Living Through the Kennedy Years – I never gave much thought to John Kennedy before his razor-thin win in the1952 US Senate race against the better-known Republican incumbent, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Kennedy, then a congressman, was 35, a war hero, handsome, well-financed, and a middling long shot who caught and passed a distracted Lodge, who was busy managing Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidential campaign. Kennedy was elected by a paltry 70,000 votes out of 2.4 million cast. It was a big victory, though, and the myth began to take on weight.

Over the next eleven years, Kennedy (not yet the iconic JFK) married, was reelected to the Senate, lost the open convention vote for VP in 1956 on the Adlai Stevenson-led Democratic ticket, and was elected president in 1960 over Richard Nixon by a scant 112,000 votes out of 128 million cast.

Aside from the tragic events of Nov. 22, 1963, the two singular events that instantly bring the Kennedy era full circle for this sideline observer are the Boston Garden election eve rally on Nov. 7, 1960, and, just a month shy of three years later, the All New England salute at the-then Boston Arena in October 1963 that welcomed the hometown hero back to Boston for a warm embrace.

The latter occasion was an evening of smiles, deep Florida tans, cigars, laughter, and politics, of course. Sitting center at the head table were the president and his brother, US Sen. Ted Kennedy. Every politician or would-be Democratic officeholder from the Berkshires to South Boston was there, celebrating the return of “one of our own.” Never has so much good food and wine been wasted on a room full of the partisan faithful who needed no spirits, high as they were on the friendship and success – and the political victories they were sure lay just ahead.

At the Garden on that election day eve 11 years earlier, I was privileged, along with some 22,000 other sure-of-victory believers crowded into the arena of champions, to catch a glimpse of the next president of the United States.

Jack Kennedy had been speaking and hand-shaking, fulfilling a grueling ritual, for months on end as he entered the Garden in the very last hours of his campaign. This was not to be one of those “visionary” foreign affair seminar speeches that Ted Sorensen had been spinning like magic for the candidate; this night was clearly red meat time and the seasoned gathering expected nothing less. As the candidate strode toward the stage, the Garden crowd heard the imposing notes of the US Navy’s anthem, “Anchors Away,” a reminder to the audience that PT 109 was a navy ship and Jack Kennedy was a decorated naval officer. Kennedy then spoke for a lean 10 minutes, a slightly shortened version of his boilerplate campaign windup. It was a call to fill these final hours of the campaign with hard work and “get out the vote” efforts. In between, he recognized some of the politicians on the stage with him, introduced his “hard-working” sisters, and thanked a few others.

Then, with his right hand slipping in and out of his pocket, he moved through the faithful assembled on stage toward the exit and numerous outreaching hands. The last shift on that last campaign day was over. It was the voters’ turn to speak.

(President John F. Kennedy was born a hundred years ago, on May 29, 1917, in Brookline.)

Cruises Big Business in Ireland – Both Dublin and Belfast have in recent times found that the cruising set loves the Irish port cities, and the result is an exciting and profitable business on the seas for Ireland. “We do the crystal ball gaze and we do ask our customers what they want and Ireland is what they want,” says the president of Celebrity Cruises. He was speaking in mid-May in Dublin on the maiden visit of Celebrity Eclipse. The 2,850-passenger ship will be back in its Dublin home port next year, running five itineraries out of the city between April and June.

The arrival in Ireland’s capital city of Celebrity Eclipse began a bright, new season for Dublin, with 130 ships expected to bring 200,000 passengers and crew to the city this summer alone.

Just up from Dublin on Ireland’s east coast is Belfast, a key port city for cruises to Ireland, Iceland, and the Channel Islands. Another large ship, the Caribbean Princess, which recently brought 3,175 passengers and crew into Belfast, is scheduled to visit Belfast a dozen times in 2017. By the end of the year, nearly 600 cruise ships will have visited Belfast since they started coming for real in 1996. The city, which has become a destination of choice for cruise operators and visitors from around the world, the major share hailing from UK, Europe and North American markets, has this year already welcomed 88 ships and 52,000 people to its docks. 

Ecumenical Beatification has Historic Overtones – Father John Sullivan was born in 1861 to Sir Edward Sullivan, a Protestant and the future Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Lady Bessie Sullivan, a Catholic. John, educated in Protestant schools and Trinity College, spent the first 35 years of his life as a member of the Protestant Church of Ireland. When his father died, John was called to the bar as a lawyer. In 1896, financially well off and a respected member of the Protestant establishment, he made a life-changing decision and was received into the Catholic Church. He was ordained in 1907 and later entered the Jesuit order.

His years after the turn of the 20th century on his Jesuit mission were a far cry from his earlier life of world travel and wealth. Except for a time as rector of Rathfarnham Castle, the Jesuit study house in Dublin, he lived simply in a Spartan-like cell of a room, helping others and practicing a life of penance. People in need of spiritual or physical healing flocked to him and asked for his prayers, and an impressive number say they were cured.

As many of his colleagues noted, “When Fr. Sullivan wasn’t helping the needy, he was praying.”

Father Sullivan died on February 19, 1933, in the old St. Vincent’s Nursing Home in Leeson Street, Dublin, a short distance from the Sullivan family home. Last month’s ceremony beatifying Father John Sullivan was a first for Ireland.  Joining in the rite as partners in Dublin’s Gardner Street Church were the archbishops of the Catholic and Anglican churches in Ireland.

Shuffle in Dublin Leadership – Enda Kenny, Taoiseach and Fine Gael party leader, retired as head of his party, effective May 17. He remains as Taoiseach, or head of government. In a statement, Kenny said, “I want to assure people that throughout this internal process, I will continue to carry out my duties and responsibilities as Taoiseach in full.”

A new Fine Gael party leader was to be announced no later than June 2, 2017. Two members of the party who are also members of the Kenny cabinet are the announced candidates to succeed him as party leader: Leo Varadkar, the early favorite, and Simon Coveney.

Globe/MIT  Report Makes a Point – The story in the May 18 Boston Globe relating to a comments made in the BIR May issue to the effect that immigrants to America, in this instance Boston, were “vital to Boston economy” was a relevant and topical exclamation point updating the immigrant situation today.

The timely report, from MIT and reported by the Globe’s Katie Johnston in the Business section, hits the mark on both moral (this writer’s main concern) and economic fronts and is captured in a quote by MIT study author Paul Osterman, to wit: “It’s very hard to imagine our economy succeeding without immigration.” Aside from a brief, sterile campaign by President George W. Bush about immigrants and the agriculture business, complementary needs and advantages of a pragmatic nature are rarely included in the discussion.

The type of fact-finding in the Globe-MIT story is a rarity, the sort of thing often overshadowed and demagogued to the sidelines by concerns and political tug-of-wars that serve only to muffle and justify more myths by opponents. There was a good faith effort (seemingly no longer available or probable) made a few years ago that advanced a comprehensive immigration bill in the US Senate that engendered some floor debate, some good will, but no legislation.

The longer the immigration relief question goes untested and battered into dismissal in the toxic firestorm that is today’s reality, there is scant chance of a breakthrough, especially with this US president. He has found his hot button issue and can rely on a faithful coterie of Republican House members to keep it up front and threatening.  In a sad sidebar note, it seems we are living in a scapegoat bubble, a time when many answers to today’s complex issues (and, of course, the real thing) have a stock answer: “Close the borders/keep them out.”

A few numbers from the Globe article: “At hotels, nursing homes, and restaurants in and around Boston, roughly half the workforce is made up of immigrants.” …  “Among doctors, scientists and software engineers, a third were born in another country.” … “Among 25 to 64-year-old workers in the Boston area, 27 percent were born in another country.” … “In Boston 41 percent have college degrees.”… “In 2015, more than half the working-age people moving to the Boston area were immigrants.” … “At Logan Airport, 2,700 of 18,000 workers are immigrants.” … And the numbers across the Boston area workers from cooks, childcare, health care support, doctors, dentists, computer-related jobs are all represented by at least 30 percent immigrants. 

A New Threat By Any Other Name – The latest, if not the newest, threat to the equanimity and safety of the Irish people, especially those seaside and near street urban litter, is what some are describing as the “scourge of the seagull.”  The fear of the seagull, or swarms of them, God forbid, has been the source of considerable humor until recently, but many, including TDs and idle Senate back benchers, have had it with the diving white attackers and (drum roll, please!) legislation may be coming.
A leading foe of the increasing hordes of seagulls is veteran Irish Senator Ned O’Sullivan, a persistent enemy of the aggressive seaside menace. O’Sullivan, is unruffled by the jokes and mockery that he has undergone and has introduced fines as punishment for frequent offenders. O’Sullivan’s chief human target are the restaurants and food shops. His second-biggest targets are the grannies who persist in feeding the gulls.

A couple of years ago, O’Sullivan began levying his fines for feeding the gulls, some of which can reach 80 British pounds, or over $100 per incident. The good senator had an ally a few years ago when the former British Prime Minister David Cameron said, “A big conversation was needed about the seagull threat.” He told of being out on a balmy afternoon by the water and having his “ham stolen from a sandwich that I was eating.” 

Trump, Kushner Families Bring Goodies to Beijing – It’s a bit more than a roadside lemonade stand, but you have to hand it to them; unimpeded by the usual White House ethics they were there to do some business. There were Jared Kushner and his sister, Nicole Kushner Meyer, toiling away trying to sell investment opportunities in New Jersey to Chinese citizens at the Ritz-Carlton in Beijing. Neither Ivanka Trump Kushner nor New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were at the Ritz.

No explanations, but someone suggested that Christie, a lawyer, would help the wealthy Chinese, to pass the legal papers, and Ivanka was hiding out so as not to seem too needy after a Trump aide hawked her jewelry line on television news program. The tag line  on the brochure for the New Jersey luxury apartments reads: “Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United Sates”  Honest, no editorial adjustments, folks. Richard Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer for President Bush, said of the Trump gold rush: “It’s incredibly stupid and highly inappropriate.” Yes, indeed.

RIP, Bob O’Neill, Everyone’s Favorite – We were into our 50-year plan. Bob was a natural – he skied, and he played and taught tennis to young people who recognized him for the genuine grasp he had on life and the friends he made and never, ever lost. He ran his first Boston Marathon in his 60s and he loved the pure, raw challenge it held for him. In all the years I knew him he never was anything but genuine. He gave me tomatoes, took me for my first jaunt up Stowe’s mountainside, showed me how he made his cup of coffee, and never, not for a moment, disappointed me.

He loved his Catholic Church, but was never flippant about his faith, and he asked tough questions to himself and others. Why are we here?  He was kind, generous, and patient, traits that made you love him and want to protect him, although he could whip you on the slopes and the tennis court with a gentleness that nobody confused with timidity. He made a moment smile and more when his few words were spoken, with a glint of lopsided humor and a fullness of life that he had an understanding with and never confused with hard times.

Bob had many friends, and most of us, were pleased that he made the time to work at that friendship and the qualities he considered fundamental. He was a good man and he more than lived up to the bromidic ‘He will be missed.’ Yes, he will be. Our space on earth is a little bit darker for his passing. God never had a quarrel with Bobby.  

Christian Brothers Agree to Aid Magdalene Laundry Fund – After several years of stalled negotiations between the Irish State and the Christian Brothers in Ireland, the Catholic teaching order has agreed to a plan suggested by the state to resolve the stalemate over helping victims of the Magdalene Laundries abuses. The Brothers have told the Department of Education they are prepared to transfer school lands worth roughly 100 million euros under conditions that the order has resisted to date. This is a big win for the victims of the Mother & Baby Homes and resolves a longstanding dispute between the order and the Irish State. 

RANDOM CLIPPINGS
John Finucane, son of the murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, is a Sinn Fein candidate running against DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodd. A lawyer like his father, John has been in the forefront of the legal battle with the British in demanding an open inquiry into his father’s murder. … The Kildare post office is now also offering online medical consultations, with an eye to looking at a national rollout. … Trump is seriously thinking of curtailing the vital libel law for journalists, but he will find it heavy lifting in American courts. … Derry City and Strabane are making a joint Business Industrial District (BID), but a dust-up has them feuding and unionist elements are looking to use Londonderry’s name in the team-up. … Poet & painter Christy Brown (“My Left Foot”), who died in 1981, would have turned 85 this month. … J.P. Morgan will move hundreds of staff from London to Dublin as a result of the Brexit vote.

Tip to Travelers: If you fly on an American passport make sure that it has plenty of time left before it expires. Be sure it has 6-12 months or airlines can deny you a seat. Check with your travel agent. … The DUP spent over half a million dollars to run ads opposing the Brexit “stay” vote in the referendum. Sinn Fein wants to know the source of the huge donation. … E.J. Dionne, the Washington Post columnist, has a good question: Is Trump scamming us, or is he truly unhinged? … It was the Jesuit Father Bob Drinan, RIP, who introduced the first Nixon impeach bill. Breaking the impeach discussion logjam this season is Harvard law Professor Laurence Tribe, who raised the I Bar in early May. … Peace and sweet dreams to an old Boston City Hall city hall pal, Mary Mulvey Jacobson, who left us too soon. … We already have an estimate of how expensive the Trump entourage is in taxpayer dollars, but I’m equally concerned about how dangerous this strange man is as he parades around the world playing president.