Periscope

in Belfast on Monday morning (Credit: Reuters)

Don’t look now but President Obama’s trip to Northern Ireland is coming at a critical time.

Contrary to some opinion it is a vital visit.

community in Boston than these people have ever had. It is now clear why.

The first-ever Irish American Sports 50 was put together by Irish Voice editor Debbie McGoldrick and business manager John Dillon. Judging by the success it won’t be the last!

While the hurricane shattered many lives, it also engendered a new spirit of community and togetherness in an area that now badly needs both. It was indeed an ill wind, but as usual the Irish have overcome.

A hearty well done to everyone.

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They were both in New York last week for the American Ireland Fund dinner, not looking for sympathy or concern but rather to tell their story of Liam’s Lodge, their $6 million project aimed at helping other families all over Ireland who have children with incurable diseases and who desperately need a place of respite to stay when dealing it.


“Mary and I wished there was a facility like this for people like us, to give people the break they need. It is not a lot to give people a week’s break to help them to keep going through the year,” Heffernan explained.
“Hopefully, Liam will get to see this open, but it's against the odds for him to survive more than 12 to 18 months." 

Tony pauses for a moment.  “I know I’ll soon be carrying another little white coffin” he says, his voice breaking.  “I just hope no other family in the future will have to go through what we have gone through.”


It is always gratifying when truth gets a day out.

He and devoted wife Geraldine and extended family have everyone’s good wishes in the newest phase of their lives.

Northern Ireland still has to learn that reality. Hopefully this week’s events will help that along too.

may have been put on this earth to afflict the comfortable and the revisionists who have tried to hijack Irish history for a generation now. Thank goodness he is around as there is much more work to be done.

We’ve all had enough of this guff.

I had one encounter with Margaret Thatcher, which will long live in my memory.

She died on Monday at age 87. 
It was in Texas around 1984, at a press conference when she was on a U.S. visit.

I will shed no tears for Margaret Thatcher, who has died aged 87, nor do I suspect will most Irish people.

Dublin: Irish Health Minister Dr. James Reilly has become a favorite whipping boy of the Irish media which, given his portfolio, is hardly surprising.

We should be glad he did so. As we enter the home stretch in the run up to the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising there is no more powerful writer on those historic events than Ernie O’Malley.

Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore canceled a proposed trip to Savannah, Georgia for St. Patrick’s Day on the grounds that he would not attend the men-only Hibernian Society dinner there.

“Count me out — I'm not doing it," Gilmore told The Irish Times. "I don't believe in segregation either on a gender basis or on any other basis."

Queens accompanied by local leaders (Photo: James Higgins

The Breezy Point community in Queens turned out in their hundreds on Sunday morning at St. Thomas More Church to welcome Irish leader Enda Kenny and celebrate a Saint Patrick’s Day many present feared they would never see after the horrific events of Hurricane Sandy.

despite wind and snow.

Enda Kenny, the Irish leader, took New York by storm on Saturday, marching in the parade before two million spectators and keeping a schedule that would have left younger men flailing as he raced from one Irish event to another.

In the process Kenny provided clear evidence that after years of lip service, the role of the Diaspora has finally really begun to matter to influential Irish politicians. The success of  The Gathering, the year-long effort to woo the Diaspora back home, has emboldened the Irish abroad and the Irish government to think much bigger about the relationship with Ireland, as communication has become a two way street.

San Francisco - Chuck Feeney makes it clear he enjoys giving away his money.

One of America’s great philanthropists, he has pioneered the Giving While Living concept now embraced by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates among other billionaires.

This is the time in March when many of the 35 million Irish Americans don the dollop of green paint and go in search of a parade, a concert or a pub to celebrate their heritage.
 
The vast majority disappear back into the mist once the special day has passed.

Vatican City for the conclave that will elect the next pope

With the election for pope now underway it is remarkable how little time appears to have been spent on the best way to woo the faithful back to the mother church.

Sure, there are debates about how the church handles child sex abuse, the Vatican bank, Wikileaks and the Curia.

Now it is definitely a possibility.

San Francisco: The American Ireland Fund annual dinner here in San Francisco honored Bart Murphy, one of those quiet heroes of the Irish American community who too often get overlooked.

However, ignoring horrific bullying as a root cause defies common sense.

Judging by the 1,500 Facebook likes our story on the Queen refusing Buckingham Palace going green for St.Patrick’s Day got, it seems it has struck a chord.

For once I’ll side with Her Majesty and her court. I can only imagine the raised eyebrows around the Lord Chamberlain’s quarters when the request came in.

Daniel Day-Lewis may have been born in Britain and attended public school there, but for the past 17 years he has been a proud Wicklow man, living in splendid isolation in a marvelous Georgian mansion on a 100 acre farm.

Like his father before him, Cecil Day-Lewis, who became Britain’s poet laureate, the soil of Ireland was always deep in his bones.