MY dear father, an exiled Corkonian, was an activist in the IRA during the Troubles, and unlike Presidents Clinton, Bush, Jr. and Obama was no sofa samurai, having been awarded several medals for valor.
He was also a close personal friend of the martyred Lord Mayor of Cork Terrence McSweeney, his brother and their mother. In fact, my first cousin is married to the first cousin of McSweeney.
In 1957 my father returned to Ireland and visited an embittered and tear-filled Mrs. McSweeney, who said that her son’s sacrifice was wasted and scantly appreciated, especially by Corkonians. How truly prophetic!
To ALL (no exceptions) defilers of the faith, enamored of Missy Liz’s in the dear Mother Ireland – Perfidious Albion, the vampire on the continent, spits in your face and you merely call it mildew.
John Keenan
Bronx, New York
Thursday, June 2, 2011
McAleese Invites
DURING the recent visit to Ireland by the Queen of England, President Mary McAleese in her wisdom extended invitations to five Ulster Defense Association (UDA) and Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) brigadiers to attend a wreath laying ceremony by the Queen at Islandbridge.
Jackie McDonald, one of the UDA/UFF brigadiers invited to the ceremony stated, "This represents progress and is a reward for work being done. Others could learn from this."
In recently seen court transcripts, one of the UDA/UFF brigadiers invited to this ceremony was named as having been involved in the planning of the Greysteel massacre in Derry in 1993.
Would McAleese extend the same welcome to the families of those murdered in Greysteel by the UDA/UFF, and listen as they speak of their loss and how it has impacted on their lives and the lives of their extended families?
Would they be as warmly welcomed as McDonald and his brigadiers? Would she embrace them and be as comfortable with them as she appears to be while in the company of McDonald?
Will she be as supportive of them as they continue to seek the truth, as she appears to have been when arranging the visit to Ireland by the Queen of England?
Will collusion and state sponsored murder be on their agenda? Others could learn from this!
J. Parker
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Jackie McDonald, one of the UDA/UFF brigadiers invited to the ceremony stated, "This represents progress and is a reward for work being done. Others could learn from this."
In recently seen court transcripts, one of the UDA/UFF brigadiers invited to this ceremony was named as having been involved in the planning of the Greysteel massacre in Derry in 1993.
Would McAleese extend the same welcome to the families of those murdered in Greysteel by the UDA/UFF, and listen as they speak of their loss and how it has impacted on their lives and the lives of their extended families?
Would they be as warmly welcomed as McDonald and his brigadiers? Would she embrace them and be as comfortable with them as she appears to be while in the company of McDonald?
Will she be as supportive of them as they continue to seek the truth, as she appears to have been when arranging the visit to Ireland by the Queen of England?
Will collusion and state sponsored murder be on their agenda? Others could learn from this!
J. Parker
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Monumental Leap
WHOEVER would have thought it possible? At a time when it seems as if the rest of the world is hell bent on slaughtering each other, the Irish and the British have taken a monumental leap toward burying the hatchet.
I use the word monumental because the astonishing thing is that they are not trying to bury it in each other’s heads on this occasion! If ever there was a case of reverse psychology, then surely this is it. Big time!
Everywhere else on the planet the cave men are out in force, hell-bent on proving that Allah or Jesus or Abraham or Christ or the Dali Lama or Jehovah or Billy Graham or the guy from Waco, or the apostle from Prosperous, Co. Kildare (Christy Moore) is the true God, and have the weaponry to prove it, enforce it, ram it down your throat and generally just wipe out all the heathens who don’t agree, won’t agree, can’t agree, refuse to see.
We Irish are definitely a race apart and have tried to teach the world in our own inimitable style, with books, music, poetry, sarcasm, wit, craic and a lot of bull that we can all live together and get along (as long as you don’t touch my pint!)
John Brennan
Garden City, New York
I use the word monumental because the astonishing thing is that they are not trying to bury it in each other’s heads on this occasion! If ever there was a case of reverse psychology, then surely this is it. Big time!
Everywhere else on the planet the cave men are out in force, hell-bent on proving that Allah or Jesus or Abraham or Christ or the Dali Lama or Jehovah or Billy Graham or the guy from Waco, or the apostle from Prosperous, Co. Kildare (Christy Moore) is the true God, and have the weaponry to prove it, enforce it, ram it down your throat and generally just wipe out all the heathens who don’t agree, won’t agree, can’t agree, refuse to see.
We Irish are definitely a race apart and have tried to teach the world in our own inimitable style, with books, music, poetry, sarcasm, wit, craic and a lot of bull that we can all live together and get along (as long as you don’t touch my pint!)
John Brennan
Garden City, New York
A Productive Visit
I WAS glad to see Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip enjoy their time in Ireland so much, and gladder still that violence didn’t destroy their historic trip.
The Irish people have come such a long way. They should be proud of the welcome they extended to the Queen, and she represented her country so well too.
It’s crazy for Britain and Ireland to be at odds with each other, given how close they are to each other geographically and so many other ways as well. The Queen’s trip will undoubtedly bring the two sides even closer, and the people who continue to advocate on behalf of violence will have their toxic voices further silenced.
Maria Corcoran
Tenafly, New Jersey
The Irish people have come such a long way. They should be proud of the welcome they extended to the Queen, and she represented her country so well too.
It’s crazy for Britain and Ireland to be at odds with each other, given how close they are to each other geographically and so many other ways as well. The Queen’s trip will undoubtedly bring the two sides even closer, and the people who continue to advocate on behalf of violence will have their toxic voices further silenced.
Maria Corcoran
Tenafly, New Jersey
Travel Helps Everything
IN my youth growing up in Limerick I was led to believe, as were most of the young men and women of Ireland at that time, that most Americans were lazy, and because they were so lazy they had to wear Hawaiian shirts to cover their bulging waistlines.
When I finished school, I became a bartender at the Anner Hotel in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. From time to time a tourist bus filled with Americans would pull into the hotel parking lot, and out of these coaches would emerge the worst dressed people that you could ever imagine seeing.
It seemed to me then that Americans had either no taste for style, or they simply were just too rich to care. Of course, back then I was also of the idiotic assumption that there was no such thing as a poor American.
Water was all that these American tourists seemed to care to drink. Was this because they were too cheap to order a real drink? (we all certainly thought so).
We nonetheless filled their glasses with iceless water (straight from the faucet), and we painfully listened to them complain with disdain about the fact that we had no ice to offer them. But of course we did have ice to offer them, but ice was only for paying customers.
For as long as I can recall I had wanted to come to America, but I must admit that my primary reasons back then for wanting to be here in the land of dreams was solely to make money, get rich and then return to Ireland with all that money and buy myself a simple little mountain-side cottage.
A place where I would hopefully live out the rest of my life in peaceful bliss. There was a Lassie dog thrown into the mix somewhere there too.
Now that I have lived in New York for just over 20 years, I sometimes feel both ashamed and embarrassed by how small my thinking was before travel broadened my mind.
America is a much different place than what I had perceived it to be (childish thinking), and American people are just like any other race of people with their mixture of personalities and their individual ideals, but all of them trying in their own best way to carve out a decent life for themselves.
Today, I consider myself to be just as American as my two sons who have grown up as proud Americans, and if some foreign figure attempts in any shape or form to either demean or insult the very fabric of Americanism, then I too take deep offense to such rhetoric. America is my home, and a home that I would gladly give up my life to protect.
Travel is a great educator, and I believe that more Americans should spend at least one year of their life traveling abroad. Most Americans are a very proud people and they love their country with all of their heart.
But most Americans are also guilty of being small-minded, especially when it comes to the cultures and ways of their world neighbors.
If Americans want the world to better understand them, then I suggest that Americans do a better job of understanding the world around them.
In this time of fragile world borders, it's not good for any of us to be belligerent in our way of thinking and foolishly believing that we are better than our neighbors. We can all learn to change together.
Pat Greene
Brooklyn, New York
When I finished school, I became a bartender at the Anner Hotel in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. From time to time a tourist bus filled with Americans would pull into the hotel parking lot, and out of these coaches would emerge the worst dressed people that you could ever imagine seeing.
It seemed to me then that Americans had either no taste for style, or they simply were just too rich to care. Of course, back then I was also of the idiotic assumption that there was no such thing as a poor American.
Water was all that these American tourists seemed to care to drink. Was this because they were too cheap to order a real drink? (we all certainly thought so).
We nonetheless filled their glasses with iceless water (straight from the faucet), and we painfully listened to them complain with disdain about the fact that we had no ice to offer them. But of course we did have ice to offer them, but ice was only for paying customers.
For as long as I can recall I had wanted to come to America, but I must admit that my primary reasons back then for wanting to be here in the land of dreams was solely to make money, get rich and then return to Ireland with all that money and buy myself a simple little mountain-side cottage.
A place where I would hopefully live out the rest of my life in peaceful bliss. There was a Lassie dog thrown into the mix somewhere there too.
Now that I have lived in New York for just over 20 years, I sometimes feel both ashamed and embarrassed by how small my thinking was before travel broadened my mind.
America is a much different place than what I had perceived it to be (childish thinking), and American people are just like any other race of people with their mixture of personalities and their individual ideals, but all of them trying in their own best way to carve out a decent life for themselves.
Today, I consider myself to be just as American as my two sons who have grown up as proud Americans, and if some foreign figure attempts in any shape or form to either demean or insult the very fabric of Americanism, then I too take deep offense to such rhetoric. America is my home, and a home that I would gladly give up my life to protect.
Travel is a great educator, and I believe that more Americans should spend at least one year of their life traveling abroad. Most Americans are a very proud people and they love their country with all of their heart.
But most Americans are also guilty of being small-minded, especially when it comes to the cultures and ways of their world neighbors.
If Americans want the world to better understand them, then I suggest that Americans do a better job of understanding the world around them.
In this time of fragile world borders, it's not good for any of us to be belligerent in our way of thinking and foolishly believing that we are better than our neighbors. We can all learn to change together.
Pat Greene
Brooklyn, New York
Irish Need Bam’s Help
WHEN President Obama travels to Ireland next week, in between visiting his great-great-great-grandfather’s village of Moneygall and other events, he will undoubtedly face the chaffing issue of the country’s corporate tax scheme.
Currently under duress by the Franco-German alliance to consolidate their corporate tax base as a condition of the EU/IMF bailout, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny understands the harm this holds for Ireland, and adamantly rejected the idea as tax harmonization by the “back door.”
But at a international financial conference hosted by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Financial Times in Washington, D.C., French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde announced that she was “pleased” by her recent meeting with Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan because he signaled that Ireland was willing to negotiate, marking a “step in the right direction.”
While Noonan insisted to Bloomberg news “there’s no question of any concession on the corporate tax rate being made by Ireland,” his willingness to explore possibilities on the matter and failure to mention the status of talks on a consolidated corporate tax base comes as an unpleasant surprise to the Irish electorate who were guaranteed their tax scheme as a condition of their passage of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009.
Ireland needs a big brother to stand by its side, and this could be America’s opportunity to provide some empowerment.
It’s in the U.S. interest to ensure that the Irish corporate tax scheme remain fixed. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Ireland, U.S. firms have invested over $165 billion in Ireland, and U.S. firms export 90 billion Euro from Ireland to world markets.
This would hardly be the case if it weren’t for a favorable tax scheme and access to EU markets. An increased corporate tax rate or a consolidated corporate tax base will hurt the already flailing country hit by a devastating banking crisis, an emigration rate of about 1,000 people per week, and falling education standards all at once.
With little other recourse for growth in an economy clamoring for liquidity, maintaining a competitive advantage in foreign direct investment is vital to Ireland's recovery. And pressure to do otherwise for the “good” of the EU simply adds insult to injury.
Not to mention the Irish electorate holds the cards when it comes to EU treaty change – any future referendum on necessary changes to the functioning of the EU, as required by the Irish Constitution, could be hampered by a disillusioned people who feel misled and confused.
Obama should recognize this disillusionment and support the Irish on this issue -- to sustain the benefits of this economic partnership -- and as a matter of principle, to remind the EU of the importance of standing good on its promises.
The Irish descendents who helped to build America to prosperity could not have done so without hope for a better day. Now Ireland needs some hope.
Meghan McBride
Washington, D.C.
Currently under duress by the Franco-German alliance to consolidate their corporate tax base as a condition of the EU/IMF bailout, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny understands the harm this holds for Ireland, and adamantly rejected the idea as tax harmonization by the “back door.”
But at a international financial conference hosted by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Financial Times in Washington, D.C., French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde announced that she was “pleased” by her recent meeting with Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan because he signaled that Ireland was willing to negotiate, marking a “step in the right direction.”
While Noonan insisted to Bloomberg news “there’s no question of any concession on the corporate tax rate being made by Ireland,” his willingness to explore possibilities on the matter and failure to mention the status of talks on a consolidated corporate tax base comes as an unpleasant surprise to the Irish electorate who were guaranteed their tax scheme as a condition of their passage of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009.
Ireland needs a big brother to stand by its side, and this could be America’s opportunity to provide some empowerment.
It’s in the U.S. interest to ensure that the Irish corporate tax scheme remain fixed. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Ireland, U.S. firms have invested over $165 billion in Ireland, and U.S. firms export 90 billion Euro from Ireland to world markets.
This would hardly be the case if it weren’t for a favorable tax scheme and access to EU markets. An increased corporate tax rate or a consolidated corporate tax base will hurt the already flailing country hit by a devastating banking crisis, an emigration rate of about 1,000 people per week, and falling education standards all at once.
With little other recourse for growth in an economy clamoring for liquidity, maintaining a competitive advantage in foreign direct investment is vital to Ireland's recovery. And pressure to do otherwise for the “good” of the EU simply adds insult to injury.
Not to mention the Irish electorate holds the cards when it comes to EU treaty change – any future referendum on necessary changes to the functioning of the EU, as required by the Irish Constitution, could be hampered by a disillusioned people who feel misled and confused.
Obama should recognize this disillusionment and support the Irish on this issue -- to sustain the benefits of this economic partnership -- and as a matter of principle, to remind the EU of the importance of standing good on its promises.
The Irish descendents who helped to build America to prosperity could not have done so without hope for a better day. Now Ireland needs some hope.
Meghan McBride
Washington, D.C.
Shannon Needs Saving
WITH reference to Patrick Furey's letter on Shannon Airport in the issue of April 27-May 4, I totally agree with him.
It is absolutely scandalous that Aer Lingus pulled out of the JFK to Shannon route for three months from the end of December to the end of March. Don’t tell me the numbers are not there to keep a full schedule of daily flights to Shannon.
All of Connacht and Munster as well as some of Leinster would use Shannon and thus avoid the terribly cramped Dublin Airport if the flights were available at the Clare airport. Instead, you have a scenario where buses are shuttling people to the former, at all times of the day and night.
What a joke. The politicians of not only Clare and Limerick but also Tipperary, Cork, Kerry and all the Connacht counties should be up in arms over this. What are they waiting for?
Shannon must not only be saved but actually upgraded, and if Aer Lingus are not prepared to help in this, then Michael O'Leary and Ryanair should be approached.
I would strongly urge everyone from the above mentioned counties living in both the U.S. and Canada, as well as Irish Americans and others, to support Shannon in every way possible.
Please e-mail Aer Lingus on this issue, and in coordination with groups in Ireland, let’s get a petition going.
If this doesn't work, let's fly Delta to Shannon. Maybe then Aer Lingus will get the message.
P.J. Delaney
New York, New York
It is absolutely scandalous that Aer Lingus pulled out of the JFK to Shannon route for three months from the end of December to the end of March. Don’t tell me the numbers are not there to keep a full schedule of daily flights to Shannon.
All of Connacht and Munster as well as some of Leinster would use Shannon and thus avoid the terribly cramped Dublin Airport if the flights were available at the Clare airport. Instead, you have a scenario where buses are shuttling people to the former, at all times of the day and night.
What a joke. The politicians of not only Clare and Limerick but also Tipperary, Cork, Kerry and all the Connacht counties should be up in arms over this. What are they waiting for?
Shannon must not only be saved but actually upgraded, and if Aer Lingus are not prepared to help in this, then Michael O'Leary and Ryanair should be approached.
I would strongly urge everyone from the above mentioned counties living in both the U.S. and Canada, as well as Irish Americans and others, to support Shannon in every way possible.
Please e-mail Aer Lingus on this issue, and in coordination with groups in Ireland, let’s get a petition going.
If this doesn't work, let's fly Delta to Shannon. Maybe then Aer Lingus will get the message.
P.J. Delaney
New York, New York
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