Passing Thoughts on “Yes” Referendum Win – The referendum was about the serious social business of choosing what side of history one wanted to be on. And the 24-point win by the “Yes” forces was led by the young people of Ireland who jumped onto planes, trains, and buses to get home to vote. The “Yes” side had a well of support also from Irish seniors who even in the conservative midlands voted roughly 50 percent for same-sex marriage.  Add to that a modest, if rebellious, segment of the Catholic clergy, and you had all that was needed for a sweeping 62-38 landslide win.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, a staunch “Yes” supporter along with the government,  got it right when he thanked Ireland in the shortest victory speech ever made by an Irish leader. And the praise for the people of Ireland was well-deserved. Twelve other EU countries have passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, but Ireland is the first anywhere to do it by the direct vote of its citizens.

Once again, Ireland, with the no-smoking ban, the decriminalizing of homosexual life and divorce, and its leadership in charitable giving has led Europe, punching above its weight and providing an example in the life-affirming areas of equality and human decency that reflect so well the heart of the Irish people.

Small Percent Control Irish Wealth – In these post-recession days, Ireland is slowly but surely becoming a mirror image of the United States when it comes to wealth distribution and control. The newest research into who has the euros and where Ireland’s fiscal clout rests and who manages and benefits from that wealth provides some stunning surprises.

The most head-turning finding in the CSO report is that more than half of Irish household wealth rests in the hands of just 10 percent of the population. The top 5 percent of Irish households, for instance, claims nearly 40 percent of Ireland’s net wealth. However, these finding are not as high as US levels.

At the other end of the scale the findings represent a grim portrait of the haves and have-nots, with the poorest scrambling and failing to catch up or even marginally improve their financial situations. Low and middle-income families have been harshly treated by recent Irish government policies that favor the better-off, contends Father Sean Healy of the NGO Social Justice Ireland who charges the government with unfairly prioritizing the wealthier segments at the expense of the have-nots in successive Irish budgets

Recent research by the Central Bank reflects a higher level of wealth inequality in Ireland than the Eurozone average. That same research indicates that countries with higher economic inequality traditionally have greater unemployment, social instability, and reduced investment.

Ireland Launches Luxury Rail Travel – It isn’t scheduled to fully be up and running until the summer of 2016, but Orient Express-style rail service, with prices to match, are a coming reality for touring the island. The new service is aimed at the big-spending tourist, the overseas market. Prices are clearly not for the bed and breakfast crowd with per-person, two-night grand tours beginning at $3,500 and including meals, drinks, entertainment, and excursions. Four-night trips on the specially outfitted rail cars with all the amenities are somewhat north of $6,000 a person.

The Grand Hibernian’s four-night tour with eleven carriages that can carry 40 passengers from Cork to Killarney, Galway, Westport, and Blarney Castle and on to Mayo’s Ashford Castle.

Other tours on the luxury railcars carry its “guests” from Dublin to Belfast and Portrush, the Giant’s Causeway, and Bushmills Distillery. The tour company, Belmond Ltd, is an old and respected firm and a player on the global luxury travel network with extensive rail and cruise experience.

Now the Good News from the Bishops – One of the more gruesome aspects of the Fed’s draconian measures used to hold undocumented immigrants found in the US are the immigration detention centers. Long a target of human rights groups and other activists, they have been described as “places that undermine families and harm children.”

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, working with the Center for Migration Studies, has recommended replacing the current detention centers with alternatives to restore illegal immigrants their dignity and due process protection. The bishops’ recommendation is the defunding the present detention facilities and a diverting of the resources to immigration courts and community-based programs . The Bishops Conference report underlines the fact that nobody in immigration detention is serving a criminal sentence and that there are “more effective, humane, and cheaper ways to ensure court appearances.”

The family detention centers have been defended by US Immigration & Customs Enforcement as “one of many tools used to address the growth in apprehension of parents and children at our southern border.” Also, one of the more unfair aspects of detention is that lack of funds and wholesome facilities means an average court backlog is around 18 months in normal removal cases, far greater than the wait for most criminal hearings.

It is clear that the detention process as it exists today is a flawed process that demands  immediate reform.  It is cruel, fractures families, and does not begin to provide equal justice to those it charges with illegal entry.  The Bishops Conference is hoping that Pope Francis will address this issue when he visits the US in the fall.

Anglo’s Drumm Needs a New Place to Shop – David Drumm, the former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive, had a legal strategy after he ran out on his massive debt in Ireland. He thought he would do some bankruptcy court “shopping” to get out from under and figured that Boston, the home of a  bankruptcy court system reportedly less daunting than Irish courts, could serve his purpose.

Mr. Drumm soon found out that the Boston courts had an equal disdain for petitioners who (in the Boston court’s words) “systematically transferred the assets to hinder, delay and defraud creditors.” First Boston court appearance: Strikeout; second court appearance: appeal denied, decision stands, Drumm owes the money. A lot of it.

Of course, he has never been a stand-up guy. He blamed his lawyers, he blamed a series of “innocent mistakes,” and he shifted blame to his advisors. If I were his wife, I’d be nervous.

At any rate, we here in Beantown will soon be shorn of Mr. Drumm. But the Irish courts are interested, to say the least, in his unpaid debts and his behavior when he was the bank’s boss.

Ellis Island Lengthens Its Legacy – Ellis Island, the touchstone of so much history and so many hopes, just spent $20 million to reinvigorate and carry forward the stories of America’s immigrants. Along with the refurbishing, the center is sporting a new name: Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration.  The “Peopling of Americas Galleries” are meant to bring up to the moment a broader mission of showcasing the country’s entire migration history and the stories of those who came here.  Ellis Island served as a center welcoming newcomers from 1892 to 1954.

The upgrade and new display construction were interrupted by storm Sandy, which flooded portions of the basement and closed the center for a while; it reopened in 2013. The new exhibits are interactive and personal, with video, and they take a fresh look at the issues related to immigration and the people who came to America in search of new beginnings.

US Envoy, Taoiseach Jeered – It was a somber US Civil War remembrance in Sligo to honor Irish heroes of America’s tragic war, but to some of the Irish attendees in the audience it was a moment to express some deep-rooted sentiments about our militarism. Both Taoiseach Enda Kenny and US Ambassador to Ireland Kevin O’Malley were repeatedly jeered and some in the audience yelled “warmonger” and turned their backs when the men spoke.

It was a raucous tableau with a goodly amount of hostility for the Irish leader and the prosecutor from Missouri, who had been nominated by President Obama last June and has been resident in Ireland since last September. When O’Malley arrived, he was met by signs stating “US war machine out of Shannon,” and “Where’s the monument for one million dead Iraqis?”

It was, observers noted, one of the ugliest encounters an American diplomat had faced in memory, and one that must remind us that we live with our country’s foreign policy, triumphs and failings, even in friendly Ireland.

NOTABLE QUOTES
“It’s a question of fairness; it’s as simple as that.”
A senior voter who supported a “Yes”
vote in the same-sex marriage referendum
•••
“Boston doesn’t need to host the Olympics to be a world-class city.”
– Michelle Wu, Boston City Councillor
•••
“I think really that the church needs to do a reality check, a reality check right across the board, to look at the things it’s doing well, to look at the areas where we really have to start and say,
‘Look, have we drifted away completely from young people?’ ”
Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on RTE following the referendum vote

 Obama, Congress Clash Over Iran Nuclear Pact – John Kerry has been either on a plane or negotiating face to face with Iranian officials over the details, many open-ended and complex, of an agreement to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The United States and six other nations are working across an obstacle course made up of Iranian negotiators and sadly, the United States Congress and its Republican rump.

The decision by the speaker of the US House to invite the Israeli prime minister here shortly before the Israeli election was an affront to President Obama and a prime example of inept politics by a GOP that is more interested in gaining points and attacking the Affordable Care Act than in legislating.

With all the sputtering by congressional doomsayers and the very real threat of sidetracking a crucial agreement, it is instructive to read former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell in the Boston Globe last month on the subject of Iran’s nuclear capability.  After spending several years of his life as midwife to the Irish peace agreement, Mitchell certainly knows his way around sophistry and deceit,  and he had the answer for critics of the president: “Although dozens of countries are capable of developing nuclear weapons, only nine have so far chosen to do so. Iran must not be the tenth. There are two ways to achieve that goal: by negotiation or through war.”   Nuf said!

Padraig O’Malley Had a Great May – As many in the Boston area and in increasing international venues know, Padraig is the Distinguished Professor of Peace and Reconciliation at UMass Boston’s John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies. I have been his friend for some 30 years. We were colleagues at Boston Ireland Ventures, and I am an unabashed admirer of Padraig’s protean long distance peace efforts.

To cut to the chase, Padraig had quite the May 2015. His documentary film is near completion by its producer and creator, award-winning filmmaker James Demo, who films and produces documentaries out of his Central Square Film studio and has spent five years tracking and filming O’Malley in foreign cities on his peacemaking travels. Last month a kick-starter campaign for Demo’s film on O’Malley raised  $65,000, which will be used to fund the final editing of the documentary, “The Peacemaker,” which is scheduled for release late this year or early next.

Also in the credit column for the tireless peace expert is the publication of his latest book, “The two-State Delusion, Israel and Palestine— A Tale of two Narratives,” which is available at amazon.com and bookstores this summer. This is a book that is destined to be controversial, with a fresh theme and possible solutions, and more than a dash of Mideast reality.

In a Long Line Of Frontier Patriots – The rookie governor of Texas, Greg Abbot, went public following a rampant sagebrush rumor that a joint Navy Seal/Green Beret training exercise was underway in Texas and some Walmarts were closing. The reason, rumor had it, is that the big box stores were closed because they were to be used as guerrilla warfare staging areas and FEMA processing camps for political prisoners. The rumor also had it that ISIS terrorists had crossed the border and were going to hit soft targets across the Southwest. OMG!

Apparently, some paranoid right-wing militia types had gotten the governor’s ear and before you could lock and load your AK 47s, Gov. Abbott took to the airwaves and ordered the Texas State Guard to monitor the US Special Forces training in Texas, which was labeled Operation Jade Helm, while others were concerned that President Obama was about to put Texas under martial law. Reason ultimately prevailed … but only in Texas. (Thanks to NPR for their chilling account of how Texas staved off an Obama takeover)

RANDOM CLIPPINGS
If you think there are too many lobbyists on Capitol Hill in DC, check out the lobbying army that operates in the European Parliament in Brussels. At last count the estimate was between 15,000and 30,000, or 40 for each member of parliament. … Druid, the theatre company out of Galway that represents Ireland’s finest stage pedigree, celebrates its 40th birthday this year. … Speaking of theatre, the first of Sean O’Casey’s Dublin plays, “Shadow of a Gunman” will be staged in Belfast and Dublin from June into August. … Sen. Elizabeth Warren is easily the most savvy financial whiz in Congress, but I think she is likely wrong this time in her opposition to President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership. … Bewley’s on Grafton St., closed since February, is still being revamped but is expected to reopen in September.

There were few real surprises in the recent British elections, but the return to life by the Official Unionist party and the Sinn Fein seat loss in the North might qualify. … The roller coaster ride by the pub industry seems to have straightened out with a revival of fortune and a 10 percent rise in tourism. More than 90,000 jobs are dependent on the national pub trade. … The family of assassinated solicitor Pat Finucane showed their anger at British PM David Cameron’s decision against holding a public inquiry by calling the murder “morally and legally indefensible.” … Tony O’Reilly’s home, Castlemartin, was sold for $8.5 million, but he still owes over $15 million to Allied Irish Bank.

Some 36 percent of tourists in Ireland found the Irish weather “better than expected.” … The actor and comedian Niall Toibin, one of Ireland’s top talents and a national treasure, has received the Freedom of his home town, Cork. … It would be fair if Mayor Martin Walsh cut some slack for International Place developer Don Chiofaro’s Harbor Garage. … Is it my imagination or is Globe columnist Kevin Cullen on another talent universe with his on-target columns on the Marathon bombing trial --- rich, deep, and thoughtful. … The writer and director Jim Sheridan, who has had a major hand in scores of top films, including “My Left Foot,” was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award on May 24 from the Irish Film & Television Academy.

Express train service from Cork to Dublin on weekdays began last month with trains departing at 6:15 a.m and arriving in Dublin at 8:30 for the business day there. … A new exhibit in Dublin and a new museum in Co. Louth look interesting. The Little Museum of Dublin features an expanded display of Christy Brown’s artifacts and letters that were purchased by Ireland’s National Library; the recently opened Military War Museum, located in Collon, Louth, has a collection of vehicles and weapons. … Irishmen numbering 210,000 from both traditions served in France and Flanders in World War I. … Sanity has prevailed in the Quincy Market area with the decision to abandon the idea that buskers entertaining Boston homebodies and tourists alike should pay fees to work free. It was a terrible idea.