Senate President Murray invokes anti-Irish history in response to immigrant debate

By Matt Murphy and Michael Norton, State House News Service
July 29, 2014
Matt Murphy and Michael Norton, State House News Service

Emotions continue to run high over Gov. Deval Patrick’s offer to temporarily house children who illegally crossed the border into the U.S., but Massachusetts is no closer to getting an answer from the Obama administration on whether the federal government plans to take the state up on its offer.

“We don’t have very much information about when, if at all, there will be a shelter for the kids here,” Patrick told reporters on Monday.

Walsh plans ten-day visit to Ireland in September

By Bill Forry, Editor
July 21, 2014
Bill Forry, Editor

Mayor Martin Walsh: Will visit Ireland for 10 days in September.Mayor Martin Walsh: Will visit Ireland for 10 days in September.Confirming plans reported on last spring, Mayor Martin Walsh says he will make a ten-day visit to his parents' homeland in September – his first visit to Ireland since his electoral victory last November made him the city's first Irish-American mayor in two decades. Walsh’s visit will have a heavy Galway accent, including a side trip to Connemara to see cousins, with stops in Donegal, Derry, Belfast, and Dublin also on the schedule. He is tentatively scheduled to leave Boston on Sept. 19.

“The overall goal of this trip is to support Boston's economic development through building relationships and strengthening our commercial and cultural link with Ireland,” said Kate Norton, a spokesperson for the mayor.



The visit will certainly come with ceremonial trappings, including meetings with local officials. But Walsh will also schedule "down-time" for private visits with relatives at both the beginning and end of his trip. The journey was initially planned for the spring, but Walsh decided to wait until he was settled into office for a longer period of time.

Prosecutors: Injured Cork student was left to die outside Brighton bar

By Bill Forry, Editor
July 9, 2014
Bill Forry, Editor

A 20 year-old University of Cork student who was visiting Boston for a work program this spring was left to die in a Brighton alleyway after bar workers dumped him out the back door of a Cleveland Circle watering hole in May, according to prosecutors. The owner of the bar, 44 year-old John Rogaris, is now under indictment for stonewalling a police investigation into how the young man was hurt in the May 23rd incident.

If you’re passing by, stop in and you’ll see: Great dining abounds on Ireland’s West Coast

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
July 2, 2014

By Judy Enright
Special to the BIR

Ireland has changed a lot in the past 30 years. Much of that change is probably thanks to – or the fault of – the internet, depending on your perspective. But, changes can also be credited to the country’s many visitors who demand the best, to the Irish who travel widely and bring home creative ideas from everywhere, and to the influx of foreigners living in Ireland.
Frequent travelers will note the many changes, subtle and otherwise.

GREAT FOOD

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He’s immersed in history and the arts scene

By R.J. Donovan
July 2, 2014
R.J. Donovan

By R. J. Donovan
Special to the BIR

For a relatively young guy, Michael Duncan Smith has developed an unusually deep understanding of history.  He also has a passion for the performing arts.  Happily, the Westford native has found a unique way to satisfy both interests.
Most days you’ll find him at New Repertory Theatre in Watertown where he serves as marketing and public relations director.  However, when the weekend arrives, he can often be found portraying a Colonial Minuteman – an experience he describes as “living history.”

Much ado as festival makers strut stuff

By Sean Smith
July 2, 2014
Sean Smith

Kathleen Parks and Ricky Mier of the band Cat and the Moon share a duet during the Boston Irish Festival music weekend. Sean Smith photoKathleen Parks and Ricky Mier of the band Cat and the Moon share a duet during the Boston Irish Festival music weekend. Sean Smith photo

Dancers small, tall, and in between swarmed the Irish Cultural Centre of New England campus June 14 for the second Boston Irish Festival Feis, a day of Irish step dance competitions that attracted some 450 participants of various ages and levels from across the Northeast, as well as from Toronto, South Carolina, and even New Zealand.
Co-organized with the Harney Academy of Irish Dancing, the Feis was the third of three consecutive weekend Boston Irish Festival events celebrating popular Irish pursuits at the Canton-based ICCNE, which is marking its 25th anniversary. On May 31, the festival featured a day of sporting events – notably hurling and Gaelic football – and children’s activities. The middle portion of the festival, June 6-7, showcased top-line Irish/Celtic acts Black 47, The Screaming Orphans, and Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Soul, as well as numerous musical performers from the Greater Boston area and elsewhere in the region.
Misty, murky weather greeted the Feis, and a steady, 45-minute drizzle at mid-day posed a potential threat to the styled hair and make-up sported by some of the competitors. But most of those present, being pretty experienced in matters of feis, seemed unperturbed by the damp and focused on the task at hand – although a number of younger dancers found the temptation of the center’s playground facilities irresistible.

Bostonia Public House: ‘elegant renewal’ near Faneuil Hall

By Bill Forry, Editor
July 2, 2014
Bill Forry, Editor

A who’s who of Boston business leaders— with a heavy dose of Irish-American heavies – packed the city’s newest hot-spot near Faneuil Hall last week. The opening of Bostonia Public House – located in the Board of Trade Building on State Street – was hailed as a “elegant renewal of a classic Boston meeting space.” The restaurant and bar replaces the Irish pub Kitty O’Shea’s, but is bigger and American-themed.

Eire Society cites O’Donovan’s ‘authenticity, artistry’

By BIR News Room
July 2, 2014

The Eire Society of Boston presented its annual Gold Medal Award to the well-known radio host and musician Brian O’Donovan at a reception and dinner on Thurs., June 12, at the Neighborhood Club of Quincy. He and his wife Lindsay live in Cambridge. They have four children: Aoife, 31, Ciaran, 29, Aidan, 27, and Fionnualam 21.

 Following are the text of the citation honoring a man who has spent the past four decades promoting Irish traditional music and other Celtic music in the New England region and excerpts from his remarks:

OF GREED AND GREENS: Two recent deals have Irish eyes here and there scowling and smiling

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
July 2, 2014

The deal is completely legal. Medical-device titan Medtronic will soon complete a $42.9 billion deal to gobble up Massachusetts-based outfit Covidien. The swollen pact benefits Ireland’s economy, pays off big for two companies’ executives and stockholders, and will purportedly allow Medtronic to pump some $10 billion into research and development in the US. The deal, however, contains one aspect that raises questions about the continuing offshore tactics of American companies finding ways to set up shop overseas to wriggle out of paying taxes here in the States.

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When compromise is seen as hypocrisy, governance by democracy is impossible

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
July 2, 2014

There was a time in Washington when politics was the means to an end. The end was governing. The messy process of politics was applied to gain office and then to develop and secure passage of legislation that reflected a public policy consensus.

Politics was the dark side of good governance. Its tools were influence, cajoling, trade-offs, favors, intimidation, patronage and pork that often produced good results when applied to a noble purpose. It was the means to achieve the enactment of the Constitution and laws that have made this a prosperous and compassionate nation.

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