A Happy Reunion for a Derry Man In Worcester – He was eleven years old when he came to Worcester in January of 1973, having been blinded by a British soldier’s rubber bullet in May of the previous year. Since those days when Richard Moore was welcomed by the city’s supportive Irish American community and spent a week with Dan and Joan Herlihy, he has founded an internationally respected youth charity, “Children in the Crossfire.”  Although permanently blind, he has made his life a testament to unselfish advocacy for children in need around the globe.

Now fiftyish and a frequent traveler from his Derry home to Crossfire facilities in Africa, Ireland, and the United States, Moore has become close friends with the Dalai Lama and with an enthusiastic legion of volunteers that has made enormous strides in reaching out to young people in peril.

Last month, he came back to Worcester to tell his friends and supporters there of his work with children and about his life today in Northern Ireland. A priority on this trip stateside was to thank the people of Worcester for their kindness and support when he was a wounded and sightless, an uncertain youngster in need of help.  During that visit, a group of residents hosted a fundraiser, an act of friendship that would eventually underpin his idea to reach out to help and provide hope to children around the world. It has become his life’s work.

In a talk last month, Moore said, “There wouldn’t be the life-changing work going on in places like Ethiopia and Tanzania if it were not for the people of Worcester. My message is to let people here know that there are many children alive today because of them.”
Some four decades after he was shot and blinded Richard Moore sought out the British soldier who shot him, forgave him, and became his friend. Such actions are the hallmark of a compassionate man who has turned his life and his blindness into a positive experience.

I had the opportunity to spend a full day with Richard and his volunteers some weeks ago and it is an experience to see, up close, the depth of concern and personal identification that the man from Derry has with young people he has dedicated his life to serving.

Trump Campaign Seeks To Cut Clinton Catholic Vote – There is a sort of civil war sideshow going on spurred by conservative Catholic Republicans who are Trump loyalists and frightened by Hillary Clinton’s 30-percent lead over their man Donald Trump. These forces, some from the conservative Catholic hierarchy and championed by at least one archbishop (Joseph Kurtz of Lousiville), and some GOP stalwarts, would like nothing better than to make huge inroads into Clinton’s comfortable and growing Catholic vote.

Using stolen, misleading old wikileaks emails in the Trump end game, his supporters are embroiled in a scuffle over abortion, elements of Marxism, progressives versus conservative, and social justice issues. Locally, Father Bernard Healey, director of the Rhode Island Catholic Conference and a virulent anti-gay cleric close to the like-minded Bishop of Providence, has been trying to make some electoral hay by indicting in the media a man named John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign director.
When the chips hit the table, the sole intention of conservative Catholics, who are surprisingly tolerant of Trump’s bad behavior, is to shift a big chunk of Hillary Clinton’s strong Catholic voting bloc to the Trump side of the board. Hey, boys and girls, it ain’t gonna work this year.

A Man of Principle, SDLP’s Mallon With The Bark Off – Former deputy First Minister in the Stormont government and second in command to John Hume in the SDLP, Seamus Mallon wasn’t always everybody’s cup of Barry Tea, but you could take his words to the bank.  Retired from politics a decade ago, Mallon spoke in an extended interview with the BBC in mid-October and had few kind words for his republican semi-allies, Sinn Fein. Mallon had no time for the IRA, saying upfront that “the IRA have tarnished the very name of Republicanism.”  Mallon said his party’s strategy in bringing Sinn Fein in from the cold during the 1980s and 1990s had helped sanitize the former IRA figures to the point where voters now look past their “crimes.”

He also had harsh words for the current Northern Ireland executive and blamed Sinn Fein and the DUP because it’s a “two-party show.” Mallon went on to say that Sinn Fein “used” John Hume ...and he gave them the thing they were looking for — “a respectable image in the United States.”

About the same time that Mallon was speaking to the BBC last month, his wife Gertrude (Cush) died at their home in Co. Armagh. She had been ill for a long time and Seamus was her principal caretaker. A good and decent man. May he find peace and a long and comfortable twilight.

EpiPen, A Personal Look At Lifesaving Script – It may not be all you need to know about the EpiPen sales story and Big Pharma, but it’s a start. Mylan Pharmaceuticals, maker of the medicine injector pen that thousands of people, many just youngsters, carry with them to stave off allergy attacks, today charges $600 for a dual-dose pen. Just a few years ago the cost was $100.  The CEO of EpiPen maker Mylan, Heather Bresch, received a sevenfold pay increase during that period of hijacked product price.

The intriguing factor is that the crushing EpiPen price increase, coupled with the huge pay increase for the CEO, distorts the spirit of linking executive pay to product cost. Rewards in the Pharma-industry normally reflect a CEO’s value and contribution to new product development and internal innovation. Neither of those factors was in play here. The increased revenue goes to marketing and distribution. A windfall or found money, if you will, and nothing else, certainly not for further research on a medication that was established years ago and is a steady seller. Maybe, in addition to augmenting Bresch’s $26 million annual pay, it went to convince TV viewers in advertisements that it has wonders in its product lines.

Our grandson Aidan has some threatening allergies and is a regular carrier and occasional user of EpiPens. His mother found the $600 price “gouging” a drain on her  household economics, but Aidan needs his pen. An otherwise healthy, soccer-playing 13 year old, he is merely one of tens of thousands of American children who need EpiPens at the ready every day.

The outrageous profiteering by Big Pharma is not tolerated in most of Europe, Canada, and Asia, and it could be that people with health issues here will begin a peaceful, wide-ranging protest beginning with Medicare operating as the Veterans Administration does and demanding price negotiations on medication costs. It’s long overdue.

SDLP Leader Speaks Out on Trump – Column Eastwood, who succeeded Allisdair McDonnell as leader of the Social Democratic Labour Party, had two words the other day for Donald Trump’s comments on women, minorities and immigrants —“absolutely grotesque.”  The SDLP was the first (as far as I know) of the Irish political leadership to take their party to the point of pledging that the SDLP would boycott White House functions if Trump were president.  Eastwood called on Irish and Irish American politicians to snub the Republican candidate. Some may not like his comments but he had his say and as always, he stands up for his party and its reputation for straight talking and truth. Good man.

Trump Opposition A Gathering Rebellion – What we are seeing in our national electoral village —and what Trump calls a “rigged” process — is nothing more than American print media, newspapers, magazines, columnists, etc. raising a collective “No Mas,  No More” to his steady crude, ignorant, know-nothing rantings and all the misogynistic baggage he has inflicted on debate watchers and others in his chaotic quest to become president.

At this moment Trump and his campaign are in attack mode against the media, who initially gave the celebrity candidate the free exposure to upend his primary opponents and crawl closer to Hillary Clinton in the polls. Nothing wrong with all that unpaid advertising back then, right Mister Trump! He reveled in the exposure. Yet now, when the novelty and one-pony lies and distortions have come a cropper with the voters, he is claiming the game is rigged and he hints that he might take his ball and go home if he doesn’t like the result.

A few facts about the cascade of newspapers and other opinion makers: Not a single one of the 15 newspapers that publicly supported Mitt Romney in the 2012 election have come out for Trump. Thousands of publications, some with front page editorials, have dumped him. He is at war with thousands of American newspapers because they had the nerve to oppose the mogul from Manhattan who continues to assail scores of television outlets and their networks.

He has inveighed against ABC News, CNN, the New York Times and the Daily News, Telemundo, the Washington Post and on and on.

As Elizabeth Warren said in the Washington Post in the waning days of the campaign, “Cratering in the polls, besieged by sexual assault allegations and drowning in his own disgusting rhetoric, Donald Trump has been reduced to hollering that the November election is rigged against him. His proof?  It looks like he’s going to lose.” Amen.

Leading Counties for Tourist Traffic – Failte Ireland, Ireland’s tourism agency, has compiled a rolling three-year list of averages of where visitors go when they visit Ireland. Dublin, everyone’s home town, annually attracts just under five million overseas tourists. Second is Cork with 1.5 million, followed by Galway, Kerry, and Clare with 600,000. Other counties favored by visitors include Limerick, Mayo, Donegal, Kilkenny, Waterford’s sunny southeast, Wicklow, and Wexford. Tipperary, the county for those who like to fish, has 180,000 annual visitors 

Not too surprising is that Longford, with its 30,000 overseas visitors, annually ranks last in visitors and tourist revenue. Galway and Cork each draw more visitors than Kerry. Several counties are struggling to attract visitors, such as Monaghan, Carlow, Laois, Leitrim, Offally, and Roscommon. In the Boston area the Irish counties most heavily represented on the visitor listing are Galway, Kerry, Cork, Mayo, and Clare.

Republic & North Both Seen Benefiting from a United Ireland – A team of academics from Canada, Switzerland. and the US has been studying the impact of a united Ireland, with specific modeling on the economics of a 32-county Ireland. Some of their conclusions are worth looking at.  For instance, reunification would likely deliver a boon to the enlarged island state “worth 35 billion euros in eight years.” In that model the North would “benefit enormously,” with more modest gains for the south.
The academic team used some of the early similar work done in Germany after reunification.

The study outlined several different assumptions on the changes following unity, among those being the adoption by both of the euro, and tax harmonization across the island. The 12.5 percent corporate tax would be island-wide as would be the elimination of trade barriers.

Another advantage both would gain, per the study: decreased costs resulting in an increase in per-capita income and productivity in the North would benefit both economies.

The Brexit results and increased flux in Europe and the EU, could mean a variety of fiscal moving targets in a newly reinvigorated Europe. These are obviously difficult to determine now.

Kellogg In Ireland: Zero Tax Payments – The casual observer might be mildly bemused at the differing treatment accorded the breakfast cereal giant Kellogg as opposed to the $14.5 billion tax decision by the EU mandating that Apple in Ireland pay back corporate taxes to the Republic of Ireland. The EU decision is seen by the US Treasury as unfairly targeting American companies, and costing American taxpayers billions of dollars in lost revenue.

In the Kellogg (KET) case, although the amounts are far different than the huge numbers with Apple, the American-founded cereal company paid zero corporate tax for the second year running on revenue of over a billion dollars. Kellogg has sold some nine billion dollars worth of ready-to-eat cereals and related products in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and has substantial foreign sales. But it paid a very small amount of taxes, due to the interest on the KET group’s loans.

Unless the US Treasury is successful in legally repatriating tax payments from foreign-based US companies, and a realistic agreement impacting US companies in small countries like Ireland and Luxembourg, and the EU can be forged, there will be a bitter, lingering battle about taxes and tax sovereignty for years to come.

In the interim there are billions of dollars in taxable revenue that Uncle Sam believes it should substantively share in. And that’s an argument that affects American taxpayers.

Irish Hotel Voted ‘Best In World’ – In a easy disclosure, I can confess to readers out there that the winner of Conde Nast Traveler’s choice award as the world’s top hotel is an Irish hotel that sits in pastoral splendor in the County Laois countryside overlooking a lake.  It’s name is Ballyfin Demesne, and the 5-star stately 20-room Georgian home is some place I’ve never heard of before and you will surely need ample “green” to enjoy the green surroundings.

Some perspective on how Ballyfin Demesne measures up to other top-rated Irish hotels: Ashford Castle and Waterford Castle scored over 98, Ballyfin over 99.  B&B rates at Ballyfin start at $500 per room, midweek, and much more with full board.

RANDOM CLIPPINGS
Brexit Repercussions continue as European banks are prepping for a new round of layoffs. The newest job cuts suggest that some 20,000 jobs will disappear. The banks in Germany, Spain, and Amsterdam are planning cuts between 3,000 and 9,600 in outlets there. … Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling took 900 words in a Providence daily to blame former Gov. Linc Chafee for Schilling’s Studio 38 bankruptcy. … A Washington Post columnist says that for Fox TV to get fixed after Roger Ailes ,it must dump Trump coatholder, the awful Sean Hannity. … An Orange Order parade in North Belfast got together with the Ardoyne residents and peace reigned in the streets. … Good to see that the Irish Social Club has a packed schedule most every evening at its West Roxbury digs. … Charitable Irish Silver Key Awards on Nov. 10 go to
Gerard and Marilyn Doherty, Billy Higgins, and Sister Maryadele Robinson. … The British Crime Agency is still sniffing around the very questionable NAMA $1.3 billion real estate sale in the North. … BC Irish Studies keeps rolling along with its programs and Burns Visiting Scholar Louis de Paor on Wed., Nov. 19. … Britain’s Guardian newspaper gave a generous shout out to retiring Red Soxer Big Papi. … Vermont’s Bernie Sanders’s brother Larry, who lives in England, is seeking a seat in the Commons, running as a Green Party candidate (Yes). … Update on Orange Hall vandalism: not much info from citizens seeking detail on any convictions (shameful). … Hell-raiser movie maker Michael Moore has a new short film that won’t help elect the Trumpster. … Why is the Irish government cutting rural bus services? A lousy policy! … Good to see that writers on the VA beat have spoken up to get help for serious health challenge, PTSD. … British pound sterling’s decline is hurting Irish border retailers. … Pipers from all over Ireland gathered in mid-October to play and celebrate International Uilleann Piping Day. May their tribe increase. … An idea that is fast coming: pressure building on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to give the vote on the Irish Presidency to the Irish in the North and around the world.

May sanity and civility prevail on Nov. 8. Let’s get out to the polls.