An American in Ireland

Bachman wants US to
copy Ireland Michelle Bachmann was not "attacking" Ireland when she spoke in Florida over the weekend. Rather, she was arguing that the United States should emulate Ireland, in particular with regards to its low corporate tax rate.

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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Fine Gael TD Tom Barry Taking pot shots at the Catholic Church is probably the easiest way for an Irish elected official to garner a few positive headlines for himself, but I'm way past fed up with it.

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.

The fight took place in the
Temple Bar area of Dublin. Ten days ago three French-speaking men came together late at night on the streets of Dublin. Words were exchanged, which triggered a violent altercation that has left a young doctor in a coma in a Dublin Hospital and a young student in jail.

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.

Major General Robert Ross I have often heard about the Irishman, James Hoban, who "designed the White House," but until recently I'd never heard of the Irishman who burnt it down 14 years after it was completed – Major General Robert Ross.

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.

Irish Brigade gifts at Antietam's gift shop I was watching a re-run of Fág an Bealach on the Irish language channel TG4 the other night (Links here still work if you want to watch) when I remembered something about Antietam that really surprised me, particularly as compared with Gettysburg.

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.

MLA John Dallat A member of the Northern Ireland Assembly has called for August 15 to be made a national holiday, north and south. SDLP member John Dallat feels that making August 15, the Feast of the Assumption, a national holiday would be an "opportunity for everyone to become involved in a celebration of the special relationship the Mother of God holds in the lives of Irish people."

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.

Schoolbook publisher Albert Folens
(Irish Independent) Last night I got my first look at my daughter's booklist for the coming school year. One book in particular caught my eye - The United States & The World 1945-1989. My problem with this book is that it's published by Folens, a company founded by a man who aided the Gestapo in his native Belgium during WWII.

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.

Ireland's new government, elected in February, has been a little less guilty of making ridiculously optimistic statements about the Ireland's future than their predecessors, but they have hardly eschewed the tactic. Every so often they trot out a line or two about how the economy is improving, things will get better, etc.

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.