The universal respect for him came from “his unquestioned command of all aspects of the culture of his people, and from the respect and affection that he had won across the political spectrum.”

Indeed.

Reflections on reaching one million unique readers monthly on Irish Central

A screen grab from IrishCentral's launch day.

Dear Reader;

I've started five publications in my life, all of them survived, but none cost me as much anxiety and stress as IrishCentral.

The others were magazines and newspapers, arenas I knew well, and the fundamentals were the same with all.

IrishCentral was the opposite, a complete leap in the dark into an arena I only dimly understood, full of technology terms and new delivery methods that made my head spin.

I was in my mid fifties, stuck in my ways, barely able to turn on my laptop and the new arena looked like a battlefield against unknown and powerful forces to me.

In the early days, back in 2009, I was seriously worried I would ever get the hang of it.

We had picked wisely in one respect however, a staff that were utterly dedicated to ensuring that it would survive.

In those early days I wondered myself.

It is only three years but that is a lifetime in Internet terms.

In those times we kept plugging away convinced our vision of a multi media site for the Irish Diaspora would work out.

Some others had tried but had foundered.

What we had was our other publications, Irish Voice, Irish America Magazine, Home and Away and the collective wisdom about the Irish in America we shared .

We also knew that irrespective of the medium the fundamentals applied. Good stories, well written, well packaged is the lifeblood of any successful media operation no matter what medium.

We started with 4,000 people a day,coming to the site then it rose to 10,000, then 15, then 20, then 30 and now averaging 35,000 a day which is over one million a month now and still growing.

One million uniques is the magic number which says you have arrived the experts say, a place only 5 per cent of sites ever reach, the moment when you go from hopeful to confident.

In a business where nine out of ten start-ups fail it is a gratifying sight.

I learnt so much. I learnt to read the Google analytics chart which is the bible of this business like an old pro. Google lets you know hour by hour who is coming to your site, how many, what they are reading and how long they stay.

Then there's Chartbeat, which lets you know literally, second by second, who is coming to your site, whether they are reading or writing, where in the world they are coming in from.

It is an instant feedback world, one I could never have imagined when I purchased my first typewriter in 1979 in San Francisco and went about putting out my first newspaper with all of $938 dollars.

The world has changed so much since that I feel as if I'm on an unfamiliar ocean on a voyage to God knows where.

But it is wonderful too, to test and challenge yourself every day, to push the envelope of your knowledge and to learn new tricks, even when some days you feel like the oldest dog in the kennel.

With age truly does come wisdom of sorts, especially in a job like this. It the kind of wisdom that allows you to understand that doing your level best is the best you or anyone else can do and to hell with the begrudgers after that.

But it also gives you the gift of gratitude to so many readers for supporting this site, to the investors and advertisers who keep it alive and to a wonderful staff who give it everything every day.

So here's to the next monthly 2 million and the 3 million after that. The internet is an unbroken journey without end ,with new terrain every day and a far distant mountain always waiting to be climbed.

Thanks for being along for the ride .

Slainte.
Niall