Ray Flynn, a Natural For Honors – At a recent birthday party celebrating former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn’s 75th birthday, City Councillors Bill Linehan and Stephen Murphy announced they will lead a move to recognize the South Boston native for his life of public service. What a grand idea and one that Bostonians and others should, and I am sure will, get behind. (Disclosure: I worked at City Hall during the Flynn years)

Ray was the “people’s mayor.” He knew the neighborhoods, the side streets, the basketball courts and the kids, and the residents and working folks who populated the city. He was around and approachable, and he could go into any corner of the city, regardless of ethnic or political considerations, and receive a hearty welcome.

I remember his early years as a city councillor and Massachusetts House member and also his days as a caring probation officer who never had a problem identifying with those who had not grown up in plush circumstances.  He used his public roles as a legislator and court official to help young people and others, many attracted by his reputation as a Providence College basketball star.

He and I don’t always agree, but I always saw Ray as a guy who would listen, and use his awareness and street cred to help youngsters and others reach their potentials. He was of Southie but not captured by the sometime hard-nosed pro forma mantra of his home base.

During his tenure Ray and those who worked alongside him kept an open, generous mind about emigrants who crowded into Boston looking for a hand up, not a handout. And during his years on the job Ray reached out to many nations and groups and was a key player with Boston Ireland ventures in linking Derry and Galway with Boston, to the advantage of all.

I have no idea what the inevitable “committee” will decide re how and where to honor Boston’s 46th Mayor, but I like the idea of a statue or the like somewhere prominent on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the link to so many of the neighborhoods that Ray Flynn will forever be identified with.  As I noted above, it’s a grand idea, and, as my late father used to say: “No time like the present.”

Events Moving Fast on Economic Front – There’s a lot of economic talk going on in Ireland, Britain, and the White House that involves taxes, money, something called “inversion,” and “corporate deserters.” That last pejorative is what President Obama uses to describe those companies that shift their home headquarters from the US to a country with a lower corporate tax. It’s potentially a trillion-dollar escape by companies who dislike our high corporate tax rate. Although the truth is that most corporations, especially the big ones, use loopholes and fancy tax dodges to get their tax bills well south of Uncle Sam’s 35 percent orporate rate. Buying a foreign company or merging with one to gain the use of the newly acquired company base to dramatically reduce your US taxes is called inversion, which costs the rest of us higher taxes.

Television funnyman Stephen Colbert describes inversion thusly: “It’s like me adopting an African child, then claiming myself as his dependent.” Some governments, envious of Ireland’s success in attracting corporations to base themselves on Irish soil, are calling for an increase in Ireland’s 12.5 percent corporate tax rate. Ireland, which is a marketing behemoth with an educated, English-speaking work force and easy access to the European Union’s 500 million plus consumers, said that companies come to Ireland on the merits, not simply for tax breaks. Across Europe only one country, Bulgaria, has a corporate rate lower than Ireland. You have not heard the last of Inversion though.  Trust me on that.

Moving on: Northern Ireland, salivating as it probably should at the rock bottom 12.5 percent Republic of Ireland rate, has persuaded London to allow the North to go to a low corporate tax rate separate and apart from Britain’s own rate. The final decision, sources say, should be made no later than October. The cost for the North in lowered revenue is expected to be in excess of $300 million, but a big boost in the long run is the goal. The North’s stuttering business climate could use a bounce and a operating tax on a par with the Republic could be very helpful, with some saying it could “transform international investment.” That may be a stretch.

Somewhat on the long finger are emergency status plans by Wall Street investment firmss such as Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley that would see a shift of some London-based operations to Ireland if and when Britain leaves the European Union. The city of London, the financial center, accounts for some 10 percent of the British economy.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to hold a referendum on the question of Britain’s membership in the EU if his Conservative party is re-elected next year. Stay tuned.

Shannon Military Landings Roil Irish – Increasing anti-war sentiment and questions by Irish protesters about Ireland’s neutrality comes as new government figures show a marked increase of 15 percent in the number of US military flights landing at Shannon last year. The numbers are not as compelling as a decade ago when the occupation by US troops in Iraq was at its highest, but peace activists charge that Ireland’s neutrality is being severely compromised by the steady flow of American soldiers through Shannon to active war zones.

Sinn Fein a Growing Force in Europe – Newest figures show clearly that Sinn Fein is now the largest Irish parliamentary group in the European Parliament. Other parties in Greece, Spain, and Portugal, all leftish and anti-austerity as Sinn Fein, have increased their numbers, adding to their combined political muscle in the EU parliament.

Couple Sinn Fein’s electoral successes at home along with its new-found clout in the Euro legislative body and you have an indication that the Irish republicans have sharpened their political agenda, which is to maximize support for Irish unity and the peace process; attract maximum support from EU institutions, and oppose austerity.

The left in Ireland and in Europe oppose the IMF policy of belt-tightening to achieve economic recovery and financial stability, and instead seek to cut unemployment, reduce taxes, hold firm on social benefits and, in general, ease the tax burdens imposed on the working class

Maeve Binchy and the Gifts She Left Behind – Ireland’s best-selling author died two years ago this summer but she left what many regarded as a posthumous final book as a going-away present for her faithful readers. At her death in 2012 she left her last novel, “A Week in Winter,” which was published that Christmas and was, as usual, a best seller.

Sometime after her passing, her husband, according to the Irish Independent, found a drawer filled with forgotten stories that was published in 2013 as “Chestnut Street” and became the second Christmas best-seller following Maeve’s death.

The third and truly final chapter in the posthumous bequests from the queen of Irish novelists is a seven-part melange , authored by Maeve and six other Irish writers. All seven contributed to the completed mystery novel titled “The Caravaggio Painting.”  The plot makes use of an actual painting that hangs in the Doon Abbey in Kildare and attracts visitors from far and wide. The book is being published this month by Liberty Press.

Rest Easy: NI Banks in the Black – On one hand, it’s an extraordinary turn-around for the four top banks in the North. The encouraging rebound followed the help and support of the Irish government and the stability created by the IMF Irish bailouts. The four Northern-based banks, which had hundreds of millions in debt last year, are now reporting a cumulative profit of over $800 million.

The Dishonesty of Fox Television News – For almost two years the Republicans who control the US House Committee on Intelligence have spent their waking moments in lock-step, screaming “Benghazi, Benghazi,” a reference to Sept. 11, 2012, when terrorists attacked the US consulate in that Libyan city, killing the ambassador and three others. The GOP was hoping, perhaps, to distract voters from the disgraceful do-nothing Congress and the speaker’s pitiful lawsuit against the president.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Aug. 1 that the committee had “concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack.” Said the committee report: “The intelligence community did not have specific tactical warning of an attack before it happened.” The report noted that the process used to create administration talking points was “flawed” but “reflected the conflicting intelligence assessments in the days immediately following the crisis,” adding that “there was no stand-down order given to American personnel.”

This final official report by the Republican-dominated committee is a point-by-point refutation of the Benghazi hoax Fox News and the GOP had pushed for two long and embarrassing years. On Mon., Aug. 4, the Fox channel did not mention the report. Not a word. There was deadly silence in Rupert Murdoch’s make-believe news room.

Back in late spring, when Speaker John Boehner first announced he would appoint a select committee investigation into Benghazi, Fox devoted at least 225 segments on the Benghazi topic in over just two weeks, accounting for TV air-time with an estimated publicity value of $124 million. Yes, indeed, “fair and balanced.” (And thanks to Media Matters for its dedicated coverage and details.)

DeLorean’s Dream Car 35 Years Later  – An anniversary celebration of a sort, I would guess, is what is being planned for next May in Belfast when a gathering of former DeLorean employees will help mark the 35th anniversary of the first DeLorean gull wing car appearance in 1980. Many of the auto company’s workers and some administrators will be on hand but, if history has a memory, there will be few if any representatives from the badly stung British government.

For those of us who recall the animosity and disappointment surrounding the failed enterprise, which closed its doors three short years after opening, many will also likely remember the millions of British pounds sterling that were wasted, or that disappeared, during the company’s 36-month existence. And at the helm when the doors clanged shut was John DeLorean, who had flimsy excuses but no real answers about the huge cost overruns and the end of a dream.

Several years after the DeLorean plant closed, its hopes in shambles amid cruel job losses, I was in Belfast interviewing a Sinn Fein politician not too far from Dunmurry. I drove to the site, which was enclosed by a high chain-link fence with a formidable lock on the gate, to see what I could see. It was the most depressing vista one could imagine. Where once thousands of Belfast workers hungry for jobs streamed in every morning to the huge, hanger-like plant, there was now no sign of activity, not a person to be seen, just an eerily quiet, deserted assembly plant hulk.

August Closed Out 1981 Hunger Strike – The first to die on hunger strike was Bobby Sands, who passed away on May 5, then four men – their average age 25 years old —died during August 1981. The August Four were Kevin Lynch, Aug. 1; Kieran Doherty, Aug. 2; Tom McElwee, Aug. 8; and Mickey Devine, Aug 20. The ten who eventually died did not live to see the British accede to almost all of the prisoners’ demands. But their actions would help ensure the peace that would come to Ireland. We should not forget them.

Mayor Walsh: Close But Not Quite There – The Boston Globe’s Yvonne Abraham took the city’s new mayor, Marty Walsh, to the woodshed in a harsh appraisal of his defense of the system that prevailed in the state’s Probation Department the Globe columnist made some telling points when she wrote that “Probation jobs aren’t like jobs shelving books in a library” She’s right, but she could have cut the mayor a bit of slack.

My take on the misguided remarks of State House veteran Walsh is that he likely in his elected role over the years recommended constituents for jobs and /or may himself have been the recipient of a well-placed recommendation by an influential labor leader. All conjecture, of course, I have no idea if such things ever happened, but it not inconceivable that during his earlier career the mayor helped, or was helped by, an influential friend.

As a result I believe that he was concerned personally in being seen as a hypocrite who was willing to criticize others for actions he had done himself, and willing to savage another state employee before he had all the facts.

I also believe that the jury verdict on former probation chief John O’Brien was correct. But I am not Marty Walsh. Hypocrisy, an eagerness to pile on, is not likely to be found in the Walsh DNA. The mayor was wrong, but I believe there was more going on than a simple refusal to condemn. That’s one man’s opinion, anyway.

RANDOM CLIPPINGS
By a unanimous vote the Boston City Council has passed an ordinance that strongly limits immigration holds for possible deportation by the police. Called the Boston Trust Act, it halts the automatic hand-over of non-criminal immigrants under the often abused federal Secure Communities law. … How do you define appreciation? Bob Kraft bought the New England Patriots in 1994 for $175 million; the team and its properties are now said to be worth $2.6 billion. … Journalism lost a superb and gutsy member of the fraternity with the execution of James Foley. … Good advice: skip Venezuela for your holidays, book Aer Lingus to Ireland. … The well-known Derry pub “Bound for Boston” has closed its doors after 21 years.

The new Rose of Tralee, 27-year-old Rose Maria Walsh, is a Boston native who represented Philadelphia in the Kerry event. … For college students in Boston it’s ugly, crowded housing. In Dublin, Galway, Cork, etc., the problem is out-of-sight school year rentals, averaging  $1,000 -$2,000 a month. … Good news: Rupert Murdoch and Fox have abandoned their pursuit of Time Warner. We all win on that decision. … The 170-foot round tower in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery that was bombed by the UVF is being restored and will reopen, hopefully, early next year.

Maureen O’Hara, living in Idaho, turned 94 on Aug. 17. Reportedly, she is sharp mentally and and is being well-looked after. … The legendary Wolfe Tones celebrated their 50th anniversary last month with a special show at Derry’s Forum. … Good news for Catholicism: Cardinal Sean Brady has tendered his retirement and a coadjutor, Archbishop Eamon Martin, will take over. … All of you out there raise your hands if you knew that the Dublin-London air route is the second busiest in the world. (only Hong Kong-Taipei is busier). … 1976 Nobelist Mairead Maguire, co-founder of the Peace People, is out and urging an end to the Gaza siege.

Dublin has been voted the world’s fifth “Friendliest City” by Conde Nast Traveler. Did the magazine call you? … Drug giant Pfizer, with expansive operations in Ireland, is being sued by thousands about the dangers of its Irish-made drug Lipitor. … President Obama has quietly chided top NI pols that it’s past time to get their act together. … Recent attendees have not been quiet in their description of Race Week in Galway, calling it filled with young people, raucous, and with an “awful lot of alcohol involved.” … Class act: Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester, traded to Oakland for a much needed RH power hitter, took out a full-page Globe ad to thank his Sox teammates, fans, and ownership for the “love and kindness we have enjoyed in Boston.” … The Society of Jesus is a tough organization: American Jesuits publicly prodded members of Congress who were educated at their Catholic schools to protect the Border Children. … Old friend retired Westfield Professor Catherine Shannon and the Charitable Irish Society are hosting a trio of Silver Key honorees on Wed., Oct. 15, at the Boston College Club from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Phil Coulter will entertain and the proceeds will assist immigrants who need emergency help.