An American in Ireland

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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 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.

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?

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.

"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 He spent a few years restructuring Riverdeep until the company was ready for the reverse takeover of Houghton Mifflin in 2006. In 2007 he moved the the company's corporate home from Ireland to the Cayman Islands, to take advantage of the Cayman Islands "greater flexibility" in distribution money to shareholders. He was able to raise hundreds of millions from investors, most of whom are Irish, who trusted in O'Callaghan and his vision for the educational publishing industry.

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.

READ MORE