Irish ancestry? Ireland offers discount on college fees

Yesterday in Washington Often, far too often actually, the diaspora is treated as if it's the not-too-bright-but-wealthy cousin who you can tap for a few bucks when you find yourself a little short (through no fault of your own, of course). It's about time that changed and Ireland took an active interest in offering a little something back to the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those emigrants who scrimped and saved to send money home to Ireland even when money was tight.

The idea behind the Ireland Homecoming Study Programme (IHSP) is that students will be able " The fees for the courses at the various institutions have been reduced by 40% for the IHSP and are €3,000 ($4,081) for a semester or €5,950 ($8,130) for a full year. The institutions taking part in this program are all members of the Institutes of Technology Ireland ( If this program is a success it will be oversubscribed and the number of available places will have to be increased above the current 500. If this program is a success it will be wildly popular and be a great win-win for the students and for Ireland.

The student will get time in Ireland and a decent education at a reduced rate and Ireland will get a new wave of unofficial ambassadors spread out across America, Canada, Australia, etc. These people will be the focal points for future collaborative business ventures and tourism promotions in our networked world.

A quiet St. Patrick's Day is no bad thing

It was a beautiful day here on the east coast of Ireland, easily the best day of 2010 so far. The good weather brought the crowds out to the parades all over the country. I didn't go to any, however, because my nine-year-old didn't want to go. I didn't argue much.

In fact, other than a mid-afternoon walk I didn't really do much of anything holiday-like today. I'm not sure if I'm unusual here or not, but to me St. Patrick's Day is nice easy day. I don't go for the party-hard St. Patrick's Day.

Many here do, however, which may or may not surprise you. Way back when I was a student I couldn't get over how quiet St. Patrick's Day was here. I can't remember if the pubs were open or not then, but regardless what I remember is how empty and peaceful the streets of Dublin were that night. That's no longer the case.

St. Patrick's Day is a unique opportunity for a small country

St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow, which means that half the elected representatives of Ireland are outside the country today.

Government ministers have been dispatched to the four corners of the globe to meet and greet members of the Irish diaspora as well the political and business elite at each destination. This annual exodus of our government always elicits comments from the press about the waste of money, that these trips are all about the minsters' own pleasure and there's precious little in it for us taxpayers. They're on "jaunts" or "junkets", what have you. {Read this for an example of what I'm talking about.}

I'm all in favor of fiscal rectitude in government, especially because they're spending my money. To that end, the luxuries that the various cabinet ministers and their entourages have lavished upon themselves during these trips in previous years have rightly been reined in by Brian Cowen. However, to put an end to these trips as some would like would be wrong. It seems pretty obvious to me that overall that these trips are important and that this is money that should be spent.

Don't follow the rainbow to Dublin's Leprechaun Museum

When I first heard that a Leprechaun Museum was opening in Dublin my first reaction was "oh no." I was sure it was going to be nothing more than a tacky attempt to con Americans and other tourists out of their money.

Then I thought about it and I figured that if they did this right it would provide some information on the legend of leprechauns, the people who told such tales and the world they lived in. And, I thought, if they do a great job it will be a magical experience for children and something special for adults.

As it turns out it's none of those, although at least the aspirations are more towards the informative/magical experience than to simply part Americans from their dollars.

Irish missionaries served God & Ireland

I had intended to mention this earlier, but it slipped my mind. RTE showed a two part documentary on the 20th century history of Irish missionaries.

There were some political and religious views that caused me a little disquiet and there were a few, sort of, 'National Geographic-like' images that I wasn't sure about, but overall it was a story worth telling and it was well told.

As well as spreading the faith, the missionaries were, as President Mary McAleese says, ambassadors who "have done Ireland no end of service." Unfortunately it's a service that's winding down now as there are virtually no young missionaries these days. What they accomplished and the trials they endured (or didn't - many died before reaching age 40) is a story all Irish people should know.

Ireland's health care example

On Monday the New York Times published

Open the pubs on Good Friday

Part of the way we celebrate Easter in Ireland is that a certain percentage of the population suffers unduly on Good Friday because the sale of alcoholic beverages is banned. These people lead the annual moan about the pubs being closed for the day.

This year we got a head-start on the annual moan thanks to the fact that the authorities in charge of rugby have scheduled a big game between Leinster and Munster in Limerick on Good Friday night. The pub owners of Limerick, worried about the trade they might miss out on, are Those for whom the This goes on annually. Every year the cries grow stronger and the sympathy for the sufferers greater. There is only one obstacle to the change needed by these poor people - the Catholic Church.

Or so they imagine. The airwaves are full of "this is not a theocracy" or "in this day and age the Church should not ..." and so on.

An American in the Irish government?

Rumors are rife that an American - a citizen of the United States of America - is about to be elevated to a position in the Irish government. I'm not sure what you might think about that, but I'm not comfortable with it.

American citizen and Green Party member Ciaran Cuffe is the man in question. Cuffe is a member of the Dáil (Irish parliament), but now he is supposedly about to become a minister in the government, probably later this month.

Cuffe's in the same position as me and all those who hold dual citizenship between America and any other country. We all walk a line that can seem pretty fuzzy at times. I've always figured that there's little chance of an actual war between Ireland and America* so my true loyalties will never be called into question**.

Pension reform has me feeling youthful

Oh yeah! I'm feeling three years younger today. Just like that - I'm feeling that little bit more limber, my mind a touch sharper.

And to what, I hear you ask, do I attribute this burst of youthfulness? Well it's all thanks to the Irish government, actually.

You see, yesterday the Irish government decreed that no longer would those of us born after 1960 be retiring at 65 as is currently the law, but at 68. So you see, the government clearly feel I don't have enough wear and tear on me at this age. I can go on working for three more years!

Irish Catholics must pay for Irish Church's sins

There's a lot of hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth here in Ireland today thanks to the announcement by Bishop Brennan of Ferns that he would be asking Catholics in the diocese to help pay compensation and legal costs arising out of sex abuse scandals. {Read more here.}

Thus far, the Diocese of Ferns has paid out $10.9m in compensation on 48 cases with a further 13 actions pending. The diocese's insurance covered only about $1.5m of these claims, which means the diocese to raise money to meet these obligations.

A column by documentary producer Mary Raftery in today's Irish Times captures the mood of those who are outraged by the bishop's request. Rafferty says the parishioners of the Ferns diocese should not be asked to pay because the "parishioners damaged no child, transferred no pedophiles from parish to parish, covered up no abuse, hid no shameful secrets." That's all true, but if the money doesn't come voluntarily from Catholics in the diocese of Ferns, where will it come from?

Credit card choice is important for your Irish vacation

Back in May I advised any prospective visitors to Ireland that they should use their debit and credit cards rather than come with the traditional traveler's checks. That advice still stands, but it may have to be revised if the fears of NY Times columnist Ron One area untouched by the new rules is foreign currency exchanges. Currently these charges can be as high as 3% on top of every foreign purchase, but, I don't know if or how this new law might affect debit/bank card withdrawals. Depending on how much money you need and what your bank charges for ATM withdrawals that is probably still the best way to change your money in Ireland. Irish banks don't charge people with American bank cards for using their Of course, there's one more consideration before you choose that credit card for your trip to Ireland. If you're planning to rent a car, you should look for a card that cover the insurance on your rental car.

That's easier said than done because very few cards will cover renting a car in Ireland. However, the cost of the insurance can be astronomical - can be around $20-25 per day - which makes spending a bit of time researching worthwhile if you can find a card that allows you to waive the rental company's So, shop around. Get a good card for your car rental. Get a good card for all your other foreign currency transactions. Use your debit card. There is no good reason to make your Irish vacation more expensive than it has to be.

Time to pack away my Olympic decorations

Just like that it's all over. You wait, you wait and you wait and when it comes it's great. But then it only lasts two short weeks and then nothing again. Not for another four years.

The Winter Olympics are like Christmas - only without gifts. As soon as the 'festive season' is upon us I unpack all my verbal decorations. The 'salchows', the 'prone shoots', the 'Back Full-Double Full-Fulls', the 'lying shot', the 'backside wall', etc. all get taken down, dusted off and proudly displayed.

I talk like I know what I'm talking about. Of course every Olympics I pick a few new words to add to my collection. You can't fool me on a Wu-Tang now.

I need a 'Miracle' to see US vs Finland today

Monday was technically the 30th anniversary of the USA's win over the USSR in Olympic hockey, but as far as I'm concerned today is the real anniversary. That's because it was the second Friday of the Olympics when that game was played.

I was reminded of that greatest ever day for an American sports fan when I came across

Major League Baseball defaces Ireland's national flag

I'm not sure if you noticed or not, but baseball's spring training got going the other day. That means a new baseball season is only a few weeks away, thank goodness.

However, before we get to Opening Day St.Patrick's Day will be here. And, as is the custom now, that means Major League Baseball will be promoting its special St. Patrick's Day line of merchandise. You can get a green version of pretty much every team's cap and tee shirt, if you like.

Obviously there's a demand for such products, which I think is great. The die-hard baseball fan can satisfy their need to display where their baseball loyalties lie, but also exhibit their pride in their Irish heritage. I have a few green Mets shirts myself.

Disney World's message to Ireland: don't come here

Disney World is operating a 'No Irish Welcome' policy. Or so it seems. Okay, it's not that serious, but it was brought to my attention last week that Disney's web site has omitted Ireland.

Yup, that's right. When you use

I love watching curling

Curling. There are a lot of detractors out there, especially in America. Many people seem to believe that curling is not a sport and doesn't belong in the Winter Olympics.

Niall O'Dowd is one of those people. O'Dowd says Curling is the silliest sport at the Olympics, that it's essentially a couple of people sweeping in front of a 'kettle lid' sliding along the ice.

I disagree. I'm a big fan of the Winter Olympics. I'd be hard pressed to choose my favorite sport at the winter games (hockey doesn't count because I watch that regularly). Curling would be up there, however.

Annie McCarrick: American missing in Ireland since '93

I hadn't been living in Ireland all that long when Annie McCarrick disappeared in March 1993. McCarrick was from Long Island and had moved to Ireland only a couple of months before she went missing, last seen heading towards a location in the hills in Wicklow.

No trace of her was ever found. Now her name and face are back in the news because the chief suspect in her disappearance is due to be released from prison shortly.

Shortly after she disappeared McCarrick's face was on posters all over Dublin. Her smiling face was on every street corner {photo above was on those posters}. Whenever I saw one of those posters it hit home that an American had come to live in Ireland and that something awful had happened to her.

Ireland: Headquarters for the world

Over the past year or so there's been one good economic story for Ireland that has sort of been lost amidst the reports on company closings, job losses, bank bailouts and government spending cuts. The little snippet of good news has been the number of company's that have relocated their headquarters to Ireland.

Today's Irish Times reports that United America Indemnity is moving its headquarters to Ireland from the Cayman Islands. I never heard of United America Indemnity before, but the Irish Times says the company had previously announced that it was moving its headquarters to Switzerland, but has now reconsidered. Can't be bad news, right?

UAI says they are moving here because "Ireland offers an attractive business environment, a highly educated and motivated professional workforce, a comprehensible legal system grounded in Common Law, a sophisticated regulatory environment, and an extensive global network of international treaties."

Nobody's watching Ireland's parliamentarians

Members of the Irish parliament (the Dáil & Seanad) were given some very bad news yesterday: the folks who run the national television service, RTE, are not going to move the proceedings of the two houses of the Irish parliament to prime-time. In fact, RTE's Cillian de Paor gently broke their hearts when he told them that "Desperate Housewives has a bigger audience I'm afraid."

Now the truth is, I'd rather watch "

Too much English from the Irishman in charge at Vancouver

Elsewhere on this site you will find articles celebrating Irishman John Furlong, who is head of the winter Olympics Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC). However, what you may not know is that Furlong and VANOC have been drawing plenty of fire for what many French-Canadians feel was an almost total lack of French at the opening ceremony.

An editorial in yesterday's

Three 'Irish' suspects in Hamas hit

Do you know these people?

No? Me neither. Nor, I'm willing to bet, does anyone in Ireland.

These three are among the 11 suspects that the United Arab Emirates believes were behind the recent killing of

Ex-Intel Chief directs his fire at Irish education

I didn't know what to expect from Craig Barrett, the Irish-American former head of Intel, when I heard he'd been made Chairman of the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) last year. At the time all I thought was, "That's a good idea. He'll open a few doors." I never expected he'd actually be so active, so keen to voice his opinion about where Ireland needs to go to achieve economic success in the 21st century.

Barrett {photo} has not been shy. He's been all over the papers and radio expressing his opinions, particularly about the Irish education system. So far the reaction to Barrett's views has been non-existent, possibly because to engage with him would be to call into question some of the sacred cows of the education system.

One of those sacred cows is the Leaving Cert. Ireland's secondary school system is built around the Leaving Cert, which is a series of exams taken at the end of the sixth and final year of secondary school (basically junior high & high school). All the exams count the same, which means an 'A' in Home Economics or Art counts just as much as an 'A' in Math or Physics. Each grade gets so many points and a student's point total determines what college course he or she gets.

The precious voices of Irish politics

First it was George Lee quitting on politics and his party and now we have another high profile resignation. Today the Green Party's Déirdre de Búrca resigned.

De Búrca was a Senator for the Greens, one of only eight party members in the two houses of the Irish parliament. She got her seat in the Senate when her party entered government in coalition with Fianna Fáil back in 2007.

De Búrca {photo with John Gormley} says she is quitting because she can no longer support a party that has "abandoned our political values and our integrity." She points the finger directly at party leader John Gormley saying he's "done a disservice to the Green Party" by tying the party too closely to their government coalition partners. De Búrca says Gormley has been "unable, or unwilling" to "take a stronger line with Brian Cowen and the Fianna Fáil party" and ignored Green Party principles because the party has become too attached to being in government.

Dublin's drivers beat down on 'bicycle brigade'

It's funny what will light a fire under people. There have been all sorts of government decisions recently that could have sparked a revolt. Yet the people have been pretty accepting of all the budget cuts and bank bail-outs, probably because it was difficult to see any alternative.

All very quiet, until the past couple of weeks when there was an eruption over a new speed limit in Dublin. Dublin City Council voted to reduce the limit from 50 kph (31 mph) to 30 kph (18.6 mph) in the city's central areas.

At first the objectors' concerns and arguments were dismissed. 'People just needed some time to adjust' or 'this will make the city safer and better for cyclists and pedestrians' or 'it's only a limited area.'

Irish women must be allowed their dream sleigh ride

The Winter Olympics get underway tomorrow in Vancouver, but there won't be a huge amount of interest here. The winter games, unlike the summer ones, are not a big deal in Ireland.

This year's team consists of six athletes, which I think may be the biggest team Ireland's ever sent to the winter games. I'm not really sure because even the official Olympic Council of Ireland web site offers little enough about Ireland's Winter Olympics past. Ireland sent five athletes to the 2006 games.

Snow and ice are rarities here, there are very few skating rinks, and almost nobody plays hockey so few kids grow up dreaming of partaking in the winter games. All of which makes it imperative that Aoife Hoey and Claire Bergin be allowed to compete in the women's bobsleigh.

Lee leaves Fine Gael looking like losers

Big doings here today, if you're one of those who is obsessed by the minutia of Ireland's politics. RTE's former Economics Editor and the nation's favorite merchant of doom, George Lee, announced today that he was quitting politics, quitting the Dáil and quitting the Fine Gael party less than a year after he quit RTE to "get off the fence" and work to "ensure the country got better Government."

That was in May of 2009 and now it looks like Lee (photo - right) will be looking to get back on the fence at RTE.

Undoubtedly this was a tough decision for Lee, but what of his former party and its leader Enda Kenny (photo - holding Lee's arm aloft)?

Super Bowl's too late for this Yank in Ireland

It's Super Bowl Sunday and I know what you're thinking: is this guy who calls himself The Yank going to watch the biggest game of the year. And the answer is ... sort of.

You can find the Super Bowl on TV here and there are a few gatherings of Americans and Irish football fans - there are some - around Dublin to watch the game. I won't be there.

I'll be watching from the comfort of my own home. For a while. Kickoff is at 11:25pm, which means the game won't be over til sometime after 2:30. I can tell you for a fact I won't see the finish. I might make it to half-time, but there's no chance I'll stay awake through that even if The Who's blasting "Won't Get Fooled Again" (which I love).

PIGS or PIIGS we all pigged out on debt

PIGS. Have you seen this acronym? It's only in the business pages and if you have seen it used it's because the PIGS are putting pressure on the euro, causing a sharp decline in the value of the European currency in recent days.

So what is or are PIGS? The PIGS are four European nations with severe fiscal problems: Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain. Or maybe not. Some say it stands for Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain.

And now there's some bad feeling over what that "I" stands for.

Automatic instincts compound Toyota problem

I was reading this story about the family in California who were all killed when their Toyota's accelerator got stuck and the thought struck me: why didn't the guy just take the car out of gear? I wasn't being critical so much as wondering why he didn't do that given he had time to make a phone call.

I thought about it a bit more and figured I was thinking like someone who drives a manual transmission car. When you drive an automatic - as most Americans do and as I did before I left - you don't think about gears. The car's always in "drive", even when you're stopped at a traffic light. If you're used to driving a manual transmission you're always shifting up and down and into neutral at lights, etc.

I think this has an impact on a driver's reactions in situations like poor Mark Saylor found himself in. I'm not talking about judgment so much as instinctual reaction. The instincts you acquire when you drive a manual are different.

Robbie Keane won't carry Celtic to the title

I have to get something off my chest. I don't like Irish national team captain Robbie Keane. Don't rate him, don't like him. This puts me outside the pale with Irish soccer fans, who adore Keane.

This also probably puts me outside the pale with Irish Central's Cathal Dervan too and who am I to argue with Cathal Dervan? His knowledge of soccer is encyclopedic and mine is, well, not.

So why do I feel this way about Keane?

Jedward - innocent heroes in a cynical industry

Okay, brace yourselves. It's entirely possible you've never heard of Jedward, in which case you don't have an opinion on the Irish twins. If, however, you have had the "pleasure" then you might be taken aback by what I'm about to say. I'm shocked myself.

I like Jedward. Now, truth is, I'd sooner have root canal than endure their singing and dancing routine, but as I was watching them being interviewed by the BBC's Jonathan Ross on Friday night I found myself liking them more and more.

So what's to like? I guess it's the complete naivety of the two of them. I considered the possibility that it's all an act - and it might well be - but even if it's an act the way the two of them are always in synch with the innocence is tremendous. But, I actually don't think they're acting. I think what you see is pretty much what they really are.

Beckett Bridge – an upbeat statement in a gloomy city

I went for a walk yesterday around a neighborhood near where I used to work, but I hadn't been to before. I can't remember what used to be there, but derelict is the word that comes to mind.

Now it's full of new, not quite finished glass office buildings and apartments and open spaces near the end of the Grand Canal. It's the type of place that was designed to be teeming with people on warm summer evenings.

Yesterday, however, all I could think about was who is ever going to occupy all that office space? {And, why is that white building so ugly?}

Irish media obsessed by America's guns

Irish people are both horrified and fascinated by America's gun laws, or as it's generally put, 'America's love of guns.' Therefore, no Irish journalist who goes to America for any period of time can resist the lure of guns and those who own them.

Generally speaking all of what's known as 'red state America' has this effect on Irish journalists, but the guns are the most attractive.

Irish Church needs African missionaries

An article I stumbled across at UniversityWorldNews.com got me thinking about the Catholic Church in Ireland. The article says that Ireland is known as the "Land of Saints and Scholars," "but it would welcome a lot more of the latter." That's probably true, but I doubt too many people would object if we had an influx of saints as well as scholars.

For generations the Catholic Church in Ireland sent priests and nuns to America, Britain, Canada, Australia, and just about anywhere English was spoken. The Irish Church also produced thousands of missionaries who went to Africa (mostly), South America, Asia and other places. Their success can be seen in parishes and dioceses in Africa and elsewhere. And now, maybe here too.

Yesterday I went to a different church, not my own parish. The Mass was said by an African priest. It was obvious he was not there just for the week seeking support for the Church in Africa as would have been the case years ago. No, this man is based in this parish. Our own parish also had an African priest until very recently. I've seen other African priests in and Dublin as well.

Ireland needs a 'Tea Party' movement

On Wednesday night BBC's "Newsnight" did a segment on the Tea Party movement in America. I'd heard about the Tea Party-ers, but only as a vague protest movement. The other night the BBC put a human face on them, interviewing a small gathering in someone's home in Washington, MO.

When it was over I thought to myself, "nothing like that would ever happen here." I don't know why, but the scene I was witnessing just seemed so American: people in a small town getting together to discuss what they could do to affect national politics. They seemed so determined to make a difference, to influence policy and - they stressed - to ensure that they weren't used and/or abused by one party of the other.

Ireland is only 1/100th the size of America, yet I think most Irish people feel a greater sense of frustration that there is nothing that can be done, that what 'they' (politicians) get up to is out of our control.

Irish government should not pass snow-shoveling law

During Ireland's recent cold-spell the Irish government was regularly criticized for doing nothing. So now they want to do something - make a law to force people to shovel in front of their homes or businesses.

I'm all in favor of people shoveling - I practically begged people to shovel their sidewalks earlier this month - but I think this new law is a bad idea. Far better for the government to simply ask people to shovel, to be good citizens, to help their elderly neighbors.

"Friends" star Kudrow's new series inspired by a night of TV watching in Ireland

Lisa Kudrow, star of "Friends", was in Ireland filming "PS I Love You" a few years back when, according to one of the Sunday papers here, she was inspired to take on a new project - to produce a new television series, which will be broadcast in America starting in March.

Now, you might think to yourself that artists being inspired by Ireland is hardly something new, but Kudrow (photo) was inspired while inside watching t.v., not out admiring the beautiful rocky, green landscape. Kudrow's inspiration was an episode of "Who Do You Think You Are," a BBC program that RTE has adapted for Ireland.

The basic concept behind WDYTYA (#WDYTYA on Twitter) is that someone the public knows will research their family tree and we the audience get to experience their discovery. It may sound dull, but it is usually far from that. You may even remember I wrote about this back in July and described WDYTYA as 'must see t.v.' (That post is now lost to the site, but I've reproduced it below)

Florida's Glazer is the most hated American in Ireland

I firmly believe Malcolm Glazer is the most hated American in Ireland. You might imagine that it would be former President Bush or some American corporate big shot who's recently sucked the lifeblood out of an Irish city - Michael Dell anyone? - but I don't think so. No, I'm pretty sure Glazer is the most hated.

And I do mean

The Treaty Stone of Limerick is not going to Atlantic City

The Treaty Stone is not being sold to an Atlantic City casino, says the Limerick Leader. The Treaty Stone, which is nearly sacred in Limerick, will remain right where it is. And rightly so!

Now I know, but people around Limerick don't seem to know, that other than the most committed Irish enthusiasts in America, nobody there has heard of the Treaty Stone and no casino would want it. It would interest too few and require too much explanation for an American audience.

The Treaty Stone (photo) is the stone upon which the 1691 treaty was signed between the victorious forces of King William and the defeated army of King James, led by Irishman Patrick Sarsfield. That treaty called for Catholics (gentry only) to be afforded rights to own property and bear arms, but was only honored for two years before anti-Catholic "penal laws" were imposed on Irish Catholics by their English rulers. By that time Sarsfield and thousands of his followers had honored their end of the deal and left Ireland and were fighting for France.

Three American soldiers buried in British WWI cemetery

As you know if you've been coming here regularly I love visiting the WWI sites around Ieper (Ypres), Belgium and northern France. I was back there last week, visiting cemeteries and experiencing the region in winter. It was pretty cold and the thought of living in a trench in such weather is way below unappealing.

One of the planned stops on the tour was Lijssenthoek Cemetery, which is near Poperinge, Belgium. It's a British Commonwealth cemetery, but as soon as I walked through the gate my eyes were drawn to a sight I hadn't expected: three graves with American and Belgian flags.

Three Americans buried in a Commonwealth cemetery with 10,000 graves. Why? Who were they?

Getting the weather forecast right

An article in this week's Drogheda Independent made me smile today. The paper interviewed a Boston woman living in the area, keen to learn what she thought of the snow and the reaction to it.

Predictably she said that if schools in Boston closed for as much snow as we had this past week, nobody would ever go to school. She was forgiving, more forgiving than most Irish people have been, willing to accept that investing in the kind of equipment necessary to keep things moving in snow and ice might not be a good investment.

Then she changed tack, saying how much she enjoyed listening to the Irish weather forecasters on t.v. She described them as "optimistic," which I suppose they are, but mostly they're understated and always tentative.

Barry O'Callaghan - from billionaire to employee in two years

"River Deep Mountain High," sang Tina Turner. It must be a song weighing heavily on the mind of Irishman Barry O'Callaghan, head of the publishing giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Yesterday O'Callaghan declared that the company's investors are "under water", sunk by a mountain of debt. Quite a blow for the man who two years ago was labeled as Ireland's youngest billionaire by the Sunday Times thanks to the value put on his share of the publishing company.

In fact, O'Callaghan's company was originally called Riverdeep, but in 2006 he ditched the name when he bought a new name along with one of America's largest educational publishers, Boston-based Houghton Mifflin. He followed that highly leveraged acquisition with another, this time grabbing Orlando-based schoolbooks publisher Harcourt. The two deals combined left the company owing $6.7bn, which has now proved to be too great a weight.

O'Callaghan has always come across as the clever boy. He floated Riverdeep on the NASDAQ back in March 2000, just before the

Ireland is experiencing serious water shortages

The hills are covered in melting snow and lower down rain and wet snow has been falling for 24 hours. Some places are experiencing flooding. Yet, the biggest story is that all over Ireland water has to be rationed because it's running out. Incredible, ain't it?

The problem is pretty straight-forward: Ireland is awash in leaky pipes, if I can use such language. Some of the cities' water pipes date back to the 19th century and those pipes are notoriously leaky. Some of the pipes in Ireland's new suburbs are also leaky due to Ireland's notoriously lax building codes being ignored. On top of all that, in many places the pipes have burst due to the 'extreme cold' the country has experienced.

That extreme cold consisted of a couple of weeks of temperatures below freezing (mostly). We're not talking about weeks of sub-zero (Fahrenheit) temperatures. I'm not entirely sure what it is about Irish pipes that they can't withstand temperatures that big chunks of Europe & North America experience annually with no problems at all, but there you have it.

Yes! The Time is now for Fr. Doyle Square

Following the publication of the Murphy Report into clerical child sexual abuse Dublin City Council wants to change the name of Archbishop Ryan Park. Okay, changing the name away from Archbishop Ryan is appropriate, but changing the name to honor "one of the city's famous writers," as suggested by one councillor, is wrong. The park remains a gift to the city from the Catholic people of Dublin and, therefore, an Irish Catholic should be honored.

The park should be named after someone who lived a positive Catholic life. Matt Talbot would be more than fitting, even Daniel O'Connell would be fine. Naming the park Fr. Mathew Park would be even better. Fr. Theobald Mathew's crusade against drunkenness in the 19th century is a bit of inspiration that our modern Ireland could use.

However, my first choice to replace Archbishop Ryan in the park's official name is Fr. Willie Doyle. It's only 4 months since I called for a Fr. Willie Doyle Square in Dublin and now that exact opportunity has presented itself. Fr. Doyle - a great Catholic and hero of the Western Front - is the perfect choice for this park. This is a man whom all of Ireland can celebrate. Catholic, Protestant, Unionist and Republican, as commenter chicagoaoh pointed out back in September.

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Roll out the carpet for America's bankers

Back in early December, economist David McWilliams stated that the changes to British banking laws represented a "gilt-edged opportunity" for Ireland and our struggling economy and underemployed young graduates and workers.

Today's NY Times confirms what McWilliams said last month. The Times reports that British based American bankers are not prepared to accept Britain's new laws on bankers' compensation. The British government wants to restrict banks' and other finance houses' bonus policies and has imposed a limit of £1m for a bonus, beyond which only 40% of the bonus can be used immediately. This change, coupled with Britain's new 50% tax on bankers' bonuses has made American banks unhappy.

As McWilliams says, it's not hard to sympathize with the British motives, but that doesn't change the fact that those disaffected American banks could be a real boost to our small and weak economy. If they can be enticed here the banks would boost the government's coffers with corporation tax (even at 12%, the amounts would be large) and income tax on those bankers' salaries.

Enough government incompetence to go around

What government Minister or state body will be the 'great freeze' headline maker tomorrow morning?

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey because of his vanishing act - he was in Malta for the week - when all forms of transport were grinding to a halt in the face of our complete weather shut-down?

Or maybe Met Eireann - the national weather service - after they clearly blew the forecast for this weekend. We were supposed to be digging out from 10cm! (that's 4 inches!!) of snow today, but instead it's raining. And it's going to go on raining. There'll probably be no ice or snow left on the roads by the morning. Weather.com - based in America - called it right, but our local meteorology experts got it totally wrong.

If people could only deal with the snow

Okay, now the snow's getting annoying. First of all, it doesn't snow like it does in America. You don't have a weather system move in dump 6-10 inches and move on.

No, the snow in Ireland is just like the rain. It snows and it stops. It snows and it stops. It snows and it stops. On again off again the past few days. No great amounts at any time, but just enough to keep the already icy, untreated roads & sidewalks slippery.

Yesterday my neighbor couldn't get her car out of her driveway. She's a widow with young children and she'd been holed up for a few days, but she was running low on food and milk, etc. So, I had to shovel her driveway clear, which was pushing my week's exercise beyond my endurance levels. It's not easy to shift this post-Christmas, over-fed and under-utilized body to daily (twice daily, actually) physical labor. I'd be slimming down these days if I hadn't upped my rations to maintain my less than svelte figure.

Truth is, yesterday wasn't really that bad. Clearing my neighbor's driveway wasn't nearly as bad as today. A few months ago my daughter had booked a trip to America for today. At the time I never imagined that the winter weather issue would be on this end.

Free the elderly from their ice-bound prisons

'Many elderly people are trapped in their homes by the snow and ice.' I've heard that on the radio many times the past couple of weeks as wintry weather has descended on the country. Today, however, I had a flash of insight into the problem.

When I'd heard that announcement during Christmas week I thought the problem was mostly that rural elderly people couldn't drive down to their local town or village to buy the basics, that the roads were bad. However, after yesterday's 2+ inches of snow & ice around our area I realize that old people in towns and cities are also trapped in their homes.

Why? Because nobody - and I mean nobody - shovels the sidewalk in front of their house or business. I can't understand this. I heard people on the radio today talking about the failure of the Dublin city council to clear the "paths" (sidewalks) in the city. Well, is it too much to ask people to get their shovels out to clear the paths? Clear in front of their own homes and businesses and maybe take a few minutes to clear the walk in front of their elderly neighbors? Is that too much to ask?

Get men with shovels to clear roads

It snowed again yesterday, more this time than on New Year's Eve. Probably 2 inches or so. I was out of the country and only flew back last night. Our flight was delayed by 2-3 hours because Dublin Airport had been closed during the snow.

Landing was fine, but getting home from the airport was more difficult. Some of the roads had a fair amount of slushy snow. I had to drive very slowly (I wish I had studded tires or better yet chains. Can you still get chains in America or they no longer acceptable?) and take my chances with all the morons out there who didn't alter their own ridiculous driving habits.

Traffic was light and the temperature was falling so it didn't take a genius to work out that the slushy snow would be ice by morning. Of course, there were no plows on any roads other than the highways (and I'd been warned by text not to use the main highway to my house as it was a parking lot) so this morning the roads are sheets of ice.

Only true grit will get us through the 'snow'

You may not believe this, but Dublin has a lot in common with Birmingham, AL and other big cities in the southern states. Okay, before you wear yourself out trying to figure out how, I'm talking about weather. Winter weather, actually and how Ireland's biggest city responds to winter weather to be precise.

I've never been to Birmingham in the winter (or anytime in truth), but my brother lives there and his description of Birmingham's reaction to snow sounds a lot like what we experience here.

On New Year's Eve it snowed in Dublin. It snowed so hard that Dublin Airport had to close until 10:30am New Year's Day. The airport's official spokesman said, "snow was falling quicker than we could clear it," but, as the Irish Times reported, the national weather service's station at the airport recorded only 1cm of snow. That's less than half an inch.

I wouldn't bet on horseracing's popularity

One of the biggest racetracks in the country, Leopardstown, is not far from where I live and racing on St. Stephen's Day (Dec 26) is one of the biggest days of the year on the sport's calendar. I'm not a big fan of horseracing, but I've always assumed St. Stephen's Day racing is a big deal given all the media coverage Leopardstown attracts on the 26th.

However, a report in today's Irish Independent has me wondering about things: Is the Stephen's Day festival that big? Is horse racing as popular here as I've always thought?

Why am I asking such questions you ask? Well, the Independent says the attendance at the racecourse on Saturday was 14,605, down by 1,400 over last year. So 16,000 attended the year before and, I'm guessing, that is about normal for Stephen's Day.

Destroying land certificates seems so stupid.

I agree with the head of the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations that these documents should be preserved.

Sprouts shortage?

I have no idea where the brussels sprouts sold in Ireland are grown, but I won't miss them if the cold weather means there are none this year. http://bit.ly/5dUOGe

New home

As you now know, this page has moved and looks a bit different. I might try a few different things too.

Government's message to the young: there's always the emigrant boat

Posted by TheYank at 12/10/2009 10:54 AM EST

Budget day. There's nothing like it in America. Oh, sure there's the always exciting appropriations bill, but that's hacked together publicly over a long time in the two houses so that there's no mystery when it's passed and sent on for the President's signature (or veto).

Here the government drafts the bill in secret. Nobody is supposed to know what's coming before the Minister for Finance rises to tell the nation - via live t.v. and radio - what the coming year will mean in terms of government spending and taxes. For days, weeks really, in advance the media is all of aflutter with speculation and leaks (since no one ever loses their job over these leaks I have to assume they're pretty deliberate) as to what the bill will contain.

Another holiday tradition to resurface

As I was reading Piaras Mac Éinrí's article on the return of emigration it struck me that if Mac Éinrí is right, and I think he's a little ahead of the game but he will be right soon enough, that another Irish Christmas custom will be revived soon: the emigrants' Christmas visit.

Before the Celtic Tiger this was a phenomenon that everyone here knew or at least understood. RTE would report on it each year in the days before Christmas with clips of tearful, joyful reunions from the airports. The returnees would then embark on a week or two of living like there was no tomorrow, because for too many of them that's how it felt. And then, just like that, the Christmas visit was over and RTE was back at the airports, providing clips of tearful, sorrowful farewells.

The story was so familiar that the Electricity Supply Board ran an ad campaign that featured an emigrant returned for Christmas, even though if you watch the video you'll see nothing that blatantly says (a) it's Christmas or (b) the young man is an emigrant. Still, anyone who came of age here in the 1980s will recognize all the clues. For a lot of those people, even those who returned during the booming 90s, this ad is still very poignant.

'Gutted' by the lack of decent t.v. this Christmas

Posted by TheYank at 12/4/2009 10:04 AM EST

Christmas is really kicking in now. Christmas FM opened for business again the other day. You can listen in no matter where you are and it's quite an education as you soon realize that the number of truly awful Christmas songs or horrific renditions of Christmas favorites is far closer to infinity than you would ever imagine. Christmas FM is a new tradition and it's all done with a light heart and for charity, so much (but not all) is forgiven.

It takes a true turkey to get the wrong turkey

Posted by TheYank at 11/26/2009 4:53 AM EST

What I'm about to say is such a cliche that I'm reluctant to even tell this story, but here goes.

There are times when I amaze even myself with my ability to accomplish things that probably are beyond most people's imagination. Or at least most women's.

Thanksgiving – a piece of America that Ireland should embrace

Posted by TheYank at 11/25/2009 8:14 AM EST

You'll often hear people in Ireland complain about the American influence on the culture here. I don't always disagree. American television, music and movies seem to be everywhere and a lot of it is just garbage. Anytime I see or hear Britney Spears I know they have a point.

Holidays too, are not beyond American influence. People frequently blame the changes in the way that Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick's Day and Halloween are celebrated on American influence.

Speaking in Dallas, President Kennedy said ...

Posted by TheYank at 11/22/2009 4:20 PM EST

Back in the summer when I was in America my father and I were going through his collection of old newspapers and clippings and other things. One of my favorites was a clipping he had from the old New York Journal American from November 22, 1963 - the day President Kennedy was killed.

The Journal American was an afternoon paper and the copy my father has was an extra brought out following the assassination. The front page is exactly as you might expect.

Aren't all Irish teens just like Americans now?

Posted by TheYank at 11/16/2009 3:05 PM EST

I was surprised that fellow American Bridget English says that Americans in Ireland are still easily identifiable. Bridget says she was told that even if you ignore clothes are overlooked, Americans' teeth tells people where they're from before they speak.

Why was I surprised? I guess I figured that Bridget's fellow students at Maynooth would be like those whom I know through my daughter. I'll admit I'm not the most observant person when it comes to fashion, etc., but unlike 20+ years ago when I came here as a student, young Irish people seem to dress and look the basically the same as young Americans.

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas

Posted by TheYank at 11/16/2009 10:03 AM EST

The Christmas lights are going on all over Ireland now. No, not in people's homes, although the Irish Mail on Sunday carried a report yesterday about a Muslim Iraqi family who love Christmas and put their tree up early, very early, November 3 this year. But, for the most part the Christmas lights being turned on are in the stores, malls, and the main streets of Ireland's towns and cities. No different than America, really.

Although there are few Christmas sights inside people's homes, it's the time of year when people can enjoy some of the smells of Christmas. This weekend my wife made the Christmas cake, Christmas puddings and mince pies, filling our house with an odor that is distinctly Christmas. All that fruit, nuts, flour, whatever, oh, and the alcohol - whiskey in the cake, brandy in the pudding - baking & cooling fills the house with a happy smell.

President Obama should have been in Berlin

Posted by TheYank at 11/9/2009 3:21 PM EST

I'm sitting in my living room here in Ireland where I just finished watching the ceremony from Berlin marking the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was a tremendous spectacle and a great occasion. There was only one aspect of the ceremony that struck a discordant note: the absence of President Obama.

Where was he? I cannot understand why he wouldn't want to be there. Everything that happened in 1989 was the culmination of a long, hard struggle undertaken by the United States and our NATO allies.

Dublin in the dark

Posted by TheYank at 11/7/2009 4:06 PM EST

I spent a good chunk of my day in Dublin - where I rarely venture on the weekend - and now I'm back in the city, near the Custom House. Not really accomplishing. I was walking around for a while and now I'm drinking coffee while I type this.

I had to be in Dublin this evening to run an errand. Rather than go right home, I decided to go for a walk. The streets where I was walking were mostly deserted - it's pretty cool (about 45) and breezy - and there's not a lot happening down this end of town. I saw no tourists out tonight and the average Dubliner has way more sense than to be out walking on a cold, dark November night.

Dublin in the dark

I spent a good chunk of my day in Dublin - where I rarely venture on the weekend - and now I'm back in the city, near the Custom House. Not really accomplishing. I was walking around for a while and now I'm drinking coffee while I type this.

I had to be in Dublin this evening to run an errand. Rather than go right home, I decided to go for a walk. The streets where I was walking were mostly deserted - it's pretty cool (about 45) and breezy - and there's not a lot happening down this end of town. I saw no tourists out tonight and the average Dubliner has way more sense than to be out walking on a cold, dark November night.

Blown away by the north coast

Posted by TheYank at 11/4/2009 3:20 PM EST

As I mentioned yesterday, we were up north last week. Just a day trip, which is possible now thanks to the vast improvement in the roads here. There was a time not that far back when a day trip to the north was such a bone-shaking, nerve-shattering experience that advertisements in the national papers advised people against making journeys of over 150 miles in length, such was the state of the roads. That lasted right up until, well, the current decade.

The roads are better, but there is still nowhere to stop for a bathroom break along the whole route except the Outlet in Banbridge. The clever folks who run the Outlet lure in the unsuspecting motorist from the south with clean bathrooms and two choices of coffee and then mesmerize them with shop-loads of cheap goods. Before they know what's hit them their wallets are empty and they're loaded down like pack mules and searching for their car in an over-flowing parking lot. The spell's only broken after they've forced down the lid of the trunk and have started the engine.

Way up north, where the shoppin's good

Posted by TheYank at 11/3/2009 1:30 PM EST

I was shopping 'up north' last week. That might not sound like a big deal, but it is something of an issue here.

Now, just to get a few things straight - (a) no, I wasn't shopping alone; it's not my thing and (b) shopping was more of an incidental part of our journey north and not the main focus. Still, the weather was so bad we ended up extending our shopping by about two hours, which suited some members of the family just fine.

Yesterday was April 15 in Ireland

Posted by TheYank at 11/1/2009 3:12 PM EST

For some Irish people yesterday was the most frightening day of the year – the day when they finally finish filling in their annual tax returns and pay what they owe the taxman. In America the big day is April 15, but the Irish tax authorities allow an extra 6½ months and require that returns be filed and money owed be paid by October 31.

Now the truth is that for most Irish taxpayers the day passes without notice. If you're an employee whose tax is deducted from your paycheck – known as PAYE – and you have no other source of income you don't have to file an annual return. The PAYE workers have the right amount deducted during the year so that they owe and are owed nothing. (Funny enough most PAYE workers could probably get some money back if they filed, but many, probably most, don't.)

Halloween - Irish invention, American export

Posted by TheYank at 10/27/2009 10:38 AM EDT

Halloween was invented by the Irish, but when I first moved here it wasn't that big a deal. Not when compared with the Halloween I remembered as a kid in Queens & upstate New York. Back in 1995 I took my daughter out trick-or-treating for the first time and it was something of an eye-opener for me. We went to five or six houses and two handed her the traditional Irish Halloween treats: an apple and some nuts. The other houses had nothing.

Apples or nuts, that was the tradition here. Kids who rang the bell didn't say, "Trick or treat" they asked, "Any apples or nuts?" (The nuts are called 'monkey nuts' and are peanuts in their shells and are strangely unpleasant compared with the peanuts you get in America.) There wasn't much of a tradition for dressing up either. Some kids might have thrown on something that their mother or father owned, but that was about it. Mostly what you had was youngsters with fireworks. And bonfires.

I doubt De Valera was a spy

Posted by TheYank at 10/26/2009 8:36 AM EDT

I guess I should wait to read the book, but right now I'm very skeptical of the claims coming from historian John Turi. According to today's Irish Independent, Turi is a retired retired US naval officer and historian John Turi from Princeton, NJ.

According to the article in the Independent Turi has a new book coming out in which he claims that Eamon De Valera was "England's Greatest Spy." I'm skeptical for a number of reasons.

Driving us back to our homes

Posted by TheYank at 10/24/2009 3:38 PM EDT

At a meeting last Tuesday 20 members of the Fianna Fáil party publicly objected to the government's proposal to reduce the blood alcohol content limit for drivers. Despite all the problems in the Irish economy, health system, etc. it was this issue which caused the biggest ripple in Fianna Fáil for sometime. Their complaint centered on the fact that the lower limit will discourage rural people from going to the pub at all and a part of their way of life will disappear.

It's a difficult proposition to defend driving after drinking – especially in the face of what is a very emotive campaign by those backing the proposed change – but that doesn't mean that the 20 don't have an argument.

Bruce O'Springsteen

Posted by TheYank at 10/19/2009 8:01 AM EDT

A week ago or so I mentioned my first trip to Ireland back in 1985. This week's news that Bruce Springsteen is Irish is another reminder of that trip to Ireland. Why? Because my first trip to Ireland coincided with Bruce's.

I can still remember clearly walking around Dublin on the morning of the show. I was on my own as Tom & I had split up for a few days. I was due at my Aunt's house that evening. I was eating a sandwich in some coffee shop in the center of the city and I got talking to some guy about my age. He asked me if I was going to see Bruce at Slane later that evening.

I've decided — President Obama should come for the ND vs Navy game in '12

Posted by TheYank at 10/14/2009 6:28 AM EDT

This idea just popped into my head, but I think President Obama should come to Dublin for the September 1, 2012 college football game between Notre Dame and Navy. A few years ago I thought the game was a bad idea, but given the sea change in attitudes to the United States in this country since last November's election it doesn't seem like such a bad idea anymore.

At the time the game was announced I thought the anti-Americanism here would spoil the day, but if the President came it would change the atmosphere to one of unadulterated joy. {Unless President Obama's star wanes significantly over the next three years.}

The debutantes ball

Posted by TheYank at 10/9/2009 6:13 PM EDT

I've lived in Ireland for 18 years now and during that time I've experienced pretty much every big Irish occasion - baptisms, weddings, funerals - all of them but one. Until last night, when my daughter went to her 'debs', which is the Irish for prom (not really - I made that up).

So, how does the Irish debs compare with the American prom? Well, the debs is basically a senior prom. It's a formal dance, where the girls wear long dresses and the boys wear tuxedos.

Dublin in the 00s, the 1900s

Posted by TheYank at 10/6/2009 5:41 PM EDT

I'm about a third of the way through a short biography of the mostly forgotten Irish Nationalist Tom Kettle. I was interested to read about him after I learned that he was a Nationalist MP, who died in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. I found his name on the monument at Thiepval.

No, not more WWI I hear you say. Well, not today. I'm not even going to try to summarize Kettle's life here. Not much anyway.

Don't let hotels and restaurants charge you in dollars

Posted by TheYank at 10/5/2009 1:33 PM EDT

It's time for more free travel advice.

Back in May I offered the opinion that the travler's checks of years past are no longer necessary. I recommended that you use your ATM card to get cash (depends on the charge for using your ATM) and your credit card wherever you could. That's still true, but after Saturday night's experience I want to amend my credit card advice.

When the bells tolled for me

Posted by TheYank at 10/3/2009 1:18 PM EDT

RTE Television unveiled a new version of the Angelus a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't a huge news item here – notwithstanding the Irish Times' decision to put the story on the front page – but the 'new 'Angelus was the subject of some comment and debate.
{Here's one from Christmas a few years ago. I assume the new one is less religious than this one. When I first moved here the television picture was simply a shot of a painting of Mary with baby Jesus.}

It's time for a Fr. Doyle Square in Dublin

Posted by TheYank at 9/29/2009 10:35 AM EDT

You know who Fr. Duffy is, right? (If you don't, well, we need to remedy that. You can get a snippet here.) Anyway, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers had their own Fr. Duffy during World War I. He was Fr. Willie Doyle, a Jesuit priest originally from Dalkey, Co. Dublin, who was a hero to the men of the 16th (Irish) Division in the British Army just as Fr. Duffy was a hero among the men of the Fighting 69th later in the war.

Fr. Doyle's first taste of combat was at Loos in France in the spring of 1916 at the same battle where, I believe, my wife's great-grandfather was killed. From the first day his unit went into battle Fr. Doyle looked after the troops with no regard for his own welfare. He brought them water and ministered to them: hearing their confessions, saying Mass for them and, frequently, dashing out into danger to give a dying man last rites. He also risked his life to help retrieve wounded soldiers.

In this more comfortable and cynical age it's difficult to appreciate how important Fr. Doyle was to the men of the 16th Division. They were predominantly Catholic and much more committed to their faith than today's average Catholic. And that was before they were stripped of all worldly comforts and forced to live in trenches and face bullets, shells and poison gas.

Cabinet members should worry about lone nuts in tough times

Posted by TheYank at 9/28/2009 5:20 AM EDT

Last night someone tried to burn down the Department of Finance building, according to RTE. No mention of who might have thrown the petrol bomb into the building, but I guess we can let our imaginations run wild to the extent that we accept it's someone with a grudge against the government and not just a random act of vandalism.

That reminds me of something that crossed my mind the other day when I was walking by the Department of Finance. I stopped to take a picture of the Lisbon Treaty referendum posters and just as I snapped the picture I realized that the Minister for Finance was in my shot. He was with one other man and heading for his car parked right outside.

EU to Ireland: You were just joking, right?

Posted by TheYank at 9/25/2009 10:20 AM EDT

If you're an avid New York Times or Washington Post reader you'll be aware that Ireland is going to have a referendum a week from today. We are going to the polls to answer a simple a question: "Do you approve of the proposal to amend the Constitution contained in the undermentioned Bill?"

Simple enough because all you have to do is decide whether you want to put your X in the 'No' or 'Yes' box. Simple. Right?

The Ploughing Championships are really a big trade show

Posted by TheYank at 9/23/2009 9:23 AM EDT

They may call the event the National Ploughing Championships, but the trade show is really the center of attention. It's literally at the center of everything that goes on here. The plowing is - for me anyway - hard to find and on the outskirts of all that's happening. Having said that, the trade show is not without its merits as an attraction for this desk-bound, urban/suburban guy.

Two exhibitors in particular caught my eye this morning. One is selling log homes and the other is selling cosmetic products. Yup cosmetics, which tells you more about the people who come to the Ploughing Championships: they're not all farmers as you'd imagine them. There are a lot of women here and an equal share of the exhibits are targeted at women.

Next time students run riot on Fordham Road

Posted by TheYank at 9/21/2009 9:25 AM EDT

I only just came across this story from last Monday. A family in Dundalk, Co. Louth found themselves living in a neighborhood with a large population of students from the local Institute of Technology.

This is what the Daily Star says the McNamee family had to endure:
parties every weekend;
broken glass & syringes outside their house;
late night carousing;
drinking in the road;
climbing on cars;
driving on lawns;
condoms in the grass;
and, recently, women walking naked up and down the road.
Needless to say that McNamees were ticked off about this. What struck me, however, was the fact that they said that the students had made their residential area "like the Bronx."

Nama will be a symbol for tomorrow's emigrants

Posted by TheYank at 9/17/2009 10:18 AM EDT

Sorry I've been so silent here the past few days. Maybe you heard we had a fairly serious crash in Dublin between a bus and one of our new(ish) on-street light rail trains?

I nearly missed the Bus-Luas crash story yesterday because I'm completely distracted by the other big story here. Really, the biggest story in Ireland. Nama. Yesterday evening I switched radio stations every time the talk veered away from Nama.

If lamb isn't for dinner, what is it for?

Posted by TheYank at 9/15/2009 5:05 AM EDT

Did you hear about Marcus the lamb? In case not, basically Marcus was one of the animals on a farm started by an elementary school in Kent, England. The idea was that the farm would help the children learn about farming and where our food comes from, etc.

I think it sounds like a great idea, better than a lot of other drivel that's been added to school curricula in recent years. I wish my kids had had such an opportunity. {You see, although where we live is surrounded by hills full of gamboling lambs, we're still kind of cut off from the reality of farm life.}

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Posted by TheYank at 9/14/2009 8:26 AM EDT

We're in the middle of just about the best stretch of weather this summer (autumn here - that's another story), but our local supermarket has started stocking the Christmas items. Yup, on the second Saturday of September our local Tesco started putting out their Christmas chocolates and other items.

I know from my daughter, who has returned from her American summer, that Wal-mart has had their Halloween candy on the shelves for the past few weeks and she thought that was obscenely early, but this is beyond ridiculous. It isn't just that chocolate is perishable - I presume it'll last the 3 months - but these things take up room. Who wants to store chocolate Santas in their house for three months? And, it's not like you won't be able to find these items six weeks down the road.

Do you have time for a bite of breakfast?

Posted by TheYank at 9/12/2009 8:12 AM EDT

Have you ever wanted to break a world record in the Guinness Book of Records? Well, an eatery in Cavan has set the challenge for you: the fullest full Irish breakfast ever. In fact, it's the fullest breakfast ever offered, topping the old six pounds-six ounce record held by a restaurant in Bristol. The breakfast at Cavan's Hard Boiled Egg weighs in at more than seven pounds.

Seven pounds of breakfast. Just let that sink in (or better yet, maybe not). I've held seven pound babies in my hands, but I've never thought about eating one.

Look for your relatives in the 1911 Census

Posted by TheYank at 9/10/2009 11:35 AM EDT

Now we're cooking. As Kelly reports elsewhere on the site, the full 1911 Census of Ireland is now available online. This is absolutely tremendous.

For those of us whose grandparents or great-grandparents had not left Ireland by this time, it's actually exciting to see the forms. I found my great-grandfather's form, which included all sorts of little tidbits that I didn't know. First I had some trouble finding my great-grandfather's census form. Why? Because the database lists the family as Fahey and not Fahy, which it should be.

I can't even escape the Yankees in Ireland

Posted by TheYank at 9/4/2009 7:36 AM EDT

If you've been dropping by here for a while now you know I'm a baseball fan. I'm a Met fan and of course by extension that also means I'm a Yankee hater. All of which means that this has been an awful summer baseball-wise.

Living in Ireland can be a comfort at times like these because, for the most part, I can put the Mets' woes and the damn Yankees' current good play out of my mind. Other than the not-quite-occasional-enough e-mails from friends and family I don't have to endure the Yankees at all. In fact, often I can go a whole day or more without the Yankees entering my consciousness, although that's been getting harder the past year or so.

Some people like air shows ... I don't

Posted by TheYank at 7/29/2009 4:13 PM EDT

On Sunday I went to the Air Show in Bray, Co. Wicklow. The papers say that there were 50,000 people there, but from my vantage point the crowd looked pretty sparse. I watched the air show from on top of Bray head, where, I had a good view of the people standing on the 'beach' below ... and the planes above (sort of) ... and the dark, gray clouds that seemed to be everywhere.

Maybe it was the weather - cool, very windy, gray - but I didn't really enjoy the show. In fact, I would certainly have given it a miss, if not for my eight-year-old son's insistence. So we made the trip to the top of the hill and watched as planes did their thing. And, I didn't really mind the planes, but I could have lived without the helicopters, all of which seemed to do the same thing and all well below where we were.

No, I don't have swine flu

Posted by TheYank at 7/28/2009 2:44 PM EDT

I have to get on a plane in a few days to fly to America. Looking forward to it, but all this talk about the spread of swine flu has me wondering if I'll be admitted to the country in the first place. Why? Because like half of Ireland this July I have a cold.

You see, it's miserable here this summer. This morning when I woke up it was cold. Now, let me say, I know the difference between a cool, crisp summer morning - you know, the kind that gives way to sunny and 85 - and what we have, which is damp (really wet is more appropriate) and cool. It warmed up a bit today - probably hit 65 - but it's still raining hard outside.

Faked out in Hollywood

Posted by TheYank at 7/20/2009 12:45 PM EDT

I have to admit I'm somewhat bemused by the reaction to David Beckham out in Los Angeles. The fans there seem none too pleased with the way the English star has gone about his business playing for the Los Angeles Galaxy. The New York Times says that last night Beckham "was booed more than cheered during introductions"and booed when the Galaxy's match with AC Milan got underway. One fan even held up a sign that said, "Go Home Fraud." Fraud? And this is in Los Angeles, the "fake" capital of the world? The same city that is cheering Manny Ramirez to the hilt these past few weeks?

So, what exactly is bothering the Galaxy's fans? Well, apparently the Los Angeles fans are annoyed because Beckham now wants to play in Milan rather than LA. Well, duh! What did they think was going to happen? Why did they think Beckham signed to play in Los Angeles at all?

They should be so lucky

Today's NY Times has an article about a house in Malahide, Co. Dublin bought by an American couple in 2006. John and Blakey Shirey moved from New Hampshire to Ireland in 2004 when John's company posted him to Ireland. They rented for two years before buying a "small red-brick home" in Malahide, an "exclusive area by the seaside." The Times says that the Shireys wouldn't divulge the price they paid for the house, but that local real estate agents say that local prices have fallen "15 to 20 percent since they bought their home three years ago."

I'm no expert on property values in Malahide, but I'd very surprised if the Shireys could get much more than 65% of their 2006 purchase price these days.

Candidate for our 'time'

Joe Higgins won a seat in the European Parliament. Joe was late entering the campaign, sort of reluctant, but he won. Now I'm not really excited by his win other than I figure his posters went a long way towards putting him over the top.

Joe Higgins won a seat in the European Parliament. Joe was late entering the campaign, sort of reluctant, but he won. Now I'm not really excited by his win other than I figure his posters went a long way towards putting him over the top.

On tenterhooks

Scottish television network STV is reporting that Setanta will disappear tonight. We fans of American sports here in Ireland are all on edge wondering what will happen to our supply of baseball and hockey if that happens.

I just thought I'd share. I know you're all worried on my behalf.

Setanta's woes & ESPNA

One of the great developments for us Yanks in Ireland over the past few years was the birth of NASN - the North American Sports Network. When NASN came around it brought baseball & hockey & college football/basketball to my television for the first time since I left America in the early 90s. Absolutely fantastic.

I remember sitting in my living room here in Wicklow during August 2003 and watching a baseball game from Chicago. I couldn't get over it.

A year or so ago NASN was rebranded ESPN America (stupid name) after ESPN bought out the original owners, Setanta Sports. However, ESPNA is still part of the Setanta subscription package and Setanta is in deep financial trouble.

Half-time

I love sports. Still live & die with the Mets. I'm not a big soccer fan, but I always watch Ireland's games. I think if I was a big soccer fan I'd be less keen on the international soccer. Like a lot of Americans (40+ anyway) the only real experience of international sports taking hold of me was during the 1980 winter Olympics when the hockey team won the gold. Otherwise, international sports are for amateur sports fans (even if the games are no longer amateur).

It's half time in Bulgaria and it's 1-1. A win would be great, a tie enough. A loss ...

So, did you have a good summer?

Irish people are fatalistic about the weather. When we get a good spell – like we had last weekend – you constantly hear “Enjoy it while it lasts,” because there's an assumption that the bad weather is only around the corner. That assumption is generally well justified.

Last week Ireland was “sweltering”. Temperatures were in the mid to high 70s. It cooled off from midweek, but even yesterday was fairly pleasant. Today, June 6, in south County Dublin my car thermometer told me that the temperature was 7.5C at 1pm. That's around 46F. Even the locals have on jackets today. And there's a stiff breeze and heavy rain. It's miserable. I bet a lot of people have their heat on today. It's supposed to be June!

The forecast is for a gradual improvement to more normal temperatures. Highs around 60, that kind of thing. Not great, but better than today, but not the kind of weather you associate with summer. Based on past experience, I know that many Irish people are wondering if the few days we had is it for summer weather.

Testing times - for a car owner

Okay, I know I told you about the tension in the house to do with my oldest daughter doing her Leaving Cert at the moment. Well, there's another source of tension, but it's one that only I feel: the NCT. I have to bring my car to the test center in an hour where it will be, well, inspected. It's been a while since I lived in New York State, but the inspection process there was never the gut-wrenching testing process we have here. Why? Well, I'm not sure I can say.

In New York your mechanic is usually the guy who does the inspection, which means it's done by someone who (a) you (hopefully) trust and (b) might be willing to allow a little "leeway" on things like emissions. Here the test is run by a company that does nothing other than test cars. And it's a Swiss company so the culture is an unforgiving one.

I don't know. I'm sure this doesn't sound all that onerous a task and I bet for many it isn't, but I know that for me sitting there at the test center while my car is poked, prodded, revved (is that a word) and measured is a stomach-churning experience. I think I'd rather do the Leaving Cert.

Walking in Dun Laoghaire

As I mentioned below, I walked along the seafront in Dun Laoghaire today. I love walking there, especially on a day like today. Saw quite a few tourists, including a few from the US of A. You can always tell the tourists on a day like we had today. They're the ones who believe you need a sweater or light jacket when the temperature is soaring to 60 or so with that fairly "fresh" on-shore breeze and the occasional threatening looking cloud. The locals think that's shorts and tee-shirt weather.

The views along the seafront are tremendous. I never tire of being there.

I voted

And just like that it's over. The election was today and the polls closed about 15 minutes ago. Who won? Who knows? They don't start counting the votes until the morning.

It's been a long time since I voted in America. The last election I can remember clearly was Dinkins vs Giuliani I. By the time they made the sequel I was living here and ineligible to vote. Anyway, that's 20 years ago, but I remember going into the booth and pulling the little levers and walking out about 20 seconds later. That's not how it works here.

We have proportional representation here. How does it work? Well, roughly, you write a 1 in the box next to your favored candidate and a 2 next to your second favorite and carry on that way. (You can get the full picture here.) I love the whole paper and pencil feel to it. So 19th-century-town-hallish, if you know what I mean.

The 1911 Census

Elsewhere on this site, Declan O'Kelly reports that an additional five counties have been added to the online database of the 1911 Census. Census data from nine counties is now available online: Antrim, Cork, Donegal, Down, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Offaly and Wexford. (Note: if you go to the 1911 census web site and see "Kings County", that's not Brooklyn. That was Offaly's name at the time.)

My wife and I recently spent quite a bit of time searching the records of the 1911 census. All of her family was living in County Dublin at the time and we were able to find records for each one of her grandparents' families.

What is particularly good about the digitized 1911 census is that you can view the actual census form that was filled in at the time. You can see your ancestor's hand-writing, etc.

Leaving is canceled

Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned stress and the Leaving Cert? Well, the stress levels in the house just exploded. At 9pm we learned that the rumors we were laughing about during dinner - "someone in Dunboyne has seen tomorrow's paper and ... is coming up" - were mostly true.

Tomorrow's exam has been canceled because some nitwit in County Louth handed out the wrong papers this morning before realizing what they'd done and corrected that mistake. A few students saw the paper, but this afternoon they posted all their knowledge online. So, just like that students all across the country knew what these few knew.

Oh, and you want to know if it's a big deal here? It's the lead story on the national news. Yup. I think that captures how big a deal the Leaving Cert is better than anything I could have written. The lead story.

American servicemen in unmarked grave in Cork

This evening I was watching a docu-drama on the "Spanish Flu" pandemic of 1918-1919 in Ireland when near the very end there was a mention of three American sailors who died of the flu and were buried in an unmarked grave in a small graveyard in Queenstown, now Cobh, Co. Cork. I want to know more. Why were they buried in an unmarked grave? Why not shipped home for burial as all other fatalities in Queenstown were? (I think the family had to pay for repatriation at that time.) Why weren't headstones sent over by the Navy to mark these sailors' graves?

I'm not sure if there's any difference for those who served in the Navy and those who were in the Army, but I know veterans of the American army who later lived here and died here can have their graves marked with a standard military issue headstone. Who pays for that, I don't know.

Anyway, I was surprised to learn that men who served in the Navy, who died while serving, lie in an unmarked grave. That should be remedied.

Baking in Wicklow

Today is a holiday. It's our fourth holiday since mid-March, but I'm not complaining. What makes this holiday different is that the weather is spectacular. Truly. And of course Irish people are happy about that. Well, most of them.

On Saturday night I overheard two older women talking about how it was "too hot." I'm pretty sure one of them said it was too dry too.

Too hot? It was about 72 or 73, 75 at an absolute maximum. But, that was "too hot." This after what has to be the coldest, wettest April-May in a long time.

Mary in the neighborhood

When I first moved to Ireland I was surprised by the number of small marian shrines dotted around the country. They're still there and despite what you might believe given the current climate, they still seem to be very well looked after. These pictures are of one that I walked by the other day when leaving the car down to the mechanic.

Generally I've seen these shrines in the middle of county council or city council housing estates. I don't know for sure, but I presume that the people who do the looking after are simply local people who, despite everything we've learned about how the Catholic Church has behaved in recent decades, refuse to let anything shake their faith. I admire them for that. I've never seen grafitti on any one of these and they always seem to be immaculately kept. This one - like others I've seen - is lit up at night.

You know, I did read the year it was erected, but now I can't quite remember. And I can't read the plaque beneath Mary. I think it was 1954 (& restored in 1993), but I could be wrong.

The BBC didn't save the Celts who saved Britain

I almost never remember to watch a television program that I want to watch. I could set the VCR to tape a show, but I don't do that often because taping a program means - mostly - that no one can change the channel while I'm taping. That's the nature of our digital cable system.

Anyway, I did remember to tape How the Celts Saved Britain, which was on last night and I just finished watching it. I wanted to like this, but I would say I was only somewhat satisfied by it. I thought the parts about life in Britain at the end of the Roman empire and after the fall of the empire was very interesting, but a big part of the show was about how Ireland became Christianized. Some of that wasn't bad, but other bits were really thin.

I hope I remember to watch part two next week. Maybe it will be better.

It's poster season

I get back to America a lot, but I can't remember the last time I was there at election time. We have elections here on June 5 and one feature of Irish elections is the posters. They seem to be hung on every lamppost and on just about any other roadside feature you see. The faces on the posters are rarely attractive, but the colors make for a change - especially with the number of gray days we've been having lately.

Thanks to the Irish voting system we have here we have many parties and independent candidates in all elections. That, of course, means a whole load of posters using a wide array of color schemes. On June 5 we'll be voting in two elections - one for our representatives at the European Parliament and also our local councils. There are at least six parties contesting elections in my area along with a half dozen or so independents. And many of the parties field two or three candidates hoping to win multiple seats. That's why there are so many posters.

I heard a guy on the radio the other day complaining about one poster that had half fallen off a lamppost and was dangling upside down in front of a traffic light. They do half fall quite a bit, but I guess it's pretty rare that they fall directly in front of a traffic light.

The posters are not made of cardboard, but of a harder (maybe plastic?) material. Some of them are pretty big too. That's not as obvious when you're driving along because you only glance at them and they're often fairly high up, but if one happened to fall on your head, it would hurt. And, as my wife's friend discovered recently, it can be pretty frightening to have one blow down onto your car as you're driving.

Don't forget the traveler's checks?

If you're coming to Ireland you might have to think about how you're going to change your dollars into euros. Now, I can't magically make the weak dollar strong or the high prices here low, so be prepared to find everything expensive.

Still you can save some money by avoiding going into banks to change money. Use your bank/debit card at the ATM's. I carried out a small test in mid May. I changed a chunk of money in the bank and the same day I withdrew some from the ATM using an American debit card. Well, the Ulster Bank charged me $1.3943 for each €1. (And, no, the experience would be no different at any other bank, but I would have had to pay another handling charge at any other bank because I'm not a customer there.)

Using my MasterCard debit card (the American bank's ATM card) the rate was $1.3665 per €1. The American bank also charges $1 per transaction, but there is no charge from the Irish banks when you use their ATM's. If I had changed $400, for example, I would have saved around $5 -and that includes the ATM charge from the American bank, but not any potential charge from the Irish bank if you go inside to a teller (and there will be a charge.)

Leaving Cert stress

As I mentioned below, the oldest daughter is doing her Leaving in a few weeks. It's incredibly stressful - for the parents. From what I've been able to make out there are two distinct stresses that parents suffer at this time and they're mutually exclusive. First you have the stress of watching your little darling struggle, suffer, working hard, pouring over texts and scribbling away. You worry that they're working too hard, putting too much pressure on themselves, overdoing it. You worry.

The other stress is, to my mind, more serious. This is caused by excessive laybackedness (my own invention) on the part of the student. Your offspring seems to think it's in the bag, they're working - occasionally - but still finding plenty of time to not be all that worried about the exams that are right around the corner. This is a much more serious stress for parents because those who are suffering the first kind are really just playing at being stressed whereas those in the latter category are nearly ill with worry or hitting the bottle - hard.

I can't help but think that parents in America have it made compared with this. At least you've had years to be able to accept what was coming, but here you can't be sure of anything until you get past the results phase sometime in August.

The Leaving

My daughter's doing the Leaving Cert this year. If you don't know, the Leaving Cert is like a high school diploma, sort of. It marks the end of your second level education, but, no BUT, it is a totally different experience for the student {and, most importantly as far as I'm concerned, the parents}.

By the time you get to the end of your high school career in America you've had hundreds of exams, quizzes, projects, other things that all add up in the various subjects to make your high school record. In Ireland nothing you do in the first 12 years of education matters. All that really matters, all that counts is how you perform in the Leaving Cert Exams, which you sit over a two to three week period at the very end of your school career. Everything else is simply practice. It's like the Olympics where some highly trained athlete spends his entire life preparing for one two-week festival of sports in which he hopes to achieve his life's ambitions.

Two weeks and nine (or so) three-hour exams in 7 subjects (two subjects have double three-hour tests because three hours wouldn't be fun enough). And riding on your performance in these exams is your college place. Like I said, nothing else matters. Your test scores are your college application. Seven numbers measure you.

Irish roots: How my grandfather was hidden at Ellis Island

My Aunt Kathleen is the family genealogist. She literally wrote the book on our Irish American family. Yet, she hadn't been able to find any record of my grandfather's entry from Ireland into the U.S.

No one knew when he entered or where, but we had a good idea that he'd first come to America in 1916 and we were pretty sure he'd come to New York. He had brothers and a sister already there, so it had to be New York.

That meant he had to have come through Ellis Island - but there was no sign of him in their records. There was no difficulty finding my grandfather's brother, Rodger, who passed through Ellis Island in May 1913. That only added to the frustration. We knew my grandfather's name, obviously, we knew what year he was born, where he was from (sort of – more on that later) and we had a pretty good idea what year he immigrated.

To Ypres

Bought tickets to fly to Belgium in July. The whole family is going. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Island of Ireland Peace Park near Ypres in Flanders. Not sure if there will be much more than Ypres in this tour, but I'm sure we'll find other things of interest, etc. Comments: dublin37 wrote: ooooh, you must hit Bruges if at all possible. So beautiful and quaint, with lovely lace at good prices. 5/20/2009 10:57 AM EDT TheYank wrote: Dublin37 I'd love to, but that will be another trip. We can only fit so much in during our 36 hour visit. Brugges is on my list. 5/20/2009 11:33 AM EDT

View from the DART

On my way into Dublin yesterday I was noticing - again - how great the DART line is. Can there be a more beautiful commuter rail line on Earth? No, not the trains, the scenery along the line - particularly between Bray & Dalkey. I snapped this from the train, which explains the vaguely murky haze - the windows were slightly less than clean.

This (below) is the view you see when you emerge from the tunnel just beyond Dalkey on the way out of town.

Soaking up the rays

Was in Dublin yesterday. It was sunny and warm - ish. Warm for late March, but not really warm as such. Maybe in the high 50s, but there was a pretty sharp breeze. The wind chill doesn't put Irish people off, however. There they were in Merrion Square in the center of Dublin yesterday, sunbathing. Only men yesterday.

Are men hardier or simply more stupid, I'm not sure. I think some people are just driven nuts by sun deprivation.

Whatever the psychological explanation, I saw a number of guys who had peeled off their shirts to lie out in the grass. Me? I just buttoned up the jacket and walked on.

Chip & Pin costs sales

The visitors went into Dublin to do a bit of shopping today. Helping the economy, right? Can't be any issue with a few Yanks spending a buck or two in Dublin, right? Well, not quite. A few stores apparently weren't interested enough to take the American credit cards. No chip in the card means that the old signature has to do where we all use a PIN nowadays. For some stores that was too much trouble. No, we don't take those cards. Sales lost.

I can't help wondering how often this happens here now. Does this make tourists feel welcome? I would say not.

Bonus time on-board

Visitors from America arrived this morning. At 6:15! Wasn't expecting that, but it seems that there was little taxi-ing needed at Kennedy Airport. So EI104 arrived nearly an hour early at 4:30 or so. Fortunately for me, the airport wasn't ready for them and the lucky passengers - including my visitors - were treated to an extra 40 minutes sitting on the plane. Now, tell me, who doesn't want that between 4 and 5 in the morning after flying through the night?

The rusty gate

The Irish Times says that The Gateway may never return to Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. It was removed in order to "facilitate a new walkways scheme." Yeah, whatever works for you. I don't pretend to be an art connoisseur, but my son summed up the sculpture pretty well: "They're just two hunks of rusty metal."

Living horse in early May

So it's a Bank Holiday and, of course, it's pretty miserable. But our weather forecasters have said that we should have a long, hot, dry summer. Yeah, well, as my father-in-law used to say, live horse and you'll get grass. No, I don't really know what it means either, but I always liked it.

Let's get going

It's a holiday weekend - a "bank holiday weekend" - and the weather's not all that bad. Seems like a good time to start this.

Right now the sun is just peaking above the hills to the east and there's hardly a cloud in the sky.