In hard times even Santa feels the pinch. That’s the message of “Santa and the Recession,” a timely new book for children written and illustrated in Ireland (where the recession is biting harder than most places).

Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck will hit the road in January for a four-night tour that will feature this unlikely double act in concert halls in Florida, South Carolina, Virginia and New York. The "Bold and Fresh" tour promises to bring conversations of "substance" from the two TV hosts.

Ambassador Rooney was on a visit to Kilkenny city Wednesday, November 18, home to the tomb of Obama's long lost relative, Bishop John Kearney. He said he has asked Obama to visit Ireland.

Robert Reynolds: Since Sarah Palin once famously said she didn't know whether Africa was a continent, we in the global Irish community are left to wonder whether she could have ever unscrambled the difference between England, Britain and the so-called United Kingdom. Alas, we won't have to wait too long for Palin's wit (?) and wisdom (?!). Her new book comes out Monday.

Robert Reynolds: The resignation of Greg Craig as White House counsel is a sad day for civil liberties in America. Craig was a fearless proponent of exposing those who ordered torture of prisoners in American custody.

The undocumented Irish community in the U.S. received a major boost today with the announcement from the White House that it will push forward with a legalization program. Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano said the Obama administration is seeking a "tough but fair pathway to earned legal status."

Members of the Irish community gathered at a memorial Mass in New York Thursday to remember Sen. Edward Kennedy just over 12 weeks after his death. The senator’s son, Edward Kennedy Jr., Christine Quinn, Speaker of New York City Council, and Irish Consul General Niall Burgess were among those present.

The Irish premiere of Kilkenny man Gabriel Murray's documentary on the Irish heritage of U.S. president Barack Obama will be screened on Sunday as part of the Waterford Film Festival.

Robert Reynolds: It's now clear that Mayor Michael Bloomberg became New York's third term mayor because of the Catholic vote. Irish and Italians in the boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island provided the margin of victory for Bloomberg in a much tighter contest than was anticipated.

Niall O'Dowd: Somewhere in Australia there's an Irish lad called Rowan McCormick who broke Maureen Dowd's heart. When she went back in the early 1970s to visit her homestead in County Clare, hard by the majestic Cliffs of Moher, she met him and fell madly in love.

Robert Reynolds: Is Bill O'Reilly the new moderate voice of America's right? That would seem to be the case after Bill O' took on Rush Limbaugh, the fire-eating grand poobah of everything right-wing on his show.

Some celebrities are obviously Irish - think Conan O'Brien, Denis Leary and Maureen Dowd, while others, like President Obama, are a little harder to spot. Check out our gallery of the incognito Irish to see who's joining Obama in the unlikely Irish list!

President Barack Obama has attended the removal of fallen Irish American hero Dale Griffin. As originally reported by IrishCentral.com, Obama's decision to attend the removal of American soldiers at Dover Air Base draws a clear line in the sand between this administration and the Bush administration.

IrishCentral has learned that President Barack Obama will go to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware shortly to be present when the coffins of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan are brought back.

Niall O'Dowd: I get contacted about Susan Boyle Web sites all the time but rarely wish to promote them. This one in particular, however, is excellent as a reference site for anyone who needs to learn quickly about Susan Boyle or just revisit old memories.

After years of drink, drugs and debauchery in New York and San Francisco’s well-known Irish haunts, author Colin Broderick finally cleaned up his act and wrote a searing new book about his life. Then, as though by magic, came Barack Obama’s literary agent and a major book deal.

The powerhouse conservative Website, World Net Daily, has begun pushing Sean Hannity for President. WND founder Joseph Farah says he's ready to lead the fight to have Hannity run.

Robert Reynolds: The conservative Website World Net Daily has begun pushing Sean Hannity for President. Given the incredible lack of any attractive Republican candidates for president in 2012, that may not be as far-fetched as we might think.

Buzz Brady: Bono says "things are getting a little rough in America," and that there is a different, more-polarized atmosphere since he and U2 performed at President Obama's inauguration in January.

His late Dad may have made a peace of sorts with his beloved Catholic Church by admitting to Pope Benedict XVI that "I am not a perfect man," but Sen. Edward Kennedy's youngest son is beating the war drums.

South Bend, Indiana -- Notre Dame is about much more than a football team. That can be hard to understand on a glorious fall weekend when this beautiful campus is garbed in autumn shades, and tens of thousands of fans as well as national television are on hand for the annual smackdown with

The Irish population in America should rally around immigration reform, said Micheal Martin, Minister for Foreign Affairs, in New York on Saturday. Reform will take place in the first three months of 2010, and the question of undocumented Irish will be part of a comprehensive review of the immigration system.

As my sophomore year of high school began in 1960, the country was buzzing with the coming election. An Irish American was running for president! My Irish relatives rallied to the call and even my Italian family members supported the candidate. He might be Irish but he was Catholic

How scary is Robert Pattinson the pretty boy 'vampire' this Halloween? Not scary at all it seems if we go by sales of horror masks. In fact, he doesn't make it to the top ten.

SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton has made it crystal clear in her visit to Ireland that she and the Obama administration are giving the Irish peace process a very high priority indeed. It is also very welcome that she dropped the ludicrous “no special deal” nonsense when she talked about the undocumented Irish and the need to address that issue.

NOW that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Irish visit is over, and she most definitely acted as negotiator and envoy herself in Northern Ireland, as well as appointing economic envoy Declan Kelly, it is interesting to note who got this story right and who got it wrong in the preceding few months.

The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin, is meeting with members of Congress in Washington Wednesday and promises to highlight the plight of the Irish undocumented in the U.S. Martin, who arrived in Washington Wednesday for a four-day visit, is expected to discuss the issue of the estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish with members of both Houses of Congress later today.

Mairead Maguire, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 with Betty Williams for their work promoting peace in Northern Ireland as co-founders of the Community of the Peace People, has criticized the decision to award President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize.

President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize win has been a rather contentious issue with both liberals and conservatives in the U.S. But the typically hyper-critical Bill O’Reilly is definitely not one of these naysayers.

News from the 32: Antrim, Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Derry, Donegal, Down, Dublin, Fermanagh, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow

Even Bill O'Reilly may be starting to think Glenn Beck has gone too far on swine flu. Beck has been claiming that the Obama administration has been hyping the risks of swine flu and he is threatening to hold a "swine flu party" where he and others will expose themselves to the virus to prove it is all a fake.

Megan Smolenyak, the same genealogist who discovered that President Obama’s Irish roots go back to Moneygall in County Offaly, has discovered that the family tree of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, has a large Irish branch.

Undocumented Irish immigrants have been given new reason to hope that immigration reform is on President Obama's agenda. This follows a report in The New York Times that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency has quietly begun preparing for an expected upsurge in its workload.

Chicago lost out in its bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games after the city was eliminated after the first round of voting.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Northern Ireland next week, as exclusively reported on IrishCentral.com. Clinton will meet with political leaders for talks about the North's future.

Controversial documentary maker Michael Moore says his Irish American background has a lot to do with his work; "that we’ll be judged by how we treat the least among us -- and that the rich man is basically up to no good.”

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald could take it when he was demonized as a heartless Southern prosecutor in the movie that fictionalizes his real-life jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller. What he objected to — he quipped last Saturday during our “debate” over a proposed reporters’ shield law at the American Bar Association convention — was the prissy name they gave his character, played by Matt Dillon.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Saturday that it had transferred two prisoners from their detention facility in

Chief Family Historian for Ancestry.com Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak got the assignment of a lifetime when it was discovered in 2007 that future President of the U.S. Barack Obama had Irish roots. Smolenyak’s job? To find out where in Ireland Obama’s family came from.

President Barack Obama's Irish American ancestors were pioneers in 19th century health care reform. Film-maker and historian Gabriel Murray, who found Barack Obama’s great-grand uncle's tomb in Kikenny, Ireland, uncovered the surprise links while he was researching his new documentary, “Obama’s Irish Roots” (visit www.olympia-films.co.uk for more information).

Former President Bill Clinton will personally take part in a session on Northern Ireland at his annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) summit this week in New York.

The value of Ted Kennedy’s paintings and prints has skyrocketed since the senator’s death. Over the past few weeks, Kennedy artwork that was put up for sale on eBay was snapped up in days, according to the Cape Cod Times.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to visit Dublin, Belfast and London on October 11th and 12th, IrishCentral has learned.

Irish man Vince Keane from Ballyhaunis County Mayo is helping U.S. President Barack Obama to try and overhaul the health care system in the

The new economic envoy to the North arrived in Belfast Monday less than 72 hours after being appointed. Declan Kelly, a well-known and popular businessman in New York, said his appointment underscored US President Barack Obama’s commitment to the North.

The Irish Americans we're sick of, and who we'd like to see more of.

EXCLUSIVE: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced that Irish native Declan Kelly, 41, will be the Obama administration's economic envoy to Northern Ireland, a position first created for Sen. George Mitchell during the Clinton administration.

Because of your vision and resolve, I came to believe that soon, very soon, affordable health coverage will be available to all, in an America where the state of a family’s health will never again depend on the amount of a family’s wealth. And while I will not see the victory, I was able to look forward and know that we will – yes, we will – fulfill the promise of health care in America as a right and not a privilege.

It is quite an image... Maureen Dowd, scourge of every president since Poppy Bush and, arguably, the most powerful journalist in America thanks to her must-read column in The New York Times, talking of the road not taken, living a quiet life as a barkeep's wife back in Clare. Maybe that image isn’t so fanciful, though.

“Britain’s Got Talent” singing sensation Susan Boyle, 48, is the definition of an overnight star. But to her voice coach, the Irish born Fred O’Neil, 41, the formerly unemployed, unmarried singer deserves all the success that has finally come her way.