BY BILL O’DONNELL
We Reap What We Sow – In the years since the Irish bailout following the recession that hit Ireland and much of the world a staggering blow, Irish taxpayers have involuntarily contributed over 29 billion euros (roughly $389 billion US dollars) to the Irish exchequer. Given the crowd scenes and protests in the news from Greece, Spain, and other similarly hard-hit EU constituencies, the Irish people have been relative paragons of restraint.

They have been largely civil, that is, until the very recent rowdy mob scenes in the streets of Dublin and beyond protesting the introduction of water charges that impact every Irish household regardless of income. The announcement and the political handling by the government has left much to be desired, and the Irish working men and women, sensing a hesitant but cash-strapped government, have exploded in previously unseen ugly scenarios. The result has been a succession of unruly and threatening protests that have confronted Tanaiste Joan Burton and Taoiseach Enda Kenny in up close and scary confrontations.
The amount of the newly imposed water charges is roughly $200 a year but coming after an extended period of personal hardship and national “austerity,” the new fees have touched a sensitive spot in the psyche of working-class Irish. Given the severity of the Irish economic crunch, the moderate water charges were likely not envisioned as the latest straw on the camel’s back. And it is clear that Kenny’s government was not prepared for the public backlash and is badly in need of a regrouping, or even a step-down of the charges.
Shadowing the water charges issue is the widespread belief among many working-class Irish that they and their families and friends are being exploited and driven into poverty solely to service the special interests of bankers, the European Union, bondholders, and global capitalism.
That’s More Like It – It may not appear to be a seminal move by the Vatican, but given the common-man approach by Pope Francis, the announcement that Vatican public restrooms will include showers where the homeless can wash is indeed significant. In several visits in recent years to the Vatican, I have never used the restrooms but even from afar the announcement inviting the homeless to use the facilities is a very Christ-like action, if mind-boggling. And it is also very Pope Francis-like, as he has eschewed gilded surroundings and warmly embraced the poor.
In a more prosaic development, the Irish government, after a period of dicey relations with the Vatican, has appointed a new ambassador to the Holy See: Emma Madigan, a career Foreign Affairs department official and former assistant chief of Protocol. She succeeds David Cooney, who is now Ireland’s Ambassador to Spain.
There is some movement but no hard news about a possible visit by the pontiff to Ireland in 2015. Pope Francis has expressed interest in such a trip, but only if he is invited by both the Republic and the North and only if he can visit both sides of the border, with a visit to Armagh described ”as a must.”
Obama Strikes a Chord with the Irish – The president’s action authorizing temporary immigration reform, outlined in his Nov. 20 speech, was welcomed by the Irish media.The Obama agenda, aimed at some five million undocumented immigrants in the US, would temper strict rules with a degree of compassion, allowing a relaxation of restrictions that would allow qualifying immigrants to travel between the US and Ireland, effectively ending years of isolation between Irish immigrants in the US and their families at home.
After several years of toxic and historic alienation between the Obama-led White House and elements of Congress, the president has decided to turn to executive authority to bring forward something on a short-term basis that would help immigrants come out of the shadows, or as he noted in his speech, “accountability — a commonsense, middle-ground approach.”
The major concern of the Irish is that the thousands of so-called illegal immigrants in the United States will be able to live and work in the US and not be liable to deportation. This concern has continually been expressed by the Irish government and its political parties when in contact with Congress and succeeding administrations officials.
The president has made it clear that new regulations under executive authority would direct ICE enforcement agents to focus on deporting “felons, not families; criminals, not children.” The executive order would overlook the illegal status of some four million immigrants who are parents of US-born citizen children or legal permanent residents.
In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform such as was passed by the Senate but barred from a House vote by the Republican speaker of the House, the president has opted to provide relief to a segment of worthy but disadvantaged immigrants. Republican lawmakers and right wing media personalities have labeled the president’s move as “unconstitutional,” despite executive order use by previous presidents from both parties.
Facts Shed New light on DeLorean Car Demise – A Queens University academic claims that the failure 32 years ago of the DeLorean Motor Company and its gull-wing model car was the result of DeLorean’s gaming of the British government and a scheme the automaker had to elevate profit while salting the company with excess workers to prolong a doomed enterprise.
Inward investment had dramatically declined in Northern Ireland after violence erupted there in the early ‘70s. The British government, in an attempt to jump-start the flagging economy, increased government subsidies to increase employment and ease civil unrest. This led to weaker official monitoring, especially of promising new enterprises. And it also led John DeLorean in Belfast to figure out a way to beat the system and keep his troubled company afloat regardless of the internal situation or the manufacturing problems with his innovative car model.
DeLorean took advantage of a London government that badly wanted his company to succeed. In turn, DeLorean negotiated a favorable agreement that allowed him to control employment levels and thus increase the British financial subsidy to him and his firm. DeLorean also assumed that with employment levels remaining high that would make it more politically difficult for the authorities to close down the project, regardless of how poorly production was going.
In the final analysis “legal factors and political commitments rather than any serious economic arguments kept the company in business as long as it did.” And the last word from Dr. Graham Brownlow of Queens is that DeLorean “eventually overplayed his hand and it was this that closed the plant.”
Irish to Adopt New Postal Code System – The United States survived the new wrinkle, and virtually all of Europe has met the change mandated by a digital world, so it seems probable that Ireland will go with the flow and institute a new “Eircode” for its mail. Beginning next spring some 2.2 million addresses in Ireland will each be assigned a seven-digit post code that officials organizing the change say will finally modernize the way envelopes and packages are addressed, and put Ireland in sync with its neighbors. Anyway, that’s what they say.
The new coding will comprise seven characters: a 3-digit routing key followed by a 4-character unique identifier. The Irish, inured as they are to a time-tested simple name, address and maybe something like Dublin 2 and perhaps adding the county, are finding the thought of change at least mildly daunting.
Depending on who is speaking at a given time, the overall cost of initiating the new system over ten years varies from 25 million euros (a code enforcer), to 15-16 million euros (the CEO of Eircode) to 9 million euros (the Irish government’s budget).
But one line on the official website brings a sigh of relief to many: “There is no legal obligation to use Eircode on mail.”
O’Malley’s ‘Cities In Transition’ – Many in the Boston-Cambridge Area are familiar with Professor Padraig O’Malley, as are leaders in Ireland, north and south, and in out-of-the-way locales from Baghdad to Kosovo to Nigeria. O’Malley, who has made peace and reconciliation his life’s work, and his team organized and hosted the fifth Forum for Cities in Transition in Belfast in late October.
O’Malley’s core philosophy is that divided cities have shared patterns and political and social traits that perpetuate conflict and so they have much to learn from each other. He believes the best way to overcome these patterns and traits is through an intervention by those who have experienced them and have learned how to break the cycle of conflict.
One of the encouraging outcomes of the three-day event at Belfast’s City Hall was that this latest forum was covered by former Boston Globe reporter Charles Sennott, one of the founders of Global Post, an award-winning world news site with outstanding original international reporting. Widely respected in the news business, Sennott and Global Post coverage will broaden the awareness of Padraig O’Malley’s important work. The path to peace is long, hard, and uncertain, but with the attention and reporting of a widely known news site with Boston roots like Global Post, the message is getting out and gaining momentum.
Irish Tighten Rules on Payday Lenders — One of the dark holes of those having financial hard times or living precariously from paycheck to paycheck is that they rarely have good bank services, or any access at all to traditional banks. This is true whether you live in a city in Ireland or one in America.
For those in situations like that there is usually a handy, inner-city storefront that offers what have come to be called “payday loans,” advertising its willingness to lend you money based on nothing more than a pay stub from your place of employment. Sounds fair enough until you hear the conditions: When not paid promptly, interest rates on these weekly loans can range up to 240 percent. Yes, 240 percent! And as many of half the loan-takers extend their loans and their added interest charges. These storefronts are often chains from out of town who prey on needy folks who plan to repay the loan on time, but don’t, and that brings the outrageous interest to a boil.
In places like High Street in Belfast and the Liberties in Dublin, the Irish have more than their share of payday lenders and the practices are so smarmy, much as the same here, that the government’s Financial Conduct Authority has set new price caps on interest charges. The dramatic action, coming after a concerted study of the payday lenders, is about to be implemented and the feeling is that many, and maybe most of the predator chains will decide to go elsewhere.
Maybe the Irish FCA can induce banks to establish adjunct offices to handle small, low-interest loans where banks can charge up to 8 percent, much less than payday lenders but more than the bank can usually get for a standard small loan. Starve the predators!
Galway’s Salthill Beautification Planned – Salthill, cheek to jowl with the city of Galway, was one of the earliest places we visited some four and a half decades ago. We landed in Galway, which offered considerably fewer hotel rooms than is the case today. After we got out into the city someone suggested we drive on into Salthill, where we might find a room at the Hotel Eglinton. We presented ourselves around ten at night and got the last vacant room. In wasn’t until the next morning when we awoke to discover the white sand beach across the street and the water beyond. It was a revelation I’ve not forgotten.
As part of a rebranding of Galway city, Salthill is due for an overhaul, or a “rejuvenation” as the chief executive of the city, Brendan McGrath, describes it. Yet another warm memory of Salthill was a walk, or as locals call it, a prom along the 3 kilometers of coastline overlooking Galway Bay. My companion that day was Tom O’Connor, a successful local merchant who was a leader of Galway Boston Ventures linked with us in Boston. Good times, great memories.
RANDOM CLIPPINGS
The Irish government plans to spend some $35 million commemorating the 1916 Rising. Funds will come from the state, but also from sponsors around the country. The hope is to attract 300,000 next year and in the centenary year. … German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a Vatican insider, was quoted recently as saying that Pope Francis has opened the doors of the Holy See wider than they have been since the Second Vatican Council. … Almost 200 children have been shot or maimed, mostly for punishment, by loyalist and republican paramilitaries over the past 20 years. … It is 25 years since the passing of the beloved Michael Joyce. Mike was the immigrant’s best friend and his fans marked the occasion at the Michael Joyce Playground in South Boston late last month. … Belfast’s Christmas Market has opened and it marks the beginning of the holiday season. The market near city hall is expected to attract some 800,000 visitors this season. Helping celebrate was Belfast’s Lord Mayor Nichola Mallon.
President Obama’s nominee for US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, was a star as US Attorney in Brooklyn. One of her successes was extracting $7 billion from lawbreaking Citi Bank. … Howie Carr is no more at WRKO Radio, and as this is being written is not on air except for a couple of low wattage stations. He will likely turn up on the air somewhere, but, as usual, I will make it a point not to tune in. … Big time Wall Streeter and former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has a nerve calling Ireland “stupid” for guaranteeing that the banks would be made whole in case they failed. This is the same fat cat who gave AIG, the creator of the derivatives scandal (which was a huge part of the cause of the recession), $185 billion. … It was very satisfying to hear Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley say on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that the treatment by the bishops of the good nuns was a disaster. Sure was. The apostolic visits were, and remain, a disgrace.
Did Harry Reid, Democratic majority leader in the US Senate, actually think he was doing Elizabeth Warren a favor by bringing her into the leadership? Please. And while we are at it, are leaders in Congress assured of lifetime posts? Isn’t it time for some rotation in House and Senate minority leader positions? … Gerry Adams sounded like a thug when he reprised the old image of Michael Collins holding a newspaper editor at gunpoint. Was that a teachable moment foran unruly Irish media? ... The last days of Brian Lenihan’s life during Ireland’s financial meltdown leading to the recession was one of the most painful tales of courage by him and greed by the European Central Bank and others that I have ever read. … The main exhibit galleries of the JFK Presidential Library will be closed next year for design upgrades from Jan. 2 to mid-March. The rest of the library/museum was be open to the public during that period with free admission.
Trina Vargo of the US-Ireland Alliance reports that despite the strong support of 50 members of Congress urging Secretary of State John F. Kerry to fund the alliance, the money for the alliance and the Mitchell Scholarships is not there. … There is a new Librarian at the Burns Library at Boston College: Dr. Christain Yves Dupont, who has two degrees in theology. He may need them following the departure under a cloud of Bob O’Neill to Arizona for a “new chapter in his life.” … The Republicans may not like the cut of Obama’s jib, but with the stock market more than doubling during his six years in office, unemployment steadily going down, the budget deficit spiraling downward, and the US dollar riding high internationally after misguided dire predictions proved wrong, the term-limited president’s scorecard is looking pretty good. All this while he has been cleaning up after the economic crash and the two wars left behind by his predecessor.