An American in Ireland
by The YankRecent Posts
- Ireland's leader Enda Kenny pays no price for bad-mouthing the Irish people
- I'm a disappointment to Ireland's NFL fans
- It may be a stereotype, but the Irish do great funerals
- Ireland's President Michael D Higgins says intellectual crisis is worse than economic crisis
- Michael Noonan doesn't get that emigration is a disaster for Ireland
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Ireland's leader Enda Kenny pays no price for bad-mouthing the Irish people
in Davos, Switzerland.
Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny will be speaking at Harvard University on February 16 and if his past form is anything to go by, he will denounce the Irish people as a bunch of over-educated elitists in the hope of eliciting praise from the Harvard audience. Or something like that.
I can hear you from here. "This guy's nuts. No elected leader would do such a thing."
It may be a stereotype, but the Irish do great funerals
Nothing stays the same, even death, in Ireland as elsewhere. The traditional rituals and ceremonies surrounding an Irish funeral are not what they were 100 or even 50 years ago. Yet, as I learned this past week, death in modern Ireland, even in suburban Dublin, still retains many of the old ways.
When I was growing up an Irish wake was the subject of a joke built around a stereotype of Irishness. "What's the difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish wake? One less drunk." Unflattering, yet my teen self often wondered what was so bad about a celebratory wake? Everything I knew about death seemed so forbidding and frightening that I kind of liked the idea of laughing in its face.
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Ireland's President Michael D Higgins says intellectual crisis is worse than economic crisis
I suspect I'm the only person in Ireland taking new President Michael D Higgins seriously. Truly. That's the only way I can explain why his comments yesterday have received so little attention.
Yesterday in a lengthy (and tedious) speech Higgins said: "There is now I believe an intellectual crisis that is far more serious than the economic one, the one which fills the papers; dominates the programmes in our media."
America's losing out to Canada, Australia on luring ambitious Irish people
The government of Saskatchewan is planning a mission to Ireland to recruit workers to come work in the central Canadian province. Saskatchewan isn't the only Canadian province interested in recruiting Irish workers either. Nova Scotia and a few others are also keen. Western Australia and other Australian states are of similar minds.
Canada and Australia are both actively seeking Irish workers.Given the high unemployment and dismal projections of years of economic stagnation, Irish people are responding. They're heading to both places in their tens of thousands. Definitely, Ireland's loss is Canada and Australia's gain.
Ireland's 'bagel tax' is a vote of no confidence in the EU
Is a bagel bread? I say it is. The Oxford English Dictionary says it is ("a hard ring-shaped salty roll of bread"). From what I can tell Jewish people consider the bagel to be bread.
Truth is, I can't imagine anyone thinking the bagel is not bread yet, the Irish government does. As far as the government is concerned, bagels are not bread.
Ireland's cowardly government closes Vatican embassy
Last week the Irish government announced that it is going to close its embassy to the Holy See. Despite what everyone believes, the government claims that the embassy's closure has nothing to do with the souring of relations between the Vatican and the Irish government over scandals in the Catholic Church in Ireland. In fact, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny "reacted angrily" to the suggestion that the closure was due to anything other than budgetary constraints.
That Kenny and Tánaiste (Deputy PM) Eamonn Gilmore are willing to claim that the closing of Ireland's embassy to the Holy See is due to the need for the state to make savings says more about their cowardice than it does about the state of Ireland's finances. This decision is transparently NOT about saving money.
John Barry - Irish hero of the United States
John Barry, Irishman and "father of the American navy" seems to be finally getting some of the recognition he's long past due. The most important development is the decision of the United States Naval Academy to erect a memorial to Barry, thanks to the efforts of members of the local branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. In addition, a recently published biography of Barry is the first in 72 years. I'd love to imagine that Barry will also receive some national attention in Ireland, where he is mostly known in his native Wexford.
I have visited Philadelphia many times and each time I've taken a moment to look at the statue of Barry. It's not hard to find. It's in Independence Square, right in front of Independence Hall.
Michelle Bachmann was praising, not attacking Ireland
copy Ireland
The New York Times said Bachmann was looking at Ireland as an example when she said, "There are over 600 American companies that have gone to Ireland because of the tax rate. Over 100,000 jobs. I want those 100,000 jobs back in the United States."
If you believe that 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery' then it's more accurate to describe Bachmann's comments as praise. Bachmann believes that if the United States were to copy Ireland fewer American companies would feel the need to set up operations here. She believes that those companies would keep the jobs in America rather than send them overseas.
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The Irish Catholic Church's fund-raising is not the business of politicians
Today's headline comes thanks to Fine Gael TD (MP) Tom Barry, who I'd never heard of until this morning. I don't know what his angle is, but Barry is quoted in the Irish Examiner as urging Irish Catholics not to contribute to any fund intended to bail out dioceses struggling with debts due to compensation payments to abuse victims.
Barry says that families should not have to pay for the hierarchy's failures. Well you know what? They don't "have to." Membership in the Catholic Church is optional. The amount any Catholic gives is at his own discretion. Nobody "has to" give anything.
Student's dream trip to Europe ends in nightmare on Dublin streets
Temple Bar area of Dublin.
The story is both sad and bizarre. Details are still sketchy, but the press here reported that the fight was the result of an argument over accents.
The doctor in a coma is 26-year-old Frenchman Guillaume Osterstock. Osterstock came to Dublin to study at Dublin's Royal College of Surgeons and is in Beaumont Hospital, where he had worked. His alleged attacker is 23-year-old Simon Mercier from Quebec City in Canada.
Celebrating the Irishman who burned the White House
Ross was the head of the British Army that "burned Washington" in 1814. While the War of 1812 didn't feature prominently in my school lessons, I clearly remember learning about how President Madison and his wife had to flea the White House and Washington before the British marched in and torched the city's public buildings, including the Capitol Building and the White House. The man who led the British Army that day was General Ross from Rostrevor, County Down.
Last month I visited Fort McHenry in Baltimore, which was the center of an important engagement during the War of 1812. The British were thwarted in their efforts to capture the crucial port city of Baltimore. It was the victory in the Battle of Baltimore that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner. It was also the battle where Major General Robert Ross was killed.
Gift shop at Antietam is great for Irish Brigade gifts
As I mentioned, the gift shop at Gettysburg is massive, a Wal-mart of Civil War merchandise. Antietam's, by comparison, is a broom closet.
Still, Antietam has one line of gifts that Gettysburg does not – Irish Brigade merchandise. Lots of it. Books, tee shirts, baseball caps, posters, flags, pencils and other knickknacks all to do with the Irish Brigade.
Feast of the Assumption should remain a holy day, not a holiday
By no means would I ridicule Dallat for his devotion or question his religious views. I went to Mass on the 15th myself.
It's just, well, I don't know, but when I read his comments this morning I was taken aback. I felt like I'd been transported back in time.
He aided the Nazis before he shaped the minds of Irish children
(Irish Independent)
Albert Folens escaped from prison and made his way to Ireland under a false passport. Folens then got work as a teacher before setting up his publishing company.
Folens and his defenders claim that he was never in the Gestapo. His daughter says he only joined the Flemish Legion, which consisted of 300,000 men. One to two thousand is probably more like it. If Folens wasn't a Nazi he was one of their fascist first cousins.
A student loan scheme - too optimistic for Ireland's government
Well, all of the government's manufactured optimism and bluster about the future was blown away in one remark by the Minister for Education in a statement about the return of college tuition fees. Ruairi Quinn announced that the era of tuition‑free college is coming to an end. Fees have to return because the costs of providing free college education are just too great for a state that is only a hair's breadth away from Chapter 11.
I can't argue with Quinn, although with one daughter in college and another soon to be going, I'd love for the tuition to remain zero for a while longer. However, tuition‑free college is one of the many luxuries that post‑Celtic Tiger Ireland cannot afford.
Wanted in Ireland: one half-way decent presidential candidate
A week ago - who was it that said a week is a long time in politics - there were rumors that former television and radio talk show star Gay Byrne was going to enter the fray. "Uncle Gaybo" wanted to be President, we were told. For a few days there was a flurry of activity about a possible Byrne candidacy. Political analysts analyzed, commentators commented and one very foolish party political leader even endorsed Byrne, ignoring those in his party who wanted to run for the post themselves.
Mid-week Byrne tossed out a populist, anti-EU bombshell that had the analysts and commentators going into overdrive with their feverish speculation. Ireland was going to have a celebrity candidate.
New US Customs operation means ugly luggage is "out"
She told me this three weeks ago in the departure lounge awaiting our flight to New York, but repeated it again yesterday. "I have to have new luggage before I go again."
You see, the trouble is, luggage is not something we ever invested much in. Although she'd rarely agree with me on such matters, she did go along with my view that luggage only has to be functional, not attractive. I pointed out that cases were tossed around and occasionally maltreated by airline and/or airport staff, so why I pay for something that looks good.
Stupid, stupid, stupid - free hat day at the Orioles
It's almost three weeks now and I'm still shaking my head at the stupidity of the Baltimore Orioles and the Miller Brewing Company. On July 22 I was with my family among the small crowd who showed up for the Orioles' game against the Angels. It was Floppy Hat night.
I knew we were going to be in the area that night so I got tickets to go to the game. When we arrived at the gate we discovered the Orioles were giving away free hats. Among the four of us the only one who cared was my 10-year-old son. He was keen to get his hands on his free floppy hat.
I was first through the gate and was handed my hat. My son was next. "Sorry, the hats are only for those 21 and over." Thanks to the fact that the hats were sponsored by Miller Lite they could only be given out to those of legal drinking age.
US State Department warned about dangerous gangs - in Ireland
Does any American considering a trip to any western European nation actually consult the State Department's travel warnings? I ask because just as London was exploding in waves of violent, riotous behavior the
Compared with Gettysburg, no one goes to Antietam
Two weeks ago I did a two day tour of the Antietam and Gettysburg battlefields. The contrast in what I experienced at the two battle sites was incredible.
If you can say this about a battlefield, is 'hot'. A massive visitor center, a multitude of parking lots, loads of bus tours all add up to thousands of daily visitors. {I'm guessing, but I was there on July 22 and I'm sure in excess of 10,000 visited that day.}
The gift shop at Gettysburg is a supermarket-sized store full of tee-shirts, baseball caps, books, videos, knickknacks, replica weapons and uniforms. It's huge. Even the fee for the visitor center is big - $10.50 per adult and $6.50 per child. That's $34 for a family of four.
Winter trip to Ireland can be rewarding
I realize that visiting Ireland in the winter is not on many people's 'to do' list, but the other night as I was watching an American television show filmed here last winter I was reminded of just how beautiful Ireland looks in the winter.
Swimming in the Irish Sea – for the fool-hardy & the brow-beaten
Swimming in the Irish Sea is not for the fainthearted. I should know because I'm fainthearted and the Irish Sea is cold - really cold.
How cold? I don't know, but someone I know who has sampled both the waters off Maine and the Irish Sea says the two are about the same. What I do know is it sure ain't summer at
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