IHC AGM - The Irish Heritage Club's Annual General Meeting and Election of Officers is this Sunday evening, June 29, at 6 PM at the Wilde Rover Irish Restaurant, 111 Central Way, 1 mile west of I-405 on 85th St, Kirkland. Four new Board Members will be elected followed by elections for all Officer positions. All members and prospective members are invited to attend. For more information on the Irish Heritage Club, contact Melissa Estelle at 206-229-8512 or visit www.irishclub.org.
 
SEATTLE GAELS - This Saturday at 1:30pm, there will be a hurling and football practice/demo for boys and girls at Meridian Park School, on the corner of 175th and Meridian Ave, in Shoreline. For more information, email Liam at coire48@yahoo.com. Meanwhile, the weekly Seattle Gaels Hurling League games continue every Sunday aiming towards the League Final on Sunday, July 27 at Magnolia Playfields. To keep up with all the Gaels Men's and Women's Gaelic Football or Hurling, visit www.seattlegaels.com.

 

IRISH PICNIC - The Seattle area's Irish Community Picnic is Sunday, July 20, Noon - 6 PM, at St. Edward State Park in Kenmore (see www.parks.wa.gov for directions, etc.). All members of Seattle's Irish community are welcome. BBQs, hot dogs and hamburgers are provided, but bring your favorite food and drink. The Hurling and Gaelic Football games start shortly after 12 Noon and everyone is welcome to participate. There are Tug-a-war contests, kid's races, 3-legged races, sack-races, water balloon toss, straw search for the kids, etc., all free! For information, call 425-290-7839 or email Picnic@irishclub.org.
 
FESTIVAL EVALUATION - An 8-page Seattle Center evaluation of the Irish Festival in March reported in summary, "Irish Festival 2008 did a superlative job in meeting the mission of Fest�l and serves as an example to other Fest�l organizers". To read the entire report, visit www.irishclub.org.
 
IRISH NIGHT - For reduced price tickets to Irish Heritage Night at the Seattle Mariners vs. Oakland on Thursday, August 21, visit www.Mariners.com/Irish. Admission includes a FREE T-Shirt and entertainment by bagpipers and Irish stepdancers. One 2008 Irish Heritage Club member will help throw out the first pitch! Email membership@irishclub.org or call 206-526-5993.
 
CONSULATE CHANGES - Changes are coming this fall to the Irish Consulate in San Francisco. Consul General �mer Deane is being replaced by Gerry Staunton while Vice-Consul �na Fannon is being replaced by Barry O'Brien. During their time in San Francisco, both �mer and �na have been very good friends to Seattle's Irish community and we wish them the very best in their new assignments.
 
PRESIDENTIAL VISIT - Irish President Mary McAleese will visit Portland this December to unveil an Irish Famine Memorial at Mount Calvary Cemetery. The 5-ton 13-feet tall stone sculpture is a lifesize replica of the Cross of the Scriptures at Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly. This will be the first time since Eamon de Valera in 1919 that a President of the Irish Republic visits Portland. President McAleese visited Seattle in May 2005.

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The DUBLIN CITY RAMBLERS perform their unique blend of ballads, folk, humor, wit and foot-tapping music on Saturday August 9, 7:30 pm at The Triple Door, 2nd and Union, downtown Seattle. Advance tickets are $30 and all ages welcome. Two pairs of tickets to the show will be awarded via random draw among those who send their name and email address to Draw@irishclub.org before 7 pm Friday, June 11.

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NO LISBON - Ireland voted against the Lisbon Treaty, a major shock to the three major political parties who had endorsed the Treaty. Like any EU treaty, it must be ratified by all 27 EU member states before becoming law, so this decision has created huge uncertainty within the European Union. Ireland was the only country to hold a referendum on Lisbon. Chief among the concerns of No voters was the fear that abortion could be introduced to Ireland. Taoiseach Brian Cowen has until October to come up with a plan for what to do next.
 
DISCOUNTED HOMES - A new Irish government housing scheme makes available to first-time home-buyers new homes at discounted prices ranging from $205,000 to $390,000. The homes are available only to people earning under $90,000 annually, and if the home is re-sold within 20 years, a percentage must be paid back. For details, see www.affordablehome.ie.
 
SEAWEED USES - The conversion of seaweed into biofuel is one of the themes being discussed at an international conference this week in Galway. Ireland's 4,500 miles of coastline is rich in marine algae including 501 species of seaweed, 16 of which are used in food and food supplements, fertilizers, liquid seaweed extracts, soil conditioners and animal feed supplements.
 
BARISTA CHAMP - A Dubliner was crowned World Champion Barista at the World Barista Championships in Denmark last week. Fifty-one national champions competed while judges assessed them on taste, cleanliness, creativity, technical skill and overall presentation.
 
"EARLY HOUSES" - Since 1927, Ireland's "early house" pubs have been allowed open at 7 am to cater for those attending early markets and fairs, and for people whose "trade or calling" leave them in need of early morning refreshment. No new "early houses" have been added since 1962 and 50 such pubs remain. Now, despite an Alcohol Advisory Group recommendation, the government has dropped plans to abolish them.
 
CBS SCHOOLS- Two centuries of Christian Brothers' Schools in Ireland ended recently when the Brothers formally handed over control of their 96 CBS schools in the Republic of Ireland, with 35,000 students and 2,700 teachers, to a charitable trust run by lay people.
 
TULLAMORE FLEADH - Ireland's largest music festival, Fleadh Ceoil na h�ireann, will be held in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, from August 17-25 and over 200,000 people and more than 10,000 musicians are expected to participate. On the Friday, an attempt will be made to break the world record for "the largest Irish music session" set at last year's Fleadh when 2,700 Irish musicians performed simultaneously.
 
URBAN BEACH - From July 4-20, George's Dock in Dublin will be transformed into an Urban Beach, a sand-based fun park. There will be nowhere to swim but promoters promise "sizzling summer activities and themed nights for Dubliners of all ages". The site will even have palm trees, beach cabanas, and lounge chairs.
 
EXAM TIME - The Leaving Certificate & Junior Certificate Examinations, a series of nationwide examinations for 50,000 High School Seniors and 57,000 younger students, were conducted at hundreds of schools around Ireland over 16 days from June 4-20. Examination results will be released on August 13.
 
ART INSTALLATIONS - More than 1,000 Corkonians posed naked on the grounds of Blarney Castle last week and 2,500 Dubliners later did likewise in Dublin's Docklands to participate in Spencer Tunick's art installations. Tunick is known worldwide for his elaborately posed photos of multiple nude figures in public settings.
 
OLD CANOE - A 5,500-year-old dug-out canoe was found by a schoolteacher and his son on a beach near Barna, Co. Galway, and is now on underwater display in the Galway Atlantaquaria. Some 350 dug-out canoes have been recorded in Ireland, many preserved over millennia in bogs and lakes.
 
TRAFFIC CHANGES - The Director of Dublin's Transportation Office is proposing eliminating footpaths, traffic lights, direction signs, pedestrian crossings and guard rails on streets in the center of Dublin. Based on experiments in Holland, he expects traffic to automatically slow down and drivers to take more care, thus reducing pedestrian and automobile accidents.
 
IRISH WRITERS - Write In Ireland is a one week retreat for fiction writers of all skill levels and genres with two sessions, October 12-18 & October 19-25, 2008. Held at Anam Cr� near Kenmare, Co. Kerry, each week begins with a day-long writing workshop with the rest of the week devoted to writing, exploring and perhaps a pub session or two! Visit www.writeinireland.com for details.

 

*   New Irish government proposals will permit gay and lesbian couples to register their relationships with the State and avail of greater protection in areas such as pensions, inheritance and tax. However, gay marriage will not be legalized.
*   Members of Ireland's Polish community account for 20% of online bookings for flights from Ireland to foreign destinations.
*   The number of millionaires in Ireland, those with more than $1 million in "investible assets", fell in 2007 to about 20,000.
*   Ireland's economy will experience a recession this year for the first time since 1983, and 2009 will see a return to net emigration, according to a respected economic forecast, but many if not most of the emigrants will be people born outside Ireland.
*   About 55,000 of Ireland's 5 million people share it's most popular surname, Murphy.
*   Cork City recently conferred the Freedom of the City on former Taoiseach (PM) Albert Reynolds and former British PM John Major to recognize their contributions to the Northern Ireland peace process.
*   Dublin will host the 50th Eucharistic Congress in 2012, the 80th anniversary of the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in 1932 which was commemorating the 1,500th anniversary of the arrival of St Patrick in Ireland.
*   The summer solstice, the longest day of the year, was marked in Ireland with a gathering at the Hill of Tara where the rising sun was heralded by playing drums.
*   Over 20,000 people have applied for Irish government grants to install wood, solar and thermal heat systems in their homes.
*   There were 305 legally held handguns in the Republic of Ireland in 2004, but now there are 1,701
*   Ireland's Post Office sold 1,059,682 TV licenses in 2007 and initiated 15,000 prosecutions against people without licenses. A TV license costs $250 annually and the first-time fine for an unlicensed TV is up to $1,000.
*   It is estimated that there are up to 8,000 Bangladeshis living in Ireland.
*   Most Irish schools allow the Muslim headscarf, the hijab, to be worn by pupils in addition to the Sikh kara (a bangle), the Sikh patka (a scarf worn by boys and young men), the Jewish kippah or skullcap, and Christian crucifixes.
*   Muslims have been in Ireland in significant numbers since the 1950's and 31% of the 32,500 Muslims in the Republic of Ireland are Irish citizens.
*   The average life expectancy of an Irish man is 76.7 years, and of an Irish woman 81.5 years.
*   Dublin is ranked 25th out of 215 countries worldwide and eighth in the EU according to the Worldwide Quality of Living Survey.
*   Dublin is ranked 17th in the world for personal safety.
*   By the first quarter of 2008, the number of non-Irish nationals employed in Ireland was 352,000, or one in every six workers.
*   The Irish American Climate Project says that climate change will turn Ireland's emerald landscape "a dusty tan".
*   On July 1, Samsung Electronics introduces the world's first cell phone with Irish language menus.
*   After January 12 2009, Irish citizens traveling to the US must register their personal details and travel plans with the US Embassy at least 72 hours prior to departure.
*   A Dublin school in the north inner city does not have a single Irish-born pupil among those enrolled in its 2009 kindergarten classes.
*   A Swiss wingsuit flyer jumped from an aircraft at 15,000 feet and glided for 11 miles over Galway Bay at an average speed of 155 mph, landing at Connemara airport 75 seconds faster than the Aer Arann aircraft flying the same route.
*   A Donegal-born Catholic priest, Pastor of three parishes in rural South Dakota for over ten years, will be deported on July 1 unless the US Department of Homeland Security reverses its denial of his application for permanent US residency. New York's Irish Echo carries the story.
*   The Fulbright international exchange program now offers a US post-graduate Student Grant in the Irish Language.
*   The correct link to discount airline Zoom Airlines, which offers a direct weekly flight Vancouver to Belfast, is www.flyzoom.com.