IRISH SENIORS - The Irish Seniors' Christmas Luncheon, organized by Irish Immigrant Support, will be at Noon on Saturday, December 3, at F X McRory's in downtown Seattle. The subsidized cost for the sit-down luncheon is $10 per person, and Daidí na Nollag (Father Christmas), Irish Music and Singing, great Door Prizes, and a large crowd are all expected! Anyone who considers themselves to be Irish and senior are very welcome, but advance reservations are required to Seniors@irishclub.org. 

DAIDÍ na NOLLAG - Seattle's Irish Community Children's Christmas Party with Daidí na Nollag (Father Christmas), is 1-4 pm Sunday, December 5, at Maplewood Church Hall, 19523 84th Ave W (on 196th St), Edmonds. Everyone is invited to meet Daidí na Nollag who arrives in his green robes at 2pm. Activities and crafts for children start at 1 pm, and snacks and refreshments will be provided - we do invite folks to bring cookies, cupcakes or finger snacks. To make sure there's a gift for every child, please register children in advance (names and ages) by contacting Mary Shriane at MaryS@IrishClub.org, or 206-321-4576.

MONTANA CHRISTMAS - The Irish Christmas in America show celebrates Irish heritage through music, song and dance and comes to the Mother Lode Theatre in Butte on November 29, the University of Montana Theatre in Missoula on November 30, and the Hope Lutheran Church in Bozeman on December 1. Tickets can be purchased at GrizTix.com. 

YULETIDE CONCERTS - Don't miss an annual Northwest tradition from the Celtic family ensemble Magical Strings, which brings its 33rd annual Celtic Yuletide Concerts to eight different locations around the Pacific Northwest, from Portland to Spokane to Seattle, starting Friday, December 2, in Coupeville on Whidbey Island! Magical Strings will be joined by the Raney Irish Dancers and the Tara Academy of Irish Dance, vocalist Colleen Raney, and fiddler Dale Russ, providing wonderful Celtic holiday music, singing, dancing, caroling and storytelling. For all the details, visit magicalstrings.com.

YOUTH SCHOLARSHIP - The Seattle Center Festál Volunteer Scholarship sponsored by Wells Fargo provides a $2,500 scholarship to an outstanding student who has performed exceptional volunteer service for a cultural community - contact info@irishclub.org for volunteer opportunities with the Irish Heritage Club. Applicants must be a 16-24 year old high school senior or enrolled in a two or four-year college or university, or a trade or technical school. The deadline is in February, but you must register your intent to apply and provide contact information by December 15, 2011. More info at irishclub.org.

MOTHER'S CHRISTMAS - There may still be a few spots open for the 2012 Nollaig na mBan (or Mother's Christmas) Dinner on Sunday, January 8 at 6pm at Mick Kelly's Irish Pub and Restaurant, 435 SW 152nd St, Burien. For details and reservations ($30 pp), contact CandaceD@irishclub.org or 425-745-1263. This popular dinner has sold out every year since 2000!

GREAT PERKS - Employees at Google's European headquarters in Dublin will soon add an onsite swimming pool to their list of office perks in the company's 15-storey office building in Dublin's docklands. Completed last January, the building at 220ft is Dublin's tallest office building. The staff already has access to a gym and several pool tables, table tennis, table football, video-game consoles, and even a weekly relaxation massage. Google has been in Ireland since 2003 and employs more than 2,000 people in Dublin.

NOTEWORTHY - Alumni of NUIG (the National University of Ireland, Galway) now hold the positions of Uachtaráin-President (Michael D Higgins); Taoiseach-Prime Minister (Enda Kenny); Tánaiste-Deputy PM (Eamonn Gilmore): and Ard-Aighne-Attorney General (Máire Whelan). Three of Ireland's leading legal positions are now held by women: Chief Justice Susan Denham, Attorney General Máire Whelan SC, and Claire Loftus, Director of Public Prosecutions.

REOPENED INQUESTS - Forty years later, the inquests into the deaths of ten people who were shot dead by the British Parachute Regiment in west Belfast in August 1971 will be reopened. The soldiers claimed they were just returning fire, but none of the dead were armed and some, including a priest, were shot in the back or were hit as they went to the aid of the injured. An eleventh victim died of a heart attack after a soldier put the barrel of an unloaded gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

JFK'S HONOR GUARD - The graveside Honor Guard at President John F Kennedy`s burial 48 years ago on November 25, 1963, was an Irish Army Cadet Honor Guard using commands given in Gaelic. JFK had been tremendously impressed by the Irish Cadets on his visit to Ireland the previous June, and after his assassination, Jackie Kennedy asked for the Irish Cadets to perform the honors at the graveside. Most of them had never been outside Ireland before and didn't even have Passports, but they flew to DC carrying their rifles on board with them! Watch an Irish TV-documentary about their participation that is narrated mostly in Irish with English Subtitles. Part 4 shows the actual burial with one of the 24 Irish Cadets being Peter McMahon, a brother of Camilla Barrett and Marie Bradshaw of Edmonds.

IRISH EMIGRANT - This coming February 8 marks the 25th anniversary of the Irish Emigrant newsletter which started in the early days of the internet in 1987 with a Galway employee of Digital Corporation sending a Monday morning email carrying Irish sports results to 15 fellow Digital employees working outside Ireland. The first of its kind in the world, the Irish Emigrant email newsletter grew into a lifeline for thousands of Irish all over the world, keeping them informed on events in Ireland. Now its founder and editor, Liam Ferrie, is retiring and the newsletter's future is unclear.

OVERCOMING ADVERSITY - A young Chernobyl refugee, whose entrepreneurial spirit was sparked on summer trips to Dublin organized by an Irish charity, has co-founded a technology company in Ireland that has already attracted a $1m investment. Having completed a Masters in mathematics in Belarusia, he came back to Ireland in 2007 as a software engineer. Now with two friends, his company Profitero was one of the winners of the European Seedcamp 2010 competition.

SAFETY FILM - The Road Safety Authority of Ireland has a new award-winning shock film entitled Your Car is a Loaded Weapon. It features three young men pointing a loaded pistol every time they do something dangerous in their speeding car. 52 people aged 16-24 have already died on Irish roads so far in 2011.

NUIG GRANDUATES - The National University of Ireland in Galway is trying to get in touch with graduates. To keep up to date with your fellow alumni, or to receive the monthly newsletter, contact the alumni office.

GUM DISCOVERY - Scientists in Cork have invented non-stick chewing gum which tastes real, can be eaten by birds if thrown on the pavement, and won't stick to your shoes. The research team at University College Cork's brewery research unit came across the new formula while working on cereals and gluten free foods.

CROSSES STOLEN - Two religious artifacts have been stolen from Holycross Abbey in Co Tipperary, one a silver cross dating from the 14th century, and the second a cross made from gold and bronze which is believed to contain a piece of the cross used in Christ's crucifixion and which was given to the abbey in the 12th century by King Donal Mór O'Brien.

GAA ORAL HISTORY - The final deadline for submissions is 31 December 2011 to Boston College's GAA Oral History project which wants to collect oral histories from anyone who has ever been involved in Gaelic Football or Hurling as a player or supporter in Ireland or abroad. The collection can include memories, documents, photographs or recordings relating to the social life of the GAA from 1884 to the present. Once completed, the project will create a series of books, websites, radio and television programs, as well as a searchable digital archive to be permanently housed in the GAA museum in Dublin. Check the Oral History website and email info@gaahistory.com.

VALUABLE MING - A family in Derry is celebrating after selling a Chinese porcelain Ming dish for $422,000 after it had previously been valued at $1,500. The blue and white dish, painted with images of a five-claw dragon, was stamped with the mark of the Emperor Xuande who reigned from 1425 to 1435. The dish was brought to Ireland by a British army member who served in China during the colonial era.

TITANTIC LETTER - A farewell message in a bottle that was thrown from the Titanic by a 19-year-old Corkman can now be seen at the Titanic Exhibition in the Cobh Heritage Center. Using an emptied holy water bottle, the note read, "From Titanic, goodbye all, Burke of Glanmire, Cork." The bottle made its way to shore in Cork only a few miles from his family's house. Cobh, on an island in Cork's harbor, was the Titanic's last stop, as it was for over 2.5 million adults and children who departed Ireland between 1848 and 1950.

TELEGRAPH HISTORY - In 1898, to report the results of the Kingstown Regatta yacht races, a Dublin newspaper chartered a yacht for Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, who set up his equipment on board to telegraph the results back to shore from 10 miles out in Dublin Bay. That first-ever press report by wireless telegraphy was printed on a Morse tape machine, then decoded and telegraphed to the newspaper. Two lengths of this original Morse-code ticker tape, framed along with Marconi's visiting card and a photograph, is now being auctioned off in Dublin next month. Marconi was married to a granddaughter of John Jameson, founder of the Irish Whiskey Distillery. 

MODEL DANCER - The modeling career of Elle magazine's Best Model of 2011, Coco Rocha, started in 2002 at the age of 14 when she was approached following a Feis (Irish Dancing competition) in Vancouver, BC. The supermodel whose mother is from Belfast promised the crowd at a recent Art Walk auction that she would entertain them with her Irish dancing skills if she could raise $35,000 for the arts, and Yes, she did!

RUGBY CHANGES - Eddie O'Sullivan, former Ireland and USA rugby coach, has applied to become coach of England's rugby team. The 53-year-old Irishman recently stepped down as USA head coach after serving two years in the job. Before that, from 2002-2008, O'Sullivan was coach of the Irish team during which time Ireland won three triple crowns.

ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES - Two large underground enclosures have recently been discovered near Knowth, Co. Meath. The enclosures are believed to date to the 12th or 13th century and may have been built by Cistercian monks who were cloistered at nearby Mellifont Abbey. Knowth, a Brú na Bóinne passage grave site along with nearby Newgrange and Dowth, is between 5,000 and 5,200 years old and predates the pyramids in Egypt.

POLISH-IRISH - Poles still account for the majority of the immigrant workforce in Ireland. The number of Polish workers in Ireland was about 220,000 at one time, but is now below 180,000. Polish immigrants in Ireland have sent an estimated $7.5billion to families back in Poland since they first started coming to Ireland in large numbers in 2004.

SPITFIRE RECOVERY - Machine guns that were attached to the remains of a World War II fighter plane that crash-landed in a Donegal bog in 1941 were found to be in working order after being excavated. Six of the plane's 8 guns were fully intact and rust-free because of a lack of oxygen in the peat bog. The fighter was piloted by a 23-year-old American pilot who bailed out in December 1941 just before the plane crashed. BBC History Magazine is airing a show on the fighter's retrieval this spring.

Papal Brigade Medal

PAPAL BRIGADE - In 1860, 1,400 Irishmen answered a call to arms from Pope Pius IX and went to Italy to fight in defense of the Papal States. After the Italian conflict, many of the Irish Papal Brigade members went to America and joined the Union Army. Among the Papal Brigade veterans was Myles Keogh, the Carlowman who was brevetted as major for gallantry at Gettysburg and later as lieutenant colonel, and who was killed with Custer at the Little Bighorn.

CIVIL WAR PROVISIONS - During the US Civil War, 50,000 caps, greatcoats, jackets, trousers, shirts, blankets, boots, stockings and haversacks were produced for the Confederate army at the Taits factory in Limerick. Tait was the largest supplier of ready-made uniforms to the Confederate Government during the latter stages of the war even though supplies had to be delivered by ships running the Federal Blockade of southern ports. Even today, coat buttons carrying the backmark 'P. Tait & Co./Limerick' are regularly recovered by relic hunters at civil war sites.

FORGOTTEN HERO - The unmarked grave of Irish-born Civil War hero and Medal of Honor recipient Martin McHugh has been discovered in Danville, Illinois, 120 miles from Chicago. McHugh received the recognition for his heroic actions while serving as a seaman in the U.S. Navy on board the USS Cincinnati during the siege of Vicksburg in the spring of 1863. An official marker will now be unveiled at his grave with a dedication ceremony planned for around Memorial Day.

RED HUGH - One of Ireland's "best loved and lost" leaders, Red Hugh O'Donnell, was recently remembered in the Spanish city of Valladolid where a plaque was unveiled in his honor. Red Hugh died at the young age of 29 on September 10, 1602, having contracted an illness while trying to persuade King Philip III of Spain to come to Ireland's aid after the Battle of Kinsale in 1601.

FOR SALE - Edmondstown House in Ballaghadereen,Co. Roscommon, is for sale for just over $1million. Built in 1864, it became St. Nathy's diocesan college in 1892 until the college moved to its present location in 1896. The house remained vacant until 1911 when the Bishop of Achonry moved in and it became the official Bishop's residence. Now it can be yours!