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).

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: 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.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) and the Irish American Unity Conference (IAUC) have joined together in a renewed effort to support an independent truth commission to deal with the past in Northern Ireland following last week's Congressional hearing into collusion there.

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.

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.

Caroline Kennedy will headline an Irish rally for New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, who is facing a tough battle in his re-election race. The rally will take place on October 21st in Belmar, New Jersey. The town is in the center of the Spring Lake area, which is a large center of Irish American population.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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

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.

The favorite for Senator Kennedy’s seat will surprise many people. According to a Boston Globe poll, Martha Coakley, the state attorney general, is ahead of both Joe Kennedy and Vicki Kennedy. Coakley picked up filing papers for the job on Wednesday.

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.

Senator Ted Kennedy, who has represented the state of MA for almost 50 years, has sent a letter to Governor Deval L. Patrick asking for a change in the Senate vacancy succession policy for the state, further increasing concerns for his present state of health.

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.

US President Barack Obama has defended his decision to honor Ireland's former president, Mary Robinson, with a Presidential Medal of Freedom. The award for Robinson, the highest the U.S. can bestow on a civilian, has been bitterly attacked by the influential Israeli lobbying group AIPAC

A pro-Israel lobbying group blasted President Obama's decision to grant a top honor to former Irish President Mary Robinson, accusing her of bias against the Jewish state.

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

Former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, has been named as a 2009 recipient of a U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. This is the highest honor the

Three feuding Irish cousins — President Obama, Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley — are planning to bury the hatchet over a pint at the White on Thursday at at 6 p.m.

Paul Hill: The sacrifice of the heroes of 9/11 must not be used as a justification for torture.

When the president comes calling where better to take his call than at your favorite local Irish pub?

Her husband may be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but Jane Sullivan Roberts is an amazing success story all her own.

If New York Senator Charles Schumer has anything to do with it, the estimated 50,000 Irish undocumented in the U.S. will have an immigration bill to look forward to by the end of this year or early next.

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.

U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney has revealed that President Barack Obama “definitely” plans on traveling to Ireland in the near future.

The visiting U.S. Congressional party to Ireland met with a delegation from the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) to discuss the possibility of former Loyalist prisoners being granted visas to the United States.

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.

Senator Charles Schumer, [D-N.Y.] wants the government to stand up and be counted on illegal immigration into the United States.

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.