Why are the English cheering for the Irish at the Olympics? -- All changed utterly as old foe embraces Irish competitors

Irish Olympic team greeted with a warm reception in London

Des Cahill, an Irish sports commentator, put the cat among the pigeons yesterday when he tweeted “The English public are giving massive support to all the Irish athletes at the Olympics. It’s embarrassing, knowing it is not done in reverse.”

His tweet drew a massive response. His point was clear. At every competition where an Irish athlete was participating, the English fans cheered and clapped loudly, second only to their support of their own athletes.

It was clear from the opening ceremony that the English crowd heartily approved of the Irish team as they walked into the stadium. The US, British, and Irish teams got the largest cheers according to media who were there.

What is going on?

As Des Cahill pointed out, it is highly unlikely that the Irish, if they were hosting, would cheer as loudly for the British.

I guess it has to do with conqueror and conquered but also with more recent events which have taken the edge off the sad history.

Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ireland last year was truly a watershed. Her conciliatory actions there and the massive approval of the Irish people registered heavily in Britain, where she is seen as the ultimate class act by many.

The fact that The Troubles are over and that Londoners, in particular, no longer go around worrying that they will be targets of an IRA bombing, also improves relations dramatically.

When the violence stopped, the healing began and the relationship now is on far more equal terms.

Many Irish for their part proclaim they are still anti-British, but after seeing the work that men like Tony Blair did to make the peace process happen, not to mention the apology for Bloody Sunday and the Famine, it is hard to hold that grudge much longer.

Besides, there has been been so much intermingling over the years that the shared ethnicity is a binding factor.

Take soccer legend Wayne Rooney, born of Irish Catholic stock in Liverpool. Take Tony Blair whose childhood holidays were spent in Donegal with relatives, or take Danny Boyle, whose mother is from Galway, who pulled off the massive Olympic opening ceremony, as examples.

It is a very healthy and welcome sign that the British are cheering for the Irish in London and it is no exaggeration to say that the day will come soon when it is reciprocated in Ireland.

That is how it should be for two countries who have been so intertwined in a negative way for so long but who are now learning how to live together so much better.

The Olympics and the reception for the Irish is another step forward in the right direction.

New IRA group a bad joke but no one is laughing - Delusion of grandeur that they can end peace process

A new IRA group wants to threaten the peace process.

Yesterday the widely respected Guardian newspaper led with a story that an organization calling itself the IRA, composed of different factions of dissidents, has come together and is intent on threatening the Irish peace process.

The group is a sick joke.

The new grouping, which simply calls themselves the IRA, came together in Derry and told a Guardian journalist that a new and combined campaign against British rule would begin.

To which I say horse droppings.

For over a decade various dissident groups have tried to reignite war in Northern Ireland and failed spectacularly.

The war is over, the troubles are part of history, the new political order has the overwhelming support of the majority of all the people of Ireland.

Clearly some of the dissident groups have developed delusions of grandeur that they can change all the facts on the ground.

Maybe these new Desperate Dans need reality checks, or should try Viagra to prove their manhood if they need to threaten to kill fellow nationalists as well as unionists to prove their macho muscle.

Someone needs to tell the new and disimproved version of the IRA that they are fighting a lost war, that the train left the station some time around 1998 with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

The GFA is an attempt to find an agreed Ireland where every group and party can find access to power and be part of.

The power sharing government of Northern Ireland has smany problems but when you consder the alternative – IE this new “IRA” then you realize we have a lot to be thankful for.

Gerry Kelly former IRA leader and now a Northern Ireland Minister puts it best.

“This is further evidence that they have no strategy and their aims are as clear as mud. RAAD, for example, have claimed to be an anti-drugs group who have now joined a larger ‘dissident’ group with different aims. This move appears to be more to do with egos and personal fiefdoms than anything else.

“That is not to say that they cannot be dangerous,” Gerry Kelly cautioned.

“They have in the past killed people, the majority of whom have been from the nationalist community. However, these actions can take us nowhere.

"Meanwhile, they are happy to risk the lives and liberty of young, impressionable people to achieve nothing.

“There is no community support for these groups. They need to desist and they need to realise that they cannot achieve a united Ireland in this way

Amen to all that.

Mitt Romney aides criticize Obama for not singing British imperialist song -- In interview they claim Romney the one of 'true Anglo Saxon heritage'

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama (CREDIT : Daily News)

Are these Romney folks for real?

Some anonymous advisors claimed their man a true blue Brit proud of his “Anglo Saxon heritage” in an interview with the London Daily Telegraph.

They sniffed that Obama would never sing “Land of Hope and Glory,” the ultimate British Empire glorification song, implying that Romney would.

Are they insane?

A foreign policy team member was quoted as saying, “We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he [Romney] feels that the special relationship is special. The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.”

It was clearly an ethnic slur aimed at Obama who does not have a drop of ethnic Anglo Saxon in him quite obviously. For “did not appreciate,” read, “Isn’t quite pro-Queen and Empire enough.” ABC news reported the comments as having “perceived racial undertones.”

The New York Times stated that it was an interview “in which an unnamed Romney adviser suggests that because Mr. Romney is white he has more in common with Britain than Mr. Obama does.”

It will also upset quite a few Irish Americans, especially in key states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, who will not be too pleased to see Mitt claim his British heritage quite so enthusiastically.

Rest assured that the Irish peace process would never have happened with Romney in the White House, he would have insisted as his advisors did that the “special relationship” with the British dominated all when that process began and American help was sought

If President Clinton had felt the same way and did not have the political courage to give Gerry Adams a visa back in 1994, they might still be fighting on the streets in Northern Ireland.

Romney’s advisors furiously backpedaled afterwards but it is too late. Vice President Joe Biden, a proud Irish American, was quick to the ramparts.

“Despite his promises that politics stops at the water’s edge, Governor Romney’s wheels hadn’t even touched down in London before his advisers were reportedly playing politics with international diplomacy, attempting to create daylight between the United States and the United Kingdom where none exists,” Biden said in a statement.

“The comments reported this morning are a disturbing start to a trip designed to demonstrate Governor Romney’s readiness to represent the United States on the world’s stage. Not surprisingly, this is just another feeble attempt by the Romney campaign to score political points at the expense of this critical partnership.  This assertion is beneath a presidential campaign,” he said.

Another adviser unbelievably told the paper, “Obama is a left-winger. He doesn’t value the NATO alliance as much. He’s very comfortable with American decline and the traditional alliances don’t mean as much to him. He wouldn’t like singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory.’”

For those of you unfamiliar, “Land of Hope and Glory” is a song about the magnificence of the British Empire. No self-respecting American president would be caught dead even humming it.

  Here’s the first stanza:
Dear Land of Hope, thy hope is crowned,
      God make thee mightier yet !
   On Sov'ran brows, beloved, renowned,
      Once more thy crown is set.
  Thine equal laws, by Freedom gained,
      Have ruled thee well and long ;
  By Freedom gained, by Truth maintained,
      Thine Empire shall be strong.

Jaysus, as Paddy might say. It looks like Romney’s foreign policy boys will be setting their clocks to Whitehall time and stepping back a century or two.

“Bow, bow to the Lord High Executioner” as the British composers Gilbert and Sullivan once wrote.

Someone needs to tell Romney we have our own country now and we ditched the Brits a few centuries ago and we don’t want to sing British imperialist songs either.

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.

Sully Sullenberger’s latest mission is to make hospitals safe -- In wake of death of Rory Staunton, Sully seeks major changes

Sully Sullenberger

The voice on the other end of the phone was amazingly, that of Sully Sullenberger, the Hero on the Hudson, who had landed his stricken plane filled with 155 passengers in the icy waters off Manhattan in January 2009.

He is the last great American hero, an authentic one too, who grabbed responsibility for his plane and the lives of his passengers on that dreadful day when a flock of geese killed his engines and he had only seconds to react.

“Your nephew Rory was a remarkable young man,” he told me, “We should ensure that his death was not in vain and that some good can come out of it."

These days, Sullenberger, Irish on his mother’s side and with daughters named Kate and Kelly, is seeking to change medical  treatment as profoundly as he changed our perception that there were no more American heroes.

Soon after my sister and brother in law’s son Rory Staunton died in an horrific medical screw up at New York University’s Langone center, my brother in law Ciaran, told New York Times reporter Jim Dwyer that Rory’s hero was Sully and that he had been inspired by his heroism.

Rory had taken his first flying lesson at age 12 and Sully was his hero ever after, When Sully heard this he took the opportunity to reach out and console my brother in law and sister in a beautiful personal note to them.

It was the one time since their ordeal that I saw both of them crack a smile and give a thumbs up. “Rory would have been so proud,” said Orlaith, remembering how he had idolized the hero pilot.

Amazingly, Sully was also working on the issue that Ciaran and Orlaith will spend much of the rest of their lives on -- ensuring children and indeed, adults, are given proper attention and focus in emergency rooms all over the world.

Rory fell between the cracks, no one at NYU bothered to check out his blood test results even though they showed that he was a very sick but saveable child in the early stages of toxic shock syndrome.

For Sully, Rory epitomized everything that had gone wrong with the system where there was no responsibility, and no chain of command that followed Rory’s treatment from the moment he came to the hospital until he was erroneously checked out.

Sullenbrger wants to make the airline-hospital comparison stick. Due to better safety measures and repeated training, airlines have reduced fatalities ten fold. If such steps were taken in hospitals, countless lives would be saved, he points out.

Sullenberger has advised hospitals that the current mindset that “accidents are inevitable” must be changed to “accidents are unimaginable.”

As he said to Maureen Dowd in her column on Rory, "If something good comes from Rory's death, it will be that we realize we have a broken system...Patient care is so fragmented. For the most part, medical professionals aren't taught these human skills that some deride as 'soft skills.' So there's insufficient sharing of information and ineffective communication.”

Amen to that, and a seal of approval to Sully as he continues his latest mission to cut down on tragic hospital mistakes. There is yet another reason to be proud of this authentic American hero.

In NYC Martin McGuinness talks Queen Elizabeth and peace in our time -- Sinn Fein leader recalls historic handshake and how old enemies change

Martin McGuinness

Peace comes dropping slow in Northern Ireland.

In New York this week, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness recalled how just very recently hardline unionist Willie McCrea finally greeted him with a “hello” and recognized his existence—after 30 years or so of sharing the political space, first as enemies, now as government partners.

"That shows how the peace process has advanced nowadays," McGuinness said in an interview at our office.

Facts on the ground, communities working together, North and South, in ways that would never have been possible during the bad old days. New roads, new hospitals, and new business connections are all cementing the most successful peace process of the modern era.

Then of course there was the meeting and handshake between the former IRA commander and the Commander of the British Armed Forces, Queen Elizabeth, in Belfast recently.

“Haven’t washed my hand since,” McGuinness joked before getting serious.

He told the Queen that he acknowledged the hurt that the death of Lord Mountbatten, her relative and close confidante, who was blown up by the IRA in 1979, had caused her.

He didn’t try to slide the Mountbatten issue to one side or to elide the deep harm done in her majesty’s name to generations of nationalists.

It was an extraordinary moment he said, one that he had prepared for since the Queen made a major effort during her visit to the Irish Republic last year.

The debates in Northern Ireland these days are more likely about water rates than The Troubles. The fact that McGuinness was away from the North during the height of the Orange marching scene sends its own signal of normality.

We noted that all was changed, utterly illustrated by the fact that Lennox the dog who was condemned to die hogged the headlines over the July 12th build up.

The protestors outside the British and Irish consulates in New York last week were for Lennox, not the IRA, or attacking British perfidy.

Such is the new Northern Ireland that Martin McGuinness now jointly oversees with Peter Robinson the DUP leader.

It is a different landscape where much work needs to be done but the future looks bright indeed.

To insiders, McGuinness being greeted by Willie McCrea was every bit as big a deal as shaking hands with the Queen. Peace will continue to fall slowly but surely on the land.