ST. PATRICK'S DAY - While the biggest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the US took place in New York, there were hundreds of Parades around the world from Brazil to the UK where Birmingham claims it has the third largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the world. More than 100 St. Patrick's Day parades took place in Ireland on what was the warmest day of the year so far, with temperatures reaching 60° F in places. In Montreal, Canada's largest St. Patrick's Day parade, a 19-year-old man was killed when crushed by a float.

DC CELEBRATIONS - On St. Patrick's Day in Washington, DC, Irish Taoiseach (PM) Brian Cowen presented a bowl of shamrock to President Obama, a St. Patrick's Day ritual since 1952, and also had a 40-minute private meeting with the President. Numerous Irish politicians attended a series of receptions and lunches and were among 500 guests at a White House evening reception hosted by President Obama. In honor of the Day, the water in the White House fountains was also dyed green.

OTHER EVENTS - The Taoiseach also addressed the annual dinner of the American Ireland Fund, chaired the first US Meeting of Irish Network USA, joined Vice President Joe Biden for breakfast at the Vice President's official residence, and attended the St Patrick's Day lunch hosted by the Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

FREE RAIL - All overseas visitors to Ireland over 66 can get free unlimited travel on mainline, Dart and commuter trains in the Irish Republic in 2010. Make a  "Golden Trekker" reservation online or call 1-800-SHAMROCK.

IDEA COMPETITION - "Your Country Your Call" invites anyone with an interest in Ireland to submit a proposal by April 30 which can best help create jobs for Ireland. Two winning proposals will be selected to receive a $135,000 prize each and another $675,000 will be spent on implementing the proposals. For details, visit the Irish Embassy's website.

ECONOMIC FORECAST - Ireland's  Central Bank says that, while there will be a return to growth in the Irish economy later this year, the average unemployment rate will peak at 14% this year, but will remain at 13% into 2011. Economic forecasters say that resurgent exports will drag Ireland out of recession later this year, with improving conditions abroad acting as a "lever" to get the economy growing again.

JUSTICE TRANSFER - In a significant breakthrough, the Belfast Assembly agreed to take back control of policing and justice powers from London, and Alliance Party leader David Ford was elected the new Justice Minister. The British government took over control of justice and policing in 1972 following the Unionist government's introduction of internment without trial in August 1971 and the rapidly escalating violence that followed Bloody Sunday in Derry on January 30, 1972.

BUSH PLEA - The Ulster Unionist Party voted against the transfer of policing and justice powers from London, despite an unexpected intervention from former US President George Bush, who telephoned David Cameron, leader of Britain's Conservative Party, to urge him to press the UUP to back the plan.

CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION - 181 years ago on April 13, 1829, Britain's King George IV reluctantly gave the royal assent to the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 which effectively removed a series of laws known as Penal Laws or Popery Laws that severely limited the ability of Irish Catholics to do anything. Read the actual text of the LAWS IN IRELAND FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF POPERY. 

IMPAC AWARD - Joseph O'Neill's Netherland is the only Irish contender among the books that made the shortlist for the International Impac Dublin Literary Award whose winner will be announced June 17. 156 books were nominated for the $135,000 Award by 163 libraries in 43 countries worldwide.

GLASNEVIN MUSEUM - Dublin's newest tourist attraction is the Glasnevin Cemetery Museum which features three main exhibits including The City of The Dead covering the burial practices, religious beliefs and records of the 1.5 million people buried there; The Milestone Gallery exhibitions on key historical figures telling the story of the most famous people buried there including Eamon De Valera, Michael Collins, Daniel O'Connell and Brendan Behan; and an archive room with the original burial records dating back to the cemetery's foundation in 1831. 1.5 million people of all religions and none are buried in Glasnevin.

GAELIC APPS - Maithú, an Irish IT company is launching FREE Irish language applications for the iPhone and Google Android App stores. The 'Get the Focal Irish Translator'  is a two way Irish-English, English-Irish Translator with a database of over 13,000 words and terms.

SCAM WARNING - The US State Department is warning Americans to beware online scam artists who may spend months pretending to be an Irish love interest, and then suddenly claim to have been a victim of crime and need assistance with medical or other expenses.

ULTIMATE JOB - Several weeks ago, an Irish honeymoon and wedding website invited applications for a position billed as the world's ultimate job: a six-month contract to visit and evaluate five-star wedding and honeymoon resorts across the world, for which they would be paid $26,000. It's too late to apply, but you can still vote for one of the top 50 shortlisted applicants.

BULLYING CHARGES - Criminal charges including statutory rape, assault and stalking have been filed against nine teenagers accused of relentlessly bullying and threatening a 15-year-old Irish girl who hanged herself in January near Boston. In 2009, Phoebe Prince moved with her family from Co. Clare to the US and she was a freshman at South Hadley High School.

TURKEY VISIT - Irish President Mary McAleese last month made an official visit to Turkey where she also flew to the Gallipoli region and visited several of the principal locations associated with World War I. She laid a wreath at Green Hill Cemetery in memory of the almost 4,000 Irish soldiers  who are buried in this corner of what was then the Ottoman Empire.

NW INVESTMENT - The Irish renewable energy group, Gaelectric, has paid the Bonneville Power Administration $3.5 million in a deal that will allow wind power produced in Montana to be distributed to the west coast. Gaelectric is planning to put $2 billion into wind development projects in Montana over the next six years.

CROSS FRACTURE - Regarded as the finest high cross in all of Ireland, St. Muiredach's Cross in Monasterboice, Co Louth, is thought to have suffered a hairline fracture during the January cold spell. More than 1,000 years old, the 19-ft cross contains 62 carvings from the Old and New Testaments. There are an estimated 200 high crosses in Ireland, comprising some of the most important early medieval sculptures in the world.

PASSPORTS BACKLOG - Following a work slowdown, there is now a backlog of 66,000 Irish passport applications. One Irish politician has suggested that people born before 1949 in an emergency should apply for a British passport! Ireland was a member of the British Commonwealth until 1949 when it declared itself a Republic, and as such anyone born in Ireland before 1949 is entitled to British citizenship.

GPO FLAG - The only full-size Irish Tricolor flag that survives from the 1916 Rising was put up for auction recently in New York but was withdrawn at $400,000. After the Easter Rising surrender, the flag was taken from the GPO by a British soldier who later gave it to a doctor in gratitude for treating injuries the soldier had sustained in the first World War.

BLOODY SUNDAY - The 5,000-page Bloody Sunday Inquiry report is complete but will not be published until after the British general election on May 6. The inquiry was begun in 1998 by the British government to establish the truth behind the killing of 14 people in Derry on January 30th, 1972. Costing £200 million, the judges interviewed and received statements from about 2,500 people, with 922 of them giving oral evidence.

ELECTRIC CARS - Dublin now has four public charging points for electric-powered vehicles and the Electricity Supply Board envisages 2,000 such vehicles using them by the end of 2011. Over the next 2.5 years the ESB will install 1,500 public charging points throughout Ireland.

LOUGHCREW EVENT - On the Spring Equinox, March 20, the interior of the passageway in Cairn T at Loughcrew was illuminated at dawn by a shaft of sunlight, exposing elaborate engravings inside, and it will happen again on the Autumnal Equinox, September 22. Loughcrew is an extensive hilltop cemetery consisting of the remains of about 30 passage graves constructed from 3,000BC to 2,000BC.

WATER CHARGES - Ireland is one of the few developed countries where water is still provided free of charge to households, but now there are plans to introduce pay water meters starting in 2012. During January's severe cold, burst water mains and trickling household taps - to prevent pipes freezing - nearly emptied reservoirs.

WRITERS' WEEK - This year's Listowel Writers' Week will be held June 2-6 with readings, lectures, seminars, book launches, art exhibitions, tours, children's program, workshops and debates in the north Kerry town.

TRAVELLER HOUSES - Seven houses in Co. Dublin were especially designed based on input from members of an extended Irish Traveller family who now live there. Their input led to larger windows, a more open plan interior, and the absence of walls or fences separating the properties.

OSCAR FILM - "The Secret of Kells", a hand-drawn fable about a 12-year-old boy's adventures in early medieval Ireland, recently received an Oscar nomination. Salon magazine calls the film an "unexpected delight".

INTERNATIONAL FUND - Conservative commentator Glenn Beck claims the International Fund for Ireland is a boondoggle and a waste of time. The European Union, Canada, Australia and New Zealand also help fund the IFI believing that supporting the Irish peace process is a worthwhile endeavor.

NEW FINNEGANS - An amended edition of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake has been published at a price of $400. The new version of the 1939 work incorporates some 9,000 minor corrections and alterations, including changes to punctuation marks, fonts, spacing, misspellings, misplaced phrases and ruptured syntax. Joyce's final work was written over a 17-year period and is renowned as being a very difficult read.

GUINNESS SECRET - Members of the Royal Society of Chemistry in London recently investigated Guinness pints to determine why the bubbles go down rather than up. After numerous tests, they determined that the bubbles rise rapidly at the center of the glass, pulling the surrounding liquid with them and setting up a circulating current which pulls the outlying bubbles downward.

© 2010 John Keane. All Rights Reserved. Items may be copied by crediting SEATTLE-NEWS@IRISHCLUB.ORG ©.