Why Rory McIlroy is happier to be British and not Irish -- No history of Irish nationalism in area where he grew up

Graeme McDowell, right, and Rory McIlroy walk behind the Tricolour during
the Opening Ceremony of the World Cup in Hainan Island, China, last year  (Photo: Getty)

I think I know why Rory McIlroy is happier with his British identity rather than his Irish one.

It starts with North Down, the area he comes from.

For the length of The Troubles, North Down was never a hot bed of nationalism, preferring most of the time to send very moderate nationalist politicians to local assemblies.

To this day Sinn Fein has no real traction in the area and despite the death of a relative at the hands of Loyalist killers, McIlroy grew up unaffected by the aftermath of the Troubles.

It is also an historical legacy. Unlike Tyrone and Armagh where the planters were brutal and drove the Catholics off the land and persecuted and damned them, in Down the occupation was much more gently handled.

This led to better relations between the communities there than almost anywhere else in Northern Ireland.

McIlroy is following men like Lord Ballyedmond, formerly Eddie Haughey, another highly successful Catholic businessman from close by to McIlroy, who assumed the British mantle as well.

So McIlroy was insulated from much of the bad stuff growing up and indeed in the post-troubles era his choice of British as his identity is not a complete shock.

He is too young or too successful to have studied the history too much I imagine or his family has made peace with the other side a long time ago perhaps.

Yet when you visit Northern Ireland you immediately become aware of the scope and intent of the original plantation.

All the good land was taken by the Protestants and their holdings tended to literally look down on the Catholic patches where they drove off the natives.

If you visit Stormont, the seat of government, you see how the massive building with its triumphal statue of Carson looks down from a height on the deprived nationalist neighborhoods below.

The history is rife with Protestant triumphalism, Derry, the leading Catholic city still does not have a proper motorway to Belfast – the best roads always led to Protestant towns.

Equally, when a second university was to be built it was sited in Coleraine and not Derry so that Protestants could take better advantage.

Up until the 1970s and the civil rights movement, there was not even one-man one vote. People with property, always Protestants, were entitled to extra votes.

Ironically, an example of this arrogance was on display with McIlroy's former golfing counterpart, David Feherty, now with CBS Sports. During the Notre Dame game in Dublin, Feherty, a Protestant,  made the claim that Gaelic football and hurling were not played in Northern Ireland -- even though they are by far the most popular games in nationalist areas.

Those bad days are behind us but driving through the North the other day I could not miss the triumphal Ulster flag flying that still goes on both on the motorway to Belfast and then from Belfast to Derry.

The bad days are over, nationalists are now in a power sharing government and men like Rory McIlroy are free to make a choice that would have been almost impossible a generation ago.

It is still one that will grate with many, especially many Irish Americans I’d wager. Then again I’d rather cheer Padraig Harrington anytime just to see the Tricolor wave after a major tournament.

The Northern Ireland flag, flown by a Protestant like Graeme McDowell, will never bother me in the slightest, flown by a Catholic like Rory, however, will never seem quite right to me.

Read more: Rory McIlroy denies that he has decided to play for Britain in the 2016 Olympics

Irish government cuts to the disabled show they are badly out of touch -- Will they now tackle the unions and the welfare entitlements?

Group of disabled Irish people protest proposed government cuts

DUBLIN: I drove past Leinster House, the Irish parliament building in Dublin, last week and saw an extraordinary sight.

Protesting outside were scores of disabled people, many without arms and legs, because the government had stated they were cutting the budget for their helpers. The protestors were almost outnumbered by the media.

The airwaves were full of their plaintive complaints that their caregivers were being laid off because of budget cuts.

The images and interviews were horrible for the government and they quickly reversed the cuts. But it left a trail of damage behind.

The immediate question was what kind of government could do such a thing to the most vulnerable of all in their community?

They will argue differently of course, that they have no choice given the demand by European authorities that they slash their budgets.

Yet the few million or so in cuts that would sever help to the disabled hardly seem worth the human cost. The government seemed unable to comprehend how bad the optics from the cuts to the most vulnerable would be.

The fact is that the disabled looked like an easy target and the Irish government has yet to confront the elephants in the room when they talk about cutting.

The Croke Park agreement, which set benchmark increases for public union workers who mostly have government jobs, remains the most controversial deal that this Fine Gael/Labour government is abiding by.

It freezes massive amounts of money and sets them aside for public union workers pay increases and increased government benefits.

The deal was struck by the previous government during the Celtic Tiger and all seemed fine at the time as it allowed the government workers to share the wealth with the private sector, which was booming.

That day is long gone and private sector workers have had their benefits slashed and pensions decimated.

Yet the government has refused to touch the public union contracts with the government workers agreed under the Croke Park deal. The Labour Party is deeply entrenched with public unions, which makes it even more difficult to tackle them. But the pressure is mounting, especially as $3 billion dollars in further cuts have to be made.

Ireland’s very generous welfare allowances have also been left untouched. The Sunday Business Post this weekend reported that the IMF has told the Irish government must target those welfare deals such as extra money for every child you have.

Does the Irish government have the stomach to tangle with the public unions and the welfare entitlement programs?

Certainly, given the disastrous experience of how they handled the cuts to the most vulnerable in wheelchairs there is no guarantee they will handle it effectively.

If they do not they may face an election a lot sooner than they would wish.

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.

Chuck Feeney Ireland’s greatest Irishman, gets a proper honor at last -- Shy and secretive billionaire steps forward to accept the plaudits

Chuck Feeney speaks at a book party for his biography, Sept. 24 at the Mutual of America Building in New York City. (Credit: Nuala Purcell)

They came to praise Chuck Feeney yesterday in Dublin at Dublin Castle and it was about time.

Nine universities, a former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, and the current Prime Minister Enda Kenny gathered at the former seat of British power in Ireland to pay their respects.

I was delighted to be there to witness the long overdue tribute to the man who may well be the most important Irish person of the last half century.

He has singlehandedly boosted Irish education standards for generations with his phenomenal gift giving to Irish universities.

But typically, the man himself has resisted all efforts to honor him, preferring the quiet places and lifestyle that have marked his career. Incredibly, yesterday was his first honorary degree.

Yet in recent years he decided that his plan which he entitled "Giving while living" had to receive the oxygen of publicity and he had to step out and become a more public figure.

One of his first events was at our magazine Irish America's Hall of Fame induction luncheon last year. Yesterday was another step in his creation of a public persona.

His giving while living concept is simple. You can't take it with you and there are no pockets in a shroud.

Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and other billionaires have listened and met with Feeney and he has had a remarkable impact on them since he has gone public.

Both men have agreed a similar type strategy when it comes to their billions. The world is a lot better place as a result.

Feeney has given $1.6 billion to university institutions the length and breadth of Ireland, North and South, and allowed them to be competitive with universities everywhere.

Generations of Irish students, trained to the hilt in research methods and new avenues of exploration and confident in their abilities, have gone forth and will continue to do so because of the incredible generosity of Feeney.

Could there be anything more important for this next generation of Irish facing the challenges they have?

Chuck Feeney has " transformed Ireland's higher education and research capacity and had used his wealth in the 'spirit of the true benefactor." Mary Robinson said.

Prime Minister Kenny stated that Feeney was "an extraordinary man who has made an extraordinary contribution to Ireland."

I am happy to have been part of his other great contribution to Ireland, the peace process. He was one of a small group of Irish Americans I put together who convinced Bill Clinton to become involved back when most people thought we were mad to even try.

Feeney played a critical role in that American dimension too .

For that and all the other good things he has done for Ireland, Feeney may well be the most important Irishman of the last half century. No one has left a more significant mark both in today's terms and for future generations.

Which is why it was great to be there yesterday and see at last, a major acknowledgement of that. And Chuck Feeney wore a tie for the occasion, which  he is loathe to do --- so it must have been very important to him!

Hillary Clinton is the big winner after powerful Bill Clinton speech -- Obama forced to back her in 2016 after Bill saves his bacon - VIDEO

President Obama applauds Bill Clinton after his speech at the
Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night

Mr President Obama, meet your new best friend, Mr President Clinton.

Please also tip your hat to Mr President Clinton's spouse, Hillary Clinton who may well now be Mrs President Clinton in 2016 .

In all my years I have never heard a better Clinton speech than what he delivered to the Democratic National Convention last night.

Barack Obama owes him big time.

The payoff for Bill Clinton is obvious. If President Obama is re-elected he is now forced to back Hillary if she runs in 2016.

Hillary was the biggest winner next to Barack Obama last night.

Though she's in China on a State Department mission, her presence loomed large in the convention hall after Bill's stemwinder.

Democrats love the old dog, especially when he is let off the porch as Clinton was last night .
Clinton recently has  looked older, has lost some of his booming cadence, and sometimes sounds very weary on stage.

Last time I heard him in County Cork at the American Ireland Fund dinner there he appeared punch drunk from a long flight and gruelling schedule and I wondered if the old master was losing a step or two.

I should not have worried.

I've been listening to him and supporting him since 1990 when he was an obscure governor from Arkansas.

I always knew he could deliver a stemwinder but this DNC speech was a tsunami compared to to the minor Atlantic wave disturbances we heard from the GOP.

It hit the spot at exactly where Democrats wanted it.

For the past two years many have bemoaned the inability of leading Democrats to articulate how they feel they are being stymied and blocked at every turn by Republican extremism..

The feeling most Democrats have is that the Republicans have gone as far right as Democrats went left with George McGovern.

Most Dems I know want to cross the aisle and work together, they want to make things work, but feel that Republicans have blocked everything in sight and they are frustrated that the electorate does not see that.

Last night Clinton caught all that beautifully with his single comment that, ”We believe ‘we’re all in this together’ is a far better philosophy than ‘you’re on your own.’”

Don't just take my word for it; two battle hardened national  journalists who are the last word when it comes to cynical assessment of politicians, both told me it was the best speech by Clinton they had ever heard.

And Hillary no doubt thinks so too!

Here, courtesy of Politico.com are the 15 best lines as they saw them:

1. ”We believe ‘we’re all in this together’ is a far better philosophy than ‘you’re on your own.’”

2. “Democracy does not have to be a bloodsport. It can be an honest enterprise.”

3. “Senator, I hate to break it to you, but we’re going to keep President Obama on the job!”

4. “One reason we need to reelect President Obama is he is still committed to constructive cooperation.”

5. “So here’s another jobs score: President Obama plus 4.5 million, congressional Republicans zero.”

6. “No president, no president — not me or any of my predecessors, no one, could have repaired all the damage he found in just four years. But he has laid the foundation for a new, modern, successful economy, of shared prosperity, and if you renew the President’s contract you will feel it. You will feel it.”

7. “So are we all better off because President Obama fought for health care reform? You bet we are.”

8. “When Congressman Ryan looked into that TV camera and attacked President Obama’s Medicare savings as quote ‘biggest coldest power play,’ I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Because that 716 billion dollars is exactly, to the dollar, the same amount of Medicare savings that he has in his own budget. It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.”

9. “You won’t be laughing when I finish telling you this.”

10. “As their campaign pollster said ‘we’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.’ Now that is true. I couldn’t say it better myself.”

11. “I think this [debt] plan is way better than Gov. Romney’s plan. First, the Romney plan fails the first test of fiscal responsibility: The numbers don’t add up.”

12. “We simply cannot afford to turn the reins of government over to someone who will double down on trickle-down.”

13. “Now people ask me all the time, how we go four surplus budgets in a row. What new ideas did we bring to Washington? I always give a one word answer: Arithmetic.”

14. “The most important question is, what kind of country do you want to live in? If you want a you’re-on-your-own, winner-take-all society, you should support the Republican ticket. If you want a country of shared prosperity and shared responsibility — a we’re-all-in-this-together society — you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

15. “Though I often disagree with Republicans, I actually never learned to hate them the way the far right that now controls their party seems to hate our president and a lot of other Democrats.”

A glimpse of sun a powerful morale boost for Ireland -- Doom and gloom of wet summer suddenly swept away

The "Old Sol" shining on Dingle in County Kerry (Photo:EmeraldIslePhotos)

Well reader I took a drive from Dublin to Dingle, about 180 miles, on a glorious Sunday after the Notre Dame/Navy match and all was well with the world.

I'm not a particularly lucky person but over the years for some reason, whenever I go to Ireland the weather is usually good -- no matter the time of year.

The millions worldwide watching the Notre Dame game the previous day would have surmised that we were all living in sunny Spain.

The hot sun beaming across the Aviva stadium and reflecting back on the TV cameras made it seem like a Florida beach day more than an early September one in Dublin's fair city.

Rare is the sun over here this summer.

So rare that for a joke the other day I sent our Irish correspondent Patrick Counihan a picture of the yellow orb, otherwise known as Old Sol or the sun, just so he would recognize it if he ever saw it again. His reply was unprintable.

They have had the worst summer in decades but as I made my merry way through counties Kildare, Laois, Tipperary, Limerick, and Kerry, the sun split the rocks and kids and parents in shorts and T shirts were hell bent on making it to a beach someplace.

The Irish landscape in the hot sun is a summer Eden, there are few countries on earth that blossom so much in great weather and look so dull and dank in bad.

I stopped in a little pub somewhere between Tralee and Dingle to watch the All Ireland football semi final between Mayo and Dublin. Dublin were the overwhelming favorites and to everyone's utter shock Mayo gave them a footballing lesson. The locals in the pub, Kerrymen all, the most knowledgeable people on earth about Gaelic football, were plainly shell shocked

It was glorious to see as the unfancied Westerners showed the famous Dubs how it was done , racing to a ten point lead early in the second half.

They were so far ahead that I decided to drive on to Dingle, content that Mayo would get a crack at their first All Ireland win since 1951, when they faced Donegal in the final on the third Sunday in September.

The glorious uncertainty of sport is reflected in that pairing. You would have got 50/1 on that pair meeting in the All Ireland final at the start of the year.

Little did I know, right after I settled back in the car, happy as Larry, the radio commentary revealed a slight hitch in proceedings.

Between Tralee and Dingle it was white knuckle stuff as Dublin launched what would have been an incredible comeback that fortunately for Mayo just fell short as I drove into Dingle.

Dingle was its incredible self. My sister was waiting when I got to her house seven miles west in Ballydavid, a little village that looks out on the broad Atlantic and the grand sweeping vistas that make this one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Later that night a massive harvest moon overhung our little village and the quay was thronged with revelers and kids enjoying the Indian summer.

The local pub, Tig TPs, was doing a roaring trade, and the hot weather is set to continue this week.

As I said, all is well with the world.

Irish pride and power spill over as Notre Dame triumph over Navy - What Irish and American dreams are made of in the Emerald Isle

Notre Dame

Dublin: In years to come hardcore Notre Dame fans will ask “Were you there?” when this Dublin game against Navy is discussed.

I predict it will be right up there with many of the great moments of this storied college.

What a day to be both Irish and American.  If you were not proud of your heritage in Dublin on Saturday then you lack an emotional bone in your body.

It started early at the Aviva Stadium.

I‘m a sucker for two national anthems, the Irish and U.S. ones.

Hearing them both played at the commencement of the Notre Dame/Navy football game at the astonishing Aviva Stadium in Dublin was a deeply emotional moment.

The Aviva is built acoustically to keep the sound waves in, to magnify the impact of the home crowd and as the thunderous anthems rolled across the stadium I saw many in tears.

This was the homecoming to beat the band, the day that Ireland saw what the legend of Notre Dame meant to so many millions of Irish Americans as 35,000 fans made the pilgrimage across the Atlantic.

The Fighting Irish ran out 50 –10 winners, giving a high-octane performance no doubt fueled by the emotion of the homecoming and the historic nature of the clash.

Somewhere coach Brian Kelly’s Irish antecedents were waking up the echoes, pointing to the great-grandson of Irish emigrants doing them so proud back in the old sod.

The Irish are sponsoring a year long “Homecoming” inviting the Diaspora back in 2013 but the Notre Dame 2012 event will trump anything ever again.

It will simply never be matched. For the best part of the week every location on this island has felt the power and emotional strength of that Diaspora that so many pay lip service to but never fully acknowledge.

The spangled banner stretched from Kerry in the south to Belfast in the North and points east and west. For a country so troubled economically it was manna from heaven. But there was emotional sustenance too, the sense of a tribe reuniting, if only for a brief time.

The Irish National Anthem contains the words “Buion Dar Slua, Thar Toinn De Ranaig Chughainn.” Roughly translated it is an explicit recognition of “Those who have come, of our ancestral race, from a land beyond the wave."
It was a recognition of the Irish who left and the generations they bred who still cared deeply about the land.

It was a clear reference to the Irish in America, and at the Aviva stadium on Saturday they did indeed come in their tens of thousands from the land beyond the waves.

You could not imagine a more picture perfect scenario. The leaden Irish skies of summer gave way to a brisk autumnal day, reminiscent of South Bend in the fall.

The CBS network carried the images back across the broad Atlantic, and one can only speculate how many watching will be stirred to make that homecoming journey too.

The game was the vision of two men, Irish businessman Martin Naughton and his American counterpart Don Keough, former President of the Coca Cola Company. The two should be renamed the “Sunshine Boys” for the ray of light they shone on Ireland yesterday at a time of tough economic tides.

Sunshine it was, and sunshine it hopefully will be and a weekend to remember --one of the best ever in fact.