An American in Ireland

in Britain. It isn't right for the Irish government to rent a piece of Ireland to Britain to soothe the British government's climate conscience. It isn't right for the government to treat the concerns of those who have to live with these things with disdain.

What Major League Baseball is learning is that you can't contrive to invent a new competition that's clearly inferior and expect the fans you ignore/neglect/disdain to pony up simply because you believe "If we build it they will come." Well you know what? We won't. And long may it be so.

I'd like to think that emigrants will catch a break here. I'd really like to believe the government would waive the property tax for those who have had to leave Ireland due to the dire economic conditions, but if there is one group the government doesn't really care about (ignore those crocodile tears) it is emigrants because they cannot vote. Thanks to that and thanks to the fact that most of them had to leave due to circumstances not of their making I hope they can avoid the property tax. It's the least they deserve.

by Robert Burns.}

The Ireland I live in is not the one Rosenthal wrote about. The one I live in is still bankrupt, still hemorrhaging young people, still awaiting further tax hikes, still governed by people sensible enough to know that the average Irish person is still unconcerned by 'climate change.' The Ireland she described is a mythical green land experiencing an environmental-policy-led economic turn-around. You can probably find the 'Little People' running Rosenthal's Ireland.

to Hollywood.' What a fairytale!

Next year Xi will be in Northern Ireland for the G8 summit. It would be a real coup to lure him south for more "getting to know you" time. More pictures of Xi in romantic Irish settings will do no harm for the exploding Chinese tourist trade. Barack Obama may have hold of Irish heartstrings and Angela Merkel Irish purse strings, but Xi controls both Chinese heartstrings and purse strings and that makes him the most attractive candidate for Irish pandering. Let's get to it.

 you saw. Your son, your daughter or even your niece or nephew might have a winnable lawsuit against you in twenty years time.

The Irish Times needs to get real, stop fantasizing about Irish people voting in America's elections and campaign to change this real denial of Irish voting rights.

put up with it.

.

It makes no sense whatever in today's day and age. You want to watch Swan Lake? Find it on YouTube if you can't find it on one of the hundreds of TV channels available today. There is no excuse for public funding for PBS. That model is as dated as a rotary telephone. It's a dinosaur and should be extinct.

By all means Shortall should encourage people to "drink responsibly" (a.k.a. less) and lead a campaign in schools aimed at teens to warn of the dangers of alcohol. They are, after all, children and can be handled as such. I am not nor are any of the other of the country's adults. Stop treating us as if we were.

So all the fans will be at Croke Park again on the 30th to enjoy another great day, hopefully see another great game and all at a reduced cost. Awesome. It's the best result, really.

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{Let me add, if the Navy is doing any of these things they're doing it with almost no publicity.}

" they all start with should be directed at Irish people too.

I'm not. I can endure, even enjoy, an Irish-medals-free Olympics.

My wife was sure Americans had more respect for individual liberty than that. "If people can be compelled to buy health insurance what can they not be compelled to do?" Indeed. Happy 4th of July.

Only our bankrupt, state-owned banks (Ulster Bank is, fortunately, owned by the British government) still have their superior attitude. Banks, uniquely it seems, can foul up and, time and again, not feel vulnerable while legitimate, profitable businesses, customers and taxpayers pay the price for their errors.

Summer can be delayed by weeks and then just erupt, as it seems to have done today. Even Met Eireann was caught off guard. They forgot to issue a sunburn warning last night.

Until yesterday I'd never heard the story of Flying Tiger 923, a flight from New Jersey to Frankfurt, Germany that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean 500 miles off the Irish coast on September 23, 1962. What makes the story remarkable is that of the 76 people on board 48 survived.