Periscope

Sounding very upbeat, Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York), architect of the senate immigration bill says he is now very confident that 10,500 Schumer visas will be passed as part of the bill.

He asked for the Irish community across the U.S. to “gear up” to help passage of the overall immigration bill.

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.

Did Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley renege on a deal over the controversy surrounding Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s appearance as the commencement speaker at Boston College?

Irish government sources strongly believe he did and the level of anger towards the cardinal has left some of them spitting fire.

So much for Cardinal Sean O’Malley the hope of the millions of moderate Catholics worldwide who almost became pope according to some reports.

The Boston cardinal has now shown his true colors in boycotting Irish leader Enda Kenny when he gives the commencement speech in Boston College next weekend.

Back in 2003 New York took Leitrim to extra time at Gaelic Park in the Connacht championship, almost causing a massive upset.

I went along on Sunday to the 2013 game hoping against hope that a repeat of such a thrilling match was on the cards, but dreading that New York would be outclassed.

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

No ambassador to Ireland chosen is raising questions among Irish Americans - Failure to fill post six months after election seen as strange

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.

In this great country called America two Chechen boys came to live. Their family was fleeing persecution and had been made refugees according to some reports.

America took them in, washed that awful past from their eyes and gave them everything this country gives every emigrant including myself - a chance.

The passing of Margaret Thatcher has once again re-opened the era of the 1981 hunger strikers in Northern Ireland when ten men led by Bobby Sands fasted to death and the conflict entered a bloody and decisive phase.

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.

 greets Queen Elizabeth II

But as long as there is Aer Lingus EI 105 for New York or Ryanair to London to take them away, the crisis will never truly hit.

I arrived into San Francisco one June night in 1979 with a few dollars and a dream like most Irishmen who leave. I knew no one and cared less, I was in America, exactly where a young Irish emigrant should be.

Hardly surprising.

Amazingly that now seems in sight after a dark period where anti-immigrant legislation was the norm. This time it looks for real.

So fly straight Sully, and keep up the marvelous work. You made us all so proud to meet you.

The Vatican is moving to completely transform the face of Irish Catholicism led by the dynamic Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown.