OTHER SEATTLE IRISH NEWS

IDA MISSION - Richard Bruton, the Irish government Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, was in Seattle for two days last month talking to firms about investing and creating jobs in Ireland. The minister was accompanied on the Irish Development Authority mission by IDA Ireland chief Barry O'Leary and other officials. In Seattle, the group met with executives at Microsoft, Amazon.com, Expedia and other companies headquartered here. After Seattle, the group traveled to California for meetings focused particularly on the technology sector. In the last 18 months, 12,000 jobs have been added in Ireland by multinationals which currently employ over 100,000 people in Ireland.

MacGINTY & FRIENDS - Irish musician Finn MacGinty lived in Seattle for about 20 years playing with groups like The Suffering Gaels, Setanta and Crumac. Five years ago, he moved back to Ireland but last December he suffered a severe brain injury in a fall at his home in Tipperary. He is now in a rehab center in Oxford and there's hope for the best. His last visit to Seattle in September of 2011 included a fabulous house concert which was recorded and is now available on CD with all proceeds going to Finn's family. Suggested donation is $25 or 5 CDs for $100. To get yours, email tomcreegan@Hotmail.com.

MIKE RYAN R.I.P. - Dubliner Mike Ryan died last week in Seattle aged 77 following a long battle with a rare illness. Soccer has been Mike's life since growing up in Dublin in the 1940s and 1950s. He even started coaching as a 12-year-old in Dublin and continued after coming to the US in 1958 as a 23-year-old. In Seattle he coached and helped build the University of Washington men's soccer program. He was the first head coach of the U.S. women's national team, and until recently was still involved in Seattle High School soccer. Mike is in the US Adult Soccer Association's Hall of Fame and was honored by the Seattle Sounders in 2009. He was also involved in Seattle's Irish community and was a regular attendee at the Irish Senior Luncheons. Sunday's Seattle Times had a nice write-up on this one fine gentleman. N� bheidh a leith�id ar�s ann.

OAK HARBOR IRISH - Helen Chatfield Weeks, a leader of the Irish Wildlife Society in Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island, was recently honored by the Island County Historical Society for her community involvement and her historical contributions. Helen is very proud of her Irish heritage and, despite the long journey to Seattle, has attended some of the recent Irish Senior Luncheons. She is also one of the organizers of Oak Harbor's St. Patrick's Day Parade which is annually sponsored by the Irish Wildlife Society.

HARVEY THE LEPRECHAUN - On his business cards, Harvey Losh billed himself as "Periodontist and Leprechaun" and he was well known in Seattle's Irish community through his annual participation since the 1970s as a Leprechaun in Seattle's St. Patrick's Day Parade. He always dressed in full leprechaun regalia including pointed ears and brogues with curled toes, handing out candy to kids and bringing smiles to faces all along the route. He never missed a parade even in later years when he had to use a walker to participate. This year's Parade was his last as he died last month at the ripe age of 95.

NEWS FROM IRELAND

IRISH SUMMIT - President Obama and the leaders of the world's other seven largest economies will be in Ireland next summer for the G8 summit being hosted by Britain at the Lough Erne Golf Resort, located just north of Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh. Opened in October 2007, the resort is on a 600-acre peninsula between Castlhume Lough and Lower Lough Erne. Renowned for its beautiful setting on a scenic waterway, the area is popular for angling and also for waterskiing, rowing and wakeboarding.

GLOBAL PROSPERITY - Ireland was ranked 10th in the 2012 Global Prosperity Legatum Index which rates 142 countries across the globe for global wealth and well-being. Ireland was ranked ahead of the UK, the USA and Germany. The index measures eight criteria: economy, education, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, health, personal freedom, safety and security, and social capital.Ireland's best ranking was in Safety (4th) and it's worst, unsurprisingly, was in Economy (24th).

CREDIT UPGRADE - International ratings agency Fitch, one of the world's top three credit rating agencies, has raised its ranking of Ireland's creditworthiness to a BBB+ level, the same level as in late 2010. The agency also moved Ireland's rating to a "stable" outlook, saying the Irish government was making progress towards an economic recovery.

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION - The first official meeting of Ireland's Constitutional Convention will be held this coming Saturday, December 1, in Dublin Castle. The 100-member group will meet on eight weekends over the next year to examine and propose how to reform and modernize Ireland's 1937 Constitution. The first items up for discussion will be whether the voting age should be lowered to 17 and a review of the length of presidential terms.

ABORTION DEMAND - Thousands of people throughout Ireland have attended recent candlelit vigils demanding legislation on abortion following the death of a pregnant woman in Galway who was reportedly denied a potentially lifesavingabortionwhile she was having a miscarriage. In 1992, Irish courts ruled that women in Ireland have a constitutional right to abortion where there is a "real and substantial risk" to the life of the mother, and the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that Ireland had breached the Convention on Human Rights by not providing accessible means for women to discover if they qualify for legal abortions under Irish law. Now the government says it will establish "effective and accessible" procedures so that women who are "legitimately entitled" can have an abortion.

PRESIDENTIAL AWARDS - Irish President Michael D. Higgins recently awarded the first of the new Presidential Distinguished Service Awards for the Irish Abroad. At the ceremony in Aras An Uachtarain, the President's residence in Dublin, ten people living in countries outside Ireland were honored for distinguished contributions as members of the Irish diaspora. The award is a new system of State recognition for persons living abroad, primarily Irish citizens, those entitled to Irish citizenship and persons of Irish descent, who have made a sustained and distinguished service to Ireland or to Irish communities abroad. 

GENDER GAP - Ireland has retained its position in fifth place on the 2012 Global Gender Gap Report. The report, measured by the World Economic Forum, measures the gap between men and women in "four pillars": economic participation and opportunity (labor force participation, wage equality, income, etc.), educational attainment (literacy rate, primary and secondary level enrollment, etc.), health and survival (sex ratio, life expectancy, etc.), and political empowerment (parliament seats, years of head of state or government). The US was ranked 22nd.

STARTUP CITY - CNNMoney says that Dublin is one of the 7 best new global cities for startups. "Dublin is a global city that is actually enabling startups and smart ideas. Dublin is cheaper than London, boasts low corporate tax rates, and everybody speaks English. Its 'Silicon Docks' neighborhood houses tech giants Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Zynga. Last year Twitter announced that it was opening its third international office (after London and Tokyo) in Dublin, making the city its European headquarters."

GERMAN AWARD - Irish Taoiseach (PM) Enda Kenny was named the 'European of the Year' by the association representing German magazine publishers, to acknowledge "the achievements not only of Enda Kenny but of Ireland and the Irish people". The citation says "In these difficult times, Europe benefits from the open, outward looking character of the Irish State and people and from the calibre of its Prime Minister, Enda Kenny."

COUNCIL REDUCTIONS - The Irish government plans to reduce the number of local councils in Ireland by two thirds, abolishing 80 town councils and reducing the number of councilors from 1,627 to 950. Some of the city, town and borough councils have been around for over 600 years, set up through medieval and royal charters, but the general public appears to agree with the proposed changes as a way to save money.

VISA DENIAL - Irish author and historianTim Pat Cooganwas recently denied a US visa, forcing him to cancel a tour of the US promoting his new book THE FAMINE PLOT, England's Role in Ireland's Greatest Tragedy. A former editor of The Irish press newspaper, Cooganhas authored books such as The IRA (1970), Wherever Green is Worn (2000), and Ireland in the Twentieth Century (2003). No explanation for the visa denial was given.

RYANAIR PLANES - Irish budget airline Ryanair hopes to almost double the number of passengers it carries over the next decade to 120 million annually, up from the 79 million passengers it will carry in the current fiscal year. The airline presently operates a fleet of 298 Boeing 737-800 aircraft with firm orders for a further 7 new planes to be delivered by the end of 2012, and talks are underway to order up to 300 more planes.

IRISH WHITE HOUSE - John Brennan, President Obama's Assistant for Homeland Security and Counter Terrorism, was in Dublin recently speaking to the Institute of Institutional and European Affairs. During his talk Brennan highlighted the many Irish Americans who serve President Obama in the White House, including Vice President Biden; the President's National Security Advisor, Tom Donilon; the Principal Deputy National Security Advisor, Denis McDonough; and the Dublin-born senior director for human rights, Samantha Power. Brennan's own father was born and raised in Co. Roscommon.

GOLFING WARRIORS - A group of 25 wounded US servicemen and family members had an 11-day tour  of Ireland's best golf courses, courtesy of Irish hotels, Aer Lingus, F�ilte Ireland, tour bus companies and organizers Golf Digest Irish Tours. Irish tourism operators provided their services for free; the group was flown to Ireland for free by Aer Lingus; golf courses including Ballybunion, Portmarnock and Royal County Down waived green fees; and hotels, including the Killarney Plaza, Merrion Hotel and Dromoland Castle provided free accommodation. F�ilte Ireland even provided a grant specifically to cover libations!

IMPAC AWARD - Eight novels by Irish authors are among the 154 titles nominated for the 2013 IMPAC Dublin literary award, the world's most valuable literary prize. The Irish nominations for the $130,000 award include Sebastian Barry's "On Canaan's Side", John Boyne's "The Absolutist" and Paul Callan's "The Dulang Washer". The nominations are made by libraries around the world, and the most nominated book was "The Sense of an Ending" by English author Julian Barnes. The winner will be announced next June 6th.

TARA DISCOVERY - An archeologist in Dublin discovered a previously unknown archaeological site just from browsing a Google Earth view of the Hill of Tara, the traditional seat of Ireland's ancient kings. Located just over 2,000 feet southwest of Rath Na R�ogh, the discovery is an embanked enclosure, about 260 feet in diameter, dating back 4,000 years. Rath na R�ogh, or the Fort of Kings on the summit of the hill, is an Iron Age enclosure that was used for enthronements and other ceremonies.

FREE GENEALOGY ADVICE - The National Archives of Ireland in Dublin will this winter provide free expert on-site advice with some of Ireland's foremost experts on genealogy available to answer family history queries Monday to Friday on a first-come first-served basis. The genealogy service is the result of a collaboration between the National Archives and private genealogy companies Eneclann and Ancestor Network.

JAMESON SALES - 5.5 million bottles of Jameson Irish Whiskey were sold globally in 1988, but in 2011 48 million bottles were sold in over 120 markets around the world. That equates to over 1.3 billion glasses of Jameson being sold last year.

RACE BENEFITS - The Volvo Ocean Race that ended in Galway last July was worth $78.5 million to the Irish economy. Over 500,000 different visitors attended events during the festival from June 30 to July 8, with 16% of those coming from outside Ireland. Around 800,000 total visits were recorded with 97% rating their Galway experience as positive. The hospitality industries, in particular the bar/lounge sector, showed a 50% increase in sales. Galway hosted a stopover for the race in 2009 but this year hosted the event's finale.

 

PLASTIC BAGS - Ireland has reduced its plastic bag consumption by 90% since 2002 when a 15 cent levy was introduced on plastic bags. That levy is now 22 cents and the majority of Irish consumers now use their own recyclable shopping bags.

 

CHARITY THANKS - Irishman Niall Mellon and his 600 Irish volunteers were recently thanked in person by South Africa's President Jacob Zuma who paid a visit to the charity's building site in a township outside Cape Town. Since founding his Township Trust in 2002, Mellon has organized the building of 11,000 houses for some of the world's poorest people while also running a skills development program to train people from the townships in a wide range of construction disciplines.50% of the charity's current volunteers are now South African with the rest being volunteers from Ireland and many other countries around the world. For information, visit  NMTownshipTrust.com.

 

NOBEL PRIZE - The European Union will donate the $1.2 million in prize money from its Nobel Peace Prize to children affected by war and conflicts. The Nobel Committee recently awarded the peace prize to the EU for bringing more than half a century of peace to a continent ripped apart by World War II.

 

IMMIGRANTS - Since 1992, Ireland has experienced rising levels of immigration and 12% of those living in Ireland today were born outside Ireland, with the largest groups being Polish and British. More than 100 nationalities now inhabit Irish countrysides, villages, towns and cities. The Irish Times has interviewed six young people who grew up in Ireland while looking different but feeling Irish.

 

DID YOU KNOW? - The Tic Tacs factory in Cork produces 36 Tic Tacs a second. Sildenafil, the active ingredient promoted and sold as Viagra, is manufactured in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork. Much of the world's botox is made in Westport, Co Mayo.

 

IRISH-AMERICAN MOVIE - Edward Burns, who in 1995 wrote and produced The Brothers McMullen, has a new film, The Fitzgerald Family Christmas, which opens in theaters on December 7. The film tells the story of an Irish American family facing a dramatic Christmas reunion as they prepare for their estranged father to return home for the first time since he walked out 20 years earlier. 

 

DUBLIN MAP - A wonderful new interactive map of Dublin's main landmarks is now available on Google. The map identifies the location of about 650 favorite and notable Dublin buildings, bridges, hospitals, parks, theaters, historical sites, cinemas, train stations, museums, including some old and new haunts that even Dubliners might not know exist.

  

IRISH ICONS - A History of Ireland in 100 Objects by Fintan O'Toole will be published in March 2013 by the Royal Irish Academy in association with the National Museum of Ireland and the Irish Times. The author has chosen 100 objects, each of which opens a window on to an important moment in Irish history. Most of the items chosen come from the great trove of the National Museum of Ireland, while others are from a variety of other institutions. They are not intended to be the 100 most remarkable objects on the island, but are chosen simply for their ability to illuminate moments of change, development or crisis.

 

MORPETH ROLL - A mammoth research project is trying to trace descendants of more than 275,000 Irish signers of a pre-famine petition of appreciation for an English lord following his defeat in the 1841 general election which consequently led to his departure as Chief Secretary of Ireland. In 1841, 652 individual sheets of inscriptions were glued onto linen to make a  1,407 foot long petition which was then rolled onto a mahogany spool for presentation to Lord Morpeth. Signed by aristocrats, merchants, traders, clergy and ordinary people, the roll has not been displayed in public since 1841. Starting St Patrick's Day 2013, the scroll will be exhibited at various locations around Ireland before going on permanent exhibition at Maynooth University in Co. Kildare. A digitized version will also be hosted online to allow historians, librarians and genealogy enthusiasts to search for names and to help learn more about the signers.

 

SOLDIERS' WILLS - A collection of the wills of Irish soldiers who died while serving in the British Army in World War I with some from the South African War, 1899-1902, have been digitized by Ireland's National Archives and the first phase through 1917, is now available free online to researchers. An estimated 210,000 Irishmen served in the British Army during World War I, of whom 35,000 died. However, only 9,000 wills have survived. Visit nationalarchives.ie.

 

MILITARY ARCHIVES - Ireland's Army Census Records of 1922 are now available at militaryarchives.ie. Ireland's first and only military census lists the names of all those serving in the National Army during the Civil War, and the census was compiled shortly after Michael Collins was killed in 1922. Ireland's National Army came into being following the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and mainly consisted of units of the IRA who had fought for independence from Britain.

 

FOUR COURTS - According to a recently unearthed memoir by a British Soldier, British Army artillery crews were used to bombard Dublin's Four Courts in 1922 in the opening battle of the Irish Civil War which started after the signing of the Anglo-Irish in December 1921. The soldier's account contradicts official records that say Michael Collins refused an offer of help from the British Army.

 

BROOM BRIDGE - Dublin's Broom Bridge was where Sir William Rowan Hamilton on October 16, 1843 wrote down the fundamental formula for quaternions, a number system in mathematics that extends the complex numbers. The algebra of quaternions is often denoted by H (for Hamilton). Hamilton had been out for a walk with his wife when he was struck with inspiration. Not having pen and paper handy, he scratched the quaternion formula on the stones of the bridge, an event which is noted today on a plaque on the bridge.

 

350th ANNIVERSARY - Established as a Royal Hunting Park in 1662 and surrounded by a stone wall, Dublin's Phoenix Park is one of the largest enclosed recreational spaces within any European capital. About 30% of the 1752 acre (2.75 square miles) Park is covered by trees, mainly oak, ash, lime, beech, sycamore and chestnut. Living wild are 400-450 fallow deer descended from a herd introduced in the 1660's. The Park is a sanctuary for many mammals and birds with a wide range of wildlife habitats including the Furry Glen with its series of short walks around a small lake with birds, plants and wildlife. Almost 9 million people visit the Park each year, including pedestrians, cyclists and commuters.

 

PARK BUILDINGS - Many historic buildings and monuments are located within Dublin's Phoenix Park. �ras an Uachtar�in, the President of Ireland's residence, dates from 1750 and is in the center of the Park near the US Ambassador's residence which is an estate built in 1774. Dublin's Zoo, founded in 1830, is in the Park, along with the 203 ft tall Wellington Monument (the largest obelisk in Europe), the 115 ft tall Papal Cross built for the 1979 visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland, the 22 acre Victorian Kitchen Flower Gardens dating from 1840 with its ornamental lakes, children's playground, picnic area and bedding plants, and Ashtown Castle which is believed to date from the 1430s.

 

STEPHEN'S GREEN - Arthur Guinness, the great-grandson of the founder of Guinness Brewery, was a generous philanthropist who devoted himself to a number of public causes in Ireland. In 1876 he bought what is today St Stephen's Green in Dublin, had it landscaped, and donated it to the city to be a public park. The 22-acre park was formally opened to the public on July 27, 1880. During the 1916 Easter Rising, when insurgents in the park were being fired upon by British soldiers from the nearby Shelbourne Hotel, fire was temporarily halted to allow the park's groundsman to feed the local ducks.

 

IRELAND TRAVEL - Frank Bruni of the New York Times writes that, although his mother never made it, he did make "a Journey Home ... to the cow-flecked hills, majestic cliffs, friendly pubs and potato-rich meals of her Irish roots". You can also see a slide show of photos of places mentioned in his account of his trip from Dublin to Dingle.

 

CENTENARY RIDE- On October 23, 2012, two Irishmen left Dublin on a motorbike hoping to duplicate a feat that started 100 years ago on October 23, 1912, when Carl Stearns Clancy started the first around-the-world bike ride on a motorcycle with Irish license plate # RI2016. Traveling over from the USA on a steam liner, Clancy left Dublin for Belfast on a brand-new Henderson motorcycle and then traveled through England to mainland Europe, North Africa, Asia, and the Far East before crossing the USA west to east, finishing in New York armed with photographs to prove his journey.For much of his trip, gas was near impossible to find, and the roads were of poor quality or non-existent, although he always claimed that he found the worst roads in the USA.

 

CROMWELL'S CAMPAIGN - 362 years later, Oliver Cromwell's name is still one of the most hated in Irish history although he spent less than a year in Ireland, from August 1649 to May 1650 when he turned command of his army over to his nephew Ireton to complete the conquest of Ireland. By the time the campaign ended in 1653, 20% of Ireland's population had died from violence, famine and disease, while about 50,000 people were deported as indentured servants. An account published in London in 1652 said, "You may ride 20 miles and scarce discern anything or fix your eye upon any object, but dead men hanging on trees and gibbets."

 

GETTY HOME - The home of the late American billionaire John Paul Getty III, Gurthalougha House in Co Tipperary, has been sold. Getty lived on and off on the lakefront estate overlooking Lough Derg, Co Tipperary, until his death in February 2011. Gurthalougha House sits on 100 acres and was extensively refurbished by the Gettys.

 

ASHFORD SALE - Ashford Castle in Co. Mayo has been put on the market with an asking price of $32.5 million, about half of what was paid for it five years ago. The historic 83-room hotel became famous after parts of "The Quiet Man" was filmed there. Parts of the castle were built in the 1220s and it became the Guinness family's home in 1852. It was once a 25,000-acre estate and home to Lord Ardilaun, but the castle was turned into a hotel in 1939.

 

HUMEWOOD SALE - Humewood Castle estate has been sold for about $10.4 million, down from its 2006 purchase price of about $30 million. Located on 427 acres in the village of Kiltegan, Co. Wicklow, the main residence is a Downton Abbey-style 60,000-square-foot mansion surrounded by private woods and lakes and with six houses for staff. Commissioned in 1867 as "an occasional resort in the summer recess or the shooting season," Humewood remained in the Hume family until the death of the last Hume descendant in 1992.

 

RENTA POPEMOBILE - The Irish Popemobile that was used when Pope John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979 is now available for hire for parties and corporate gigs. That Popemobile was made in Cork by Ford for the 1979 papal visit, and has been given a $77,000 makeover adding a Mercedes chassis and now seats 15, including on the original "pope's chair". Rental cost is €300 ($390) an hour plus tax! 

• Ireland has been elected to the UN Human Rights Council where it will serve a three-year term.
• Declaring that Ireland's recovery is on track, Germany's finance minister recently said that it was clear from recent European Union and International Monetary Fund financial reports that Ireland will not need a second bailout.
• A core part of the new Windows 8 operating system, including the soft keyboard on screen, was developed in Ireland where Microsoft employs 1,200 people.
• The LA Times says that in Ireland, optimism is in the air. "Bust, then boom, then bust again. Now the Emerald Isle is finding its way back".
• Forbes magazine writes "If enthusiasm equates to success, Ireland's start-up sector is bound to become Europe's Silicon Valley".
• Tweak.com's CEO tells why Ireland is still enticing to tech startups.
• The UK is Ireland's largest trading partner, while Ireland is the UK's fifth largest export market.
• Martin Fay, a founding member in 1962 of the traditional Irish music group The Chieftains has died at the age of 76. The Dubliner played both the fiddle and the bones with the group until he retired in 2001.
• Former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, the brother of the former Chicago Mayor, is among the frontrunners tipped to be appointed US Ambassador to Ireland replacing current Ambassador Dan Rooney.
• Former President Bill Clinton was recently in Ireland at the University of Limerick where he made 125 All Ireland Scholarship Awards.
• Among the names being floated as potential candidates to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State is that of Samantha Power, the Irish-born Special Assistant to President Barack Obama who is also a member of the National Security Council.
• Daniel Day-Lewis, the actor who splits his time between homes in Ireland and the US, is receiving rave reviews for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in the new historical drama film of the same name directed and produced by Steven Spielberg.

Conan O'Brien invites you to visit Ireland

• The Irish Times says "There is a new vibrancy about parts of the North (of Ireland). It doesn't seem as bitter any more. The shades of orange and green seem more muted".
• The 25% discount that women typically enjoy on Irish life insurance policies disappears next month as a result of a European court ruling. In future, the cost will be determined by factors such as age, health and the level and type of cover.
• The New York Times says that "Derry, or Londonderry - however you choose to call it - is a city most eager to move forward".
• Jump into Ireland
• Irishman Rory McIlroy was named America's Player of the Year by the Professional Golf Association (PGA). The Northern Ireland native is also the winner of the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average of the season.
• The Irish predictions market Intrade.com, a popular site for "betting" on the US election, is now closed to US residents because of "legal and regulatory pressures".
• Suicide is a problem in Ireland, highlighted by the recent suicide of a 13-year-old girl in Co. Donegal. Living Links is one of several suicide outreach programs providing support to the suicide bereaved.
• There are approximately 265,000 words in James Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses, with a lexicon of 30,030 different words used (including proper names, plurals and various verb tenses).
• The new Windows 8 operating system is also available As Gaeilge, in the Irish language.
• Watch a video of Dublin's Pigeon Man, a moving statue street performer.
• The travel experts at Lonely Planet list Derry in fourth place in its Best in Travel city list for 2013.
• The European Court of Justice has ruled that passengers flying within the EU who suffer significant flight delays, such as delays of three hours or more, have a right to compensation up to $780, similar to passengers whose flights are cancelled.

Choose Ireland for Education

• Britain's Ambassador to Ireland recently said he hoped the British government would have some involvement in Ireland's 1916 Easter Rising commemorations.
• Learn to speak Irish online through the "Philo-Celtic Classes" now available for free.
• BYE BYE NOW is a short documentary film that recalls the past importance of phone boxes in Irish life.