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A spokesperson for the NYPD said the police commissioner was reiterating NYPD policy that has been in effect since Mayor de Blasio took office, CBS reports. He added that while federal warrants are honored when there is a risk to public safety, last year the NYPD turned over only two of 72 illegal immigrants sought by the feds.
"The NYPD does not conduct civil immigration enforcement. Specifically, this department does not enforce administrative warrants issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or federal immigration judges, solely in connection with civil immigration violations. For example, the NYPD does not arrest or detain individuals for immigration violations such as overstaying a lawfully issued visa," O'Neill stated in an internal memo sent to the NYPD earlier this week.
On Friday, a top NYPD official told reporters that minor offenders will not be handed over to immigration officials.
"Even if you're a recidivist and jumped a turnstile for the fourth or tenth time, and we arrest you for the misdemeanor crime, that's a misdemeanor — it's not a qualifying offense for deportation efforts," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Legal Affairs Larry Byrne. "Nobody is getting deported for a minor offense.
Byrne, a formal federal prosecutor, said police do not cooperate with deportation efforts unless two conditions are met: the existence of a "federal judicial arrest warrant," and the person who is the subject of that warrant committed within the last five years at least one of 170 crimes the city deems serious.
He said those who commit minor offenses and have no outstanding warrants are given summonses and are not fingerprinted. He added that this protects residents from having their information entered into computer systems which federal officials can then use in order to find undocumented residents.
"Nobody is getting deported for jumping a turnstile," Byrne said. "Our policy is, if you jump a turnstile, unless you are a transit recidivist, you don't even get a criminal summons. You get a civil summons … where you are not fingerprinted and that does not go into any criminal system."
A spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city's stance on deportation will not change despite the president's new guidelines.
"The mayor and the NYPD won't be changing positions," Press Secretary Eric Phillips said.
Some experts dispute the NYPD stand. Security expert Manny Gomez, a former police officer and FBI agent said: "It's not fair to the cops and it's a threat to public safety. The police department's policy should be clear cut and simple. You commit a crime, you get found out to be illegal, you get handed over to the federal authorities."
He added that the city's defiance could come at a cost.
"The city of New York does not want to go head-to-head with the White House. That's a losing battle," he said.
New York gets more than $7 billion from Washington, and Trump could retaliate by not only cutting funding for the NYPD but also for housing and transpiration grants, said Gomez.
There are also limits on the protections the city can offer to residents, Politico reports.
Byrne told reporters: "ICE and other federal agencies have authority to enforce those warrants completely independent of the NYPD and they don't have to consult with us before they do that. They do that all the time. … There's nothing new about that practice."]]>
For Ceejay McArdle, from Castleblayney in Co Monaghan, the invitation to walk with the New York Police Department in the parade on March 17 is a dream come true.
Said his dad Marcus: "A guard in Castleblayney, Derek Rochford, was in touch with the Emerald Society in New York and between them they set the invitation up.
"It's an incredible gesture and they have even organized for Fitzpatrick's hotel in New York to take care of the accommodation."
Ceejay made headlines last year when he appeared at a Garda passing out parade in Templemore, the Irish Mirror reports. He was made an honorary Garda last September at Garda Headquarters.
nice touch by @GardaTraffic making Ceejay McArdle a garda for the day at the passing out ceremony in templemore pic.twitter.com/u2ZEgZqcGo— Damien Eagers (@deagers) June 8, 2016
However, before Ceejay and make the trip across the pond with his dad and mum, Susan Brown, the family has to settle the matter of his cancer treatment.
Marcus said: "He hasn't been well this week, he's had a virus and has been in the Lourdes hospital in Drogheda, and despite the big trip being on the horizion we can't lose sight of the fact he is still battling a serious illness.
"The treatment he is undergoing has an 80% success rate so we have every reason to be optimistic about the eventual outcome.
"We have had to produce a letter from doctors in Crumlin Children's Hospital to establish it is okay for him to fly and we had to source a hospital with an Oncology unit in New York in case we need one when we are there.
"Ceejay has started play school and is in the final year of what doctors always told us was a four year medical plan, he's doing well despite this weeks set backs.
"And he's delighted he's going to meet NYPD members who have sent him so many kind messages."
Ceejay was diagnosed with leukaemia in September 2014 and will be going through treatment until January 2018.]]>
The election will also see the end of the political career of Martin McGuinness, the Deputy First Minister who is stepping aside due to illness. He will be a major loss to Sinn Fein.
Two women will thus lead the two major parties, an unprecedented reality in Northern Ireland. with McGuinness replacement Michele O'Neill facing off against DUP leader Arlene Foster
In the decade since the DUP and Sinn Fein took over the Executive in 2007, control of the Assembly has been quite stable, with the two largest parties typically separated by around ten seats. There are currently 18 multi-member constituencies, where members are elected through single transferable vote.
On June 22, the "Assembly Members (Reduction of Numbers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016" received Royal assent, which reduced the number of members in each constituency from six to five. According to an analysis by Nicholas Whyte based on the 2016 election results, Sinn Fein, the DUP, and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) each stand to lose five seats, with the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and other smaller parties losing fewer. Therefore, the unionist camp stands to lose more from slimming the Assembly than nationalists.
Beyond this structural issue, a local scandal involving a program called the Renewable Heat Initiative (RHI) will likely have the greatest impact on the outcome of the election. A debacle set to cost the government nearly £500 million, the RHI scheme was developed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Investment (DETI) and ran from 2012 to 2016.
It incentivized businesses and other non-domestic properties to use alternative sources of energy, such as biomass (hence the local name for the scandal: "Cash for Ash"), for which it would reimburse £1.60 for every £1 spent on heating, with payment guaranteed for a period of 20 years.
However, the way DETI structured the program, participants were incentivized to waste fuel. Eventually, a whistleblower came forward to report that many participants had been heating previously unheated structures, such as farm sheds and fraudulently receiving reimbursements.
Beyond the staggering monetary cost of this incompetence, First Minister Arlene Foster was the Minster of DETI and it is alleged that she and her team ignored the warnings. Furthermore, after she had moved on to another position, she is alleged to have put pressure on her successor, Jonathan Bell, at DETI not to close down the scheme and attempted to hide her involvement in the program. When Bell revealed the alleged wrongdoing in an interview on December 15, he was formally suspended by the DUP and will be standing as an independent this cycle.
Pressure from the other parties began to mount on Foster, who had since become First Minister. The Assembly was recalled on December 19 to debate the scandal and vote on a motion of no confidence in Foster.
After a series of contentious sessions, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness resigned on January 9. Sinn Fein's refusal to nominate a replacement triggered the upcoming election. The Assembly also voted in favor of a public inquiry into the RHI program.
The RHI scandal has disproportionately damaged the DUP compared to the other parties. Foster herself is personally tainted from the episode and other leaders, such as new Sinn Fein chief Michelle O'Neil, have refused to work her while the inquiry is under way.
In fact, this is the second DUP leader in a row to be personally involved in an ethics scandal involving public funds. Therefore, casual unionist voters may decide not to support a scandal ridden party with a weakened leader and send their transfers to smaller parties such as the Alliance Party. The DUP is clearly nervous and trying to rally the base: in a press conference launching their manifesto Foster made a 20-minute speech attacking Sinn Fein, in which she mentioned the rival party 32 times, compared to 14 mentions of her own party.
While the United Kingdom as a whole voted in favor of Brexit on June23, 2016, a majority of voters in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the European Union by a margin of 55.8% to 44.2%, despite the unionist parties campaigning to leave.
Indeed, pro-European sentiment remains strong in Northern Ireland, and many may decide to punish the pro-Leave parties in the first election since the referendum on Europe. This is reflected in the significantly higher turnout in the Brexit referendum and the Assembly election seven weeks before: in the former, 62.7% of eligible voters cast ballots, as opposed to 54.9% in the latter.
A thorny aspect of Brexit particular to Northern Ireland is its 310-mile land border with the Republic of Ireland. One consequence of leaving the EU Customs Union would be border checks, in contrast to the easy flow of goods, people, and capital currently enjoyed by business and travelers. A return to a hard border, similar to the one that was in place during the Troubles, is fiercely opposed by the Irish government and is especially distressing to people living near the border, which may affect transfers in those seats.
One part of the border issue that is not likely to factor into this election cycle is the idea of a "border poll" or a vote on a united Ireland. The idea remains relatively unpopular, even among nationalists, as most seem content with the status quo. This may change in the future, but for now it remains a pipe-dream of nationalist true-believers.
Taken together, there are several reasons to believe that this election may bring more change to Stormont than any since the restoration of devolved government in 2007. First, the reduction in the number of seats disproportionately affects unionists. Second, the RHI scandal is rocking the most powerful party. Finally, the consequences of Brexit on Northern Ireland will have a strong effect on some voters.
As a result, the most likely outcome is that the DUP will lose several seats and remain the largest party. Sinn Fein will come in a strong second, largely closing the gap between the two largest parties. Leveling power in the Assembly will end the long-time dominance of unionists.]]>
Churchgoers will be able to drive up to St Patrick's Church in Glenamaddy, Co Galway and receive the traditional Ash Wednesday blessing from the comfort of their cars, the BBC reports.
On Ash Wednesday, which marks the first day of Lent, Catholics go to church to receive the blessing and have their foreheads marked with ash in the shape of a cross.
St Patrick's Church will allow parishioners to drive up to its front door, receive the blessing, and get back to work, school, and busy lives.
Conveniently, the church has a lane that leads right up to its front door.
Fr Paddy Mooney and the church's pastoral council both agreed to the strategy.
"We looked at the situation on the ground. People and families are on the move all the time," Fr Mooney told the Irish Catholic.
"It's about meeting people where they are."
The church has also decided set up a Lenten petition box on the grounds,that will allow people to submit prayer requests during Lent without having to leave their car.
"We're just putting it in front of people to help them think of Lent, as a reminder of it," said the priest.]]>
10. Grace Kelly
1954 – Best Actress in a Leading Role, "The Country Girl"
The Irish-American screen legend's Oscar win was controversial; many believed Kelly didn't deserve it, and thought the Oscar should have gone to Judy Garland for "A Star is Born."
The Princess of Monaco may be a bit over-dramatic as Georgie Elgin, singer Frank Elgin's (Bing Crosby) long-suffering wife, but we feel the need to pay homage to the unforgettable film star, whose Irish roots are traced to Louisburgh, County Mayo.
9. Thomas Mitchell
1939 – Best Actor in a Supporting Role, "Stagecoach."
This great American character actor and first generation Irish American can be seen in classics such as "Gone with the Wind" (he plays Scarlett O'Hara's father) and "It's a Wonderful Life" (he's Uncle Billy). His Oscar win finally came for his role in John Ford's classic western, "Stagecoach,"in which Mitchell plays the drunken Doc Boone.
8. Anjelica Huston
1985 – Best Actress in a Supporting Role, "Prizzi's Honor."
Huston, who spent much of her childhood on her father John Huston's Galway estate, has said of the Emerald Isle: "I don't feel anywhere else in the world the way I feel in Ireland. I feel at home there."
She paid homage to her "home" by bringing James Joyce's Gretta to life in the screen adaptation of "The Dead."
In Prizzi's Honor, Huston gets in touch with her Italian roots, creating the unforgettable Maerose Prizzi, daughter of a powerful mobster.
7. Jimmy Cagney
1942 – Best Actor in a Leading Role, "Yankee Doodle Dandy."
Though he's famous for his tough guy gangster roles, Cagney's Oscar win came from his arguably best performance as song-and-dance man George M. Cohan in 1942's "Yankee Doodle Dandy."
The Irish-Norwegian American from New York City makes the movie that is ranked #88 on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time.
6. Jennifer Connelly
2001 – Best Actress in a Supporting Role, "A Beautiful Mind."
Connelly gave a stellar performance as Alicia Nash in Ron Howard's Academy Award winning film. Her portrayal of the wife of schizophrenic and mathematical genius John Nash earned Connelly not only earned the actress an Oscar, but also a Golden Globe, BAFTA and AFI.
Connelly traces her Irish roots to Co. Cork, and told Irish America magazine in 2002 that she considers Ireland "hauntingly beautiful," and considers James Joyce's "Ulysses" one of her all-time favorite works.
5. Kevin Kline
1988 – Best Actor in a Supporting Role, "A Fish Called Wanda."
In this comedy written by John Cleese, Kline brilliantly portrays con artist Otto West.
In 2000, Kline told Irish America magazine that "Otto" was his first full-on comedic role, let alone a comedic role written specifically for him (Cleese wrote the part for Kline).
Kline, who is both Irish and Jewish, went on to explain the complexity of the role that won him the Oscar: "There seemed to me to be something so illogical about Otto; he was completely brain-dead stupid but then he could crack a safe, scale tall buildings and do seemingly impossible feats."
4. Maureen Stapleton
1981 – Best Actress in a Supporting Role, "Reds."
This first generation Irish American, is one of the elite Triple Crown of acting winners, earning an Oscar, Tony and Emmy during her career.
Stapleton's Oscar win came with her performance in 1981's "Reds." The film, starring and directed by Warren Beatty, centers on the life of Communist, journalist and writer John Reed. Stapleton plays Emma Goldman, the Russian-born anarchist and supporter of the Bolshevik Revolution.
3. Spencer Tracy
1937 – Best Actor in a Leading Role, "Captains Courageous."
Tracy, an Irish American and devout Catholic, was the first actor to win back-to-back Oscars (1938 Best Actor for "Captains Courageous" and 1939 Best Actor for "Boys Town").
Between both performances, we consider Tracy's portrayal as Portuguese-American fisherman Manuel in Rudyard Kipling's "Captains Courageous" to be the better of the two.
2. Gregory Peck
1962 – Best Actor in a Leading Role, "To Kill a Mockingbird."
After four Oscar nominations, Peck finally nabbed the award for his riveting performance as Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird." In this legendary performance, Peck helps bring Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to life in his role as the Depression-era lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman in a racially tense town.
Peck, who's grandmother was a native of Dingle, Co. Kerry, helped his character earn the title of "Greatest Hero in 100 Years of Film History" by the American Film Institute.
1. Sean Penn
2003 – Best Actor in a Leading Role, "Mystic River."
It's tough to compare 1940s film performances to those of today, but it wasn't difficult to identify Sean Penn's depiction of Jimmy Markum in "Mystic River," a film based on the book written by Irish American Dennis Lehane, as one of the best.
In this Clint Eastwood-directed film, Penn, who has Irish roots on his mother's side, electrifies in his gut-wrenching performance as a father seeking revenge on his daughter's murderer.
The actor went on to win another much-deserved leading actor Oscar for 2008's "Milk."
Bonus Round!
George Bernard Shaw is the only person to ever win both an Oscar and the Nobel Prize. He won an Oscar for the Best Screenplay Adaptation for 'Pygmailon' in 1938.
In June of 1957 as we disembarked from the Scythia, in Cobh, my mother was a nervous wreck fussing with bags, papers and her two daughters, Helena 11 and me, 9. We were all excited about this trip, but my mother's return to Ireland after twenty years was overwhelming. We could feel her anxiety. We took the train to Dublin, spent a night at the Gresham ( part of mom's bucket list?), and hired a car to take seven suitcases, two trunks and the three of us to Bawnboy, Cavan.
When we finally arrived at the gate of the farm, my grandmother, grandfather, Aunt Tessie and Uncle John Joe stood waiting. A very emotional scene followed. Though letters and gifts had been exchanged between Cavan and New York for years, nothing compared to the joy, tears and excitement of this reunion.
Once we settled in, our family made us feel like part of the place and we stayed for ten weeks. They didn't have electricity yet. All the neighbors on the road before them had to agree to it before my grandparents would be eligible, but the oil lamps provided much more atmosphere. The adults had long, long conversations which Helena found fascinating. I, on the other hand, enjoyed my grandfather's company, a man responsible for running a farm. Anytime he went out the door, I followed. The hay had to be placed in mounds to dry and then stored. Each new activity was great fun until I grew tired and went back up to the house. Later Helena and I would bring the tea and soda bread to my grandfather and John Joe, their only break. John Joe, a very witty young man at the time kept us laughing all summer. Once Uncle Terence arrived, he and John Joe teased us endlessly and we loved it. If we weren't working with them in the fields during the day, they were teaching us to be card sharks in the evening.
Later Helena and I would bring the tea and soda bread to my grandfather and John Joe, their only break. John Joe, a very witty young man at the time kept us laughing all summer. Once Uncle Terence arrived, he and John Joe teased us endlessly and we loved it. If we weren't working with them in the fields during the day, they were teaching us to be card sharks in the evening.
My Aunt Tessie taught me to step dance that summer, the seven hand reel. I wasn't very good but she encouraged me, nevertheless. We were bunk-mates and she very good naturedly put up with my childish antics. In Ireland at that time, none of the shops used the brown paper bags we had in NYC. Instead they wrapped most purchases with newspapers, a fabulous idea in my eyes. When I played store, one of my favorite past times, I took every newspaper available and began my imaginary game. By the time any adult entered the room, every movable item was covered in newspaper.
Most of my mother's siblings returned home that summer, even though she was one of fifteen. Uncle Cody and Aunt Nora lived nearby, but the rest had quite a distance to travel. We were always awaiting the next arrival to round the bend. My Aunt Bridgie and Uncle Michael arrived with their three girls at the time. Aunt Kathleen was next and I was so proud to be with this beautiful woman in the royal blue suit who held my hand as we strolled through town. Uncle Hugh, Aunt Kitty, Aunt Nellie, Uncle Michael (there are three of them) all came to see my mom. I have visited several times since but my first trip to Ireland told me about family.]]>
So Look Human's new clothing line, which emblazons the meme "My potatoes bring all the Irish to the yard and they're like that famine was hard" onto hoodies, baby grows, tank tops and t-shirts isn't something I'll be rushing to buy.
The company even adds an explanatory note. It reads:
"This funny St. Patrick's day shirt features clovers and the phrase "my potatoes bring all the Irish to the yard and they're like that famine was hard" and is perfect for St. Patrick's day celebrations, Irish people, history buffs, people who love funny mashup shirts, potato lovers, getting drunk, and partying in style this St. Patrick's day."
The words are a variation on the popular 2003 R&B song by Kelis that goes "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard / And they're like / it's better than yours."
Hardly the fodder for a stupid t-shirt inscription.
The Famine is a different category to drunk jokes and leprechauns. Noted historian Tim Pat Coogan has called it "genocide" because the British did so little to stop it.
Read More: Why the real story of Ireland's Great Hunger is not taught in US schools
There's a reason why some call it the Irish Holocaust.
I don't expect us to see flippant t-shirts about the Shoah printed and sold in Israel anytime soon. In the not too distant future those lived experiences will soon be found only in the history books and I hope we will still treat them with the same respect and reverence as when they were found on the tongues of the living.
And if most people would think a t-shirt about the six million Jews killed by Hitler would be in poor taste, I don't see how one about a million dead Irish people can be considered much of a riot.
The company emailed to tell me the design had led to a "handful of complaints" and that demand for the products has not been "substantial". So don't expect to run into many people wearing them at your local St. Patrick's Day parade.
They also said, "We are disappointed to hear people have taken offense to the design as it is never our intent to offend."
I recognize it's fun to sit around and do up silly t-shirts--but the Irish Famine? IS there anything that cannot be trivialized?
Now I understand that it's not as if the tragedy happened last year, it's not as if someone has rushed out a t-shirt with a meme about the conflict in Syria and a dust coated child refugee printed on it. No one still alive knew anyone who died in Black '47.
But still the Famine is different from most other historical events. The potato crop has been successfully planted and reaped over eight score times since then but the scars from the years it failed will never truly disappear.
A million dead, a million fled all within the space of seven years and Ireland's population has never recovered.
We see the legacy of those years all around us. Such reminders not even hard to find. Children play by Famine Graves to this very day and the surnames of those who fled are borne by people in every state in America.
Even many of those who gambled on escape died. Countless thousands packed themselves onto coffin ships, so jampacked with disease and hunger that 30% of passengers died on the way. There were so many bodies thrown overboard that sharks tailed them across the Atlantic - so confident were they that the ship would provide them with a plentiful and easy supply of meals.
I meet Irish Americans all the time whose families still recall in incredible detail how their ancestors were cast out of their native land by hunger pangs.
One woman from my grandparents' parish in Kerry walked into town looking for a doctor to help her starving family. She didn't have enough money and was sent home. By the time she got back her children were dead.
So yes, it was 'hard.'
For those reasons, I think I'll pass on Look Human's clothes.
Oh, and if you want to let them know how you feel they are at 1-740-201-1591.]]>
"I've heard lots of Americans say their family had a castle in Ireland," my friend from Dublin said, "but you are the only one who can claim their family still lives in it!" I remember my mother telling me about it when I was a boy. For her 80th birthday, in 2014, my wife and I treated her so she could finally see it for herself. It was her first trip overseas, and our first trip to Ireland
We began our two week excursion in Dublin, then headed west through Cashel. We stopped in Lough Gur on our way to the Dingle peninsula, spending several days on the coast. Venturing back east we wandered through a bog, monasteries, and passage tombs, before ending our days in the land of my ancestors, an area once known as The Pale.
My ancestors were castle builders, so our first site was Bellew's Castle, a fortified medieval tower house that is now part of a school in Dundalk. We ended up going on a school day, so I'd resigned myself to just see the outside of the building, and taking Mom's picture with her hand on the wall. But as luck would have it, we arrived at break time. We met a teacher in the parking lot, then were introduced to Sister Triona, who gave us some history of the castle while taking us inside. We saw what was left of the original escape passage, and Mom had the thrill of her life when we got to climb onto the roof. I couldn't help but smile when she climbed up that ladder and through the hatch faster than any of us.
Meanwhile, my wife stayed in the stairwell surrounded by school girls. They were putting on a play, and after learning we were from Alabama, they asked her to teach them the proper way to say "y'all." She had the best time watching them walk away laughing and practicing their new word.
Before leaving, Sister Triona invited us to tea, where we had a lovely visit and even got to meet the head of the school. I can't thank them enough for their gracious hospitality.
Our next stop was Bellew's Bridge, on the way to another castle. Out in the country in the middle of a pasture, Castle Roche was owned by my family for a couple hundred years. I was surprised once again at how fast my Mom climbed the hill to see those old ruins, smiling all the way. We had the whole place to ourselves, and the view was tremendous. We then drove to the rest of the sites on my list, giving us more photos, and more memories. Then at last it was time to see that castle.
Meeting the Lord and Lady of the estate was formal at first, but quickly turned familiar. After a tour of the building we were taken to their real pride and joy, the garden. Over lunch I got a first-hand account of some of the history of Ireland, and hearing it from a relative transformed me. They not only live where it happened 400 years ago, but have family stories filled with details you never learn in school. History was no longer the academic exercise of my youth. It became relevant in a way it never had before.
I thought I knew what to expect on this trip, and I was wrong. But I learned. I learned that a pint of Guinness really does go with Irish music, the two linked together on some deep level I simply cannot explain. I learned that a library can be a Cathedral in its own right, and that the sound of Evensong brings a church to life in a way no tour guide ever can. I learned that nothing can top an Irish B&B for hospitality, and that Dingle pubs are welcoming and patient with a stranger who wants to sit in on a session. I learned that there really is power in a stone circle, and that in the early morning mist, the storm beach at Minard Castle has a surreal quality that seeps into your soul, like you've stepped into a dream. And I learned to just stand still and soak in the view, because you can't put Dingle on a post card.
When planning a trip to Ireland, the biggest problem is not deciding what to see, but what to leave out. Now I know that nothing is truly left out, only put off for another time. And since I've been home I found two more ancestors, so Galway and County Tyrone have been added to my list. But then again, whenever I think of going back, I can hear a pub in Dingle calling my name…]]>
So named because the brutal passage aboard these ill-equipped vessels often meant death for passengers, the coffin ships ferried some 1.5 million Irish to North America during the later years of the 1840s as they fled famine and poverty in their native isle. With a further million dying of hunger in Ireland, Irish of all ages took their chances on passage to Canada or the United States, in a quest for refugee that is echoed today by the plight of Syrian refugees willing to risk their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
Carefully curated by museum curator and registrar Bethany Sheffer, "Fleeing Famine:Irish immigration to North America, 1845-1860" focuses solely on the tragic journey that these Great Hunger immigrants were forced to undertake and attempts to re-enact at least a portion of the cramped and crowded conditions by transforming some of the exhibit space into a part of the deck of the ship. Thankfully, this reimagination lacks the disease and sickness that would also have accompanied the tired and hungry travelers on their perilous journey.
"With our space, it has its unique challenges," Sheefer told IrishCentral. "What we did was include a fire pit that would have been on top of one of these ships and that's where they would have cooked their meals…"
"It would have been metal so we used brick and wood but it does give you an idea of all these people having to work on cooking over this tiny little fire pit.
"We based that off one of the images that's in the paintings so it's probably not completely to scale but it's enough that you get an idea of what it would have looked like.
"When you go onto the ship [in the museum], it's obviously not meant to be exact but it does still give you a feel that you are boarding a ship."
The images in question are six oil paintings from artist Rodney Charman, which he created through historical research to depict the grueling passage of the coffin ships. The museum acquired the magnificent recreations at the beginning of 2016 and used them as inspiration for this latest exhibition which will run until Fall 2017. Adding to this are bronzes from Ireland's Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University, who kindly allowed them to appear in Knights of Columbus museum for the year.
Read more: Why the real story of the Ireland's Great Hunger is not taught in U.S. schools
While most Americans learn in school of the Great Hunger in Ireland and of the wave of emigration it forced on its people, Sheffer admits that there were some details that still shocked her when she came to put this exhibit together.
"Actually the sheer numbers of people and how many were on a ship, that kind of thing, and the actual conditions that you would find in a famine ship," she said.
Although the awful journeys of the Irish immigrants in the mid-19th century is a horrible memory for many, within the exhibit also lies the hope of the American Dream for the million and a half who survived the passage. Outlined through panels throughout the exhibit is the story of a young Irish lad named Patrick, a genuine passenger on the Washington Irving whose family would build themselves from generation to generation to become highly influential to the US. Visitors will have to wait until the very end of the exhibit to discover just who exactly this Patrick is.
The story of success for Irish immigrants was also one close to the heart of Father Michael J. McGivney who founded the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization, in New Haven in 1882.
"Both of his parents were Irish and they both came on famine ships," explains Sheffer.
"We don't know 100 percent what ships they came on. We have an idea about the father but the mother's name is a lot more common so we couldn't narrow it down for that.
"Our focus is on the Knights of Columbus specifically [within the New Haven museum] but in the beginning, in our McGivney gallery we do talk about his origins and the fact that a lot of these founders were also of Irish descent."
"Fleeing Famine: Irish immigration to North America, 1845-1860" will be on display in Knights of Columbus museum, New Haven, until September 2017. You can find more information on their website here.
Read more: How much do you know about the Irish famine? Take the ultimate quiz]]>
The committee, for those who may not follow local parade politics, is angered that the board took over management of the parade in June of 2015, and claims that as a result, the 180 affiliated parade groups it represents don't have a say in how the parade is run.
The committee also alleges that the board is acting illegally in restructuring bylaws, appointing new members and pushing the affiliates to one side by not letting the committee members run the show.
It's nothing new for supporters of the committee to bash the board leadership – they've done so before in their meetings and on their Facebook page – but this week's letter contains a doozy of an insult, comparing the board's offer of a compromise proposal to "a historic travesty that remains a concern for all Irish Americans: the six counties of Northern Ireland being divided from Ireland's 32," with an exclamation point for emphasis.
If that wasn't enough of a slap, the letter also states that the board should know that its "divide and conquer" tactics are akin to the "Sassenach (English) oppressor of Ireland, and by the Know Nothing Nativists in Irish American communities."
Are the members of the committee losing their grip on reality? It's safe to say that Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland wouldn't agree that their struggle in any way equates with the squabbling going on in the New York parade, or should even be mentioned in the same sentence.
Ditto the Sassenach and the Know Nothing slur. The Irish have experienced more than their fair share of discrimination and tyranny. The current parade in-fighting doesn't cut it as a major historical horror – unless, of course, the committee was acknowledging the years of fierce opposition to an Irish gay group taking part in the march, an absence that was finally rectified for the 2016 parade thanks to the board leadership under current chairman Dr. John Lahey.
The letter was signed by Denis McCarthy, a past president of the Cork Association who has rightfully advocated against the use of spray tans by young Irish dancers and involved himself in other worthy issues. No doubt Mr. McCarthy had plenty of input from his fellow committee members in drafting the letter, but really, it's time for all of them to calm down and answer some questions.
Namely: is the parade itself being mismanaged under the leadership of the board, and if so, exactly how? What would the aggrieved affiliates do differently? Have the recent grand marshals not met their standards? How have their interests not been represented come March 17? And how would Fifth Avenue look on St. Patrick's Day if they had their way?
The fact is, all of the usual groups marched in 2016 and more than 350 units – a record number – will take to Fifth Avenue next month, which doesn't signify a parade riven with dissention akin to British occupation of the North.
Here's another fact – when the board voted to install Lahey as chairman with responsibility for managing the parade at that June 2015 meeting, the parade had come off another year of political boycotts because an Irish gay group was not included in the line of march. John Dunleavy, the former chairman of the Parade and Celebration Committee, was a staunch opponent of gay inclusion. His uncompromising stance hurt the parade commercially and from a public relations standpoint.
Those living in the real world knew the ban had to end and they took steps to do just that last year with the welcoming of the Lavender and Green Alliance. The boycotts and pickets stopped, the sponsors and politicians returned, the sun shone and Fifth Avenue didn't cave in.
Does the current committee leadership agree with the board's decision to include Lavender and Green in the parade? Would they have taken the same step?
The board has done a great job managing the parade, but if the committee thinks it can do better, it's time for its members to stop ranting and offer us a detailed blueprint as to exactly how they envisage Fifth Avenue on March 17.
Here is the letter in full:
Parade Committee Wants a Say
In response to the article "Parade Board Continues Its Reforms," (February 8-14), I would like to fill in some of the blanks the Parade Board leadership left out of their response.
Again, Chairman John Lahey has refused to honor his word and commitment to the elected officers of the St. Patrick's Day Parade and Celebration Committee and to all 180 affiliate organizations who are the very heart and soul of the New York City St. Patrick's Day parade.
Since December of 2015, Lahey has stated at several public meetings with the United Irish Counties Association of New York, the NYC Grand Council of Emerald Societies, with Chairman John Tully and the elected officers of the Parade and Celebration Committee, among others that "he recognized and would work with Chairman John Tully and the elected officers of the St. Patrick's Parade and Celebration Committee."
Most recently at the January 31 board meeting of affiliate organizations, when Lahey was questioned about his commitment he claimed that he and the board "have worked with the elected officers of the Parade and Celebration Committee." I was terribly disappointed by this inaccurate and misleading statement, which insulted the integrity of the delegates in attendance and many within the Irish American community who know this to be factually untrue.
The parade board leadership had also promised the Irish American community that they would not make any changes to the parade bylaws without input from the affiliated organizations, to be commenced post-lawsuit. To the contrary, the board's leadership has continued their zealous revision of the Parade bylaws to further expand "the authority and responsibility of the Board of Directors."
Furthermore, the board continues its vision of marginalizing input from any affiliated organizations and the officers that were elected as previously recognized by Lahey.
These actions also contradict Lahey's letter of April 25, 2016, to all parade affiliated organizations, which stated:
"The board discussed at length how best to strengthen the role of the affiliated organizations in the governance structure of the parade. No vote or action was taken with respect to this topic although I can report that the board expressed overwhelming support for allowing the affiliated organizations to decide for themselves their preferred structure between the current one or an alternative...(proposal) To be more specific, if the affiliated organizations are satisfied with the current structure of electing a parade committee every two years to assist the board in the planning and execution of the parade, the board will support this decision and will work again with the committee chaired by John Tully for the 2017 parade."
The parade board leadership has failed to follow through on the promises that were made publicly 14 months ago and in writing nine-plus months ago to the affiliated organizations regarding this year's parade. Instead Lahey and company have chosen to implement "stall and delay" and "divide and conquer" tactics to force their alternative proposal.
The Irish are all too familiar with such tactics, as our history reveals the same tactics were employed by the Sassenach oppressor of Ireland, and by the Know Nothing Nativists in Irish American communities, providing the incubus and foundation for our beloved parade.
The parade board's alternative proposal would eliminate the current parade bylaw structure of seven officers that are elected biennially by all 180 affiliates. The board would like to reduce the affiliate representation to a mere four rotating seats of umbrella organizations that would further reduce representation to only two-thirds of all affiliate organizations; representing only 120 out of 180.
This alternative is not a shared governance structure acceptable to all 180 affiliated organizations, and contradicts the parade's foundation and historic grassroots structure. This proposal also resembles too closely a historic travesty that remains a concern for all Irish Americans; the six counties of Northern Ireland being divided from Ireland's 32!
The New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade is a legacy and tradition inherited and owned by all 180 affiliated organizations! It is time we act as proper stewards of the parade and provide the leadership necessary to unite the Irish American community, where Chairman Lahey, Chairman Tully, the Board of Directors and the officers of the Parade and Celebration Committee work together with input from all the affiliated organizations.
Denis McCarthy
Corresponding Secretary, St. Patrick's Day Parade & Celebration Committee
Hawthorne, New York.]]>
10. Waking Ned Devine
Charming comedy set in a tiny, rural Irish town. When lottery winner Ned Devine is found dead - lottery ticket in hand and all - the townsfolk band together to fool the authorities into thinking Ned is alive, so they can receive the cash and share it. Starring Ian Bannen and Fionnula Flanagan.
9. Once
A beautiful, romantic, original musical set in the streets of Dublin. Glen Hansard of The Frames plays a street musician who meets fellow musician and Czech immigrant (Marketa Irglova). Together they work through pain, the past and new love through captivating music. Hansard and Irglova won the Oscar for Best Original Song (2007).
8. The Crying Game
The controversial film that put Irish director/screenwriter Neil Jordan on the map. Set in rural Ireland and bustling London, IRA member Fergus (Stephen Rea) develops a friendship with his captive, Jody (Forest Whittaker), and the kidnapping goes horribly wrong. Fergus then flees to London, where he seeks out Jody's girlfriend, Dil. An intense and thorny plot ensues.
7. The Snapper
Endearing Roddy Doyle novel-turned-screenplay. An unwed 20-year-old named Sharon Curly shakes up a working class Irish community when she becomes pregnant and refuses to name the father. Though full of quick wit and sarcastic banter, the dramedy has its touching, "family values" moments. Starring Colm Meaney and Tina Kellegher.
Here's a famous scene from the movie:
6. Intermission
A dark comedy with an Irish star-studded cast. Intermission follows the lives of a handful of dysfunctional characters whose choices all unwittingly affect each other's lives. Set in Dublin, the film takes on the grand themes of life, love and the law. Starring Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell.
5. In the Name of the Father
Oscar-nominated film based on the real-life experiences of Gerry Conlon, the alleged leader of the Guildford Four. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Conlon, a Belfast man wrongly imprisoned for the 1974 IRA bombing of a pub in the U.K. Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, In the Name of the Father shows one man's 15-year struggle for his innocence and for truth.
4. The Field
A story about an Irishman's love of his land from director Jim Sheridan. Bull McCabe (played by Richard Harris, who was nominated for an Oscar for the role) is a farmer in Ireland's rural west. When his field is threatened to be sold to an outsider, Bull will do anything in his power to stop it from happening. An unforgettable film about the conflict between "old" and "new" Ireland.
3. My Left Foot
A true story about an Irishman who overcomes his disability to become an amazing painter, poet and writer. Another film from Jim Sheridan, it documents the extraordinary life of Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis), a working class Irishman born with crippling cerebral palsy. With the encouragement of his mother, played by Brenda Fricker, Christy learns to write and draw with his only functional limb - his left foot. Both Day-Lewis and Fricker won Academy Awards for their roles.
2. The Quiet Man
A beloved classic starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. This romantic drama from director John Ford tells the story of Sean Thornton, a retired American boxer who relocates to Ireland to reclaim his family's farm, and Mary Kate Danaher, the fiery Irishwoman he falls in love with. Though its portrayal of Ireland may be a bit outdated, the film is a genuine tribute to Eire, and both an American and Irish favorite.
1. The Commitments
Legendary Irish film about a group of down-and-out Dubliners who form a soul band. Jimmy Rabbitte has dreams of creating the ultimate soul group, and succeeds in bringing together a bunch of talented, eclectic characters. But eventually personalities clash, and the survival of the band is threatened. This adaptation of the Roddy Doyle novel featured a relatively unknown cast at the time, but was welcomed with critical acclaim and a successful box office run.
"In America"
Touching film starring Samantha Morton and Djimon Hounsou, among others. Documents the adventures, struggles and triumphs of a family of Irish immigrants living in a rough neighborhood in New York City.
"When Brendan Met Trudy"
Yet another great product of Roddy Doyle's writing. Quirky, charming film about a teacher who meets and subsequently falls for a woman in a pub who turns out to be a burglar.
* Originally published in 2013.]]>
The slow rise to political power is Irish American playwright Eugene O'Neill's subject in The Emperor Jones, as is the terror of suddenly losing it all.
Both sides will get a hearing on the Irish Repertory Theatre's stage in its welcome revival of a sold out 2009 production (this time starring British actor Obi Abili as Brutus Jones) beginning March 1.
"The social and political climate of 2017, combined with the immense talent of Obi Abili, implored us to revisit this play, and to do so as soon as possible," Irish Rep co-founder and producing director Ciaran O'Reilly, who will direct the revival, told the Irish Voice.
It's unarguably a good time to reflect on how one man can see his own star rise by exploiting the fears of others. But in The Emperor Jones O'Neill doesn't just chart his rise and fall in this world -- he also delves into the haunted subconscious of his slippery subject, making his examination of the cost of getting and losing power a striking parable for our own time.
"In the times that are in it I could not hit on something that I thought had more to say," says O'Reilly. "It was a very successful show in the past and I don't think it reached its full audience when we closed it. It was sold out for the entire run and we were turning away people who wanted to see it. Then I met a wonderful actor named Obi Abili who I thought could take over the role and do it."
The Emperor Jones is about a man who assumes the throne based on lies and bull and razzamatazz and a lot of fear, O'Reilly continues. "Even though it's about a black man in a Caribbean island at the turn of the century, it has lines that just reverberate with today's newspaper headlines. It's just extraordinary."
At the time of its first production in the 1920s, O'Neill's insistence that a black man play the title role was considered revolutionary. He had to fight back the insistence that a white man play the role in black face.
Undaunted, O'Neill followed up this provocation with another Expressionist play called All God's Chillun' Got Wings, in which a black actor kisses a white one onstage, causing uproar.
"The outrage that kiss caused was unbelievable at the time. At the time that play was produced the Klu Klux Klan had five million members," O'Reilly says.
"The hate and abuse O'Neill had heaped upon him from well-known and respected people – it wasn't just hicks -- was remarkable. Society was shocked by him pushing for that kiss to happen."
Those who want to wear a mask have to wear it, that is their punishment, wrote Oscar Wilde once, in a line that O'Neill's play strongly echoes. Says O'Reilly, "The whole thing about The Emperor Jones, the lines that land for me, include a moment when his henchman says to him, 'But you're breaking laws yourself.' And his reply is, 'Well, ain't I the emperor?' The laws don't go for him."
There's been no crude attempt by the Rep to plaster contemporary themes onto O'Neill's play, but there's no need. O'Neill wrote themes that were profoundly human and because of that, they are enduring.
"There's little stealing like you does, and big stealing like I does," says the emperor to his henchman later on in the play. "The little stealing, it gets you in jail sooner or later. The big stealing they make you emperor and put you in the Hall of Fame when you croak."
The fact is that it's time for the Irish, at home and abroad, to finally get to grips with O'Neill. Widely thought of as America's greatest playwright, his work is sadly less produced in Ireland where, though a familiar osmosis, he is more often thought of as a Yank than a fellow countryman.
So the Rep is to be applauded for consistently focusing on his value to wider the Irish narrative. O'Neill was one of us, in his outlook and temperament, in his sensitivity and cunning. The interior life of his characters is full of the unsaid, although barely concealed, in a way that looks and sounds inherited. Even his melancholy finds its echo in us.
"The one thing that people don't recognize about him, he famously said this himself, is that he's Irish," says O'Reilly. "How much that informed how he lived and what he wrote. Even on superficial terms, what got him into the theater was going to see the Abbey Theatre players in 1911 when they were touring in New York. He went to see them night after night."
To see Yeats and Synge and the playwrights of that time onstage had a profound effect on the young playwright. The experience was life changing.
"It was seeing the Irish players," O'Neill said later, "that gave me a glimpse of my opportunity because they demonstrated the possibilities of naturalistic acting better than any other company."
Ireland gave O'Neill the key that unlocked his genius. Then it largely ignored his mighty contributions because of an insular parochialism that could not or would not admit the work of anyone not actually present on the island.
O'Neill's father was a sort of an Irishman on stilts. Born in 1847, the darkest year of the Great Hunger, he was famous for his melodramatic stage persona and not quite as well known for his depression and melancholia he exhibited at home among his intimates.
All his life O'Neill's father lived in great terror of ending up in the poorhouse, a fear that had marked his hardscrabble Irish childhood, so although he became celebrated and successful he spoiled his own life with anxious forebodings that haunted him till his dying day.
In O'Neill's greatest plays, the living haunt each other in a way that is unmistakably generational and Irish, springing from a legacy of privation and hard severance. It's quite remarkable, given all this, that we have known about his work for almost 100 years and have failed to fully grapple with his Irish legacy.
"In The Emperor Jones the character pulls himself up by his bootstraps," says O'Reilly. "He gets in with the traders of the time, gets to know everybody, rises to power and becomes the leader of this country. He does it in corrupt brutal ways and then he gets his comeuppance.
"O'Neill could have just left it at that and it would have been an amazing story. But he doesn't. He takes this guy on a run through the forest where he meets with the ghosts of his past. He goes back into slave auctions and ancestral memory in Africa. The sins that heap upon sins that brought him to the heights of his career. What made him, what formed him, and at what cost?
"O'Neill takes him into the darkest recesses of his own past and his own brain. It's astonishing to me. I'm directing it and I find the work astonishing."
Performances of The Emperor Jones are set to begin March 1. The show will play through April 23. Visit www.irishrep.org for tickets.]]>
The budget airline sold its first Ireland-US this flights on Thursday to much fanfare, with media attention focusing on the fact that some were to be sold for as little as $65.
The airline told IrishCentral its $65 tickets almost completely sold out on the day and their current cheapest fares are $99 one way tickets during the winter. In total 5,000 tickets have been sold this week alone.
But Walsh was bullish in the face of such competition. "I've always said we'll compete with Norwegian. The difference between Norwegian and us is we're profitable," he insisted. "The fares that they've launched are clearly just designed to get some headline media coverage. They're not sustainable."
But the entrance of Norwegian into the market seems to have rattled the shamrock embossed carrier and its CEO Stephen Kavanagh has mused about cutting down on in flight frills to reduce its own prices. At some point it may offer customers the option of opting into the inflight entertainment and checking in a bag, things that are currently included and reflected in its ticket prices.
His press team didn't seem to have gotten the memo though and tweeted Norwegian Air extolling the virtues of such inclusions in their ticket prices.
Free advertising from @AerLingus for Norwegian's low-cost flights? That's grand, thanks guys!— Norwegian UK&IE (@NorwegianUK) February 23, 2017
.@NorwegianUK About those routes... 🤔 pic.twitter.com/3JyZzVCDip— Aer Lingus (@AerLingus) February 23, 2017
Ireland's national airline Aer Lingus was sold to IAG in 2015 and its recently released annual results showed a spike in profits under new managment. Its profits have soared from $115 million in 2015 to $220 million this year.
The higher profit margins were attributed to the airline's near 10% capacity growth following the introduction of new routes to Newark and Los Angeles, the low cost of fuel and some cost savings. Direct flights to Las Vegas and Miami are also being mooted.
IAG were hit by the devaluation of the British pound sterling following the United Kingdom's decision to quit the European Union in June, but despite this, "For the full year, it was a good performance in a challenging environment," Walsh observed.
H/T: Irish Times]]>
With the ceremony upon us tomorrow evening, we look at the Oscar contenders for Ireland and what their chances are:
Ruth Negga - "Loving" - Actress in a Leading Role
"Loving" is technically not an Irish film but its leading lady, Irish-Ethiopian actress Ruth Negga, is the talk of the town thanks to her stirring performance. Born in Ethiopia to an Irish mother and an Ethiopian father, Negga moved to Ireland when she was four and was raised in Limerick. She starred alongside Cillian Murphy in "Breakfast on Pluto" and also appeared in the first two seasons of Irish hit series "Love/Hate."
She has been appearing more on this side of the Atlantic in recent years and is known for parts in "World War Z" in 2013 and "Warcraft: The Beginning" in 2016.
Her starring role in "Loving", however, has brought her to the attention of the Academy and won her a nomination for Best Actress. Negga's sterling performance as Mildred, who is fighting for her right to marry a white man, has put her in competition for the statue with Emma Stone who looks more likely to bring home the award for her role in "La La Land".
Set in Virginia in 1967, "Loving" tells the story of Mildred and her husband Richard as she faces punishment and imprisonment in order to obtain a legal marriage at a time when interracial marriages were illegal.
The Lobster - Writing (Original Screenplay)
Starring Irish actor Colin Farrell alongside Rachel Weisz, this absurdist dystopian black comedy was co-produced in Ireland, United Kingdom, Greece, France and the Netherlands. Selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and having already one the won the Jury Prize "The Lobster" may be in competition with big hitters "Manchester by the Sea" and "La La Land" but the screenplay is incredible if a little insane. It will take a lot to beat them off but we're hoping it has the edge.
Consolata Boyle - "Florence Foster Jenkins" - Best Costume
For the second time, Consolata Boyle has been nominated for an Oscar for her costume design, this time for "Florence Foster Jenkins" starring Meryl Street and Hugh Grant. She was first nominated back in 2006 for "The Queen."
Streep plays Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York heiress who became an opera singer known for her painful lack of singing skill, and she looks great the whole way through the film so we're sure Boyle has it in the bag this time.
Liam Neeson - "Silence" - Cinematography
There were rumors flying around in late 2016 that Irish actor Liam Neeson could see a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the Martin Scorsese film "Silence" but alas, Neeson is to be left Oscar-less. The "Taken" star came extremely close in 1994 when he was nominated for Best Actor for his performance as Oskar Schindler in the award-winning, critically-acclaimed "Schindler's List."
"Silence" had a disappointing performance when it was released in early 2017 and does not appear to have lived up to the hype surrounding its long-awaited production and release. Its relative failure may be the reason why Scorsese allowed his upcoming gangster flick "The Irishman" to move to Netflix. Nonetheless, the film is nominated for in the Cinematography category but it's very likely that this too will lose out to "La La Land."
Also starring Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Tadanobu Asano, and Belfast's Ciarán Hinds, "Silence" is a historical drama based on the novel of the same name by Shusaku Endo.
Neeson plays mentor Fr. Cristóvão Ferreira in the film, which is based on the violent persecution endured by two Portuguese Jesuit priests in 17th century Japan. Fr Sebastião Rodrigues and Fr. Francisco Garrpe, played by Garfield and Driver, travel to Japan to find their mentor (Neeson) despite the Japanese ban on Christianity and almost all foreign contact.
Read more: Top ten Irish-American Oscar winners of all time (PHOTOS)
Kenneth Lonergan - "Manchester by the Sea" - Best Picture, Writing (Original Screenplay) and Directing
Half Irish, half Jewish New York native Kenneth Lonergan, who formerly contributed to the screenplay for "Gangs of New York," is the writer and director of "Manchester by the Sea" starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, and Lucas Hedges. All three actor received a nod from the Academy in its acting categories but Lonergan has also been singled out for a directing nomination, while the film has earned critical acclaim for its screenplay.
Lonergan can be seen here talking about his roots in Ireland:
Natalie Portman - "Jackie" - Actress in a Leading Role
This is a bit of a stretch. Although the big names in this film have no direct links to Ireland, the subject matter certainly does. "Jackie" is, of course, the story of Jackie Kennedy during one of the hardest periods of her life – the weeks of public mourning just after the assassination of her husband, President John F Kennedy. Jackie is contending with the memories of her husband's assassination, her fight to create a legacy, and the horror of her grief and the social pressure of being such a massive public figure, all of which is beautifully captured by Portman, who is at her best.
Of course, to see Portman win would also see Negga lose so our hopes are still riding with our Irish favorite. The movie has also been nominated for Music (Original Score) and Costume Design
What do you think the chances are of an Irish Oscar at the 2017 Academy Awards? Let us know if you've any suggestions in the comments section, below.]]>
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, the Irish leader stated that Ireland wants the language within the Brexit agreement to allow for Northern Ireland to easily return to the bloc in the same "seamless fashion" that East Germany was allowed to join the EU when the Berlin Wall fell and it reunited with West Germany.
Any deal, he believes, must take into account the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and the possibility of a United Ireland in the future, which would see Northern Ireland needing to return to the EU.
"In other words, that in such future time, whenever that might be, were it [reunification] to occur, that the north of Ireland would have ease of access to join as a member of the European Union again … We want that language inserted into the negotiated treaty, the negotiated outcome, whenever that might occur," Kenny said.
The Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) was speaking in Brussels following a meeting with European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, in which they discussed the impact the UK's departure from the EU on Ireland and the ways in which a hard border could be avoided between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland when the exit finally takes place.
"We don't want to have hard borders between Northern Ireland and the Republic, we don't want to have the Good Friday agreement to put under risk, and we want land borders to be open as possible," Juncker said.
Read more: Enda Kenny expected to step down as Irish Prime Minister after whistleblower revelations
While Kenny stated that no hard border would be put in place, with Brexit details not officially decided, the nature of the relationship between Ireland and our closest neighbor is still up in the air.
"We had a discussion particularly about the border and the peace process. I made the point that when the old style of the border existed you had sectarian violence," Kenny said of the meeting with Barnier.
"We agreed with the British government and the British government agree with us: there should not be a return to the hard border of the past and indeed there won't be. This is a political challenge as distinct from any technological issue.
"Obviously Michel Barnier and his taskforce can't deliberate on an outcome until [article] 50 is triggered and until we know with clarity what it is the British government is talking about in terms of future relationships with the EU because that will have an impact on trade with Ireland."
Kenny emphasized, however, that Ireland is still very much an EU country, stating that the country sits on the European side of the negotiating table, despite the good standing relations between Ireland and the UK.
En route Brussels to meet BelgianPM & Pres Junker of the Commission to discuss Brexit. These discussions will become serious in months ahead— Enda Kenny (@EndaKennyTD) February 23, 2017
Despite the Leave campaign winning a UK majority in June's referendum with 52%, Northern Ireland voted by 56% to remain in the EU, a stance also held by the majority in Scotland, and in England's capital city London. Legal challenges have since been mounted in Northern Ireland and London regarding their unwillingness to leave the EU, and talk has increased of a second independence referendum in Scotland which would allow them to decide for themselves whether to remain a member of the EU of not if passed.
In October 2016, British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed that the UK will trigger Article 50 of the EU Lisbon Treaty (the move that will officially begin the divorce with the EU) by the end of March 2017, with plans to complete their departure within two years of that date.
Read more: Why Brexit means Irish unity is now inevitable
Kenny now believes, however, that triggering of Article 50 may be delayed, with the assumed plans to begin proceedings at the European council meeting on March 9 and 10 postponed even further.
"We had expected the prime minister was going to move article 50 on a particular date; I think that might be delayed a little," he said.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny says he has an agreement with @theresa_may govt that 'there'll be no return to border of past' after #brexit @rtenews pic.twitter.com/Q8cJBrC1Y8— Conor McMorrow (@ConorMcMorrow) February 15, 2017
During the press conference, the Irish leader avoided questions about his own future in Irish politics and whether he will still be Taoiseach when Brexit comes into play. There have been calls for the Taoiseach to resign over his handling of a recent controversy involving a Gardaí (Irish police) whistleblower and rumors that he is set to step aside in April following his St. Patrick's Day trip to the White House.
Juncker was also forced to deflect questions about his own possible resignation as a result of the lack of support other EU leaders have shown for his vision of the Union.
"I will not resign, I will bring my mandate to an end, that is 3 November 2019, but you knew that anyway," he said.
Should a provision be included in the Brexit deal for a future United Ireland? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section.]]>
We're familiar with the traditionally large-scale and internationally renowned St. Patrick's Day parades – New York, Boston, Chicago, Dublin, and the like – but what about the other 190 countries? What about the other 47 U.S. states?
In addition to national landmarks, fountains, and even rivers (looking at you, Chicago) turning green in honor of Ireland's patron saint, here's your guide to the most exciting, least expected, and farthest flung St. Patrick's Day celebrations.
This tiny Caribbean volcanic island is the only other country in the world – in addition to Ireland – for which St. Patrick's Day is a public holiday, but not for the reason you might think. This March 17th marks the 247th anniversary of an unsuccessful slave revolt against the European whites who colonized it in the 17th century, seven out of ten of whom were Irish. Today, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated by a week long festival of independence.
The central celebration is the Masquerade, where Montserratians dress in colorful hats resembling bishops miters, dance Irish jigs, and crack whips in mocking defiance of their one-time Irish masters. Montserratian historian Howard Fergus puts it this way: "We are celebrating the rise of the slave freedom fighters, but also the rash Catholic element in our history. They both have a place in our legacy, which is celebrated on the anniversary of the Saint's death." (Source: Janelle Oswald | The Voice)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Though it's often called "The Paris of South America," the Argentinian capitol looks more like Dublin every March 17th.
As host city to the largest St. Patrick's Day celebration in South America, Buenos Aires foregoes a parade in lieu of an annual street party in the city center, featuring music, dancing (including Celtic Argentina, the dance troupe profiled in Irish America magazine last year) and plenty of craic at Breoghans Brew pub on the corner of Bolivar and Estados Unidos. (Source: Wander Argentina)
Tokyo, Japan
First held in 1992, the Tokyo parade is the largest of several parades around Japan. It was began by Irish network Japan for the purpose of introducing Ireland to Japanese people and has evolved into a glorious mix of traditional Japanese stylized dress with Irish costumes (above). (Source: Irish Network Japan)
The Singapore River is dyed green, costumes are donned, and a Harley-Davidson convoy leads the pack at the Singapore St. Patrick's Day Parade, the largest celebration in Southeast Asia.
The St. Patrick's Society of Singapore (comprised mostly of ex-pats) also hosts an annual ball at the Shangri-la Hotel with free-flowing wine and beer, live music, prize drawings, and Irish dancing. (Source: Asia One)
More than 80,000 people show up for the St. Patrick's Day Parade and Family Day in Sydney, making it the largest such event in the southern hemisphere, and the only event in the world outside of Ireland to be organized and funded with support from the Irish government. But though Sydney goes big for a day, on the other side of the country Perth commits for the whole week with a host of races, competitions, children's activities, and a massive parade as the finale. (Source: Sydney St. Patrick's Day Parade / St. Patrick's Day Festival WA)
Auckland, New Zealand
Aukland holds the distinction of holding the first St. Patrick's Day party, since midnight on March 17 reaches New Zealand's largest city before anywhere else. It is also the farthest celebration away from Ireland, almost exactly the opposite end of the world at a massive 11,290 miles away from Dublin. Naturally, Auckland's 1,076-foot Sky Tower is lit with the Irish Tricolor for the day. (Source: St. Patrick's Festival Auckland)
Mumbai, India
The Gateway of India in Mumbai goes green for St. Patrick's Day, and the Irish pubs around the country's major cities stock up on Murphy's stout. (Source: Times of India)
Dubai, U.A.E.
For the past decade, Boomtown Rats front man Bob Geldof has played a St. Patrick's Day gig in Dubai's Irish Village and this year is no different. "Last year, although the rain was 'persistent', we still managed to jam into the early hours courtesy of a makeshift stage and plenty of Irish spirit. So whatever the weather, this year is going to be a great craic as well," Geldof said. (Source: Time Out Dubai)
Istanbul, Turkey
Every year, Istanbul's Irish Centre, a.k.a. The James Joyce Irish Pub, holds an Irish festival around St. Patrick's Day. Just off one of Istanbul's most notorious nightlife streets, the pub is the capital's only Irish bar and features live dancing, music, an ample beer selection, and plenty of traditional Irish food – oh, also an attached boutique hotel, appropriately called the Istanbul Shamrock. (Source: Istanbul Trails)
Zagreb, Croatia
— Orthodox Celts (@OCelts) August 20, 2014
Head to Zagreb's Tvornica Kulture (Culture Factory) where the Orthodox Celts, one of the most popular Croatian trad bands, will be celebrating their 22-year anniversary for St. Patrick's Day. Left: The Orthodox Celts in an undated (but still dated) photograph. (Source: Croatia Week)
Moscow, Russia
The parade started in 1992 and has kept on growing. Even in years when it was canceled or moved, Muscovites still congregated on Novy Arbat, the Moscow main drag where it all began on the 17th. Marching bands, Cossack horsemen, and green beer are found in abundance. (Source: The Russia Store)
Oslo, Norway
Every year the Norwegian Irish Society gathers on Jernbanetorget to have Norway's largest St. Patrick's Day Parade. Founded by the Oslo St. Patrick's Day Association (above), mostly comprised of Irish ex-pats, in 2009, the parade has grown to an all-inclusive celebration of the Irish in Scandinavia. (Source: Norwegian Irish Society)
Cabo Roig, Spain
On the southern Costa Blanca in eastern Spain, this picturesque Spanish outpost plays host to the largest parade in Spain (Madrid is the close second). A favored destination of Irish vacationers, the fiesta lasts well into the night and spills onto the white sand beaches, long after the parade has ended. (Source: National Geographic)
For the 6 most surprising places to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in the US, click through to read the rest of the article on IrishAmerica.com - you'll be surprised!]]>
Here's a list of St. Patrick's Day traditions you'll find only in America:
This beloved tune, which many people believe to be a traditional Irish folk song, was actually written and composed by a trio of American songwriters from New York. The song, which has been recorded by the great Irish tenor John McCormack, crooner Bing Crosby, and many others, was originally created for a short-lived 1913 Broadway show called "The Isle O'Dreams".
Want to celebrate the day with a few Irish pints? Don't be fooled into thinking this ale is imported from Ireland. The beer is brewed exclusively in America and is made in Colorado. Coors purchased the name in 1980.
McDonald's artificially green, mint-flavored drink first appeared in the U.S. in 1970 and has been a cult hit every St Patrick's Day since. The limited-time-only menu item only became available nationally in 2012 (until then it was left up to local operators whether to offer the shake), and in Ireland, the 550-calorie drink is listed as "New" on McDonald's menu.
Don't make this common American mistake and call the holiday "St Patty's Day." In Ireland, "Patty" is short for Patricia, not Patrick. Pádraig is the true Irish spelling of Patrick, and the correct way to shorten it is "Paddy."
In American bars, an "Irish car bomb" is a shot of Irish whiskey and Irish cream dropped into a half-filled glass of Guinness. The provocative name, suggestive of the car bombs that were used during the Troubles of Northern Ireland, when thousands were killed, would never be used in Ireland.
Despite its leprechaun mascot, you won't find this "magically delicious" cereal, on any Irish breakfast table. Lucky Charms, which first appeared in 1964, is made by Minneapolis-based food giant General Mills.
The "sexy lady leprechaun" has become a popular St Patrick's Day costume in recent years. However, according to Caroly White, author of "A History of Irish Fairies", there is no record of female leprechauns in Irish lore. And by the way, leprechauns traditionally wore red, not green.
You won't find green beer in Ireland. Says one Irish ex-pat living in the U.S, "I think if you dyed beer green in Ireland, they'd punch you."
Source: Time.com
*Originally published in March 2015.]]>
Next week, on February 28, voting wraps up in New York City's One Book, One New York contest. The idea is to get a large number of New Yorkers to read and discuss a fine work of literature.
What could be bad about this? After all, not only am I a writer but I'm also an English teacher. This is the kind of stuff people like me dream about. Even celebrities like William H. Macy and Bebe Neuwirth are joining the fun, lobbying for their own favorite books.
And yet, they somehow found a way to screw this up.
For the record, I've read all five books under consideration. Each is excellent and entertaining in its own unique way. One is arguably my own favorite book, while another is arguably the greatest New York Irish novel ever written.
But that's where the problem begins. All five of these books have already been celebrated widely. One Book, One New York might, instead, have been an interesting opportunity to turn readers on to New York stories that may not be so widely known, yet very much deserve to be told.
From an Irish American standpoint alone I can think of novels such as Peter Quinn's Banished Children of Eve or Jimmy Breslin's Table Money, as well as non-fiction such as Terry Golway's Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics or Tyler Anbinder's Five Points: The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum.
Which is to take nothing away from the five justly-celebrated books up for consideration. There is Betty Smith's classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, about the struggles of an immigrant family (Irish father and Austrian mother) in early 20th century Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Then there is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, a personal favorite, which won the Pulitzer Prize and explores the title character's painful coming of age in Paterson, New Jersey and the Dominican Republic.
Then there is Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and tells the star-crossed tale of Nigerian immigrants coping with love and post-9/11 life in the U.S.
Next up is Ta-Nehisi Coates' long letter to his son Between the World and Me, an explosive exploration of America's tortured racial history, which also won a National Book Award.
Finally, there is The Sellout by Paul Beatty, a laugh-out-loud satire (and Man Booker prize winner) which chronicles the unnamed narrator's efforts to reintroduce slavery in California, leading to a Supreme Court case.
This is indeed some fine reading and all of those awards were duly earned.
However, perhaps you noticed something about the settings of these books.
Jersey and the D.R.?
Isn't this contest called One Book, One New York? Shouldn't the books under consideration explore the city in all of its mess and wonder?
Yes, it's true that parts of Americanah unfold in New York, and yes, of course, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of the great New York City books.
Still, if we are all going to undertake the reading and discussion of a single book then it seems to me all the nominees should speak of the New York City experience in a serious, even intimate way. Because, for one thing, while New Yorkers love to bloviate about how great their city is, the vast majority know precious little either about the city's history or its less-familiar corners.
Again, just to use Irish writers to make this point, Thomas Kelly's Manhattan and Alice McDermott's Queens and Matthew Thomas' Bronx and Pete Hamill's Brooklyn and Eddie Joyce's Staten Island offer up portraits of New York that even many New Yorkers might not recognize.
So, by all means, participate in the One Book, One New York campaign. But next time, can we maybe make sure we get more books, you know, about New York!tact "Sidewalks" at tdeignan.blogspot.com)
To get you off on the right foot, we've compiled this list of some of the best movies and TV shows on Netflix with an Irish link. Enjoy!
1. Frank (2014)
This film may not be for everybody but Lenny Abrahamson's "Frank" features Michael Fassbender (unfortunately with a mask over his head for the majority of the film) in a remarkable story of a flamboyant, larger than life and extremely temperamental band front-man, Frank, who spends his whole life wearing a fake head.
Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson (son of Brendan) plays an aspiring musician who joins Frank and his relatively unstable and haphazard motley crew of musicians in this witty and quirky film that deep down is an incredible insight into the lives of those struggling with their mental health and trying to get by on the fringes of society.
A fantastic performance from Fassbender, in particular, who uses his voice and body to put in a wonderful performance.
2. The Secret of Kells (2009)
This stunning Oscar-nominated feature will enchant viewers young and old. The work of Kilkenny-based animation studio Cartoon Saloon, "The Secret of Kells" draws upon The Book of Kells, Ireland's venerable and most famous illuminated manuscript, for both its unique animation style and its plot. Set in the eighth century in the Abbey of Kells, it centers on a boy named Brendan whose uncle, the Abbot Cellach (voiced by Brendan Gleeson) watches over Kells with a well-intentioned but stern eye, intent upon building a wall high enough to keep out the Viking invaders. Having narrowly escaped a Viking attack on Iona, Brother Aidan (Mick Lally) and his cat Pangur Bán arrive in Kells, seeking a safe place to complete the Book of Iona illuminated manuscript. Against Abbot Cellach's wishes, Brother Aidan soon enlists Brendan's help, which results in him venturing into the forest outside of Kells' walls, where he meets a spirit named Aisling. Danger of the snake-like pagan deity and the Viking variety ensues as Brendan must choose between obeying his uncle and protecting the book.The animation is simply breath-taking - unlike anything else before this film, or since.
3. Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger (2014)
If you're having courtroom drama withdrawal after finishing off docuseries "Making a Murderer," this may be the answer. Although this telling of the infamous life of the South Boston crime boss doesn't involve the lovely Johnny Depp, acclaimed documentarian Joe Berlinger takes on the tale of James "Whitey" Bulger including interviews with those involved in his sensational 2013 trial.
4. Sing Street (2016)
Many would think of the 1980s in Ireland as a particularly bleak time with plenty of unemployment and ferries loads of Irish people making their way to England to work. Sing Street does nothing much to dispell that idea or the nature of Catholic Church-run schools in Ireland at the time but it also manages to get that point across through music, song, and fantastic rebel nature that showed that Irish people were striving to pick themselves up.
Following the journey of a high school band in Dublin, a band simply established so its front man (played exquisitely by Wicklow actor Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) could get a girl, Sing Street is at it heart a tale of love - finding romance, falling out of love, and the strength of brotherly love - and it also has some great tunes and fantastic '80s outfits. What's not to love! The film also stars Aiden Gillan of Game of Thrones fame and Jack Reynor.
5. Philomena (2013)
The outstanding "Philomena", based of true story book of the same name, is not an easy watch at times but essential viewing to understand the horrorific history of children in Ireland being unwillingly given up for adoption in the US by the Catholic Church, leaving single mothers in Ireland wondering of their chidren's fate, even when they marry and have further children.
Starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, the character Philomena (played by Dench) may seem lie a typical friendly Irish Mammy but her experience is, unfortunately, one experienced by too many women in Ireland. She teams up with a floundering journalist (Coogan) to find the son she was forced to give up for adoption 50 years previous. Tissues and someone to hug are extremely neccessary for her tale.
6. The Commitments (1991)
Another musical classic set in Dublin in the 1980s but with a slightly darker and less PG humor than Sing Street. After scouring Dublin to find musicians with soul, an aspiring band manager builds a band of locals with tons of raw talent - yet zero experience.
The result is plenty of drama and laughs with this adaption of a Roddy Doyle classic tale showing off Irish comedy at its best. Get ready to sing along with all the classics such as "Mustang Sally" and "In the Midnight Hour."
7. The Irish Pub (2013)
A documentary that looks at one of Ireland's best exports: A solid Irish pub.
This film takes a loving look at the traditional Irish pubs and the people who run them, highlighting the friendships they share with their ever loyal customers.
8. The Fall (2013)
This BBC miniseries thriller has been a game-changer in terms of how Northern Ireland's capital is portrayed in popular culture. Corruption, local politics and sectarian violence still lurk in the background, but the series' main focus is a hunt for a serial killer that could take place in almost any city in the world.
Gillian Anderson (of X-Files fame) stars as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson, who is brought over from London to investigate a murderer (played by a terrifying and at times uncomfortably sympathetic Jamie Dornan) who is targeting young professional women around Belfast.
The series is smart, challenging and tricky, with just the right melding of sub-plots and red herrings to keep viewers constantly guessing. "The Fall" is also one of your last chances to see Belfast-born-and-raised Dornan in action before he became famous for playing the rich, dominant and frequently naked Christian Grey in the "50 Shades of Grey" film.
All three seasons of the thriller are now available to stream on Netflix.
Have we missed your favorite? Let us know in the comments section, below.]]>
In Robert Holman's sparse two-hander Jonah and Otto, now playing at Theater Row in Manhattan, these wildly differing men encounter each other during the first and the last chapters of their respective lives with explosive results.
Directed by Belfast-born actress Geraldine Hughes and starring Sean Gormley as the elder man and Rupert Simonian as the younger, the play is about two lonely people whose lives have reached an complete impasse. The choice before them is a stark one now: to give up or go on? So the struggle that erupts between the two men grey mirrors the larger struggle to survive in a frequently hostile world.
If this place is Eden then it's clear it has fallen. The wall behind them has partly collapsed, there's a bare bench to rest on but little in the way of comfort or solace to be found here, unless you bring it yourself.
Holman's play is a meditation on the unseen violence that's done to souls simply by existing, but it's also about the palpable violence done by wrong choices, bad breaks, paths taken and paths not.
As Otto, the stoic and mysterious older man, Gormley gives us meticulously timed character revelations that surprise or at other times shock. A man already so isolated that he is becoming a near ghost, he is startled by the unexpected arrival of Jonah, less than half his age but also reeling from the utterly exhausting business of living.
Age makes little distinction between them. Almost as soon as they encounter each other they realize they are in some ways kindred spirits. Their bone deep alienation from their peers, their families, their communities and themselves is the glue that pulls them together.
Otto is a clergyman who no longer believes in God. He lives a contemplative, isolated life, but the flame of belief has completely gone out of it. What remains is a deep, mostly unexpressed desire for love that at various times horrifies or even appalls him.
Jonah, although much younger, possesses far more insight into his foil, understanding what Otto wants long before he says it and deciding from moment to moment to supply or withhold it.
Neither character is gay, so it's not strictly speaking a romance at all, although there is a growing emotional connection that undercuts their verbal jousts.
In Simonian's hands Jonah alternates between charming and completely unreliable. He craves affection but recoils from its consequences. He wants to be loved but he wants to be left alone. He doesn't believe in himself but he wants to desperately. He's a million human souls wrapped in one.
As Jonah and Otto progresses it's also clear that the accretion of metaphor is really its main business. Where they are and who they are is less important than what they are contending with or trying to change: how to make a tolerable life out of a few found materials, and then how to keep it going once you have.
There's more than a hint of Samuel Beckett in this pair's exchanges. In particular there is the terror of getting something that is barely defined completely wrong. The anxiety actually overrides the thing itself.
Fear and paralysis are both metaphorical and literal in this cerebral drama. Director Hughes does well to focus on the physical, ensuring that both men risk something of themselves and reminding us that it will be consequential.
"We learn to love by listening to another person," Otto says at one point, luminously. "Love is paying attention."
The writing of this play leaves absolutely nothing to chance. Every sentence is carefully considered and carefully freighted with meaning. It's a tribute to the actor's skill and the director's nimble interventions that it feels organic, coming from a deeply felt place, with real life consequences for its two hard-bitten protagonists.
Simonian magically inhabits his character, allowing the pain underneath the brash exterior to emerge convincingly. And Gormley shows us how his stricken character intuitively flees from the very things that will save him. The production sets all of this out lucidly, in a drama that knows what to conceal and what to reveal, challenging you – and its two lonely protagonists – only to risk yourself, only to connect.
Visit www.theatrerow.org for tickets.]]>
Under a 1970 law all butter sold in the state must be subjected to scrutiny by a panel, which recently ruled Kerrygold was not compliant. Their problem with Kerrygold's products was that the cattle who produce the milk for the cheese and butter are grass fed, something the panel ruled was against state law.
wont be travelling anytime soon to Wisconsin - ban on @kerrygold butter - a great taste of #Ireland - really whats that about?........ pic.twitter.com/jjmOICwOk1— Hugh Gillanders (@HughGillanders) February 22, 2017
Any shopkeepers who continue to stock the brand face a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail – something that has enraged consumers.
Read More: Americans can't get enough of Kerrygold butter! Sales hit record high
One woman said she drove all the way to Nebraska, 500 miles or so away, to stock up and bring the butter home in cooler bags, so incensed was she by the ban.
So Wisconsin has banded #kerrygold. I envision people down alleyways with crackers and knives getting their smuggled butter.— Brí ní hUaine (@brigreene77) February 22, 2017
"You can do a taste test. You have to do a taste test and see I guess, but it definitely has a different, richer taste than the other butter does," Jean Smith told the Foundation for Economic Education.
"I feel suspicious," she added. "Who are you trying to protect here? Are you protecting the consumers, are you protecting Wisconsin dairies?"
If I were inclined to launch out into any criminal enterprise today, it would be the smuggling of Kerrygold into Wisconsin.— X'nKetoConservative (@prosehaikus) February 22, 2017
I will now think of Wisconsin every morning when I have my toast. https://t.co/KSohjgRFau— Livia Ellis (@liviaellis) February 22, 2017
The dairy industry is hugely influential in Wisconsin and in 2016 accounted for 13.9% of all US milk production and 26% of all cheese production.
The desperate woman pleaded with bureaucrats to reverse this decision before her many months worth of supplies runs out and she has to drive to Nebraska again.
"I want to please ask whoever it is that's preventing me from getting butter in our stores here to stop it."
Interestingly, the fact that Kerrygold is made with milk from grass fed cows has made it a coveted product among foodies and healthy eating aficionados. One Silicon Valley trend, Bulletproof coffee, even encourages fans to add a dollop of Kerrygold to their morning coffee.]]>
The charming image, which was submitted to YOURSHOT — a National Geographic storytelling community where photographers can submit photos, get feedback and be published — became National Geographic's 'Photo of the Day' on Valentine's Day this year.
In his description of the photo, which was taken on Oct 1, 2016, Malloy, who is from Gaillimh, Connaught, Ireland, wrote: "The Irelands Ring of Kerry is noted for its photo opportunities and this happy little group of friends at a roadside market make the perfect one. It looks like yer man is making a St. Brigid's Cross with reeds while the dog barks instructions and the donkey checks his work ... amazing what you can teach humans to do. I don't know what the goat's job is. Lookout maybe? Contrived? Perhaps, but tell me you'd pass by without taking a picture."
According to his page, Malloy shot the image with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III.
You can see more of Malloy's stunning photographs of Ireland on his YourShot National Geographic page here.
"We think that it was our fastest launch sale ever," a spokesman stated.
The Norwegian Air move into the Irish market, flying 24 fights a week from the US, is a real game-changer given the extraordinary initial sales, say the experts. The airline has said it will add more flights across Europe and to Ireland if it continues to do so well.
We are excited to launch our new non-stop routes from Dublin, Shannon & Cork to the USA from €69* one way. Book at https://t.co/ceCa6N5HHI pic.twitter.com/TP7dYMz329— Norwegian UK&I (@NorwegianUK) February 23, 2017
Aer Lingus has already responded by dropping fares from Ireland to the US, but the competition will be fierce.
Niall Gibbons head of Tourism Ireland was in no doubt about the impact.
"As an island, the importance of convenient, direct, non-stop flights cannot be overstated. They are absolutely critical to achieving growth in inbound tourism. It is an excellent opportunity to strengthen the business, cultural and tourism ties between Ireland and across the Atlantic."
"If this is a success, we will bring on more flights," said Lars Sande, senior vice president of sales. That could mean additional frequencies and other European routes. Passengers can expect prices to average $300 to $350 round-trip, Sande told the Boston Herald. "We have the most efficient aircraft available for these kinds of routes, and that means that we are able to keep costs very low," he said.
.#NorwegianAir just picked a fight with other airlines by offering a $65 fare to Europe. The winner: you. https://t.co/NOTBM1bjbc pic.twitter.com/SmOPiUN8uR— Catharine Hamm (@CatHamm) February 23, 2017
But passengers will face additional fees for checked luggage ($45 for the first bag, $50 for a second), meal service including alcoholic beverages ($30) and a reserved specific seat ($30). Or they can pay a $70 bundled fee for a checked bag, meal and specific seat. Or they can go without any amenities, food and no checked bag, only hand baggage."
"It's a completely a la carte airline," said analyst Henry Harteveldt, of Atmosphere Research Group. "Depending on what you choose to buy and how much they're charging at the time, it could equal — and in some cases even exceed — the cost of the base airfare. The optional products are how airlines like Norwegian make money.
Interestingly, Aer Lingus has immediately responded with a €199 one way fare from Ireland, in addition to a series of sassy comments on Twitter.
No free bag?— Aer Lingus (@AerLingus) February 23, 2017
No free seat assignment?
No free meal?
No preclearance?
Cheers, you're grand. https://t.co/aZIHqZJpJc
The 24 flights per week from Ireland to the US via Norwegian Ar are distributed as follows:
The departure times of flight from Providence to Dublin, Shannon, Cork, Belfast are as follows
From Providence to Ireland
DUBLIN: Flight departs Providence at 8:00 PM — arrives Dublin 7:55 AM
CORK: Flight departs Providence 8:50 PM — arrives 8:45 AM
SHANNON: Flight departs 8:35 PM — arrives 8:25 AM
BELFAST: Flight departs 9:30 PM — arrives 9:20 AM
From Stewart Airport New York to Ireland
DUBLIN: Flight departs NY at 8:35 PM — arrives 8:20 AM
SHANNON: Flight departs 8:25 PM — arrives 8:20 AM
BELFAST: Flight departs NY 9:50 PM — arrives 9:45 AM
From Ireland to New York
BELFAST: Flight departs 4:20 PM — arrives NY 7:05 AM
SHANNON: Flight departs 4:15 PM — arrives NY 7:00 AM
DUBLIN: Flight departs 4:00 PM — arrives NY 7:00 AM
From Ireland to Boston/Providence
DUBLIN: Flight departs 3:45 PM — arrives 6:30 AM
CORK: Flight departs 4:20 PM — arrives 7:05 AM
SHANNON: Flight departs 4:25 PM — arrives 6:25 AM
BELFAST: Flight departs 3:45 PM — arrives 6:20 AM
The resort in Doonbeg has already scaled back plans for a 200,000 ton barrier to a more modest 49,400 ton version. The original wall was set to stretch 1.7 miles but a new proposal seeks permission for one half a mile long. Clare County Council's request for further information after the original plan was submitted left managers at the resort worried that it would take years to get approval.
Opposition to the project has also increased: whereas 39 people objected to the original plan, the revised plan has now seen over 40 individuals file concerns. The Department of Arts, Heritage and Rural Affairs have warned that sufficient justification for the wall has yet to be given.
The proposal warns that left unprotected from the sea, holes 1, 18 and 19 will disappear due to coastal erosion and that eventually the entire hotel and golf course could be threatened by the encroaching Atlantic ocean.
Whilst President Trump and the First Daughter Ivanka have resigned as executive directors of the resort, the President's two older sons, Eric and Don, Jr. remain on the board that are hoping to get the wall given the green light.
Fintan Kelly from An Taisce - an environmental organization and objector to the plans - said the resignation of President and Ivanka Trump had no effect on the project as far as he could work out.
"There may be new Trumps in charge and a new application, but the negative impacts here haven't changed," he told the Irish Times.
"The conservation of sand dunes internationally has proven that they are more cost-effective at protecting the coast than hard sea defences. The proposal is not supported by the scientific consensus that sea walls are not compatible with sand dune conservation."
Trump's Irish wall building plans have also been met with rejections and resistance because the Doonbeg coast is the natural habitat of an endangered snail species, the the narrow-mouthed whorl snail (or Vertigo angustior for the snail experts out there).
H/T Irish Times]]>
An email from the Translations Unit of the Church of Scientology in Copenhagen, Denmark has been received by individual teachers, Irish staff at New York University, members of the Irish language book club in New York and by Irish teachers taking part in the Irish Canadian University Foundation (ICUF).
"We are currently engaged in a translation project of large volume consisting of some 5.5 million words. The work includes books, lectures, courses, promotional material, humanitarian campaign brochures, and more," the email reads.
"We have gotten started with a number of very fine, qualified Irish (Gaelic) translators and the project is rolling ahead. I am looking for more translators to expand the team."
John Prendergast from Co. Kerry is currently teaching Irish in Nova Scotia as part of the ICUF Irish Language program, which each year appoints Irish teachers to partner universities in Canada to promote the language within the school and within the surrounding area.
He had not heard of the previous efforts of the Church to translate their work into Irish until he received the call looking for translators. So he was surprised when he learned of the link to the controversial religion, questioning at first whether it could have been a joke.
Read more: The only official Gaeltacht outside of Ireland is in Ontario
After some research, Prendergast decided the request was genuine and agreed to help with their translation work. He said he didn't believe the translation project was a bad thing and that as part of a multicultural society, he felt he should have respect for as many beliefs and spiritualities as he could and, so, he did not criticize or refuse it.
This is not the first attempt by the Church of Scientology to translate their material into Irish. In 2015 the Church's founder L. Ron Hubbard's drug rehabilitation program Narconon was believed to be behind an attempt to contact Irish translators via the translation service called ProZ.com, acting under the guise of a charity organization.
Once translators started on the work, however, they became suspicious over lines such as, "The drug scene is planetwide and swimming in blood and human misery … And children of drug-taking mothers are born as druggies."
After a translator working on the project posted this line into popular Irish language Facebook group "Gaeilge Amháin," it was found to be was found to be the work of Narconon, a company that works to publicize Hubbard's opinions regarding the use of drugs.
The Church of Scientology has only one location in Ireland, on Dublin's Abbey Street, although members are believed to be located throughout the country. Despite its attempts to claim charitable, tax-free status in Ireland, the Church of Scientology has yet to be officially recognized in the country as a religion, though it is free to promote Scientology beliefs.
IrishCentral has contacted the Translations Unit of the Church of Scientology regarding the translating project and the number of Irish language translators who have signed up but have received no further information as of yet.
Read more: Church of Scientology attempting to recruit in the Irish Gaeltacht]]>
All flights will be on the new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, one the newest planes and most highly developed technologically in the skies. Dublin, Shannon, Cork, and Belfast will all have new flights for about $150 round trip.
The flights from Cork to the Boston area will make history, marking the first time Cork Airport has had transatlantic service.
Norwegian will operate 12 flights weekly from Dublin to Boston/Providence and New York, four flights weekly from Shannon to Boston/Providence and New York as well as three departures weekly from Cork to Boston/Providence, airline boss Bjorn Kjos has confirmed.
Norwegian will also operate three flights a week from Belfast to Stewart International Airport in Orange County, New York, 70 miles north of Manhattan.
It will also add a second direct service for the summer with two flights a week from Belfast to Green Airport in Providence, which is just 90 minutes from Boston.
Dublin Airport will also have a daily departure to New York's Stewart Airport.
€140 return for Cork to Providence, US direct (incl all taxes) is very impressive. Norwegian transatlantic flights are now available to book pic.twitter.com/WI5XFYFbZC— Alan Healy (@AlanHealy) February 23, 2017
The low lead-in rates are "some of the cheapest transatlantic fares ever seen," according to a statement from Cork Airport.
The airline says, "The flights will serve two destinations on the US east coast, with a focus on smaller US airports – these airports offer good access into the New York, Boston and New England areas but carry significantly lower landing charges, allowing Norwegian to offer some truly affordable fares that will allow as many people as possible to fly.
Norwegian will offer:
Belfast – five transatlantic flights per week from £69:
- Stewart Intl (New York) – 3x weekly flights (Tues, Thurs, Sat). Depart Belfast Intl at 16:20, arrive Stewart 19:05
- Providence (greater Boston) – 2x weekly flights (Tues, Sat). Flights depart Belfast Intl at 15:45, arrive Providence 18:20
Cork – three transatlantic flights per week from €69:
- Providence (greater Boston) – 3x weekly flights (Tues, Thurs, Sat). Depart Cork 16:20, arrive Providence 19:05
Shannon – four transatlantic flights per week from €69:
- Stewart Intl (New York) – 2x weekly flights (Wed, Sun).
- Providence (greater Boston) – 2x weekly flights (Mon, Fri).
Dublin – 12 transatlantic flights per week from €69:
- Stewart Intl (New York) – daily flights, depart Dublin at 16:00, arrive Stewart at 19:00 (flights on Tues, Wed depart at 15:55, flights on Thurs, Fri depart at 15:45)
- Providence (greater Boston) – 5x weekly flights (Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sun). Depart Dublin at 15:45, arrives Providence 18:35
Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos said: "We are pleased to announce our new highly-anticipated transatlantic routes. Our new, non-stop service will enable tens of thousands of new travelers to fly between the continents much more affordably. Norwegian's latest transatlantic offering is not only great news for the traveling public, but also for the local U.S., Irish economies as we will bring more tourists that will increase spending, supporting thousands of local jobs.
"We are excited to finally be able to launch services to the US from Ireland, Northern Ireland and we would like to express a big gratitude for the extensive support from consumer groups, government officials, airports, and the travel and tourism industry on both sides of the Atlantic in our quest to offer affordable transatlantic flights for all."
Donal Handley of @IAApress @CorkAirport MD Niall MacCarthy, @NorwegianUK CEO Bjørn at the #CorkUS press conference. pic.twitter.com/zU3HvV4WN7— Cork Airport (@CorkAirport) February 23, 2017
Speaking at the press conference on Thursday morning, in Cork, Niall MacCarthy, Managing Director at Cork Airport said "Today's announcement is not just about a new route, it also heralds low-cost transatlantic access. Norwegian will do for low-cost transatlantic services what Ryanair and others have done for low-cost European services. On that basis, we are really thrilled with today's news. Cork Airport, already the Republic of Ireland's second busiest airport, is now also Ireland's newest transatlantic airport."
He continued, "Today's breakthrough presents great opportunities to further grow tourism in the South of Ireland in future years. Passenger growth in 2017, which is already underway, will come on top of the 8% passenger growth we delivered in Cork Airport last year. We look forward to welcoming US visitors directly onto our tarmac for the first time this July with knock on benefits to regional tourism. Equally, we look forward to providing our friendly and convenient customer service in a modern terminal setting to Irish passengers travelling to the United States."
Welcoming the announcement, Matthew Thomas, CEO of Shannon Group, which owns and operates Shannon Airport, said "This is a very significant announcement for Shannon, for the wider region we serve and for transatlantic aviation generally. It not only brings another new carrier to Shannon, giving us our largest number of US services in over 17 years, but it's introduces a new model of low cost flying for transatlantic aviation."
Tourism Ireland welcomed Norwegian Air's announcement of new transatlantic services to the island of Ireland for 2017 – including new flights to Cork (from TF Green Airport in Providence) and to Shannon, Belfast and Dublin from New York (Stewart International Airport) and Providence (Rhode Island). These flights will commence in early July and will certainly help boost tourism from the all-important US market, offering more choice to prospective American visitors living in the North East.
Today's announcement means the total number of transatlantic airline seats this summer will be 60,000, from 20 North American gateways to the island of Ireland – that's 10,000 additional seats (+20%) compared to summer 2016.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: "Today's announcement is excellent news for tourism to the island of Ireland for 2017. We look forward to working closely with Norwegian to maximize the promotion of these new routes from New York and Providence. As an island, the importance of convenient, direct, non-stop flights cannot be overstated – they are absolutely critical to achieving growth in inbound tourism. Tourism Ireland is committed to working with Norwegian, as well as with Dublin, Belfast, Shannon and Cork Airports, through co-operative marketing, to drive demand for these new flights."
Keep up-to-date with all IrishCentral's travel news here]]>
Walnut Vinaigrette
3 tablespoons roasted walnut oil
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Irish whiskey
1 pound fresh crabmeat
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
8 slices smoked salmon
3 cups mixed greens
1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and cut into 8 slices
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup fine whole wheat flour, plus additional for sprinkling
1 cup coarse whole wheat flour or
1 cup each quick-cooking Irish oatmeal or oat bran
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon barley malt extract (see Note)
3/4 cups buttermilk
3/4 cups Guinness stout
Softened butter for spreading
Note: Malt extract, also called barley malt, is available in health foods stores.
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup fish stock or clam broth
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 celery stalk with leaves, cut into 4 pieces
2 tbsp. minced fresh dill
6 (6-ounce) center-cut salmon fillets with skin
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Lemon slices, fresh dill, and fresh tarragon for garnish
1 shallot, minced
1 leek, white part only, washed and sliced
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons dry white wine
12 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh tarragon or 1/2 teaspoon dried
Salt and white pepper to taste
Margaret Johnson's "Recipes" page expands this year to "Ireland Hopping: Adventures in Food, Drink, and Travel." For further details on her work, visit www.irishcook.com
This story first appeared in the Irish Echo. For more, visit their website here.]]>
So how much will it cost you to get to Ireland this summer?
Well, taking one random week in July (peak vacation time) we did a comparison between Norwegian Air, Delta and Aer Lingus all flying from Boston airports. We looked at prices for people traveling alone, a couple visiting Ireland and a family of four traveling to Ireland.
The trip: Flying out on Saturday July 8th from Boston into Dublin and then reversing the journey on Sunday 16th.
If you direct fly with Norwegian from Providence/Boston-TF Green Airport, a single person can expect to pay (currently) $309 for the outward bound journey and $345.20 on the way back. That amounts to a total price of $654.20 of which $92.40 is taxes and if you want to check in a bag expect to pay an extra $70 each way.
Aer Lingus tickets for the exact same days will set you back $384.97 for the outward bound flight and $430.74. However, unlike Norwegian Air, that price also includes a checked bag. That means you can fly all those souvenirs home to your Irish family for a price of $815.71.
Delta offers a slightly more expensive option: the trip overall will cost $836.36 and, like Aer Lingus, they also include a checked bag.
So what about a couple traveling together? If they flew with Norwegian they would pay $1,308.40, if they took an Aer Lingus it would be $1,631.42 and for Delta $1,672.72.
And for a family of four – two adults, two children – the prices would be as follows: with Norwegian it would be $2,336, with Aer Lingus $3,262.84 and with Delta $3,345.
Finally, if flying isn't for you, here's our handy guide on how to get to Ireland by ship.]]>
Personal hairstylist to Kourtney Kardashian, 29-year-old Dublin hairdresser Andrew Fitzsimmons was determined to reach the top of his industry, dropping out of school at 14 years old to concentrate on learning his trade. Having made a name for himself in Ireland working with the likes of Miriam O'Callaghan and Gráinne Seoighe, Fitzsimmons wanted to climb even higher, spending some time in Paris before heading to the Big Apple with no money. With just his hair care kit, he often walked hours to jobs because he couldn't afford the subway fare.
The persistence was more than worth it, however, as now living in Los Angeles, he can now count himself as the Kardashians go-to hair stylist and has worked with the likes of Adele, Kendall Jenner, and Bella Hadid.
After realizing that life was too short to lead a life in which you're unhappy in your job, 36-year-old Aidan Keogh left the print store where he was working in Dublin and was recruited by MAC Cosmetics. Working his way up the ranks, it wasn't long until he came to the attention of MAC in New York and at 25 he moved to the US to spend the next decade with the popular cosmetics company.
Now having branched out for himself, Keogh has also worked with Kendall Jenner as well as a whole host of other Victoria Secret models including Stella Maxwell, Bridget Malcolm, Josephine Skriver, Elsa Hosk and Valery Kaufman.
Michaela O'Shaughnessy already had a strong online presence when she moved to New York with thanks to her fashion blog Life of a Lady Bear and she attests that the energy she put into that definitely helped her secure her first social media role with MTV.
Now Social Media Producer at Teen Vogue, O'Shaughnessy lines up the fashion magazine's daily social media content. Despite initially studying Biomedical Science in college, she returned to postgraduate education to delve into business and hasn't looked back since.
In March 2016, Margaret Molloy started the Wear Irish campaign, aiming to wear Irish designers throughout the whole Irish heritage month of March to promote homegrown, up and coming, and established Irish designers.
A CMO at Siegal+Gale, Molloy will be resuming her new movement in March 2017 and encouraging others to do the same, compiling a directory of Irish designers for men and women to get people started.
"It is clear to me that Irish fashion does not get the visibility that it deserves. And as a marketer, I am fascinated by the possibilities that social media provides for ordinary citizens to show their support for brands and causes," Molloy writes.
"I saw an opportunity for people to come together on social media to support Irish designers, especially when all eyes are on Ireland in March."
You can join her by using the hashtag #wearingIrish this March!
Having featured in IrishCentral's list of top Irish people to follow on social media in 2017 and having taken part in our J-1 graduate series, Erika Fox, otherwise known by her blog name Retro Flame, is already one of our firm favorites.
Working full time on her fashion and lifestyle blog, as well as her YouTube account, the Co. Kerry native has over 73,000 followers on Instagram and is a great follow for anybody looking for new beauty products, lifestyle tips, or for new fashion finds.
My current favourite outfit (when I find one, I wear it OVER & over again) shot at the New York Public library ✨Still can't figure out why I never owned a classic trench coat before? Such a great piece to have in your wardrobe! This one is from the brand new petite collection by @express and it literally couldn't fit any better 👌🏻 They've just launched a brand new petite collection, so if you're 5'4 or under, be sure to check it out - it's amazing! Loads more photos & details in today's new post on www.retro-flame.com + a chat about learning the hard way. (Link in Bio) #ExpressLife #ExpressPartner #retroflameNYC http://liketk.it/2qkxQ #liketkit @liketoknow.it
So Sue Me is a widely popular Irish fashion and beauty blog, generally regarded as the first fashion blog in Ireland to become highly successful. Established by Suzanne Jackson in 2010, she now has over 190,000 followers on Instagram and 1.1 million international readers a month.
Reviewing new products and showing off her favorite new outfits from high street to designer, Jackson slowly but surely built an Irish beauty empire, publishing two books, releasing a beauty line, and selling out workshops. A good review from So Sue Me will now have products flying off the shelves in Ireland and her influence continues to grow.
With Primark (known in Ireland as Penney's) set to open yet another US store in Staten Island in March, the Irish retailer is in prime position to take over America with its low-budget clothes and at its helm is Breege O'Donoghue, Primark's Group Director. The store is now spread across ten countries and two continents, and it's O'Donoghue who has held the reins of the company's communications and HR as it has expanded and expanded.
Regarded as the most senior and powerful woman on the fashion retail scene in Ireland, the Irish Independent also report that O'Donoghue makes an attempt to learn the language of the country every time Primark moves into a new area. This means she already speaks eight languages!
Breege O'Donoghue, the Irish woman who took Primark global, has a new job with the @DCCoI https://t.co/1GnRBu92eD pic.twitter.com/A522156FKG— Fora.ie (@Fora_ie) December 22, 2016
Have we missed your favorite Irish fashion influencer? Let us know about them in the comments section, below.]]>
You can see why. President Donald Trump has greatly expanded the categories of undocumented immigrants (including those without criminal records) who would now be priorities for deportation.
In New York people could feel a change in the air, a hardening of attitudes. Record breaking deportations had happened during the Obama administration of course, but this felt different. The undocumented were now suddenly living in heightened fear, waiting for the ax to drop.
Hidden in all the latest hand-wringing is an unmistakable message about how the powerful will treat the vulnerable under Trump. It created the panic that has spread and it clearly explains it. Trump's hard line rhetoric has hardened the hearts of his supporters and sent an unmistakable message to those he's targeted: we're coming for you, this is real.
It started last month with Muslim people from seven different Muslim majority nations, all of whom had already been background checked by five different national agencies (and even legal permanent residents with green cards) began being denied entry to the U.S.
The national roll out of the new policy was utterly chaotic, with immigration departments at our national airports being advised of the changes mere moments before they were expected to enact them.
Trump's crackdown on undocumented immigrants will cost the economy as much as $5 trillion over 10yrs https://t.co/CrpzNkrg62 pic.twitter.com/9AIxvnB7GS— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) February 22, 2017
This led to an all too predictable on the ground crisis, with families with children as young as five being detained in handcuffs. The message it sent was that deportation could happen any time, to anyone, and it could be a very blunt instrument.
New York is a so-called "sanctuary city," but even here word of unannounced enforcement checks was making the rounds this week. The response was predictable. The undocumented communities have gone to ground, which means missed school days, hospital visits, lower church participation and no movies, as they wait for the storm to pass.
In particular it means no contact with law enforcement, making us all less safe. By the weekend rumors of ICE raids was spreading through immigrant neighborhoods like Woodside, Jackson Heights and Corona. In the Irish community an unsubstantiated Facebook post that was shared multiple times avowed that two young undocumented Irishmen had been taken off the 7 train during one unannounced sweep, detained by ICE officers and then deported the next day.
New York has always been an immigrant city, with a special understanding of the hardships that they face on the road to full citizenship, but as of this week the response of our political leaders has been too ambivalent to the recent changes critics say.
"New Yorkers should rest assured that city officials, including the NYPD, will never ask about your immigration status, and the NYPD will never become immigration enforcement agents," a spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio told The New York Times at the weekend.
Houses of worship sign up to house undocumented immigrants during raids: https://t.co/QUFh7o0RZT pic.twitter.com/bNK7Bnu5jv— DNAinfo New York (@DNAinfoNY) February 16, 2017
But will de Blasio look the other way while ICE pursues its own enforcements? New York generally does not comply with requests by immigration authorities to hold undocumented immigrants, but the undocumented are no longer mollified by this knowledge. They want to feel safe on the city streets, and the recent uptick of ICE enforcement actions has ended that.
Queens is home to tens of thousands of the undocumented, all of whom contribute billions of dollars in productivity to the wider city, frequently staffing the jobs that non-immigrant natives refuse. Kitchen porters, line cooks, shelf stackers, restaurant and bar custodians; the posts are endless. What will happen to the local economy if they no longer feel safe enough to present for work, observers ask?
John Kelly, new head of the Department of Homeland Security, has called on the Trump administration for 10,000 additional ICE officers and agents and 5,000 new hires at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, indicating his intention to ramp up their detention and deportation powers.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has signed sweeping new immigration guidelines. https://t.co/dA1oFTWWBY pic.twitter.com/CskZYASc9n— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) February 19, 2017
To aid the new push, the Trump administration has redefined the DHS's interpretation of crimes to include any activity that might bring a conviction, including entering the United States without permission.
That means that virtually anyone present in the United States without a visa could now potentially be a target for roundup at their workplace or home. Be careful out there.
Read more: Immigrants are not US's problem and policy makers already know this]]>
In 1904, two of the most innovative lights of the Age of Invention were reflecting upon the merits of their creations. The younger man, Thomas A Edison, "The Wizard of Menlo Park", numbered the light bulb, the phonograph and the first motion pictures amongst his hundreds of inventions, and was an acclaimed star of the industrialized turn of the century world.
In their correspondence, Edison was let known in no uncertain terms by his older associate and kindred spirit about the profound impact the latter's showcase invention would have upon humanity.
''Submarines have assuredly come to stay, animated with the desire of helping to end naval warfare'' wrote the Irishman, John Philip Holland, father of the modern submarine.
He genuinely believed that so lethal was his creation that it would serve as a deterrent to war. Ten years later as Holland lay dying in August 1914 the Great War had just begun and within days the lethal potential of the Irishman's submarine invention finally dawned.
The depths of the ocean have always spawned mass fascination from the time one of Holland's contemporaries, the novelist Jules Verne, penned Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea to the ancient myths. One of the most revolutionary developments in man's quest for superior weaponry, the submarine's mystique has always captured the public imagination, with its fascination for the underworld.
Just off the Atlantic coast from where Holland was born in Liscannor, West Clare on 24 February 1841 to a coastguard officer father and a Gaelic speaking mother, lay the legendary land of Kilstephen, or Cill Stíopháin. There are constant references throughout the ages to this mystical place, which is said to have been submerged at the time of the great 8th century earthquake.
Ironically, legend has it that once every seven years it rose above the surface of the waves but with it came a terrible curse.
It is written in the Annals of the Four Masters in 799A.D. 'A great storm of wind, thunder and lightning happened this day before St. Patrick's festival this year, and it killed ten and one thousand persons in the Territory of Corca Baiscainn, and the Sea divided the island of Inis Fithae into three parts.'
Holland would also have been aware of the religious belief that a monstrous eel burst forth from the depths of Liscannor Bay to feast on the corpses laid to rest at the graveyard, and that the local saint, MacCreehy tackled this great beast and slew it after a long fight.
Holland grew up close to where the Cliffs of Moher begin at Hags Head where the rock assumes the shape of a seated woman, a Sphinx like head looking eternally westward to the setting sun. He would have learned at the local school of the Spanish Armada ship, the Zuniga, which succeeded in landing and in getting some provisions in Liscannor. Holland knew of the sea's secrets from the cradle.
John Holland was born at the beginning of a decade of famine in Ireland and a cholera epidemic raged in its wake. When defaulting-tenants were evicted from their cottages, landlords saw to it that the thatch was stripped off the roof to prevent impoverished families coming back. It was a process known as 'leveling' and the young Holland would have witnessed such tragedy growing up. To him it symbolized the tyranny of imperial domination, and it fired him to hit back.
Read more: Top Irish inventions that changed the world
When the English man looked out to sea, he saw the waves which Britannia ruled with its all-conquering navy, when the Irish man gazed upon the ocean, he heard beyond the sea of tears, the call of new lands. Holland's mechanical genius was to be dedicated towards altering this state of affairs. His invention was to change the course of modern warfare.
John Philip Holland- Philip was the religious name given him - joined the Order of the Irish Christian Brothers in 1858 and became a teacher. He was sent to the North Monastery in Cork for his first assignment and there he met Brother Dominic Burke a noted science teacher. Burke encouraged Holland's scientific experiments.
In these formative years, he studied astronomy, and worked on the theory of flight which experts said was accurate. Indeed, he later developed this theory in The Practicality of Mechanical Flight, published in 1891, which was hailed by peers as an extraordinary achievement at a time when the Wright brothers were contemplating the opening of a bicycle shop.
While in Cork city he started to experiment with small models of submarine boats and a pond in the school grounds was used to test his designs. He was thinking along the same lines of David Bushnell whose Turtle (a full-size model of which is exhibited at the Royal Navy Submarine in Gosport, Britain) was designed to attack British men-of-war in New York Harbor during the American War of Independence.
In 1862, the American Civil War was receiving worldwide publicity and Holland noted the use of ironclad ships in the battles. He also noted the use of submarine type vessels in the battles, such as the Confederate semi-submersible Hunley, which sank its much stronger Federal foe the Housatonic in 1864.
In 1872, Holland's mother and his brother Alfred immigrated to the United State, and in that same year he decided not to take his final perpetual vows. Instead in 1873 he departed for Boston in the USA carrying with him submarine designs, which formed the basis of his initial submission in 1875 to the US Naval Department. He soon after began courting his future wife Margaret Foley and they were to later have three sons and a daughter.
In 1874, he had found himself in a teaching post in St. John's Parochial School in Paterson, New Jersey. It was here that John Philip Holland immersed himself in the working design of the submarine.
This Clare exile was soon to come to prominence in Fenian circles. There was much revolutionary fervor in the Irish American circles that Holland moved in. At a New York fund-raising social for the Catalpa expedition, John's brother, Michael, who was an activist, introduced him to members of the Clan na Gael leadership, who saw the potential of his designs in a covert naval war against Britain's powerful fleet.
The US Naval Department had already rejected his submarine plans as impractical, "a fantastic scheme of a civilian landsman".
The Irish World newspaper launched an appeal fund. The successful testing of Holland's 33-inch model submarine at Coney Island, New York, convinced the Fenian leadership to sponsor Holland's $4,000 construction of a full-sized 'wrecking boat' from its 'Skirmishing Fund'. The success of this 14-foot model led to the $20,000 funding by the Fenians on a second venture by Holland in 1881. This craft, over twice as large as its predecessor and dubbed the 'Fenian Ram' by a New York Sun reporter, was also successful.
While Holland was engaged on a third prototype project, an internal rift developed amongst the Fenians, some of whom were growing impatient about slow progress on the diving boat. One group decided to take the 'Ram' into their own hands. One source suggested that this was primarily to avoid legal sequestration while their monies were in dispute.
Led by John Breslin, with forged papers, they towed away the Fenian Ram and Boat No. 3 up the East River into Long Island Sound. Just off Whitestone Point the prototype was sank, while the Fenian Ram was taken to Mill river in New Haven where it remained in a shed until the 1916 Rising, where it was displayed at Madison Square Gardens to raise money for dependents of the Rising in Dublin. The Fenian Ram is today on display at Paterson Museum, New Jersey.
Holland was furious, declaring 'I'll let her rot on their hands', and thus ended the great 'Salt Water Enterprise'.
Holland went on to eventually sell the designs to his Holland VI model, which used a gasoline engine on the surface and electric motors under water as propelling machinery to the US and Japanese navies and ironically to the very power he had originally intended to employ the submarine against, the Royal Navy, although, due to the deception of erstwhile litigious colleagues, Holland never bore the full financial fruits of his labor. He was, however, honored with the Fourth-Class Order of Merit Rising Sun Ribbon by the Japanese Ambassador for his distinguished service to the Japanese nation.
The New York Times, following Holland's death in 1914 reported that "although he was interested in submarines, Mr. Holland was opposed to war, and his idea of submarines was to incapacitate war ships and not to destroy them and kill the men on them". This was after all a man, who in his 1907 Sketches and Calculations, planned a 40-passenger submarine "for amusement at seaside resorts", with large circular ports for viewing the underwater world. He also explored the peacetime uses of the submarine and discussed its potential role in scientific research. Within 40days of John Philip Holland's death however the lethal potency of Holland's creation was to unveil itself. One single submarine in one day alone turned a small area of the North Sea off the Dutch coast into a struggling mass of humanity when it claimed over 1400 lives in the sinking of three British light cruisers.
Although the Holland VI was formally commissioned into the United States Navy on 12 October 1900, the date it was officially bought, 11 April 1900, is celebrated by the US Navy as the submarine birthday. Another day when Holland is now perpetually commemorated is 1 May. It was on this date in 2006 that John Philip Holland Day was declared in Paterson New Jersey. The day is now established in tribute to the Liscannor born inventor of the 'Modern Day Submarine' John P. Holland.
The great Doolin musician, Micho Russell sang of Holland:
Come all you young Irishmen who walk upon the land,
There are feats indeed, and fairy creeds, that you might understand:
There is one of them that comes to mind, the likes was never seen,
He was John Philip Holland who invented the submarine.
Here's a short clip on Holland, from the History Channel:]]>
"How awesome would that be? Watching the Atlantic crashing over the Irish cliffs, the rain coming down, the grey skies. I love the weather," Damon, on a promo tour for his new film The Great Wall, told the Irish Sun.
"That whole geographical area, from Cork to Kerry, Galway, that environment is like nowhere. It's good for the health. All that air.
"I just have this image, this dream of sitting atop of the lighthouse, looking out to sea, and how beautiful and peaceful that must be. I don't know if you can buy those, wouldn't they be state-owned? If you could, I'd do it. Well … I'd run it past my wife first, then I'd do it."
Read More: You can now stay in one of Ireland's great lighthouses (PHOTOS)
Damon's character in The Great Wall, which landed with a thud at the box office last weekend, is supposedly Irish, and he got nailed on social media for a bad accent.
"There should be a prize for whoever can figure out what accent Matt Damon thinks he's doing (Scottish? Irish?)," one tweeter posted, while another opined, "Worst part of the film is Matt Damon being unable to keep a consistent Irish accent."
During the interview with the Sun, Damon also recalled how Bono gave him the thrill of a lifetime a couple of years back. The Damons were in Dublin and scored tix, of course, to a U2 show, and Bono called his name from the stage.
"Aside from my wedding day and the birth of my children, that may be the best moment ever. I thought, 'Holy s***, is this actually happening?" he said.
Here Matt Damon speaks about his time in Dublin in 2015:]]>
Built in Dublin is a series of short video stories, created in collaboration with RTÉ. Each one spotlights MediaTech founders and startups who are changing the media industry from right here in Dublin.
In the fourth episode of the series, we meet the co-founder of Axonista, Claire McHugh.
Every company has a culture, whether it's obvious or not, and here Claire talks about the conscious effort Axonista is making to define theirs – Quality, Collaboration, and Innovation are all core. As Claire shares with us in the piece, the Irish ability to empathise with international cultures and the dynamic of serendipity that is pervasive in Dublin makes the city a great place to start a company.]]>
1. The Irish can't claim credit for the invention of the Saint Patrick's Day Parade
The world's first recorded Saint Patrick's Day Parade took place in Boston on March 18, 1737, followed by the New York Parade, which first took place in 1762.
Ireland took over a century to jump on the parade float with the rest of the world and only had their first St. Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin in 1931.
2. This St. Patrick's Day we'll all be wearing green, but shouldn't it be blue?
The original color associated with St. Patrick was blue but because the Saint preached about the Holy Trinity through the symbol of the shamrock and the Irish 'little folk' were also associated with green, it became the most common shade in connection with him.
Parade committee organizers across the world wouldn't take too kindly to us changing the color, so maybe we'll leave it at green for now.
3. 100 lbs. of green dye was poured into the Chicago River in honor of St. Patrick's Day
In 1961, business manager of Chicago's Journeymen Plumbers Local Union, Stephen Bailey, received permission to turn the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's Day.
Due to uncertainties about the amount of dye it would take to turn the river green, a massive 100 lbs of vegetable dye was used in comparison to the 25 lbs used today.
The Chicago River stayed green for a full week.
4. Saint Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland
… and not a snake in sight. Patrick is said to have banished the snakes from Ireland but in fact, Ireland never had any snakes as the weather was too miserable for the cold-blooded reptiles.
The banished snakes were thought to be symbolic of the pagan druid priests with whom Patrick might have had a few issues to iron out.
5. George Washington ordered that "St. Patrick" be the response to the password "Boston" on Evacuation Day
On Evacuation Day, March 17, 1776, the General Orders issued by Washington were that those wishing to pass through Continental Army lines should give the password "Boston," to which the reply should be "St. Patrick."
6. The resting place of Saint Patrick
Though never fully proven, Down Cathedral in the town of Downpatrick, Co Down, is thought to contain St. Patrick's remains and, according to legend, he lies beside Saints Columcille and Brigit.
Apparently, he's missing a few things like a jaw and a tooth, but these can be seen in Dublin Museum.
7. Saint Patrick's Relics
A few of the Saint's relics can still be viewed in Ireland today: St. Patrick's Bell and shrines of the Saint's jaw and tooth can be viewed in Dublin in the National Museum, while Patrick's copy of the four gospels is held at the The Royal Irish Academy.
Saint Patrick's Crozier, with which he banished the imaginary snakes, was venerated for centuries in Dublin's Christ Church only to be publicly burned in 1538 under the orders of the archbishop, George Browne.
Sounds like George had a few issues too.
8. Drink, drink, and yet more drink!
The global corporate-relations director of Guinness says 5.5 million pints of Guinness are sold on any given day, but this figure rises to an astounding 13 million on St. Patrick's Day.
IBISWorld also reports that Saint Patrick's Day 2012 brought in $245 million in beer sales.
Who's up for making March 18 into International Hangover Day?
9. The Royal Dublin Dog Show was the place to be on St. Patrick's Day
Due to strict laws on the curtailment of sales of alcohol on Holy Days in Ireland, from 1927 to 1961, the only place a thirsty Irish person could legally get a drink on Paddy's day was at The Royal Dublin Dog Show.
One TD was reported to complain that it was a grand occasion "except for all the dogs."
At the time, the church and state were worried that the Irish would drink too much on the day.
Turns out they were right. Oh well.
10. And after all that, he's not even Irish!
Saint Patrick was actually born in Roman Britain at the end of the 4th century AD and taken to Ireland by slavers when he was a teenager.
The exact place of his birth is debatable as some say Scotland and some say Wales but, either way, he's Irish now.
Sources: Ripley's and Rev Patrick Comerford
*Originally published in March 2014.]]>
"I am so, so excited for Hillary to come back to our city to motivate women as she has done for years," said Mary Clare Kingsley, co-president of the society.
"My first reaction was, 'Oh my God.' We couldn't have gotten a better speaker," added Carol Thomas, a former president.
"She just exemplifies everything we stand for as strong women in (Pennsylvania)."
Hillary Clinton last visited Scranton some 214 days ago while still on the campaign trail, delivering a stump speech at Riverfront Sports Complex on August 15, 2016, and touring the city with Vice President Joe Biden. Biden himself was born and raised in Scranton until he was ten years old and has previously attended the society's annual St. Patrick's Day dinner.
Since her disappointing loss to President Donald Trump last November, Clinton has remained off the radar, not appearing publicly in the time between her concession speech on November 9 and Trump's inauguration on January 21, which she attended with her husband President Bill Clinton.
Since inauguration day, the former New York Senator has been spotted at several Broadway shows in New York and spoke at an unveiling ceremony of a new collection of stamps honoring her personal friend Oscar de la Renta.
The latest announcement from Scranton, however, joins the growing list of public speaking engagements to be made by Clinton in the coming months. She is also expected to speak this March 8 on International Women's Day at an event co-sponsored by Vital Voices, an organization she co-founded in 1997 with another former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and on April 20 she will accept the Trailblazer Award from the LGBT Community Center in New York.
On May 26 Clinton will travel back to her alma mater Wellesley College to deliver a commencement address and is also reported to be working on two books. Simon& Schuster will deliver a collection of essays based on Clinton's personal favorite quotes while there will also be a reissue of her 1995 book "It Takes a Village" with new illustrations for younger readers. All proceeds from the reissue will go to charity.
Organizers of the Scranton event of sure the dinner is set to be a sell-out with thanks to Clinton's address.
"For her to come to Scranton and recognize women here — 500 women like her — (when)she could be anywhere in the world, it's just incredible," Tracy Doherty, one of the society's founding members, told The Times-Tribune.
Hillary Clinton will speak this March 17 at the Society of Irish Women's 19th annual St. Patrick's Day dinner celebration at Hilton Scranton and Conference Center, 100 Adams Ave. Tickets, including an open bar and dinner, will cost $75.
More information can be found here.
H/T: The Times-Tribune]]>
Trinity student Niamh Herbert was refused boarding and says she's subjected to demeaning comments and a hostile attitude when seeking to board. They also asked her to walk up the stairs to the plane despite her condition.
We asked Ryanair for a statement for the article and when they did get back to us they told us our article had not given readers "the full facts".
Whilst they didn't dispute that the captain had taken off without Trinity student Niamh Herbert, or that staff had asked her to walk up the stairs "for easiness sake", they did offer two excuses for their actions.
Firstly, they alleged that Herbert "arrived at the boarding gate 13 minutes before the flight was due to depart".
They also forwarded us a screenshot of an e-mail from Dublin Airport's OCS in which they state that they received a request for an ambi-lift 10 minutes prior to departure and that was the first instance they were made aware of Herbert's mobility issues.
However Herbert disputes this version of events and speaking to IrishCentral told us that, in fact, she was at the gate "a lot more than 13 mins [before departure], but I can't be exact!"
In a message to IrishCentral Herbert said, "Basically, I had booked, mistakenly, to fly on Thursday and I had booked assistance, but the group was actually flying on Friday.
"A girl dropped out of the trip, and so Carla [who organized the trip] changed my name on her ticket.
"I called Ryanair on Tuesday to say I'd be flying on Friday instead.
"So, I see it as being their fault that they didn't carry over the details."
Since going public with her story Niamh has been subjected to abuse by internet trolls. One asked her, "I done work experience on a dairy farm if you want any more help milking this" and another asked, "Why were you in a wheelchair?"
However, most comments were supportive and one commentator said she'd had a similar experience with the budget airline in Manchester when staff had asked her to walk up the stairs – something she was unable to do.
Ryanair's Press Office responded with an updated statement insisting: "While we regret any inconvenience, this customer arrived at the boarding gate 13 minutes before the flight was due to depart and had not booked any wheelchair assistance, which is provided at Dublin Airport by OCS. A name change was made online at 2.39am (16 Feb), and no wheelchair assistance was booked.
"Our crew provided full assistance and as a gesture of goodwill, transferred this customer on to the next available flight, free of charge, and the customer flew to London Stansted. Thousands of passengers with reduced mobility travel with Ryanair on a weekly basis without issue and any customers who require wheelchair assistance are asked to book it in advance.
"The only reason this customer did not board their original flight was because they arrived at the gate late and had not booked wheelchair assistance. Had they arrived at the gate on time and booked assistance, they would have traveled without issue, as they did when returning from London Stansted."
The incident has launched a frenzy of discussion on Reddit and on Twitter about the treatment of the disabled in Ireland.
#EverydayAbleism alert https://t.co/ikpxfMfJHa— Megan Lynch (@may_gun) February 20, 2017
Wow, @Ryanair, that's pretty low. https://t.co/7VbkrHzbmg— Dave Mar-a-Rahardja (@drahardja) February 20, 2017
@jameswilson1919 @ireland @IrishCentral @KickAssCantona treated our toddler badly too. Never again flying with them— Padraigh Keogh (@padraighk) February 19, 2017
One Twitter user pointed out that it was not the first time Ryanair had left a disabled passenger.
@jameswilson1919 @ireland @IrishCentral It's not the first time.https://t.co/8PGyiWEqIi— The Rambler (@nialldowling123) February 19, 2017
Herbert is currently back in college and plans on taking legal action against Ryanair.
"I plan on suing them. I haven't been feeling myself since it happened and I'm going to have to pursue some sort of counseling, which is quite expensive," she told the Irish Daily Mirror.
Her parents are looking for an attorney to bring the case against the airline.
Read more: Ryanair asks wheelchair user to walk up stairs, leaves her crying at the gate]]>
Ministers travel across the globe on Ireland's national day to promote the country and a Government press released stated, "As always North America will be a focus, given the perennial bonds of friendship between our country and the US and Canada. At the highest political levels, it allows us to express our interests and beliefs to the White House and to Congress."
With this in mind, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, New York, Miami, and Atlanta are also due visits from more junior ministers.
Apart from the US, European Union members states are being prioritized. It's expected Britain will formally begin the divorce talks that will see it quit the 28-nation political bloc next month and the Irish Government has huge concerns about the future of trade and the border between the two countries. Irish Ministers will use trips to Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Spain, the Netherland, Belgium and Denmark to make their concerns known to their EU counterparts.
Ministers Richard Bruton and Finian McGrath will visit Britain. Even after the country quits the EU, it is still expected to remain Ireland's biggest trading partner and a "Tier 1" priority of Tourism Ireland.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan will be in Malaysia and Singapore and Housing Minister - and potentially the next Taoiseach - Simon Coveney will be in Toronto, Canada.
Further afield, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, China, and Lebanon can all expect visits from Irish Ministers wearing green.
Read more: This major New York landmark is joining the world in going green for St. Patrick's Day]]>
The 'Irish Stand' event aims to be a 'global call for justice and equality' and will take place in the famous 2500-seat Riverside church in Manhattan, an iconic venue steeped in a rich social justice legacy where Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela have given famous addresses.
The rally was initiated by Irish Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, and he will stand alongside artists and activists including New York-based Irish playwright and Waking the Feminists organizer Lisa Tierney Keogh, Council of State member Ruairí McKiernan, and community groups in New York.
The event will feature contributions from New York-based Irish author Colum McCann, comedian Maeve Higgins, prominent US writer and activist Shaun King, and "West Wing" actor Richard Schiff, among others. Other high profile musicians and speakers will be announced in the lead-up to the event and efforts are being made to invite representatives from communities adversely affected by racism and prejudice.
Organizers say the event is inspired by the Irish experience of oppression and forced emigration and aims to send a message of unity at a time of much fear and division in the world. It is also hoped that others will take up the call and host St. Patrick's Day "Irish Stand" style events in Ireland and in cities throughout the world.
Ó Riordáin, whose Senate speech about President Trump went viral internationally with over 40 million views in late 2016, said he feels it has never been more important to make a stand and speak out.
"Many of the struggles that Martin Luther King campaigned on are sadly the same struggles people face today. We are witnessing attacks on workers, on the environment and on vulnerable communities, especially migrants and immigrants," Ó Riordáin said.
"It is so important that we don't sit back in silence. I'm glad to say the support we're receiving is overwhelming. Our hope is to send a clear message out that Irish people stand in unity with people of different races in calling for justice and equality in the U.S, Ireland and around the world."
Read more: Many Irish in Ireland and in US fear Trump's victory
Actor Richard Schiff, who played Toby in the "West Wing," believes the US is currently facing major challenges and the Irish Stand event is important.
"We are facing an unprecedented challenge to our democracy for the first time in my lifetime. And a challenge to our basic freedoms and rights delineated so profoundly in our constitution. That there is a spontaneous combustion of protest and resistance around the world is as remarkable as it is necessary," said Schiff.
"My wife is [an] Irish American. I know first hand that the Irish don't stay silent when they are wronged or see an injustice perpetrated anywhere. I stand with the Irish on St Patrick's day inspired by their voices and passion for justice."
Irish Stand will take place at 7.30 pm on March 17 at The Riverside Church in the City of New York. Tickets will cost $15. For more information on the event or to buy tickets, visit www.irishstand.org or follow @irishstand on Twitter.]]>
Speaking to the Irish Voice on Monday, Morrison said that going forward, the undocumented will have to be "on their guard" more than ever before given Trump's focus on immigration which is proving to be even more intense than he promised on the campaign trail.
"It's a little too early to tell exactly how bad it's going to be, but it's going to be bad. It's going to be much worse than any recent time. There's just nothing positive to be said," Morrison offered.
Back in 1991, things were vastly different. The three-year Morrison visa program that granted nearly 50,000 green cards to Irish natives – including those living undocumented in the U.S. – was coming on stream. Any such deal in the days of Trump is impossible to contemplate, Morrison says, given the administration's rigid focus on enforcement measures which were confirmed on Tuesday with the release of documents from the Department of Homeland Security detailing how the administration is going to ramp up enforcement on a scale never before seen.
"I've talked to the key people on the House and Senate Judiciary committees, on the Republican side, and they are not interested in talking about anything but enforcement," he added.
"There's not going to be any legislation in the short run. It may be that after a while there will be some softening up and some moves, but we really don't know if they'll ever decide to legalize anybody. Anything that passes Congress now is going to be enforcement oriented."
Activists are marching through downtown Los Angeles today to oppose immigration raids https://t.co/nPoDQGoJI3 pic.twitter.com/TI9LIYqgKW— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) February 18, 2017
The undocumented have been on edge like never before since Trump took office, and the now confirmed reports of his administration beefing up agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to increase deportations across the board have only added to their worries.
How should the undocumented conduct themselves given the new realities? Extremely cautiously, Morrison warned.
"Obviously they cannot commit any crimes or do things that call attention to themselves. That's always been true, but it remains more true than ever before since the administration seems to be picking up people indiscriminately," Morrison said.
Read more: Immigrants are not US's problem and policy makers already know this
Though ICE isn't targeting the "average" out of status person -- one who has lived here without incident – Morrison says it's clear that the administration won't be especially concerned if such people are caught and detained. "If ICE comes to a worksite where they are looking for somebody who has a criminal record they might not care who else they find," he warns.
"There's nothing that can be done about that. People need to keep their head down. And if they come, just leave through another door. Don't be a sitting duck, and don't hang around with people who have problems with the law."
Undocumented residents looking to secure legal status remains as difficult as ever, Morrison said. He is aware that people marry U.S. citizens but doesn't recommend the strategy because it's high risk.
Trump praises immigration raids, Schumer presses for more info https://t.co/mIz4ShqfIx pic.twitter.com/slEL6s99Lo— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 14, 2017
"Of course you know that people do it but it's risky. They get divorced then and marry someone else…people are looking for a legal option," he added.
The bleak road ahead for the undocumented comes courtesy of all those who voted for Trump, Morrison said, including a large number of Irish Americans.
"People thought that Trump's immigration positions weren't about Irish people. They thought he was talking about Mexicans. They're going to find out otherwise, that his positions will affect everyone."
Perhaps at some point in the future, the administration might consider legalization actions, "when they realize the magnitude of what they're trying to do and get a lot of blow back for disrupting the economy," Morrison offered.
"Then they might be open to ways of doing things. But nobody should be under any illusions that in a few weeks or months it's going to be any different than it is now. Trump's policies are going to be around for a long time."
Read more: What Trump's immigration moves mean for the Irish ― worries about H-1B visas]]>
The constant refrain in the campaign was that Donald Trump was temperamentally unsuited to the presidency. It is difficult to argue with that assessment based on the bizarre happenings of his early days in office. Furthermore, his lack of experience in government is showing, and he is very foolish not to surround himself with and listen to more experienced Washington operators.
The tale will truly be told in the coming weeks and months. His "America First" mantra resonated with so many who feel like they have been left behind and/or fear for the direction of the country. If he could put an end to the ongoing sideshow, some of his policy priorities, such as on trade, infrastructure spending and ensuring that young Americans are no longer sent away to fight futile wars, would find favor with a solid majority of voters, including lots of Democrats.
Because the Democratic Party is widely perceived to have abandoned its historic stances on these issues, while simultaneously veering well to the left on other matters, it has been in decline for close to a decade. The party's representation in both houses of the Congress, and especially in state houses, has suffered.
Meanwhile, observers, not only in the US, but also here in Ireland, are wondering who the new standard bearers will be. Most of their biggest names – Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi – are not of the next generation.
When seeking to identify who these future leaders of the party might be, it wasn't long before my thoughts turned back to Boston and its mayor, Marty Walsh.
Boston Mayor: It's Our Job To Protect Immigrants: Boston's Mayor Martin J. Walsh had strong words for… https://t.co/f7qm1Tl1TN | @jdforward pic.twitter.com/XNY6sIlEsw— Boston Daily News (@BostonDailyNews) February 3, 2017
Mayor Walsh raised his national profile considerably with his recent response to the temporary ban on immigrants from seven countries imposed in chaotic fashion by President Trump. He spoke passionately and eloquently about the ban being offensive to what America has always been. He was able to do so credibly because he is the son of immigrants himself. The mayor has proven popular with left-wing activists in Massachusetts, and his criticism of the president will endear him to progressives nationally. Additionally, he doesn't carry the baggage that inevitably comes with serving in Washington, DC.
And there is more that makes Mayor Walsh an appealing figure. He is from a working-class background and spent many long, tough days laboring on building sites in the Boston area before studying for a college degree part-time. As an ex-union official, skepticism about the trade deals that leading Democrats supported to the dismay of the rank and file is second nature. A recovered alcoholic, he knows firsthand the plight of those who have fallen victim to addiction, owing in many cases to economic circumstances. He is very real and compelling in a way that most politicians are not.
While his ideology is undeniably left of center, he is probably more comfortable in the stands at a New England Patriots football game than at an art exhibition or swanky cocktail party. There are more than a few conservative Democrats and Independents in Boston neighborhoods like his native Dorchester and South Boston who equally enthusiastically voted for Marty Walsh in 2013 and Donald Trump in 2016.
Mayor Walsh is running for re-election this year and, though he has drawn an opponent, is likely to win handily. The extent of his ambition for any higher office and his capacity to win an election with a broader and deeper pool of highly accomplished candidates are open questions. But when one evaluates the political challenges confronting his party under President Trump, Marty Walsh is one Democrat who ticks a lot of boxes.
Read more: President Trump - It is time to deport your wife for working illegally!
* Larry Donnelly is a Boston attorney, a Law Lecturer at NUI Galway and a political columnist with IrishCentral.com and TheJournal.ie.]]>
The Ballinrobe native and long-time Illinois resident works as a waitress in Nick's Pizza & Pub and it was there that her friend Kim sat her down.
"Kim gave me this envelope and I'm like, 'What's this?' and she said, 'Oh, this is from your guardian angel' and she goes, 'I'm serious' and she was very serious. And my legs started to wobble.
"I read in the letter, it was like this beautiful butterfly card, it said, 'Imelda, here's hoping this helps on getting you back to Ballinrobe in 2017.'
"And the most beguiling thing about this is no one knows where I live. And then she wrote, 'Cheers.' That was it."
Imelda gets a $2,500 surprise from a Guardian Angel tonight! The magic continues "on purpose "! 👏💖 pic.twitter.com/IpzKVXZ6ez— Nick's Pizza & Pub (@Nickspizza) February 12, 2017
Read more: Irish waitresses in New York get $100,000 tip
Apparently, the mystery tipper was served by Imelda in the restaurant a few years ago.
"I guess a couple of years ago, this lady was at Nick's. I took care of this lady and her family.
"I don't know, but she remembered me for some really odd reason and I stood out and I guess made an impression or whatever."
And it's not even the first time the generosity of Imelda's customers have helped her get home to Ireland.
A few years ago, a few regulars – including Kim's father – gave her $1,000 so she could fly back for her sister's wedding.
Now she has the chance to see her family again in her hometown for the first time in five years.
H/T: NBC Chicago]]>
The group has released their rendition of Sheeran's song to mark his new album, 'Divide,' and upcoming tour dates. New Airs recorded this track live at Kilcummin Church, Oughterard in County Galway.
New Airs is an independent classical crossover and fusion group from Ireland. It was formed in County Galway by composer and producer, Glen Austin, who also fronts the group, along with other classically trained performers. They are famed for combining classical strings with rock/folk percussion and synthesized electronics, forming new and exciting twists on both classic and modern music.
Each track is recorded live using a pop up recording studio, with a unique venue chosen each time, and has been recorded in churches and theaters throughout Ireland. They have featured in Irish music magazine, Hot Press, and the Irish Independent newspaper in the past.
The classical ensemble has also released other unique covers from well known artists like Thin Lizzy, U2, Taylor Swift and Snow Patrol, among others. This new piece has been chosen by the group to coincide with the release of Ed Sheeran's new album, 'Divide.'
This will be Sheeran's first new studio album since he released 'Multiply' in 2014. Sheeran released his track listing for this new album in January of this year, which included a track entitled 'Galway Girl.'
Sheeran is currently planning on filming a music video in Ireland, presumably for his track 'Galway Girl', and has already been looking for dance groups to perform in the video. Sheeran's new album, 'Divide,' is due to go on sale March 3, 2017.]]>
Recent opinion polls make clear that if an election were to be held there, the Fianna Fail party would steam back into power.
But wait, you might ask -- aren't they the party of venal corruption that turned a blind eye to the rape of the Irish taxpayer by rapacious bankers and corrupt developers?
Well yes, but...
The Irish taxpayer ended up with a $70 billion bill from the European Union which bailed Ireland out at the last minute.
Yes, it is the very same Fianna Fail which seems set to grab government again sometime during 2017. Two recent opinion polls show the party 12 and eight points ahead of their main rival Fine Gael.
And you think Trump's election was odd?
The Irish desire for self-flagellation seems to know no bounds. Of course, there is a new Fianna Fail, spanking bright and shining like a new pin. The past is another country, and Ireland chooses not to learn from it, it seems -- right now anyway.
The current government has allowed Fianna Fail in the back door by a series of blunders reminiscent of the old Fianna Fail.
Fianna Fail's Micheal Martin rubbishes claims by Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald that she only learned of whistleblower… https://t.co/jKenLERgWe pic.twitter.com/mhrzyZGjZW— DCUstudentlife (@dcustudentlife) February 13, 2017
The main self-inflicted error was allowing the police force top brass to ride roughshod over the law in their efforts to silence a whistleblower. That whistleblower, Sergeant Maurice McCabe, discovered corruption in the penalty points system doled out to drivers who had committed infractions.
In short, he discovered the police commissioner himself, among others, had availed of the opportunity to wipe out penalty points against himself. But instead of throwing up their hands and cleaning house the cop's top brass instead fabricated evidence that McCabe was a pedophile.
The top figures in the Irish government were perfectly aware of the accusation which had no merit at all, yet chose to ignore it, fearful of the long arm of the law.
#Whistleblower Uplift Vigil group outside Carlow Garda Stn in support of Garda Sgt #MauriceMcCabe pic.twitter.com/V9iG4zLcp6— Emergency Times (@emergencytimes) February 18, 2017
Of course, the entire edifice has now come tumbling down, and the biggest casualty is Taoiseach Enda Kenny, now the lamest of lame ducks, struggling to stay in power an extra few weeks or months.
Ironically, it is St. Patrick's Day in the White House and his meeting with President Trump that is saving Kenny from immediate dismissal. No other putative leader of his party wants to be seen dead with the Trumpster, who matches Oliver Cromwell in popularity in Ireland.
But McCabe and the negative opinion polls have spelt the end for Kenny. All that is absent is the obsequies and the date he is departing.
His departure will come almost directly at the same time as the beginning of the Brexit negotiations, a time when Ireland needs to be intensely focused on what the British departure from the European Union will mean for the country.
Of course they are not. Instead are utterly focused on the palace intrigue of who will succeed Kenny, the McCabe fallout shoved to one side for the familiar guessing game.
It hardly seems to matter though, as it will be a short-lived government with Fianna Fail ready to force it from power and end the current arrangement whereby Fianna Fail do not bring down the government but abstain on motions of no confidence.
Meanwhile, the case of Sergeant McCabe will go to a public tribunal which is where I suspect the real action will be. What emerges from that could be truly sensational as to who knew what and when they knew it.
That story may only be the beginning and is the real one to watch.
Read more: Irish government has no empathy for returning Irish citizens]]>
What Ireland really needs over the coming months is a stable government able to make tough decisions and provide strong leadership. We need that for two reasons.
Within a few weeks British Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger Article 50, starting the process that will take the U.K. out of the EU. At that point the hard bargaining between Britain and Europe will start and the reality of what lies ahead for Ireland will soon become apparent. We're then going to find out the real value -- if any -- of the assurances given to us by both the U.K. and the EU recently, assurances that were probably little more than wishful thinking.
The next few months should also bring a clearer picture of Donald Trump's new deal to get American companies to invest at home rather than abroad, not least in Ireland. Despite a few reassuring things some of the Trump team have said about Ireland, the reality is that we are a very small part of a very big picture and we could easily become unintended collateral damage as the president's policy on bringing jobs home is implemented.
For both of those reasons -- which together add up to the biggest challenge Ireland has faced in decades -- the next few months would be a disastrous time to have an unstable government here. Or to have an election and the weeks of stasis and uncertainty that would bring. However, thanks to the mess the present minority government has got itself into, that is precisely what is coming down the tracks.
The timing simply could not be worse. And Kenny, and some of his ministers, have only themselves to blame.
It was written all over their faces last week as the McCabe crisis engulfed them in the Dail. The more they tried to explain, the more their credibility ebbed away. It was beyond embarrassing at times.
Irish rivals jostle for position as PM Enda Kenny considers his eventual departure https://t.co/K9E8EHWerj pic.twitter.com/piUvpTqDZg— Bloomberg (@business) February 22, 2017
It's not that Kenny has done anything wrong himself, as far as we know. But his inept handling of the revelations about the smearing of garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe with a false sex abuse file has destroyed his authority. There is now a general acceptance, both in Fine Gael and in the country at large, that his time as taoiseach is through and that he has to go.
He is expected to reveal a timescale for his departure at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting to be held this Wednesday. Failure to do so may prompt a vote of no confidence.
Last weekend he said he would "address the issue" of the leadership at Wednesday's meeting, which is not the same as saying he is about to go. But the reality is that on this occasion there can be no playing for time, no Lazarus-like survival. It's over, and he's been around long enough in politics to know that.
There has been some talk in Fine Gael of doing the decent think and allowing him a lap of honor, much like Bertie Ahern got. This would see him staying on as taoiseach long enough to present the shamrock to President Trump in the White House next month. It has also been suggested that he might remain until May, when he would become the longest serving taoiseach in Fine Gael history.
There has even been the idea -- floated by Kenny's most loyal supporters -- that he should remain as taoiseach until later this year to allow him to use the contacts he has with other EU leaders to get the best possible start for Ireland in the Brexit negotiations that are about to get underway.
That last option would fit with the timeline implicit in his assertion some time ago that he would not lead Fine Gael into the next election. That was taken as meaning then that he would step down as Taoiseach at the end of this year or some time in 2018, giving his successor time to make an impact before an election.
But that was then and this is now. Last week's fiasco in the Dail has finished any chance of him staying on more than a very limited time, weeks rather than months. The two candidates likely to succeed him, Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney, have already made that clear in statements in the last few days.
Fine Gael leadership battle: Simon Coveney says Leo Varadkar 'wants to push things' https://t.co/j7rAHsKp62 (Pic: @RTETwip) pic.twitter.com/XFf4GK6N4x— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) February 19, 2017
Varadkar's unusual surname comes from his Indian father, a doctor who was a popular GP in Dublin for many years until his retirement; his mother is Irish. Varadkar, 38, is also a doctor, was born here, and has been active in Fine Gael since his college days.
He is marginally the front runner, largely because of his engaging personality and a reputation for speaking his mind whether the party likes it or not. Currently the minister for social protection (welfare), he is a former minister for health. His ministerial career to date has been competent rather than distinguished. Although a doctor himself, he ran into the same intractable problems as minister for health as his predecessors in that department.
Despite announcing in 2015 that he is gay, he is very popular in the once highly conservative Fine Gael party, a measure both of his people skills and the changing face of Ireland.
Coveney, 44, is from old Fine Gael stock; a more reserved, conventional politician, he is seen as a highly effective minister. He is currently the minister for housing, tackling the homelessness crisis which has lingered on after the crash, no easy task.
A steady pair of hands with a deliberate, analytical approach, he is a former minister for agriculture. His more intellectual style possibly gives him the edge for the position as taoiseach, particularly given the complexity of the upcoming challenges the country faces.
That may not be enough, however, to enable him to outrun Varadkar. Two recent opinion polls put Fine Gael way behind Fianna Fail, despite that party wrecking the country in the boom. Nervous Fine Gael backbench politicians may feel the more popular Varadkar will give their party the best chance of turning this around in the next election and saving their seats in the Dail.
Leo Varadkar increases pressure on Enda Kenny to announce departure timetable https://t.co/ZOIcab88b6 pic.twitter.com/bXSwGUxoPi— Independent.ie (@Independent_ie) February 18, 2017
Either Varadkar or Coveney would make a good leader and probably a far better one than Kenny, a decent man but sadly out of his depth as taoiseach. Either of them taking over would also mark a generational shift in politics here and would probably mean a Cabinet reshuffle that could see a lot of the old guard (like Finance Minister Michael Noonan) finally being retired off.
But the big unknown in all this is Fianna Fail, which can bring this minority government down at any time by ending the deal under which it supports it in Dail votes. It's an intriguing situation.
Fianna Fail is rising in the polls as disillusion with the present government mounts. But it is still some way off where it needs to be to lead the next government, which will be another coalition.
The problem for Fianna Fail is that the longer it waits, the better chance a new young Fine Gael taoiseach will have of establishing himself and revitalizing the party. The contrast with the Fianna Fail leader, Micheal Martin, who is the older generation, might not look good.
And you can be sure a new young Fine Gael taoiseach will reinforce the party message that it is much too early for the Irish people to forgive Fianna Fail, including Martin, for bankrupting the country.
At the height of the crisis last week when the taoiseach was caught by reporters on his way into an event, his reply to questions about the McCabe issue was that he "would talk to Micheal Martin in the morning." For people in Fine Gael that summed up how much his authority had been undermined and how demeaning the arrangement with Fianna Fail had become for the party.
To reverse that situation, it's possible a new Fine Gael leader might decide to go for a snap election despite being behind in the polls. If it can be done quickly, that might be the best thing for the country.
And for that reason, the sooner Kenny goes the better.
Keep up-to-date with IrishCentral's Irish political news here]]>
Top of their list is that they invented the parade tradition. The earliest recorded parade was one that took place in 1737 in Boston while New York City also claims a St. Patrick's Day parade took place there in 1762.
The embassy's second item is that Americans were turning things green long before the Irish were, with a list of examples such as green beer, green rivers, and green clothes!
Number three on the embassy's list is their assertion that marching bands were invented by Americans with number four explaining the all-too-believable reason corned beef and cabbage is also a US invention.
Read more: Why Irish Americans eat corned beef and cabbage, not bacon and cabbage
The last thing they lay claim to are the keys to the White House!
Here's the video. Do you agree with the US Embassy's list of five things that prove Americans created St Patrick's Day?
*Originally published in March 2014.]]>
March 17 is less than a month away, and it's a short one, too! Each day we'll be updating this space with St. Patrick's Day info, events and stories to entertain and prepare you as you watch the seconds until St. Patrick's Day tick away.
Do you already have your St. Patrick's Day 2017 all planned out? Do you have a question or need a recommendation for St. Patrick's Day? Let us know in the comment section and we'll get on it!
Do you know what's going on in your area for St. Patrick's Day? We put together a list of parades, events and festivals happening across the US on and around March 17. Check it out and start filling in your calendar!
Read More: What's happening around the US for St. Patrick's Day]]>
A court-issued warrant for his arrest was made on July 10, 2013, after he failed to make an appearance at his trial in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. He was also alleged to have assaulted three gardaí that New Year's Day outside his local police station.
The day prior to his trial Walsh was charged again with assault after an alleged brawl in a fast food restaurant.
It is believed the Wexford man then fled the country believing he could spend years in jail if convicted.
The father-of-three got engaged to Irish woman Tina Cahill, 25, who is now charged with his murder. A 36-year-old man was also arrested but released without charge.
Walsh was found dying on a footpath near his home in southwest Sydney having been stabbed in the neck. Paramedics were unable to revive him.
Neighbors said they heard screaming and glass shattering.
Accused murderer Tina Cahill didn't apply for bail today. She allegedly stabbed fiancé David Walsh to death in Padstow @7NewsSydney pic.twitter.com/pKEPWDThUP— Tom Sacre (@Sacre88) February 19, 2017
Johnny Mythen – a family friend and Wexford county councilor – told the Irish Daily Mirror, "I would have known the chaps. They are a very big family. Hard working people, Johnners is a self-employed builder, all of those chaps worked with their father from the ages of 12, 13, 14.
"They would have been roofing, carrying slates up roofs," he continued.
"Nothing came easy to that family. They had to work very hard for everything. They could turn their hands to anything. They'd be gifted that way."
Cahill was reported as being too distressed to appear in court on Sunday morning. She was denied bail and remains in custody. She, too, grew up in Wexford and is said to have come from a well-respected local family.
Shock at news that Tina Cahill charged with murder of David Walsh.Tina's father reveals the family first heard of the murder charge on radio pic.twitter.com/iveCj5n95h— Wexford People (@Wexford_People) February 21, 2017
"The Cahills are the finest people you could meet," a neighbor told the Irish Independent. "No one can understand one bit of this. Tina was a good student at school and, I understand, very successful at whatever she worked at. There's total shock here."
Read more: Wexford woman accused of murder in Sydney too distressed for court]]>
#PintBaby, also known as Steve Barron, lives in Prosperous, Co. Kildare and was identified after a friend of his mother in America spotted her in the video on Facebook and tagged her.
"You couldn't really get any more Irish," the now 20-year-old PintBaby told RTÉ News when they pitched up at his home in Kildare armed with the archive footage and a camera crew.
Ireland,— Gary Traynor (@GaryTraynor1) February 21, 2017
Will we tell the rest of the🌎
That we've spent the last few days looking for #PintBaby ?#PureIrish 😀
A baby drinking Guinness
America: "Neo fascists take White House!"— Peter Flanagan (@peterflanagan) February 20, 2017
Britain: "Far right pushs UK out of EU!"
Ireland: "Pint Baby alive and well"#pintbaby
Although doctors warn against giving alcohol to children, his mother Caroline said, "There's great nutrition in Guinness and it hasn't done him [Steve] any harm. He's fit and healthy, never been hospitalized. He's grand! He hasn't taken to the drink in a big way or anything!"
Ireland: Those stereotypes are hurtful.— John Cavanagh (@theimaginaryjc) February 20, 2017
World: Fair point.
Also Ireland: #pintbaby LOL! Quick, get him on the news!
World: ...
Caroline said the pair had gone down the pub where RTÉ had been filming and it had been "great fun [with] craic going on in the pub. Everyone was there for the novelty of 'Nationwide' being there and everything…. It's absolutely phenomenal. People are contacting us, emailing, texting, phoning, messages, notifications, here there left right and center. It's gone off the scale … The phone is on fire!"
She insists "that could be any child in Ireland, even to this day!... He was the only one filmed doing it!"
As for Steven, he doesn't mind sticking with the nickname PintBaby for a while but "not for the next 20 years".]]>
Set to feature Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino, the epic gangster flick has been on the cards for a long time but filming schedules are still not set as the production transfers over to the streaming company.
Telling the tale of Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, played by De Niro, a high-ranking labor union official and mob hitman who was accused of ties to the Bufalino crime family, the movie's script was adapted by Steve Zaillian from Charles Brandt's book "I Heard You Paint Houses".
As a high official of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (more commonly known as Teamsters), Sheeran was believed to have links with much of the corruption within the unions as a result of the infiltration of organized crime.
Before his death in 2003, Sheeran is said to have confessed he pulled the trigger in the murder of fellow Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa in 1975. He also claimed that it was Hoffa who had wanted President John F. Kennedy killed. Brandt detailed the confession in his nonfiction book released a year after "The Irishman's" death.
Read more: Top Irish TV shows and movies to watch on Netflix
Born in Darby, Pennsylvania, Sheeran was of Irish and Swedish descent and he joined the US Army, aged 21. It was while on combat duty during the Second World War he claims he got a taste for killing other human beings and he claimed to Brandt that he took part in several executions of German POWs that would be classed as war crimes. He was discharged from the US Army in October 1945 when it is believed he first became involved with Mafia bosses Russell Bufalino and Angelo Bruno.
Scorsese's "The Irishman" project was first announced in 2008 but a start date has yet to be finalized. It is believed CGI will be used to age De Niro down 30 years for the role. This will be the ninth collaboration between the actor and Scorcese. The director himself is said to be aiming for a 2019 release.
Paramount Pictures had handled the release of Scorsese's latest movie, "Silence" which starred Irish actor Liam Neeson, a movie many believed to have underperformed after spending a long time in the pipeline. The change of backer for "The Irishman" is believed to have been a result of the disappointing performance of "Silence". Despite its $46 million budget, the movie has taken in just over $7 million in the US.
H/T: Hollywood Reporter]]>
The Dubliner, who was formerly the personal designer for Diana Princess of Wales, says President Donald Trump's wife, a former Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model, is already having an impact on the fashion world.
Costelloe told Independent.ie "I think as a First Lady, Melania is probably the most glamorous since Jackie Kennedy. She will set trends as First Lady. She likes strong colors that work well."
The straight-talking designer feels that the Slovenia-born First Lady has yet to put a foot wrong. Costelloe said, "For the inauguration, I liked the color of the Ralph Lauren number and I thought she looked comfortable in it."
At the inauguration Melania wore a sky-blue Ralph Lauren design – a high-necked sheath and matching bolero, in the same color. It seemed like she was channeling the style of Jacqueline Kennedy's outfit from President John F Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.
Jackie has long been regarded as one of the United States' most fashionable and iconic First Ladies in history One her most famous fashion moments was her Christian Dior evening gown, worn at a White House State Dinner in 1961.
Now, it seems that Mrs Melania Trump is making her own waves. Her look – elegant, structured and mono-chrome designs – is being favored by many celebrities.
At a recent press conference Mrs Trump wore an exclusive design from Karl Lagerfeld, the Creative Director for Chanel and Fendi. Commentators said her white cashmere pencil skirt and jacket was a nod to purity and neutrality.
The 71-year-old designer went on to say "I think she definitely has her own individual style.
"Melania isn't the slimmest person in the world, but she wears everything very well. She was a model so she has good posture. She's certainly Donald's trophy wife, and she behaves accordingly."
While Costelloe appears to be a fan of Melania it seems, that like her husband, she's dividing opinion.
American designer Tom Ford has said "I was asked to dress her quite a few years ago and I declined. She's not necessarily my image."
Carolina Herrera was a little more flexible, saying that she predicts attitudes towards dressing the First Lady would change. She said, "In two or three months, they'll reach out. You'll see everyone dressing Melania."
Tommy Hilfiger for one wants to keep politics and fashion separate. He said, "I think Melania is a very beautiful woman and I think any designer should be proud to dress her."]]>