The Irish Taoiseach calls them “living treasures whose music has transcended all boundaries.” And ain’t it the truth. After 50 years as a major international music group, the Chieftains, led as they have been since the beginning by Paddy Moloney, have won just about every award imaginable for their richly nuanced traditional Irish music offerings.

They remain after a half century the leading purveyors of traditional music fare and the best-selling group in the world. Performers come and go, from hot, to surviving, to forgotten, yet the Chieftains, despite cast changes not only survive but also thrive. Moloney, in accepting yet another Chieftain award as guests of honor at a Ireland Fund gala last month noted, “I often get worried when presented with a ‘Lifetime award’ but in our case, we are still going strong: 2012 is our busiest year yet.”
It hardly seems to be nearly two decades since 1991 when Moloney, standing in for the entire group, was honored here in Boston by the Eire Society for the Chieftains’ contribution to Irish culture around the world. My favorite memory of the group were the several days I spent in Manhattan in the late seventies when they were playing at an Irish gala at Carnegie Hall. We shared a nearby hotel and I found myself joining the musicians for breakfast at the local automat. The Chieftains all had retained their day jobs, from postal clerks, to government employees, to shopkeepers, and none of them was throwing money around. They were delightful company and had a grand time with other gala performers such as Siobhan McKenna, Maire Keane, Anna Manahan, and Donal McCann, all regretfully gone to their reward now. Long may Paddy and the Chieftains reign!

Oil Strike May Be Ireland’s Eldorado—For years, especially in difficult times, the Irish papers regularly carried stories full of speculation about how this or that oil find would surely change Ireland’s destiny. Ultimately, there was invariably less than met the eye and that’s been the case until the recent discovery off the Cork coast of an unprecedented commercial oil strike by Providence Resources, an Irish company majority-owned and run by Tony O’Reilly, Jr.
The oil strike at Barryroe Field is the most promising find in the history of oil and mineral exploration in Irish waters. The discovery is initially producing some 2,000 barrels a day, exceeding earlier but less productive strikes by Esso and Marathon. The Barryroe findings, Providence Resource officials believe, could lead to a renewal of interest in the Irish offshore industry and increased activity from international investors. Ireland can certainly use something like that.
Famed Irish Movie Studios Facing Closure—Ireland’s world famous Ardmore Studios in County Wicklow, the scene of film production for some of the most celebrated movies over the past half-century, is closing. The studios have been in some financial difficulty in recent years and the unexpected loss of a rich contract to host production of the MGM TV series “Vikings” may well have pushed Ardmore over the line. The studios have been at the forefront in the development of the Irish film industry.
Among the movies filmed in part or entirely at Ardmore are such familiar titles as: “My Left Foot,” “In America,” “Angela’s Ashes,” “Dancing at Lughnasa,” “In the Name of the Father,” “The Field,” “The Commitments,” “The Lion in Winter,” “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,” and “Shake Hands with the Devil.”
Ardmore has done superb work in hundreds of quality movies and it would be a shame if strapped Ireland is unable to find private or government financing for this invaluable and world-respected asset.
Christian Brothers Abuse Claim Deadline—A year ago this month the Christian Brothers of Ireland, North America, Canada, and other varied locations filed for protection under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. In a legal notice in The Boston Globe, the principals in the litigation had to publicly and officially notify anyone who might have sexual abuse claims against any brother or others connected to the Christian Brothers here, in Ireland, Canada, or elsewhere that the deadline for filing a claim is August 1, 2012.
Other contact references or to obtain information about Christian Brothers institutions, and/or to obtain and file a proof of claim: Claims Agent, phone 1-800-873-4094; or phone 1-888-667-4266 or write: Claims Agent, Omni Management Group, 16161 Ventura Blvd. Suite C, PMB608, Encino, California 91436.
If you or a loved one or family member in Ireland or North America have a claim of having been sexually abused by Christian Brothers or their agents in Christian Brothers institutions or elsewhere, the deadline for filing is roughly 120 days from today.
European Central Bank Credit Watch—Here’s the situation as it exists today for Europe’s Central Bank with regard to it being the bank of last resort for troubled European countries like Greece, Ireland, and Portugal and the ECB’s relationship with our own Federal Reserve Bank. The Fed under chairman Ben Bernanke has lent the ECB $108 billion. Bernanke calls the loan “a very safe proposition ... [the ECB] is well-capitalized and has behind it the national central banks of 17 countries.” That’s Bernanke’s spin and sounds good to these untutored ears. But hold on! In one week alone last month, the ECB lent 800 banks about $700 billion. The current balance sheet/money lent of the ECB is close to $4 trillion, (that’s a capital ratio for Europe’s big bank of 36 to 1), hardly the most secure leverage factor. Some respected experts like Rex Nutting in Reality Check believe that with such a high leverage “it wouldn’t take much of a decline in the value of ECB’s assets to eat through all of its capital.” Who’s right: Bernanke or expert Nutting?
Yes, Boston Can Do Better—The corner outside the recently shuttered Borders Bookstore is situated amidst an historic and well-traveled part of Boston that will become even more strategic and busier when the Filene’s hole-in-the-ground debacle is resolved. The idea —maybe, alas, it may already be a fait accomplit—to put a Walgreens drug store into the Borders building (with likely an atrium added or whatever) adds zilch, a big goose egg, to Boston’s downtown. That’s for openers.
The School & Washington streets corner is also host to the City’s Irish Famine Memorial. A few doors up School Street is the first home of Boston Latin School and the well-preserved old City Hall. Across the street on Washington is the Old South Meeting House. Just feet from the Borders location a CVS is well-entrenched and prospering. Is Walgreens in a strictly competitive posture vis-a-vis CVS?
Here’s one (maybe lonely) native Bostonian’s vote for Mayor Menino and the BRA’s Peter Meade to sit down and brainstorm their way to a resolution that treats Boston, the Famine Memorial, and the adjoining location and history with respect and imagination, not another (unnecessary) drug store.
No Pope For Eucharistic Congress—The 1932 Eucharistic Congress eighty years ago was one of the largest and best attended Catholic Congresses of the 20th century. The news that Pope Benedict will likely not be in attendance this June, preferring a televised message from the Vatican, should come as little surprise for Ireland’s battered Catholics. In 1932, Pope Pius XI stayed in Rome and used radio to communicate with the faithful in Dublin. The crowds in 1932 were huge, with half a million Irish Catholics crowding O’Connell Street. The attendance this year will be relatively muted. The largest crowd is expected to be 80,000 at Croke Park in June.
From the pastoral to the commercial: The Irish Independent newspaper, with tongue nowhere near cheek, reports that the pope, now 84, has found the time to accept a signature eau de cologne that was created especially for him by Italian perfumer Silvana Casoli. This is not Casoli’s first time out of the box. Before creating a suitable scent for the pope, she had worked with Sting, Madonna, and Spain’s King Juan Carlos. Casoli had also previously concocted two other colognes for the Catholic Church, “Water of Hope” and “Water of Faith.” The pope’s new scent, which will not be available to buy, is exclusively for his use and is yet unnamed.
Casoli said she realized that the pope’s essence “had to have at its core something pure and clean, recalling the idea of peace.” Amen.
The Little Museum Of Dublin—It’s only six months old and nicely located on St. Stephen’s Green, but few of the faithful except a handful of history-minded Dubs know of its existence. The idea of having a museum devoted exclusively to the city of Dublin and its inhabitants tells the story of the Fair City in the 20th century. The artifacts and memorabilia of this non-profit visit down Dublin’s memory lane have been donated by hundreds of Dubliners to create a collection that highlights the social, cultural, and political history of Ireland’s capital.
The acquisition of material almost exclusively from volunteer Dublin contributors is unique. Among the items donated and on display at the Little Museum are art, photographs, letters, advertising, postcards, ephemera, and related objects between the years 1900 and 2000. It’s part archeology, part social history. Among the objects on display are the lectern President Kennedy used to address the Irish Dail in 1963 and James Joyce’s death mask
It is more than likely that as word of the Dublin Museum gets around that more artifacts will find their way to the ground floor of the Georgian townhouse at 15 St. Stephen’s Green. The museum will present regular lectures from March into December with an array of fascinating speakers with topics as varied as Easter Widows, Dublin 100 years ago, Murders found in Joyce’s Ulysses, Manix Flynn’s Dublin and The Incredible Life of Brendan Bracken.
I haven’t been to the museum but I’ll visit the next chance I get. All in all and from a distance, the Little Museum of Dublin seems to be a treasure ready to be discovered.
Belfast Experience a $120 million Event—Nobody made bigger or faster ships then Harland & Wolfe and the Titanic experience in the opening years of the 20th century knew no boundaries or man- made limits. Out of the Titanic Quarter in April, 1911 came a doomed vessel that would intrigue the world and play a role in a tragedy that is with us today.
Belfast has lived with the historic back-story of the building and sinking of the ship that couldn’t sink. A hundred years later, Belfast, recovering from three decades of the Troubles, has created an attraction that it hopes to parlay into a city-saving, exciting and novel tourism treat. Three years under construction at a cost exceeding $100 million (the same construction time table for the Titanic itself) the city of Belfast hopes to bring in somewhere close to half-a-million sightseers and history buffs to relive those formative days of the greatest ship on the waters. There are nine separate galleries that trace the different aspects of the selection of Belfast as the shipbuilder, to the launch, to the fateful journey itself. The final gallery recounts the discovery of Titanic’s final resting place 70 years later to diving excursions to the wreck some two-and-a-half miles below the surface of the Atlantic. The Bel fast Experience officially opened on March 31.
Shafts Of light In The North—Belfast City Hall, for several centuries a Unionist/Protestant bastion, has its first Irish legendary-themed stained glass window celebrating Cu Chulainn and the cattle raid on the Cooley peninsula. The Hall’s newest art work was commissioned by the City Council. It brings to mind the Bob Dylan lyric that notes the times “are a-changin.”
The DUP mayor of a unionist council, Ian Stevenson, has discovered that his grandfather played Gaelic games, and despite cultural differences, Stevenson confirms that part of his heritage is his deep interest in hurling. Recently he journeyed to Dublin’s Croke Park to watch the All-Ireland hurling championship final, a first for a unionist politician.
RANDOM CLIPPINGS
Congressman Richie Neal of Western Mass confirms what many of us already know: There is no support or sympathy for breakaway republicans among Irish Americans. … 5,000 days and counting for the Orangemen who still seek to walk Drumcree. That’s 14 years and holding. … The Mahon Tribunal that exposed Bertie Ahern as a rogue and dissembler has racked up nearly $300 million in costs, much of that for grossly overpaid Irish lawyers. … Incidentally, Ahern (age 61) collects over $200,000 every year for life. His junior partner, Brian Cowen, has to make do on $198,000 a year but he’s only 51 and will cost Irish rate payers a whopping $7 million with a normal life span. … Jet Blue, the successful small airline, says it has no interest in buying the Irish government’s 25 percent interest in Aer Lingus. … Irish late show TV personality Ryan Tubridy has a winner in his book on JFK’s 1963 Irish trip. … A new entry into Irish American trade and investment, the Ulster American Society, has a trade mission to Northern Ireland coming up in mid-September. … Citizens United has allowed billionaires to call the shots in the GOP primaries, but Democrats aren’t unhappy. The process has exposed the loopy-goopy underside of the befuddled Republican candidates. … You and I might not be Ian Paisley voters, but we have to applaud his comeback from his apparent death bed at 85.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, who doubles as a Dail member from Dundalk, is saying that a poll on the future of the border in Ireland is inevitable. But Mr. Adams is not saying much on his earlier prediction that 2016 would be a pivotal year. … Meanwhile, Sinn Fein’s national party chairman, Declan Kearney, is saying aloud that the IRA should say “sorry” for its actions, at least some of them. … Canada’s realistic and compassionate emigrant entry rules have attracted some 6,000 Irish workers this year to find jobs and a new life north of the border. … Galway Mayor Hildegard Naughton has changed her mind about a statue to Che Guevara. No go, says Galway’s civic leader. … President Obama broadly hinted to Taoiseach Enda Kenny when the latter was in Washington that he would love to go back to Ireland, but he has an election to win first. … Ireland’s Poor Clare nuns, a contemplative order that lives by strict rules, has begun reaching out to the outside world via the Internet. … Brian Patrick Lamb is stepping back as CEO of the non-profit C-Span after thirty years on the job in a masterful tour de force. A great run by a first-rate communicator. … The Globe reports that John McGrail, a Boston pub owner and developer, borrowed almost $200 million to try to get super rich during the building bubble. His Anglo-Irish bank loans are now held by Wells Fargo and McGrail is doing the only thing left to do — He is suing Wells Fargo. Boston lawyers will get financially healthy with this litigation.
RIP Barbara Eachus—She was the ebullient, all-knowing face of the British Consulate in Boston for three decades. She had answers for everything, passed on information with a smile and a handful of good words, and was the default switch if you had to get the story behind the story on things British. She was great fun, had an elegant big heart, and she could almost always make you forget what you were angry with the Brits about. In all, the best hire the British government ever made on this side of the water.