Raymond McCord, 53, the father of a Belfast man murdered by Loyalist paramilitaries in 1997 took his campaign to bring his son’s killers to justice to Capitol Hill last Thursday. McCord, a staunch Unionist, told a House of Representatives subcommittee he believes there was collusion between the Northern Irish security forces and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in the killing of his son.

THE promise of immigration reform benefiting the undocumented Irish in America took a quiet but very important step forward in Washington, D.C. last week with a pivotal meeting between Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ciaran Staunton, president of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) and South Carolina Ancient Order of Hibernians board member Jim Lawracy.

Collusion between British security forces and loyalist terrorists in Northern Ireland was the focus of hearings on Capitol Hill this week in Washington.

The father of a Belfast man who was murdered by a Loyalist paramilitary group in 1997 has secured his plea to have a U.S. congressional hearing into his son’s murder next month.

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 husband of New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney has died in a climbing accident in Tibet. Clifton Maloney, 71, died Saturday.

Chris Dodd could face a takedown or two in the Connecticut Senate race as former WWE CEO Linda McMahon has stepped into the political ring to challenge him.

Some say that Joe Kennedy's son, Joseph P. Kennedy III, will be the next Kennedy to step up in politics for the famous clan.

A carefully constructed model of a Dingle currach sits proudly on Rose Kennedy’s piano in the family’s Massachusetts home in Hyannisport. Ted liked to use it to “assure future generations of Kennedys that the Irish truly did discover America, after all.”

Niall O'Dowd: They were the Four Horsemen, the most powerful Irish lobby in American political history. They were Senator Edward Kennedy, House Speaker ‘Tip’ O’Neill Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and New York governor Hugh Carey.

No family has dominated American politics more in this century than the Kennedys, a clan which influenced the shaping of a nation to a degree rarely matched.

Now that Chris Kennedy will not run, the question of whether there will ever be another Kennedy in the U.S. Senate after Teddy passes come front and center.

Chicago-based Merchandise Mart mogul and political heir Chris Kennedy has told supporters he will not run for the Senate seat in Illinois left vacant by Roland Burris.

Here is our annual two-part summer feature on the questions U.S. naturalization candidates can be asked during a citizenship interview, as provided by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Here are the first 50, with answers – next week's column will have the remaining 50 questions and answers.

First Minister of Northern Ireland and Democratic Unionist Party leader Peter Robinson has written a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing his disquiet over the California Democratic Party's adoption of a resolution to support a United Ireland.

The hopes of the Irish undocumented rose today amid reports from Washington that activists have stepped up their efforts for comprehensive immigration reform. They are calling on President Barack Obama to introduce legislation this

Hope springs anew in the never-ending battle to win comprehensive immigration reform in the United States. The latest development saw President Barack Obama finally convene a top-level meeting of congressional leaders and key staffers to discuss how the issue might move ahead.

One race Peter King will not be undertaking is a Senate challenge to Kirsten Gillibrand. Like many others, he has been frightened away by the $40 million or so that Gillibrand is alleged to be raising for her election campaign next year.

There’s little hope for a bi-lateral deal between Ireland and the U.S. for the approximately 50,000 undocumented Irish workers in the States, according to a leading American congresswoman in Dublin Tuesday.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Tanaiste Brian Lenihan and President Mary McAleese will meet a group of U.S. Congressmen led by Richie Neal Monday to discuss undocumented Irish workers in the United States, Northern Ireland and the global economic crisis.

It will be quite an Irish battle for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut next year, with incumbent Chris Dodd likely to face off against former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley who is running for the Republican nomination.

Dan Rooney, President Obama's nominee to be ambassador to Ireland, spoke warmly about his ancestors' flight from Newry in County Down and swore to forge deeper relations with Dublin, "especially in the quest for peace," in his statement Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at Capitol Hill.

Source close to congressman says his desire to be close to grandchildren and his divergence on policy issues swayed him stay in Congress.

President Obama apparently had someone else in mind before he made Pittsburgh Steelers boss Dan Rooney the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.

Raymond McCord, the Belfast man who was in Washington last week seeking justice for the murder of his son by a Loyalist paramilitary group in 1997, was disheartened with the cold reception and lack of answers he got from the British Embassy.

The father of a young man who was murdered in 1997 by a Loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), is in the U.S. this week to seek “truth and justice” for his son.

Irish golf analyst David Feherty has aplogized over joking that "any U.S. soldier" would kill top Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid if given the opportunity.

HAVE you noticed an increase in immigration related spam in your emails? "U.S. Citizenship Here" is but one that's been frequenting our mailbox lately, and of course it's not hard to know why, given that the Senate is currently deep in debate about immigration reform legislation.

FOLLOWING is our annual two-part summer feature on the questions U.S. naturalization candidates can be asked during a citizenship interview, as provided by the U.

In her new book Being Catholic Now, activist Kerry Kennedy interviews 37 prominent Catholics (many of them Irish American) to discover what being Catholic means to this generation of followers. Kennedy tells CAHIR O'DOHERTY how her faith as a Catholic, which she learned as a child in the center of America's royal family, has carried her through all the heartbreak that have haunted the Kennedys over the years.

GROWING up in a house and family affected by great loss, it's no surprise to discover that for Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert Kennedy, her Catholicism has been a well of strength and solace for decades.

Have you noticed an increase in immigration related spam in your emails? “U.S. Citizenship Here” is but one that’s been frequenting our mailbox lately, and of course it’s not hard to know why, given that the Senate is currently deep in debate about immigration reform legislation.

Here are 50 of the questions that U.S. naturalization candidates can be asked during a citizenship interview, as provided by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

News : Ahern to Address U.S. Congress

Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern will address a joint session of U.

WHEN outgoing Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern addresses a joint session of Congress this Wednesday, April 30, he is unlikely to match the drama surrounding the joint session address by war hero General Douglas Mac Arthur, after he was relieved of his command by President Harry Truman in 1951.

MacArthur concluded his speech before Congress with the immortal lines, "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away."

Congressman Dewey Short of Missouri was so moved that he cried out, "We heard God speak here today! God in the flesh! The voice of God!"

Despite his own popularity among American politicians, Ahern is unlikely to draw the same response.

The Irish government headed by then-Prime Minister Jack Lynch investigated the background of disgraced New York City congressman Mario Biaggi for IRA links prior to his visit to Ireland in November 1978, government papers have just revealed.

Biaggi, then a prominent and beloved Bronx politician, was a thorn in the side of the government led by Jack Lynch because of his associations with Irish-Americans who took a hardline republican stance, particularly in the Irish National Caucus and Irish Northern Aid.

The Lynch government preferred to deal with the group of senior US politicians known as the "Four Horsemen", which included Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, Sen.

IRISH Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern told Dail (Parliament) members on Wednesday, February 6 that the issue of the Irish undocumented in the U.S. would be hard to resolve in the coming months.

TAOISEACH (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern will address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, April 30, the Irish government confirmed on Tuesday.Ahern was issued the invitation last year by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and efforts have been underway since to secure a firm date for the occasion. Ahern said he was "deeply honored" to accept the invitation.

SINN Fein President Gerry Adams says the transition between Northern First Minister Ian Paisley and whoever replaces him in May may cause a "turbulence" in the power-sharing executive."Ian Paisley has been the only leader in the history of the DUP party. In his own right he is a big figure in Irish politics so there is bound to be a degree of uncertainty and disturbance when the transition occurs," he said during an interview with the Irish American media in New York last week.

TAOISEACH (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern had a telephone conversation with Senator Barack Obama on St. Patrick's Day, and Ahern reported that Obama said Senator Hillary Clinton played an important role in the peace process. According to a transcript from RTE, Ahern also praised Clinton's role in the process during the time she was first lady.

ON Monday, March 17, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern and President George Bush exchanged traditional St. Patrick's Day pleasantries at the White House over a green bowl of shamrocks. Ahern spoke of the relationship both countries have enjoyed down through the years.

THE retiring Taoiseach Bertie Ahern ends his opinion piece by noting that "we should and must work together" on the issue of the Irish undocumented, after spending most of the previous paragraphs attacking the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform. It is a surprising way to advocate cooperation. It is unfortunately the work of a man at the end of his political career looking backwards rather than forward, and perhaps trying to settle a score that was much better left alone as ILIR was definitely prepared to do.

TAOISEACH (Irish Prime Minister) arrived in Washington on Tuesday evening in preparation for his address to the joint houses of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday morning, April 30.

The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) met with Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern on Thursday, May 1 in an effort to heal a recent rift between the parties on the issue of the Irish undocumented immigrants The meeting, which took place at 8 am, comprised of ILIR chairman Niall O'Dowd, Vice-Chairman Ciaran Staunton, Executive Director Kelly Fincham, former Congressman Bruce Morrison, San Francisco board member Bart Murphy and ILIR President Jeff Cleary. From the Irish Government there was Ahern, Secretary General of the Department Dermot Gallagher Irish Ambassador to the U.S.

IRISH property developer Niall Mellon has launched a campaign to recruit volunteers from all over the U.S. to join hundreds of Irish people in a housing building program in Cape Town, South Africa from November 28 to December 6 this year.

Senator Edward Kennedy announced last Friday that he is stepping down from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which also includes the subcommittee on immigration, to focus his attention on health care reform.

Kennedy, 76 and fighting a malignant brain tumor, is the chairman of the Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee of the Judiciary. The Massachusetts Democrat used his position on the committee to work with the opposition to create a comprehensive immigration reform package to try and solve the issue of the undocumented in the U.

Paisley and McGuinness on Tour

Northern Ireland's First Minister Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness together on economic mission.

Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinnes spend a whirlwind few days in the United States in early December when they visited New York and Washington D.C.

Iowa Irish Launch Campaign

IRISH American Democrats will launch their Iowa campaign for Senator Hillary Clinton at the Historical Museum, in Winterset, Iowa, home of an historic Irish settlement, on Friday, November 9.

As usual, the chairwoman of Irish American Democrats, Stella O'Leary, has done an extraordinary job in rounding up the troops for an event that may well feature the former first lady.

Winterset is in Madison County -- yes, that Madison County - where millions of American women lost their heart to Clint Eastwood in the movie The Bridges of Madison County based on the best-selling book.

Iowa Caucuses Are Complicated

THE first thing you need to know about the Iowa caucuses if you are a Democrat is that your second preference for president can be just as important as your first.

The Republican caucus is far more straight forward, essentially a straw vote with an immediate winner.

But the Democratic side is more complicated.

Mike Pence may be a Republican congressman from Indiana, but his roots are firmly in the Irish Catholic Democratic tradition.

A shake-up in the St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the White House will see far more non-Irish invited to take part in the event, which will occur in the evening of March 17 rather than in the morning, as happened under President George W. Bush.