Dispute over US-Ireland Alliance president testimony to Irish committee

Although I don't have much time for these leaders of these non-profits including the AIF and the US Ireland Aliance, I don't see the relevance of mentioning the AIF below, but maybe it was just for comparison purposes. What concerns me more is that fact that Irish central censors comments that don't contravene Irish Central's terms and conditions, to the extent that they delete comments/posts. Obviously Irish Central does not practice freedom of speech very well! I have recently started to read Irish Central (I will be reviewing this in light of this issue) including the comments/posts, and do not like to think that there is now a possibility that prior comments made on other articles could have been deleted for no other reason but because it seems Irish Central feels it should protect certain organizations and people it may have a relationship with. Is Irish Central a Russian or Chinese publication? If Irish Central thought it was important to delete the comments made about the AIF, what does it think the AIF has to hide? Does Irish Central have negative insider knowledge on this organization? Is there something unusual going on at the American Ireland Fund?

Is there another Irish Senator besides Mark Daly who feels as negatively about The US Ireland Alliance as you do? It seem that Mark Daly is feeding you a lot of information about the Foreign Affairs Committee's views on Trina Vargo but I dont read that he has the support of his colleagues. I dont know Mark Daly but I do know Trina Vargo, and I know her to be an honest person of integrity who has developed an excellent program through the US-Ireland. The personal attacks and vitriol from your paper's readers has been quite disappointing. Quite a nasty bunch, I would submit. Frank Duggan

I simply do not understand the roadblocks to having Ms. Vargo either open her accounts, reconcile her approach or force her to stand down. Her ethnicity has nothing to do with her overriding lack of direction in Irish/Irish-American issues and her nauseating egoism and apparent invulnerability. Charity Navigator lists neither audited financials nor 990s (Statement of Functional Expenses) on their Website. However, on GuideStar Website, the 2010 revenue is listed as $2,988,990 and expenses as $1,015,488 with no breakdown for how much is spent on programs/services. But, $30,839 spent on activities in Republic/North conducting seminars. This information is open to public scrutiny.

Niall O'Dowd, you should not be deleting our posts, you AIF puppet! Censorship at Irish Central! Tut tut.... Below is copy of my original post which was replied to by PILIB04 below: The Irish Govt. offered the American Ireland Fund (AIF) a 10 million 'gift' in 2006. At the time, the AIF board decided to "defer" acceptance of this 'gift' until such time as Ireland's economic situation improves (that was nice of them). Will the Irish Government, in particular Senator Mark Daly, demand “Ms Vargo also declined to indicate whether or not she would accede to a request that the US-Ireland Alliance income and expenditure accounts, including all itemised expenses from the last five years, be made available to the chair of the public accounts committee." from the American Ireland Fund when they finally accept this 'gift'? In 2010 more than half a million annual salary went to two Leaders of the AIF; $409K to Kieran McLoughlin and $115K to Kingsley Aikins. Nice to know where our donations are going. Compare these salaries to that which the leader of the Robin Hood Foundation (similar rating as AIF) receives. It's leader got $534K per annum (.41% of fund expenses) on revenue of approx. $140 million and net assets of 312 million, compared to salaries of the leaders of $409K (.91% of fund expenses) on revenue of $41 Million and net assets of only $9.1 million. Does this make sense? And the Robin Hood Foundation had much higher net assets and no deficit in 2010 unlike the AIF. I'm leaving the private sector as the pay is much better in the 'charity' sector!

Trina Vargo holdover from the Ted Kennedy crowd has no interest in Ireland. Wake up.

It is mandated by law that any non-profit in the US automatically has their tax returns (990's) available for public scrutiny. Lack of transparent disclosure or misleading guidance would result, at the minimum, of loosing non-profit status to the max of criminal prosecution. This person should be prosecuted. There is no "racial" bigotry here. I, as a fourth generation American of 100% Irish decent, am curious as to this individual's ties to Ireland and her motivations. What does the Board look like? Net-net, the purported intent of the program is wonderful. It needs to be run by truly philanthropic individuals who have clearly stated goals & objectives rooted in a true commitment to the advancement of Ireland developing further partnering relationships. What is her salary? What has been the return on investment. Apparently zero as she and other officers of the entity are incompetent and saw an opportunity to engage in a get rich quick scheme. They took advantage of hope that would strategically benefit both Ireland and the US. Sue for the return of all funds paid out under flagrant misrepresentation and lock her and her cohorts up! By the way, if she was not a woman, would Woodman have asked "who did HE blow to get this position"? Stupid is as stupid does (writes). Lets face it, the vast majority of the world's thieves are male.

The last time we were discussing this person's incompetence, I thought that it was resolved that all of the funding from Ireland came from a dedicated trust into which money had been put by the Irish government in the past but that no new monies were being appropriated for it in current budgets. Has this changed or does the Irish government want to redirect the procedes from the trust to current budget shortfalls? Either way, Ms. Vargo's books should be audited annually by government auditors as with any recipient of taxpayer dollars. To do otherwise risks a very large and unpleasant sucking sound eminating from the Irish Treasury.

@cillowen. Yeah, because "Gaelic" Ireland (nevermind the fact that most people in Ireland don't speak Irish Gaelic) is an impenetrable island isolated from the rest of the world. The Irish diaspora never had any interactions with Latinos. Saint Patrick's Battalion never fought for Mexico. Eamon de Valera, born to a Cuban father and Irish mother in New York City, never went back to Ireland to involve himself in the War of Independence and become president of the Republic. By the way, by no means am I seeking to defend Trina Vargo's apparent incompetence, but for goodness sake, criticize her on the merits, not your misguided racial bigotry. Lest we forget how many centuries the Irish have been on the receiving end of that.

Judge 78, check out the salaries of University Presidents.

Is she still going on about it. I thought she was sacked.

why is this latino involved in gaelic ireland's affairs

Why are they even discussing this with her? She has no documentation showing that her projects are working, she refuses to meet publicly, and her group seems to have obscenely high administrative costs. There are many other places to spend the money.

There are so many bigger priorities for Ireland right now. this US Ire alliance does not seem to address the real needs of Ireland, even at the best of times. Relatively well-to-do US students/graduates getting an all expensese paid year in Ireland? Costing tax-paying citizens millions per year? Really? How did the involved governments ever agree to this in the first place? Sure it's nice to honor Senators Mitchell and Kennedy, but this is a joke!

Ireland should not be paying for this program as it currently operates.