By Bill O’Donnell
Orange Order’s Ignorance Not Helpful – The Derry Journal was spot on when they criticized a senior Orangeman for issuing a “word of warning” to Protestants against learning the Irish language. The Belfast County Grand Master, George Chittick, claimed that speaking Irish was “part of the republican agenda.” The Journal editorial on Feb. 17 called the Orange warning “disgraceful and unsurprising” and ill-informed about Ireland’s native language.

For the past several years the Orange Order in the North has promulgated a steady stream of propaganda strongly suggesting that the order’s programs, marches, and celebrations be opened to all and to be eased into a grand tourism scheme, allowing the Order to try and pass itself off as mainstream. Not a bad idea if it weren’t coupled with the Order’s stark anti-Catholicism and its distrust of most anything emanating from the nationalist-Catholic community.
Although the recent Haass Mission to address some deep-rooted unionist concerns about flags, parades, and the past was flawed in some respects, the SDLP and other nationalists were willing to listen to the special envoy, while the unionist/loyalist party members were reluctant to sign off on anything that hinted of reform or cooperation.
It seems to this observer of Orange Order attitudes and actions over the past 40 years that the jolly paraders in their sashes and bowlers have little to offer to a society that largely desires peace and good will between the two traditions. The Orangemen represent a Carsonite throwback to an era best left to the history books.
Trappist Ale Now Brewed in the Bay State – Out in St. Joseph’s Abbey at Spencer in western Massachusetts sits a working brewery operated by Trappist monks. It is their first such operation in the United States. There are eight other Trappist breweries, six in Belgium, one in the Netherlands, and one in Germany.
The locally produced beer first went on sale in January and from early reaction, it is a thundering success, with the product flying off the shelves. Much like the state of Vermont, which closely monitors and brands its products, the Trappist brew, like its other products, is also closely regulated before it is labeled and “Authentic Trappist Product” by the International Trappist Association. The abbeys in the US make and market a variety of products like jellies, jams, special candies, etc. Unlike most breweries, the Trappist version is non-profit, with income used to cover living expenses of the monks and upkeep of the buildings and grounds.
The Spencer Trappist beer is available on a first come, first served basis at several outlets in Massachusetts, including Julio’s Liquors in Westborough and Country Spirits in Spencer. And readers should know that not all the beer produced in Spencer is for sale. The monks at the abbey will be served the house ale at Sunday dinner and on special occasions.
All Aboard, As Ireland Markets Itself – What would St. Patrick’s Day around the world be without the genial invasion of ministers representing the Irish government. The visiting officials, regardless of their cabinet duties, will all be selling Ireland from Mexico to New Zealand. The lads and lassies from Government House in Dublin will be led by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who will be visiting – and marching – in Boston, Washington and New York.
The only senior minister not traveling later this month is Education Minister Ruairi Quinn, who is likely staying home to act as caretaker with the keys to Leinster House. Among the distant destinations of the traveling group are the United States (Chicago, Kansas, Boston, Cleveland, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Savannah, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia); Canada, China, the Arab Emirates, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, Lebanon, Russia, Norway, Germany, and the UK. Happy Times in the friendly skies.
AI Adds Weight To Finucane Inquiry Demand – It has been twenty-five years since Patrick Finucane was assassinated by a loyalist death squad in his Belfast home while having breakfast with his family. Finucane, a solicitor and a prominent defense attorney for nationalist defendants, has not been shuffled off into oblivion, gone and forgotten, as other political murder victims have been. A devoted family seeking justice and pressure from successive Dublin governments has ensured that the Finucane case will not and should fade and disappear from public view.
The latest blast from an unexpected source is the charge by Amnesty International that the British government’s refusal to hold an independent public inquiry is “not only cruel, but positively sinister,” as reported by the Irish Times last month. An official British government review found that “a series of positive actions by employees of the state actively furthered and facilitated [Finucane’s] murder” and “there was ... a relentless attempt to defeat the ends of justice.” Prime Minister David Cameron, in his second apology to the Finucane family following the official review, said the “shocking levels of collusion” exposed by the review were “unacceptable.”
Despite the scathing British-government-sponsored review of the Finucane murder and the follow-up statements of the prime minister, the British continue to reject pleas by Finucane’s wife Geraldine for an independent investigation. If there is any chance for justice after a quarter-century it could be prompted by Amnesty’s public indictment of the British for its failure to hold a proper, open inquiry and the growing public disapproval of that inaction. We shall see.
Herald’s Howie Carr ‘Over The Top’ on John Kerry – If you’re a public servant in American political life today it’s open season on your motives, your private life, your personal finances and your reputation. As the bromide goes, nobody twisted your arm to run for office or to accept a high position in a presidential administration, but after reading the latest fact-free ad hominem attack on US Secretary of State John Kerry one might wonder why anyone feels that the “honor” is worth the relentless trashing that so often comes with it.
First a confession: I do not buy or read the Boston Herald, nor its destructive, one-note invective and personal attacks that permeate Howie Carr’s column. Nor do I listen to Carr on radio. There is enough toxic vitriol in the Halls of Congress and the proliferation of hateful, knee-jerk blogs to fulfill anyone’s visceral desire for anger and attack.
For years Kerry, as a member of the US Senate, worked on a lot of the low profile, tangled, complex matters that crop up in high level statecraft and country to country relations. From international banking to the nitty-gritty of the Foreign Affairs Committee, he did a great deal of the slog work, the unglamorous investigations and negotiations that we rarely see except when they don’t work.
These days John Kerry is operating on a global stage, looking for a peace wedge with Israel and the Palestinians, working to get a US edge in Syria and other red hot tribal conflicts, and dealing with thugs like Karzai, the drug-taking, bribe-taking Afghan president.
And despite what the lying right-wingers, those rich swift boaters, had to say about Kerry in Vietnam, he served with valor, honor, and distinction and has the medals to prove it.
Meanwhile Carr talks about Kerry the “empty suit” and Kerry’s divorce, saying “she dumped him and he ended up sleeping on his ex-brother-in-law’s couch.” Carr also violates personal privacy and basic decency saying that Kerry’s marriage to Teresa Heinz saw his net worth go from perhaps $2.78 to that of the richest man in the Senate. Carr suggests that for Kerry “the phrase idiot savant comes to mind.” And to underline the company he keeps, Carr closes out his hateful diatribe by quoting that pipsqueak patriot Newt Gingrich, who calls Kerry “delusional.”
Little Museum Of Dublin Wins Cash, Honors – Last year in this space I wrote about a small museum dedicated to celebrating Dublin that opened in 2011. I was impressed with its thrust and its collection of some 5,000 artifacts that are on display in the museum. The most striking aspect of the collection of Dublin memorabilia is that every piece in the museum is donated.
The top of the story on this update is that the Little Museum of Dublin has won an entrepreneurial award worth $135,000. The judges called the founding pair, Trevor White and Simon O’Connor, “passionate, full of energy and positivity, great thinkers, and highly engaging.”
Last year the unique museum attracted 45,000 visitors to its quarters in the heart of Dublin at 15 St. Stephen’s Green in an 18th century Georgian townhouse. In addition to the recent award, the Little Museum was nominated as European museum of distinction. Drop by when in Dublin. It’s worth a visit.
Invitation for Pope Francis to Visit Ireland – If the Irish Dail hasn’t done it yet, it’s now in the process of formalizing an invitation to Pope Francis to visit the old sod sometime this year. It is thought that inviting the pope, immensely popular in Ireland as elsewhere, is just the thing to soothe the once-strained relations between the Vatican and Ireland following earlier critical remarks by the Taoiseach and the closing of the Irish Embassy, which is now reopened, albeit in a smaller context. At the time of the closing of the embassy in the Vatican it was described as an economic move; few, however, believed that was the cause.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny, speaking recently in the Dail, had nothing but praise for the pope: “I note the changes that Pope Francis is leading, changes in the way he goes about his work, the way he engages with people ...the changes he is creating to bring about a church that relates to people, to the poor, and leads from that point of view.” In other words, Pope Francis is not Pope Benedict and things are changing in the Vatican.
Bridgewater State Will Host Free Seamus Heaney Tribute – On Sunday afternoon, April 13, which would have been the late Nobel laureate’s 75th birthday, Bridgewater State University is hosting a gala celebration of the poet’s life and work. On display are artifacts and memorabilia from retired BSU Professor Maureen Connelly, a longtime friend of Mr. Heaney, who is making the Heaney material available and will be on hand that Sunday.
It’s a great gift to the university student body and the public to help recognize the world-renowned poet in a free and open afternoon event with refreshments, Irish music, and a reception. Many who were friends of Mr. Heaney will be on hand to recount their memories of this inspiring and uniquely gifted major figure in contemporary world literature. The event begins at 1:30 and all are welcome. (More details about the afternoon program can be found on page 2 in this edition )
Cyberworld Expanding in Ireland – Two major companies involved in computer communications, Google and Yahoo, are making significant moves to enlarge their footprint in the Republic of Ireland. Google, according to the Irish Independent, is looking to invest $200 million in a huge new data center in Dublin. The new development will bring the total Google investment over the past four years in Ireland to $650 million. This most recent investment proposal by Google reinforces its impressive physical presence in Ireland.
Yahoo’s Irish headquarters is bundling many of its European services to bring them together in Ireland. Yahoo’s centralization in Ireland it will mean closings of facilities in Cairo and Switzerland, and the addition of multiple services in operating from Ireland. Yahoo said the decision to focus on Ireland was driven by business needs and a desire to encourage innovation and collaboration.
A Good Man ‘Gone To Heaven’ – Ed Cronin grew up in South Medford. I met him in the third grade at St. Clement. We were friends for decades. He had a homespun sense of humor, was fair, kind, generous and he could (and did) talk with anyone anywhere, anytime. It was Ed’s line when one of our mutual pals left us. “Gone to Heaven,” he’d say. His folks were from County Cork and Eddie drove a bus for the T and was the world champion at dropping seniors off at unauthorized stops by their doorsteps. When we would visit a friend at the Soldiers Home in Chelsea, eight or nine of us, Ed would loudly proclaim “We’re in the will.” It always got a laugh.
Ed never made any trades at Goldman-Sachs, nor did he run the arbitrage unit at JP Morgan Chase, but Ed and millions like him – no apologies – made America! Middle class, hard working, solid. And they lived lives that mattered and shaped the character of their neighborhoods. He did his hitch in the army, came home, drove his bus for a third of a century, A Dunkin’s regular, he endured two big time heart surgeries, and Ed and Bernice looked after one another, were good to each other. That’s about right, I think.
RANDOM CLIPPINGS
A Catholic football manager from the Republic is the frontrunner for the top job at Irish league giant Linfield. … Papers are saying that crime author James Patterson gave a million to a clutch of US bookstores. Good reason to buy his books. … The Time Warner Cable-Comcast merger is good for their CEOs and boards, bad for viewers. … Clearer tapes agree JFK’s Berlin speech was on the money and translated perfectly, despite years of bad history. … 2013 was a very good year for the Irish stock exchange, the best in 17 years. … A salute to one of the original Chieftains, Sean Potts, who died last month at 83. … The famed O’Connell Tower is open again in Glasnevin for entry, and climbing after 40 years. … Notre Dame is spending $400 million to flesh out its stadium area. Largest campus building project ever.
Ryanair passengers can now access electronic devices during takeoffs and landings, but still no cell phones while cruising. … Sorry to hear that the Dublin Docklands Development Authority is set to shut down after $240 million in property losses. … If Fairfield University in Connecticut is on your screen, they will hold an evening with famed actor Stephen Rea March 19 at 7:30 pm. … To my conservative friends: I hope the gold crash losers are not heading out their windows after latest reports. Down 28 percent in 2013. … New and stricter rules for young (under 10) Irish dancers which bans makeup and false eyelashes. … Somebody goofed and the famous Crown Bar in Belfast didn’t file its license on time. It was shut down but should be reopened by now.
The 2015 Irish Open will be played at Royal County Down, the first time there in 75 years. … The Irish Republic had to pay Microsoft $4.5 million in extra fees for being late updating their computer system security. … Traveler sites to be built and opened in the Poshest section of Dun Laoghaire and in the south Dublin area. … Northern Ireland is building two new film studios to accommodate an upswing in movies and TV series production. Much of this is attributable it to “Game of Thrones” success. … Immigration reform should do well. It has a trainload of allies, from GOP fat cats to 11 million undocumented to the Republican Party base that is looking to cozy up to minorities for mid-term elections. … Still trying to fathom how Sinn Fein and Gerry Adams’s All-Ireland electoral strategy works when the Sinn Fein party is against property taxes in the Republic. But property taxes in the North continue to rise in local councils that Sinn Fein controls ?
May peace and civility be Saint Patrick’s gift to us this month.